[STAGE] Super Gem Fighter, Tessa's Den, christermime

christermime

Hi all- I'll be working on making Tessa's Den from Super Gem Fighter (Or, in the US, pocket fighter).



I want to take it in a more realistic direction, focusing on the chemist side of Tessa's character, rather than the magical side. The scrawlings on the walls/ceiling and magical bits will be replaced with more science-based writings and objects like beakers, formulas, etc.

However, I want to keep the general layout and color scheme capcom has going on in this image, but push the cool blue outside/ warm orange inside contrast possibly further.

Here's some reference for what I'm thinking with the color/lighting. Going to start block out asap.

stfu_donny

looks like fun!

christermime

Here's a quick and dirty blockout pass coming out of maya. Importing pieces into UDK to get a basic feel for lighting/color next.

christermime

Some first pass lighting done in UDK; trying to get a feeling for the mood of the scene.

christermime

Been working on the chimney;

Bwample1

cool

christermime

Did some tweaks to the scale of detail on the chimney and made a floor for the place. I'm realizing now that it looks a little too dungeounish, and not as much of the rustic feeling I want. Going to be working on wood siding and the log support beams next to bring some warmth to it.



Here's a shot of the floor asset with just diffuse-

Chandler

I like the mood you're going for. I agree it feels too dungeonish now, your scene is way darker than your ref. I think there should be more lights in general, it seems unlikely to me that a fireplace and a few braziers could light a big cavernous space like that. One more thing- if you're going for moonlight outside, keep in mind that it usually casts more diffuse shadows as opposed to hard ones like you have now. Keep at it, it's definitely getting there.

christermime

@Chandler
Thanks for the comments and feedback! I agree that there should be brighter lighting in the scene. Right now I'm trying to achieve that through getting the moonlight to be a little bit stronger, but I think you're right that additional light sources could help. I'm not sure what to make them though, maybe lanterns, or some more mystical light sources as seen on the bed in the original scene (although I wouldn't go for green.) I've been trying to get that shadow on the ground to be more diffused, but I haven't been able to crack it yet. It's coming from a dominant directional light in UDK. If anyone has some info on this, I'd really appreciate it.

Here's an update of the scene right now


And a screengrab out of maya of the log wall asset with just diffuse on-


Going to be working on the fireplace (and fire), support beams, and flags up next.

christermime

Been working on the fireplace, but ran into some snags. Working on re-making it now. Here's a progress shot of the diffuse unlit so far.



tweaked some lighting things and added in flags as well.


Things should progress quicker from here on out!

mitcHELL

looking sweet i cant wait to see a hires shot

christermime

A shot of the fireplace in level -

christermime

Did some architectural stuff tonight, as well as more lighting tweaks. Added the braziers to the back wall as well. Any and all feedback is welcome and appreciated!



@mitcHELL

Thanks for the compliment will be getting some higher res shots up when there are things worth looking at in higher res. :poly124:

cholden

Overlay your current screen on your reference images, and adjust it's levels until it's close to grasping the same lighting levels as the ref. Use that as a lighting guide. It'll be brighter, and show of your work more elegantly.

The horizontal wood and chimney stone textures have too much variation in bright to dark levels, creating a tiled, noisy look unbecoming of the big shapes being used in the meshes. These appear to be off-style from the other textures which read cleanly. It's possibly due to just being too dark or some noisy overlays. A levels adjustment could be enough.

Don't be afraid to start getting technical inside UDK. Glowing fires, particles, light beams, the future.

Also noticed almost all the shots are different angles, and the current doesn't really have a fighting play area. Might be worth nailing down that camera angle.

christermime

Thanks for the in depth crit! Helps a lot as I'm progressing. I did a really quick paintover of the scene with your suggestions in mind, and I'm going to try to push the lighting in a brighter direction.



I'll take another look at the noisier textures as well, it may just be that I painted in the darks too dark on those assets.

As for the different shots, I've been trying to take shots that highlight the most recent work, but I do have a master angle in UDK that I want to take the "final" image with.

christermime

made a lot of lighting changes -



Still having issues getting the light shafts to look right, so they're currently left out of that screen.

