WW2 Winter Nazi Research facility WIP
Hi everybody!
I am Kristian and i have been lurking silently around these forums admiring you guys work for a long time. I currently work as 3d Generalist at National Oilwell Varco here in norway.
Thought it was time to actually post a thread myself:)
Me and a friend startet planning a level for UDK last week so i thought it would be good to start a thread in this forum with som many skilled people to get som crits and so on.
Heres a little collage of some references for our level.
Cant tell a little about the project.
We want to make as the headline a Nazi research facility from WW2. The location will be at the north or south pole and the time era is now.
The place has been abandoned for over 60 years and is pretty worn out. Things has been destroyed by nature, Weapons and other stuff.
There will be one main entrance And over the big door, the Eagle will be in a big sign.
It will be some lights around, flickering and such. Im working on a explanation for why they are on and have a few.
When we get the outside environment done and hopefully be ready for more we will start making the inside of the base.
I wanted to use some of the idea from one of my favorite games... Penumbra!
As we get deeper into the base, the technology will be newer as if the people that lived/living? there have builded inward for a long time.
At my work we dont use a game engine, a sculpting software and rearely uses photoshop so this is also a training project within that pipeline. Would be cool to one day work in a game company or an effects house.
Have made one sculpt tonight and will hopefully be lots more If it is anything? Shout out!
I am Kristian and i have been lurking silently around these forums admiring you guys work for a long time. I currently work as 3d Generalist at National Oilwell Varco here in norway.
Thought it was time to actually post a thread myself:)
Me and a friend startet planning a level for UDK last week so i thought it would be good to start a thread in this forum with som many skilled people to get som crits and so on.
Heres a little collage of some references for our level.
Cant tell a little about the project.
We want to make as the headline a Nazi research facility from WW2. The location will be at the north or south pole and the time era is now.
The place has been abandoned for over 60 years and is pretty worn out. Things has been destroyed by nature, Weapons and other stuff.
There will be one main entrance And over the big door, the Eagle will be in a big sign.
It will be some lights around, flickering and such. Im working on a explanation for why they are on and have a few.
When we get the outside environment done and hopefully be ready for more we will start making the inside of the base.
I wanted to use some of the idea from one of my favorite games... Penumbra!
As we get deeper into the base, the technology will be newer as if the people that lived/living? there have builded inward for a long time.
At my work we dont use a game engine, a sculpting software and rearely uses photoshop so this is also a training project within that pipeline. Would be cool to one day work in a game company or an effects house.
Have made one sculpt tonight and will hopefully be lots more
If it is anything? Shout out!
Replies
But that broken pillar thing is definitely not something to be done at this stage.
After u got the refs u need to do texture plannign, then u need to model basic shapes of all the enviro. After that u start making more detailed large modules (walls, corridors etc) and texture them. then, u start thinking about blocking out large props etc.
No bricks/barrels/crates/wires are done after u get the ref
Nail the big picture then do this definition stuff last. Think of it as a sketch before you add in the details.
This was more or less just a test to see if i managed to sculpt anythig like that and test out my new intous.
Im gonna study texturing alots more before i start making the final textures.
Can i block out the level in my 3d application and export them where they are and it will be in the same place in the engine.
Like if i make a prop and place it somewhere and export it instead of centering it to then placing it again in udk?
Thanks for reply
I'm not really sure your ref is WW2 in style, its mostly cold war era, or ultra modern, a cell phone tower, really? To have a satellite dish you need a satellite in orbit, It would be another few decades before anyone put anything useful in space that could talk back.
Radar and giant radio transmitters seem more in order.
SOME of the radar arrays where dishes however they where normally a metal frame in the shape of a dish, covered in mesh. Most of them where square like above.
Regarding your question about making a scene in 3d app or in udk.
If its for the rough size/volumes test u can do it in 3dapp. Not even need to get it into Unreal. It can be just for you to roughly estimate the possible size and composition of the scene. Basic boxes/cylinders r used in such case.
Regarding Unreal Tech since Unreal2 it is done in a way to support modular level design. That is to say making lego-type building blocks in order to build level by instancing them. This makes the process much faster and more flexible than building everyhting in 3d app and them exporting to Unreal to render with its lighting and shaders.
Soemtimes ppl do the entire scene in 3d app in case of a small enviro. Theat is when the enviro cannot really benefit from lots of re-using lego blocks due its small size and when the focus is to show actual "art part".
But it is still not very clear what size and what kind of environment u want to do. Is it only secret catacombs/bunker interior or it includes outdoor terrain with some exterior architecture? And so on.
I guess 1st of all u need to decide those kind of things. In any case it seems like it could benefit from actual modular approach e.g. making assets in 3d app and bring them to Unreal to populate the level.
And regarding the prop location when brought from 3dapp to unreal question.
Well, when u want to add a mesh in the level u right click somewhere and select Add StaticMesh Actor here... So it will add it approx where u have right-clicked. So the location will be different. But when u export to ASE it uses your 3dapp's center of the world (0;0;0) as pivot point in relation to the mesh of exported asset. So afetr adding it to the level u can reposition it manually to 0;0;0 location with 0;0;0 degress rotation. This way u will have it as it was placed in your 3d app.
Actually i did that way long ago for one of my enviros when i was learning Unreal3. At that time i did the whole geo and scene composition in 3dmax but since i could not really export all that as one asset (was too heavy) i split it into several pieces. But in Unreal i was reloacting them all to 0;0;0 so that their relative positioning will become the same as in max. Well, that was NOT the best way to though
One last question before i start blocking things out.
Should i do the terrain in udk og max? Thinking of the texturing and if i want to change some of the mesh later when the final props enter.
Also placement of some deco layers such as grass and small rocks is much faster and flexible when using terrain tools than doing it manually when using custom mesh for the terrain.
Im not new to udk, i know the basics from the year i had game design at school. So i hope to be quite better after this. I have a subscription to eat3d so i better get going with some udk tuts.
Here is the basic blockout for the scene. Any crits or ideas would be cool :P I painted typical places cars and people go with the viewport canvas tool for fun :P
Also, the reason that it's only a concrete wall at the entrance to the base is because outside the fences is a minefield, thats why those little flags are there.