[udk] Collapsed Sewer
polycounter lvl 18
Been working on this Environment for a little while. I would love to get some feedback. Everything is right out of UDK. Minor color correction in Photoshop. Would love come C&C!
Replies
I think the lighting isn't really working out though, it doesn't feel underground at all at the moment, feels like the whole scene is outside in bright daylight.
Even with that big hole and light shaft coming in, there should be a more discernible difference between the area lit by the sun, and not. I'd probably turn some of those side lights off (broken maybe?), lower the general light in the tunnel, it would create a much more interesting contrast (but yeah, it's not always easy to control what lightmass does).
The road piece feels a bit strange, it's hard to believe it's still holding on I think, such a big chunk, and it's color is very monochromatic, feels like their could be more dirt-like colors on it's underside.
also, the sewer ceiling looks a bit strange with these rocks, normally there would be concrete or something like that
Other than that I feel like the scene is a bit too chaotic at the moment, and I have a hard time focusing on the total picture. Sewers in general are pretty bland, so I would lose the rocks and tiles and go for simple bricks or concrete.
I would also randomize the placement of the ivy and add more of it where there's more sunlight, because I doubt it would grow in a sewer. Maybe add some moss instead of ivy in dark places.
Your piece is well made but the lighting is too much. I doubt it'd flood in so much from such a tiny hole. Could you post wireframes? I'd love to see them.
One more thing, I noticed a water particle effect coming from the pipes. How did you achieve that because that's something I'm going to have to do. Thanks.
The lighting is still kinda weak point in this scene i think.
The "darkness" and light spot sill could be tweaked but major thing i find is the fact that god rays are NOT parallel.
Don't forget that they are cast by the sun which produces parallel rays (as for human scale perception of course). Otherwise it looks like there is a huge lamp bulb outside the sewer
Well, and the hanging road piece is kinda too rounded... Could have some more shard edges with rebars or something like that.
Also when its handing like that without touching the ground feels a bit unrealistic.
Great work.
Is the tire intersecting with the wooden palette?
Also, the red pipes do in fact lead the eye to maybe ONE of the focal points, even though it seems like you rather showcase the bottom of scene which makes sense.
So I'd try and introduce more of that nice red at the bottom, be it a torn up couch (alot of work) or maybe a red barrel (although sounds generic) i think it would help balance out this scene and allow you to guide the viewers to both the caved in road with your pipes, then have it follow down to the bottom of the scene with another eye catching prop / colour.
This is the new "next gen", where colour is both allowed and appreciated :P haha
Nicely done striff
Something you may want to consider for textures is to keep your levels tight and consistent with the rest of your textures. The pipes as mentioned are very overpowering and I noticed the same effect with some other assets.
Something that bothered me a bit is how the asphalt that is hanging down from the street above, have a pretty much clean cut. It doesn't feel broken.. And I think it should be more chunks from it.
The roof feels kinda strange to, i think it should share the walls texture and structure.
I really like the scene and the direction you are going, keep it up!
I'm not really feeling the way the floor has caved in, it looks too lumpy, the concrete should break into more angular pieces. The scene feels too bright and the hexagonal floor seems too complicated for a sewer. The ground also feels a bit thin above, there must only be a foot or so of actual bedrock separating tarmac and air. Perhaps more debris also around the cave-in section.
Its hard when you make a bunch of cool assets to not fall into the trap of trying to light everything.
Awesome work!
The water is interesting but doesn't really convince me that it is indeed water. Throw a slight reflection on it and some specularity, maybe normals to make it look like it's moving. Chris Albeluhn has a great water shader which you could borrow some ideas from.
I think you should tone down the god rays. They look nice but are too overused, make them subtle.
Your rocks on the side of the water look noisy at the moment. I can't tell at these angles if it's the texture resolution being too low or just too much noise in the diffuse. Also, the collapsed road doesn't look too convincing. I'm not entirely sure how a roadway would collapse but I don't think it would break off in one solid piece. It seems like it is hanging there but I can't exactly see how.
Alec Moody's paintover has some great ideas I think you could pull from. Right now the whole thing is very bright from a pretty small hole. You could create a lot of interest pulling in pockets of light, some flooding in from the hole in the road above and some created by the light fixtures. Not everything in the shot has to be seen so clearly (Take a look at Jason's Demon Throne Environment and look at the progress and how he uses contrast to draw the viewer's eye). Perhaps you should forgo the idea of sun pouring in and pull in some blue ambient light and contrast that with the yellow from the light fixtures. (an example)
Other than that, you've got some really good texture work and models in here. There's a lot going on and I enjoy coming up with a story for the scene. I love the vines and the colour they add and I'm a big fan of the red pipes. Great job so far.
If you do end up going in the direction of that paintover, one alteration I would make is to keep the coloured shadows you have now.
+1
When i look at the scene i get no sense of history to the scene, i see alot of props and textures which individually look good but as a whole do not work.
- The rough shapes of the ceiling of the sewer and the sides the water drain makes it look too natural,sewers are a man made things, so rough looking rock takes away from this look. When you add debris from the road above it makes it all look too messy and it takes away focus from the roof collapse which seems like it's the area which is going to draw your eye. i think you would be better served by making the sides of the water way and roof out of brick. the human made shapes and look would give these elements better contrast from the debris from the road. I just relooked at the scene and i didnt even notice a drainage pipe in the water,it got lost in all of the details of the rock.
- The decoartive elements bother me as well. sewers are where all of the filth and trash from society is drained down to. The blue paint on the walls as well as the floortiles give you the impression that the sewer is in someway supposed to be visuailly pleasing to the human eye when most sewers are as functional as can be,if your intention however is to have a stylized sewer in terms of its design then you need to up it a notch. at the moment it just looks plain confusing.
- the color on the pipes do not bother me but the amount of spec does,when i think shiny i think clean.
-the ivy as well,if you want to have some limit the amount you have to the areas where light potentially could hit it. if you limit the amount you have to those aread it will furthur point the eye towards that area?
-same for the grass,limit its use to the areas with light. personally the only growth id put is mold and thats about it.
- how did the hole happen? maybe some sort of visual clue to how it occurred would help the scene?
-the hanging cables look odd too,wouldnt it look better to have them attached to the wall?
i think you could do a little more to give the sewer more of a sense of history,like what about a waterline on the walls showing how far the water has risen in this sewer? Maybe more sludge on all of the assets inside.
aside from that i agree with most of the other crits.
I'll have to agree that the lighting seems wrong. Not to confuse with not pretty, which it definitely isn't. It looks good and I can understand why you want to stick with it. But it doesn't mean it shouldn't have logic.
And in that case my only advice to you would be to make the hole in the ceiling wider. A lot wider. You could also add random props hanging from the top. This way this strong ambient lighting will ring true. But there's still the question of composition open. If you want to have a proper focal point I guess you'll have to come up with something in the background.
Though I've got to say that you don't really always have to have the focal point to have a good environment. But I guess it helps.
The other thing are the light shafts. I really think you should drop them because, as the lighting, they don't really correlate with the surroundings. Lightshafts look cool through tree branches or smth, but here you really expect just a pillar of light of sorts. For which classic volumetrics would do much better.
I also think that the tiles on the floor a way to big, but I've never been to the sewers so I can't really know.
Anyway, great job, I enjoyed enslaved too and I would really love to see you squeeze all there is from this motherfucka.)
cheers!