Wow, those props look much better by themselves than in the in-game screenshots.
In the last two screenshots, the empty area is taking up way too much space I think and something about the terrain feels off.
But the props look much better. The trash can though.. I think I've seen at least another 5 people around here with the same prop (thanks to the cgtuts+ tutorial). You might want to add something more to it other than the changing the color :P
Edit - Oh, and wires. Post them. Everybody here loves to check 'em out
Do you think about the texture in the terrain or the terrain itself?
I haven't seen the cgtuts tutorial but it might be hard to create a dumpster that stand out from the rest. But i will look in to it
your ground needs some more detail. right now you're using a sand texture that fits more on sand dunes, but with buildings in the way the ground won't recieve the same wind pattern the open desert would get. Get some rough sand or dirt and mix it in there. Some tire tracks, rubble/trash would also help along the foundations of the buildings.
Yeah, you need to rethink your layout i think. The big open area doesn't work for me. Feels very strange that anyone would live like that in fairly big houses in the middle of nowhere..
I think our props looks ace, but as mik2121 said, they look better in viewport. I don't know how the garbage system works in "The middle east", but that container is very city like, and with a very urban tag on it. Makes no sense i'm afraid. It looks goo though
The dumpster i actually and old one I did to a city environment. I havn't change the texture on that one yet :P Tought the model maybe will fit in anyway. Just put it in there to get the feeling.
The reason I put the environment in a desert was because i did't want to build hundreds of different building and to block the line where the horizon ends :P But I will look for solutions to make the scene feel more tighter.
I'm far away from saying the environment is done. Going to build more props, change textures and experiment with lightinings.
The only cocept I have is a fast blockout I did in maya and a lots of arabic reference pictures :P
Thanks for the feedback! Cheers!
if you haven't already, try creating a second UV channel for the prop. Here is a great tutorial by 3D Motive which explains how.. assuming you are using 3dmax. http://www.3dmotive.com/product-udk-lightmaps
Yeah i hear ya! Towns can be a bitch. I think it's the lack of plants and shit around the houses in the background that makes it feel "fabricated". Maybe a field of something and some palms and desert bushes would be cool?`
If you haven't looked at Generation Kill you should. Both because it's a frekkin good TV series but also cause they have some really good settings and stuff..
Thanks brandoom. I'm actually using Maya for this one, but the problem is that the trees is made in i free license of UDK speedtree and i can't export the tree to any other 3D-software then UDK. But I maybe anyway end up doing a tree in Maya that look a little more shrubbery.
sltrOlsson, I think plants and some other things in the background will definitely make it feel better. Oh Generation Kill, one of my favorites. A very good insperation source. Thanks for the tips.
I noticed that you also are from Sweden? Stay Frosty!
Regarding your lightmap problem with the trees. Do you have them animated from speedTree? In that case you can't have baked light on them, and i see no problem having dynamic light on there. If they ain't moving, why not bake all of it?
And yeah, something that i forgot to mention. You should go back to that damaged concrete piece you got. It's way to wobbly. You need some harder broken edges in there.
I thought that name of yours felt Swedish yeah :P Attending to any educations atm?
I'm actually gonna be that guy whom quotes himself
That wont sell as concrete i'm afraid. Look at what damaged concrete blocks like. There smooth and flat and nice, and then with a very sharpish edge, a broken one, it turns into the uneven concrete mess that we love.
I'm trying to create a broken-ish concrete ceiling. I'm not sure if i'm going to use this, but the technique i used worked pretty well.
It goes like this.
Save a morph target.
Fuck shit up with fast mallet brush and clay buildup. I use clay build up to get some nice holes in. Use spray and a square alpha.
Use morph brush with spray and a square alpha here to and paint back the edges you want.
Yeah, that dumpster prop doesn't really work. I don't know how the trash system in the Middle East works either, but I'm betting small villages like this don't have garbage trucks zipping around.
Also, I know you said the texture on the dumpster was old, but you need to be careful of details in your environments. For instance, the graffiti is WESTERN graffiti - if the dumpster belongs at all, it would have EASTERN graffiti like this.
