Cel-Shaded Environment
Hey!
I started working on a little environment today and, since I want to get this right, I'm posting a first picture here to get feedback on my water. The 'oh-so-treacherous' water... In my first post here, I linked to this video:
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0dx2tFEvCE[/ame]
And I was told that my water was somewhat disturbing. So! As an artist who thrives to better himself, I'm asking to anyone out there: What do you think of my water, what would you have done and waht should I do to get a good look with my environment?
Thank you
-Phil-
I started working on a little environment today and, since I want to get this right, I'm posting a first picture here to get feedback on my water. The 'oh-so-treacherous' water... In my first post here, I linked to this video:
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0dx2tFEvCE[/ame]And I was told that my water was somewhat disturbing. So! As an artist who thrives to better himself, I'm asking to anyone out there: What do you think of my water, what would you have done and waht should I do to get a good look with my environment?
Thank you
-Phil-
Replies
Try to brighten the blue in the picture and try to add some white or light blue streaks that are exaggerated like in wind waker.
Finally, the jagged edges really bug me. Is that something you can fix?
edit: Why not try combining both. See pic:
http://images.wikia.com/zelda/images/8/8c/Salvage_Corp.png
As for the jagged edges, that's because of my outline post-process. Fortunatly, it looks great in game, even if it looks awfull in a png...
Heres Without the outline Post-Process:
It does look good though, another game you might want to reference for cel shading is "thirteen" for xbox. It wasn't the greatest game ever, but I thought the cel shading was pretty cool
I've modified the waterfall, so it looks more like a waterfall rather than a vertical water stream... so here it is:
You see a lot of pro comic artists do it like that, and it adds a lot.
Edit: Ok, I got it up and running, Herre are two screens for you to see if 2X or 3X the color is best!
I could also darken the color if you want to see what it looks like, but it'll bring back some black outlines...
Yeah, basically. Take a look at this image for example: http://cupcakerogues.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/ultimates3_cover_5_by_liquidology.jpg
You see on the blonde hair the outline is closer to a blonde color. Captain america in the middle is blue, so there are parts of his outline that are blue.
Is it set to an overlay or something in those pics you posted? I'm guessing it is because it looks lighter. Using a multiply blend mode should give you the darker outlines which should look better.
The technical artist for a team I worked with a while back got it working and it looked good I thought. Unfortunately I don't even have any pics of how it looked or any of the UDK packages.
Its just something you might wanna consider looking into. Might be better if you fleshed out your scene a bit more first.
I got rid of most of the black outlines that resurfaced when multiplying with a darker color
maybe a bigger outline overall?
I think it looks better that way. Looks much more subtle. The thing I hate about outlines in a lot of games is when they're just black they don't always blend well with the actual models and textures.
I think the method of having them multiply over like that makes it seem more like they're complimenting the models rather than trying to draw away too much focus. I'd maybe make them a bit less strong. Of course, having them black is fine too; its more a matter of what style you want.
Personally, I think Wind Waker done this sort of art style the best. They didn't actually use outlines in that though.
As for the cel-shaded in udk, Its a custom lit material that I built. I first followed a tutorial and then got one up myself. I'll take a screenshot when I have time.
Edit: here, you multiply the cel-shading with your diffuse texture and then add the specular. You plug all this in the CustomLighting node and plug the diffuse in the CustomLightingDiffuse node
I have switches and parameters because I use an instance of my material to se in real-time what I change, instead of compiling each time..
-Phil
man that is looking nice, so much of an improvement from the boring black outline. keep it up
I know it is possible in UDK because this guy did it. [ame]
I am guessing he used a particle effect. Or somehow created a material that could find the edges of a mesh.
Yeah, I'll add things in there when I get my shader right
@Tyler
Thanks! I'll look into this as soon as I have a second!
I know you know, but I feel it necessary to re-state/bump this thread. I was wondering if you've gone further with this project since last year. I am really excited to see it finished!!!
As fot this project, no, I didn't finish it. I still have my files, but I got in a project with some friends from school, but they all got jobs, so it kinda didn't get off. Then I hit the beautiful problem of me not being able to texture properly, wich kind of demoralized me. So I started an other little project, and the cycle repeats itself. Though recently I decided that I should hone a bit my skills in texturing.
So, as I like the hand-painted/cel-shaded style. I'm working on my skills to hand paint my own textures, so far it's going pretty good. While I'm doing this, I'm also making a similar environment to apply all my textures. I'll post it in a new thread once it's a bit more advanced than it is right now!