Also changed the contrast on some of the textures, especially the wood. I think that really helped there, so thanks for all your suggestions.

ParoXum

The fireplace is lighting the chimney above itself when there should be a shadow projected on it first. Maybe you should move the light a little more into the fire to fix this.

The lighting is still very contrasty, maybe you should boost the lightmass bounce factors like environment and diffuse. Or just check that your environment color isnt black.

Keep it up

christermime

Hey ParoXum, thanks very much for the feedback. I tried to tone down the contrast a bit, and added some more bounces in lightmass. I think these things help soften the scene overall, especially in the floor tiles. I also lightened up the carpet a bit to try to get the shadows to read more clearly from the chairs and table.


Currently sculpting the chair!

cholden

This are great improvements, however it's still so dark and scary. All of the references, the shapes, textures are all so warm and inviting, and I feel the lighting should be the same. And again, your work looks better with lovely lighting. If you're having trouble with dark spots, toss in some fill lighting with a neutral pointlight.

Here's a quick lighting adjustment. You don't have to squint to see your art.
http://img690.imageshack.us/i/sodark1.jpg/

The floor is also noticeably tiling. The stone slabs in the original ref are HUGE in comparison. A floor of this age and scale would be flattened much more by traffic and gravity. Also look at the scale of the depth and gaps between them. Walking on this would be treacherous let alone fighting.

Might also be worth posting larger images. oh yes.

christermime

Thanks for the paintover! I'll make another pass at brightening everything up after I finish up the chair. I'll try to vary up the floor tile as well to make it less tile-looking. I do intend on cluttering it up a bit more when I have some more filler assets done, so hopefully it will look a little more filled in and less tile-y.

as always, the feedback is really appreciated... helping me push this in a better direction.

christermime

working on sculpting this chair - legs haven't been touched yet.

christermime

Some more progress - took some time to try out putting something into the marmoset toolbag.



and working on the scene as well

d1ver

Cute chair you've got there, Chris.
Just wanted to ask you a little thing about the lighting: Do you actually have an outside light source shining through the roof window? Because initially you've started out with the chimney light but it's not the light thats build the ambiance in the room.
If not you should probably get yourself some sufficient moonlight and then adjust the chimney light to create a proper brightness and color contrast.

Good luck with that!

christermime

I do want it to look like moonlight is shining through the roof, yes. Should I fill most of the room with blue as opposed to the warmer tones and focus the warmer tones entirely around the fireplace? I've been kind of struggling getting the balance quite right. Right now i'm using a dominant directional light to simulate the moonlight on the floor, and various point lights as the fill moonlight. Thanks for the feedback!

d1ver

Hey man, your lighting look pretty similar to the original scene and that's a very nice reference to look up to! At least it looks to me like that's the mood you're going for.

And just one minor thing from me: Fill point lights kinda made sense back when lightmass wasn't around, but now it just might be that you're over complicating things just to make them look not so good. Instead of placing artificial bounce lights I suggest you go to View->World Properties-> Lightmass and try fiddling around there to boost you secondary bounces and color them if you need to.

christermime

The previous screenshot is without the fill point lights; however I have lightmass on in both shots. Is there a better lighting method (maybe a large dominant point light or something of the sort) to fill in an ambient light throughout the whole scene?

christermime

Added in some book cases tonight as well;



and them in the scene (high res!):



Going to add in books to the shelves (and strewn certain places on the floor, in addition to making another pass at the lighting tomorrow. Goodnight!

christermime

Hey all- I've had a little bit more time to work on this. Did another pass on brightening things up as well. Let me know what you think!

christermime

This is the image that's very close to the final shot I'll be subbing with. Feedback is still very much appreciated - i'll be polishing a couple things up after the deadline. Won't be able to submit until later tonight because I accidentally un-baked lighting and I have a prior engagement. :poly117:

Thanks to all that helped me + critted!

ParoXum

Looking better already. Book shelves are really helping with the mood. Now even if you struggle to find time before deadline, maybe you can put some quicks Uvs on the untextured wood and slap the wood texture on it.