And what are barrels of flammable liquid doing sitting around a Middle Eastern village? Last I saw, IEDs were a little more subtle. Not that I want to dispute a time honored video game convention of having something to blow up - but I'm betting your dude has grenades, and it looks like you are trying to be realistic here with your representation.
Been working on ground texture and some other textures. Skipped the dumpster this time Going to be carefull with text and labels in the future. The environment is ment to be a realistic presentation. Going to put some more props in the middle to fill the empty space out. Maybe also put some antenn on one of the building?
strlOlsson: I was using the exact same technique to create my damged concrete pieces and my toughts was that the cracks have been there fore a while and the edges has been worned out by people walking back and forth. But I should maybe create some more hard cracks in the middle and change some of the wobbleyness on the edges :P. The trees are animated and I was worried the where to dark from the underside. But i think I'm going to change the trees anyway. Nice quote you got there Thanks!
Yeah! I'm studying the last year in Skövde as an 3D-artist. So just some more months before the degree. Cheers!
Something with this scene that pops out for me is the electric pole. It seems way to clean to be in a sandy and worn down scene also it is really vibrant compared to all of the other objects in your scene. I think if you toned it down a bit and grunged it up it would gel really nice in your set
loving the textures on your buildings looking pretty rad.
None of the doors look like they have any forum of door handle that may just be how homes are in the middle east however definitely look for some reference to make sure.
I'm a fan of your work. After checking out your website and portfolio, awesome stuff. Keep it up. I got a suggestion for the lighting, its too white. It need a bit of a orangy yellow hue and the shadows needs a bit of a blue tint. This should make the lighting give the scene the realism its lacking. The modelling itself is excellent.
The scale looks off on the buildings (they seem too small). Looking at the size of the soldier on the right side and comparing it to the height of the door, it looks like he wouldn't be able to walk in without smokin his head. I don't mind the subdued palette so much except I think the sky looked better in the previous iteration.
Looking really nice dude, reminds me of Bad Company 2. The scene looks a little clean and I think you need to scatter some weeds and rubbish throughout the scene floor.
Looking forward to more updates :poly142:
This scene is looking good but it's not quite there yet. I'm not really liking the palm trees at all. They're hurting the overall quality of the scene. The leaves are looking too big and the proportions are off as well. I feel that the trunk should be a much taller and have smaller leaves. Right now they're right on top of the characters head.
Maybe you can also rethink your choice of props in the center of your scene. Instead of the palm tree maybe you have a fountain there . That alone will give the scene a bit more variety and more sense of place. More rubble and debris will make it stronger too. You can put a bit more grass into the scene around the edges of buildings and such. I think this scene can also be a bit more atmospheric. Don't just make the shadows a cold gray, add a hint of blue hues to them and make your sky a bit brighter blue to make the scene below it really pop. I really hope this helped, because the scene is coming along! I can't wait to see what you do with it.
Been working on some more props. Like a Well and an Antenn. Changed some lightning and the trees. Added more grass and dirt. Think I will put some more vegetation and gravel into the scene. Still some more props to create, textures to change and then experiment with lightning. Thanks for the feedback. It's very appreciated.
Looking better, some rubble and rocks would help flesh it out even more. One thing I've noticed is that in your first shot, all of the trees are lined up in a straight line.
Hey man, the scene is coming together real nice,
I spent my childhood in the ME and can point out a few things that are missing.
- not many petrol stations about so we used to have a few petrol cans around the place.
- never seen those vents before its all mainly water cooling vents, huge yellow cube looking things on the roofs.
- had a lot more clothes on the edge of the roofs to dry.
- stone and rubble everywhere.
- bullet holes in some buildings (most people have guns)
- the most important one is Place 3 or 4 pairs of cheap plastic sandals around the entrance of the houses seriously
- haaha would be nice to see some chicken running around the place too
just for future reference don't use black bin bags (cant afford them dont think shops even sell them) use old white rice bags.
petrol can
rice bag
cant find any reference for the vents mainly because most of the buildings don't have roofs now.
