3D Final year project: Dam environment (WIP)
Hi, this is my first foray into creating a Polycount thread. I've just started work on my project for final year at Uni. I plan on making a Dam, with an art deco style. It would be a starting location in a game. I was planning on putting it into UDK later in the year once I have finalised some of the area.
The primary location will be the dam top, allowing access to the buildings exterior and partially inside.
I'm looking to make the small buildings in the resevoir area accessible, although I'm not sure how yet. As well as having a simple interior atrium to the two buildings on either end of the walkway.
The walls around the sides will be cliffs, with small ledges and vegetation hanging from both the top and cliffs themselves.
The dam as a whole does have a small back story. It is supposed to be a power generator for a large, unknown machine. It would usually be manned by a small team with a heavy security presence, however they are currently missing and would feature once the player has moved into the interior of the dam. The dam should look reasonably well kept, although it will have fallen into some disrepair over the few months of neglect.
I have done a block out of the area as I have imagined it so far from sketches I have been doing over the past month.
Any comments or crit would be greatly appreciated. As well as any suggestions to other directions I could take the level.
The primary location will be the dam top, allowing access to the buildings exterior and partially inside.
I'm looking to make the small buildings in the resevoir area accessible, although I'm not sure how yet. As well as having a simple interior atrium to the two buildings on either end of the walkway.
The walls around the sides will be cliffs, with small ledges and vegetation hanging from both the top and cliffs themselves.
The dam as a whole does have a small back story. It is supposed to be a power generator for a large, unknown machine. It would usually be manned by a small team with a heavy security presence, however they are currently missing and would feature once the player has moved into the interior of the dam. The dam should look reasonably well kept, although it will have fallen into some disrepair over the few months of neglect.
I have done a block out of the area as I have imagined it so far from sketches I have been doing over the past month.
Any comments or crit would be greatly appreciated. As well as any suggestions to other directions I could take the level.
Replies
What are you looking to have in the atriums? Also, will you be texturing the whole of the mountainside shown here?
Its the good old .png Gamma embedded gamma issue...
(Apply a .454 gamma correction to em and they will look much better).
OP:If your saving for the web use JPEG.
I like the zipwire idea, it's different. I may make it so they were communication wires between the buildings, rather than a zipwire itself, which may seem out of place. Either way it's a great idea thank you.
The low poly stream entrance is based on an outside performance area in Napier, New Zealand. I'll include a link if you're interested in what I am basing the design on. I like the shape as it would amplify the noise coming from the mountain stream. I only made it quickly to see what the design would look like alongside the rest of the Dam area, I realise it does stand out quite badly from the rest of the block out however. I will get a revised version with some more models and ideas up soon.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Napier-SoundShell.jpg
The reason I didn't want them accessed by stairs or a bridge from the dam itself is that it breaks up the design of the dam. The main bridge and buildings are there to look good for visitors, not be used often for the researchers themselves.
However I have been looking to set up a system of cables that can be used, these will go from the two buildings to the closest two stations which will then be linked together by other cables.
The images below are for the bridge stairs and the reservoir stations.
In the doors between the stairs there will be an out of order elevator, it wouldn't be damaged, just out of action. I'm still working on designs for that.
I am having difficulty arranging the topolgy on the circled part above. I know there is a much better way to approach it, however the more I look at it the less I can think about it. I'm having a complete mental block on it. Any suggestions would be greatly recieved.
I like the design of the various items, though why are the elevator doors so huge? Also, will you be including poly counts for these objects?
The buildings that are in the water would be accessed from underneath. They would be for reading water consistency, depth and any monitoring any unknown elements that are located in the water. This means they would not be on show to the public as they hold sensitive material, as well as not being accessed from the bridge itself. This is why I was suggesting a collection of wires from above, communication cables and such.
However as I have worked on the scene, I have been tempted to include a bridge, and/or a ladder from the water. As the pictures below will show, I have been working on a small landing area for boats that are on the water, they would allow the player to reach the towers.
I am also stuck on creating the 'arms' that reach into the water and break up the flow coming in. They are not well made, however the shape is correct for what I wanted. I need to rearrange the topolgy on the arm as it seems a mess. Any suggestions? I have included images below. Do you think they are the correct shape with the rest of the design so far? (They are based on the fountain outside the Cincinnati train station)
Fastest way in my opinion would be to extend the cliff out more and have a concave base connecting into that.
Yeah I realised that after I put the images up. I have made some pretty big changes to the front of the Dam that will be put on Polycount as soon as I finish the block out. Including changing the Dam itself to a concave shape. Thanks!
The last images were the first time I've succesfuly replicated the shape I want the breakers to have. So they are more base meshes, however I need to work out the way to keep the shape which I have struggled with, I will go back and work on it again soon, as I have moved temporarily onto something else in the scene. However I always thought it was best to avoid using tris in models, although I think that was mostly for things that will move, which none of this scene will obviously.