WIP - UDK Spooky House Scene (Looking for feedback)

xstart

Hello Polycount!


I am a student trying to a assemble a portfolio and here's my scene that is in WIP.I am looking for a vast amount of appreciative and constructive feedback that will help improve this scene and my experience as a 3D artist.

I used softimage for the modelling and texturing process and brought it in UDK where it will be rendered at. I am still learning how to use UDK. I've applied spec and normal maps on some objects already. I use crazybump to make normals and will be using xnormal for the zbrush sculpts to low res.

I am trying to create a spooky looking house. I know it is warhammer-like, however, I am trying to make it look somewhat of a realistic type of scene.


Things that I need feedback on:

- The cylindrical stairs look... funny to me. Not sure if I should use a different texture, sculpt it in zbrush or what..
- My mentor told me that I should put another lamp above the front doorway (like the side doorway) but.. it's not in the concept..?? There's gonna be 2 lightsources at the front doorway sooo is it alright as is?
- Should I have a normal map on the ground aswell?
- How should I normal map metal with rust on it?
- How should the grass look like? planes of clumps of grass in a triangle like what I posted? or what UDK made itself.. (individual grass clumos animated?.. no idea how to make that Z_z. )
- How should I deal with the seams on the side doorway?
- What about the bricks at the cornerwall? What do you recommend I should do about them? Sculpt in Zbrush and normal it to low res?
- The stairs look.. dull.. should I sulpt in zbrush aswell?


Requests:

- Some websites that teach how to make normal maps. I'm still a wobbly on making decent normals maps.
- UDK experts on advice on how to improve this scene in UDK. I've been messing around in UDK and there's just so many nobs and functions. If someone could help spark my way to the right areas of the program.. would be helpful .


There's much much much MUCH more that I need to improve on this scene that I haven't seen yet. I am ready to accept appreciative and contructive feedback within reasonable boundaries.


Thank you for your time,

JV

3shold

This house is looking pretty nice... or spooky, which is also nice.

I've got a little input as far as the main stairs go. I think they do seem a little dull. However I think that has to do with the color on them. The other rock textures have a lots of moss coloring and they all seem to from the same area. The colors work the other elements of the house as well as the background elements. I don't know that it's necessary to sculpt and then low-poly them. But it would help to push those normals and colors to give the color and light range that the other surfaces have.

Also, in your last picture the the surfaces at the corner of the doorway don't match up and my eyes are drawn there almost immediately. Based on the size of the actual wall and those large corner stones you're using, I don't think they would work in that spot. It might be a situation where you have those two faces Uv'd together so there's no seam.

That's my input. Keep it up though, this is coming along nicely.

SgtNasty

So the main thing that pops out to me is the stone texture. It's very noisy, and the building itself has a lot of it. In the concept, the stone is simple and defined, so that it reads well. In your model, you have some defined stones at the bottom, but as it gets higher (I'm assuming it is because this was a photo sourced texture), the rocks get smaller, and harder to read.

Making it better would probably require starting on that texture from scratch. If you are going to photo source it, make sure you get a good base texture.

As far as normal mapping, what you have here is not very good:

It looks like you took the diffuse texture, and just put it through a normal map filter. A normal map filter just takes value, and then makes it pop out or recess. A high value area like the one I pointed too would not pop out, it would just be a worn area on the diffuse texture, and it would influence the spec map, but it would have NO influence on the actual surface. It's completely fine to use a filter, but you need to use it correctly. Here's a good bunch of tutorials that handle creating the entire texture (diffuse, normal, spec, etc):
http://www.philipk.net/tutorials.html

And just in general, you asked a ton of questions in your op. I hate to give this answer, but just use google. Seeking out the answers and learning for yourself will be much more effective. A good place to start is the polycount wiki. There is tons of info there that I'm pretty sure can help you with a lot of your questions. Here's a link to the UDK site http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/WebHome.html Also, the answer to most of your questions is "Try it." It's not Polycount's job to make desicions for you. You post the work, we critique, and help as nessecary. Sorry if that comes off as harsh. I hope to see some updates soon

xstart

SgtNasty wrote: »

So the main thing that pops out to me is the stone texture. It's very noisy, and the building itself has a lot of it. In the concept, the stone is simple and defined, so that it reads well. In your model, you have some defined stones at the bottom, but as it gets higher (I'm assuming it is because this was a photo sourced texture), the rocks get smaller, and harder to read.

Making it better would probably require starting on that texture from scratch. If you are going to photo source it, make sure you get a good base texture.

As far as normal mapping, what you have here is not very good:

It looks like you took the diffuse texture, and just put it through a normal map filter. A normal map filter just takes value, and then makes it pop out or recess. A high value area like the one I pointed too would not pop out, it would just be a worn area on the diffuse texture, and it would influence the spec map, but it would have NO influence on the actual surface. It's completely fine to use a filter, but you need to use it correctly. Here's a good bunch of tutorials that handle creating the entire texture (diffuse, normal, spec, etc):
http://www.philipk.net/tutorials.html

And just in general, you asked a ton of questions in your op. I hate to give this answer, but just use google. Seeking out the answers and learning for yourself will be much more effective. A good place to start is the polycount wiki. There is tons of info there that I'm pretty sure can help you with a lot of your questions. Here's a link to the UDK site http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/WebHome.html Also, the answer to most of your questions is "Try it." It's not Polycount's job to make desicions for you. You post the work, we critique, and help as nessecary. Sorry if that comes off as harsh. I hope to see some updates soon

Thank you for your response,

I really wasn't sure where I was situated at. I'll take a good read on the links you posted. Thanks again for the feedback and I'll keep this thread posted .

JV

jestersheepy

Love the concept, I would have to agree with SgtNasty, the textures in your 3D doesn't do the concept justice.