Your scene looks good as it is but those are some stuff that might make it more believable.
Getting tonnes better - but you gotta bring some color back man!
Not sure of your post effects, but try and add some more color in the textures too. ( bump the saturation on the Palms leaves, awnings and rugs etc)
Youre washing the scene out alot. I agree with BARDLER.
Oh! That helped a lot InMOP and beancube. I will definitly try to create some of that props.
About the color, I am actually working on a IPS-screen so I havn't tought so mutch about the color until I took the sceen to my other regular LCD-screen and realised the color was way to wached out. So the picture you sent me look to saturated on my IPS-screen and good on the other lcd-screen.
I have desaturated the sceen in my post process chain but I think I will change that one from now Will post some color change and som other changes later. Cheers!
very nice. i think that you should have somewhat of the color that beancube showed, but not as intense. as of now the lighting seems a bit too...non-desert like. in a sense, the overall environment needs a bit more oranges and yellows from the lighting.
Thanks! I will try to change the color and lightning as soon as possible. Its hard to find a good balance when every computerscreen has different color reproduction.
Yeah there are some sand particels in there but I think its a combination of the movie quality and that the rate of particles are a little bit to low.
sltrOlsson, something more like this with the stones or should I skip the cracks?
Man that is looking really kickass now. I'm loving the color it has, it looks great. Maybe you can take those rocks and place them individually around your scene as well as having them in clumps. It'll give it some more realism. I was a bit meh on your palms before but I'm ok with them now. I still think the leaves can be a bit smaller and they should be thicker though. Overall though, it's looking much better.
Here's a little quick update. I think I will leave the stones from know and focus on some other things. Thans for the referece pictures. It helps a lot. Changed the mapcap material to something that did't blured out the highlights as much as the other one. Cheers!
The only two suggestions I have deal with some props. The AO on the water buckets and the crates are much too strong, especially in regards to where the various wood planks meet.
Been a while since my last post but have still been working on the scene from time to time. This is the latast assets I did to the scene. A water tank. Screenshot from maya viewport.
Replies
In the last two screenshots, the empty area is taking up way too much space I think and something about the terrain feels off.
But the props look much better. The trash can though.. I think I've seen at least another 5 people around here with the same prop (thanks to the cgtuts+ tutorial). You might want to add something more to it other than the changing the color :P
Edit - Oh, and wires. Post them. Everybody here loves to check 'em out
Do you think about the texture in the terrain or the terrain itself?
I haven't seen the cgtuts tutorial but it might be hard to create a dumpster that stand out from the rest. But i will look in to it
I updated with some wireframes.
maybe even think of changing your trees to something more shrubbery like this?
http://misscreativeclassy.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/desert-ambience.png?w=500&h=332
I think our props looks ace, but as mik2121 said, they look better in viewport. I don't know how the garbage system works in "The middle east", but that container is very city like, and with a very urban tag on it. Makes no sense i'm afraid. It looks goo though
You don't have any concepts or something?
The reason I put the environment in a desert was because i did't want to build hundreds of different building and to block the line where the horizon ends :P But I will look for solutions to make the scene feel more tighter.
I'm far away from saying the environment is done. Going to build more props, change textures and experiment with lightinings.
The only cocept I have is a fast blockout I did in maya and a lots of arabic reference pictures :P
Thanks for the feedback! Cheers!
if you haven't already, try creating a second UV channel for the prop. Here is a great tutorial by 3D Motive which explains how.. assuming you are using 3dmax. http://www.3dmotive.com/product-udk-lightmaps
Nice work so far
If you haven't looked at Generation Kill you should. Both because it's a frekkin good TV series but also cause they have some really good settings and stuff..
sltrOlsson, I think plants and some other things in the background will definitely make it feel better. Oh Generation Kill, one of my favorites. A very good insperation source. Thanks for the tips.
I noticed that you also are from Sweden? Stay Frosty!
And yeah, something that i forgot to mention. You should go back to that damaged concrete piece you got. It's way to wobbly. You need some harder broken edges in there.
I thought that name of yours felt Swedish yeah :P Attending to any educations atm?
I'm actually gonna be that guy whom quotes himself
Also, I know you said the texture on the dumpster was old, but you need to be careful of details in your environments. For instance, the graffiti is WESTERN graffiti - if the dumpster belongs at all, it would have EASTERN graffiti like this.
And what are barrels of flammable liquid doing sitting around a Middle Eastern village? Last I saw, IEDs were a little more subtle. Not that I want to dispute a time honored video game convention of having something to blow up - but I'm betting your dude has grenades, and it looks like you are trying to be realistic here with your representation.
strlOlsson: I was using the exact same technique to create my damged concrete pieces and my toughts was that the cracks have been there fore a while and the edges has been worned out by people walking back and forth. But I should maybe create some more hard cracks in the middle and change some of the wobbleyness on the edges :P. The trees are animated and I was worried the where to dark from the underside. But i think I'm going to change the trees anyway. Nice quote you got there
Yeah! I'm studying the last year in Skövde as an 3D-artist. So just some more months before the degree. Cheers!
loving the textures on your buildings looking pretty rad.
None of the doors look like they have any forum of door handle that may just be how homes are in the middle east however definitely look for some reference to make sure.
mike
Cheers!
The lighting is really nice. The shadows might be a tad too dark. Otherwise I really like what you're doing with the lighting.
The telephone wires seem like the would sag a bit more as well.
All small things and won't take long to fix.
BTW having a character in there for scale reference is cool. Did you make the guy too? If so you might want to pull up closer on him.
Looking forward to more updates :poly142:
Maybe you can also rethink your choice of props in the center of your scene. Instead of the palm tree maybe you have a fountain there . That alone will give the scene a bit more variety and more sense of place. More rubble and debris will make it stronger too. You can put a bit more grass into the scene around the edges of buildings and such. I think this scene can also be a bit more atmospheric. Don't just make the shadows a cold gray, add a hint of blue hues to them and make your sky a bit brighter blue to make the scene below it really pop. I really hope this helped, because the scene is coming along! I can't wait to see what you do with it.
I spent my childhood in the ME and can point out a few things that are missing.
- not many petrol stations about so we used to have a few petrol cans around the place.
- never seen those vents before its all mainly water cooling vents, huge yellow cube looking things on the roofs.
- had a lot more clothes on the edge of the roofs to dry.
- stone and rubble everywhere.
- bullet holes in some buildings (most people have guns)
- the most important one is Place 3 or 4 pairs of cheap plastic sandals around the entrance of the houses
- haaha would be nice to see some chicken running around the place too
just for future reference don't use black bin bags (cant afford them dont think shops even sell them) use old white rice bags.
petrol can
rice bag
cant find any reference for the vents mainly because most of the buildings don't have roofs now.
Your scene looks good as it is but those are some stuff that might make it more believable.
Not sure of your post effects, but try and add some more color in the textures too. ( bump the saturation on the Palms leaves, awnings and rugs etc)
Youre washing the scene out alot. I agree with BARDLER.
Heres quick color pass. hope it helps abit.
About the color, I am actually working on a IPS-screen so I havn't tought so mutch about the color until I took the sceen to my other regular LCD-screen and realised the color was way to wached out. So the picture you sent me look to saturated on my IPS-screen and good on the other lcd-screen.
I have desaturated the sceen in my post process chain but I think I will change that one from now
[ame]
The moving cloth is a really nice element in the scene, but i think you should turn the wind down a bit. Doesn't feel natural now.
The stones needs more hard edges to. They'r way to soft.
I agree with sltrOlsson the wind does seem a bit too strong.
and maybe add a bit of sand particles if you can
Edit i can see there is some sand particles but its barely visible maybe thats just my monitor.
Yeah there are some sand particels in there but I think its a combination of the movie quality and that the rate of particles are a little bit to low.
sltrOlsson, something more like this with the stones or should I skip the cracks?
Like this [The pics are pretty bad, but you get the idea. MUCH sharper edges :P]
Great work on everything else though man!