[WIP] UDK Modular Environment
So for a class, we are asked to do an 3D environment within three weeks to help us learn to work under tight time constraints. In this thread, I will post my process and work in progress shots and hopefully, in three weeks I'll have a nice end product in UDK.
We were given a concept by Sparth (http://www.sparth.com/gallery/index.php?cat=10) and were told to inspire ourselves from it. Here is what I came up with.
I tried to keep the construction simple and the shapes basic due to the time frame that was imposed.
Given the short time frame I have to work with, I have decided to go with a modular approach and try to get the most mileage out of each individual piece.
So from that quick sketch I quickly planned out the major pieces (hopefully I'm not missing anything) that I will need to model for the environment.
Finally, some ideas on how to make variations on wall modules with the smaller pieces I plan on building.
Soon, I should have some actual 3D to show and things will start shaping up!
Of course, crits, comments and suggestions to make this much more interesting are more than welcome!
We were given a concept by Sparth (http://www.sparth.com/gallery/index.php?cat=10) and were told to inspire ourselves from it. Here is what I came up with.
I tried to keep the construction simple and the shapes basic due to the time frame that was imposed.
Given the short time frame I have to work with, I have decided to go with a modular approach and try to get the most mileage out of each individual piece.
So from that quick sketch I quickly planned out the major pieces (hopefully I'm not missing anything) that I will need to model for the environment.
Finally, some ideas on how to make variations on wall modules with the smaller pieces I plan on building.
Soon, I should have some actual 3D to show and things will start shaping up!
Of course, crits, comments and suggestions to make this much more interesting are more than welcome!
Replies
Good luck!
I'm gonna follow this..
Everything's just really clean compared to the sketchy sketchy mess alot of us use
Looking forward to this.
I started modeling the high-res pieces for my modular sets and I've decided to try and piece them together to get a feel for what it could look like.
Unfortunately, this test made me realize I did not plan my units properly as my ceiling appears quite low ): I'll have to fix that asap. Luckily, I am still at a stage where I can change some measures.
Now to finish these models and bake them onto their low res counterparts. (hopefully by Friday)
I think that based on the (left side of the) sketches it would be better to make the rail 1 unit high. Ideally though, you'd make it About a third of the corridor's height - not everything has to fit in the units in powers of two in all 3 axes. Stepping away from 'everything must fit in every way' also allows you to add that bit of slant that Computron mentioned.
Some UDK Unit Info:
A typical character is about 96 max units tall.
So in feet 96 / 6 feet = 16 units.
So in other words, 16 units = 1 Foot.
Height when standing: 96 units
Height when crouching: 64 units
Jump Height: 64 units
Double-Jump Height: 132 units
Dodge Distance: 320 Units
Double-Jump Distance: 720 units.
Highpoly is looking pretty clean... Keep it up. You doing everything SubD or just some stuff?
I then proceeded to unwrap all my pieces and bake the high res meshes onto the low res meshes with xNormal.
I had to go through a bit of cleaning in Photoshop because my high res meshes had not so clean topology ):
I was wondering what was the right practice when baking normal maps and smoothing groups. For this, I tried to match my smoothing groups to my UVs to have hard edges where the UV seams were. In some places it produced a gradient in the normal map (like the plates). It seems to have turned out okay though.
I am wondering if there is a "rule of thumb" when it comes to smoothing groups and UVs. Or anything that could help clear this up?
I set up the low res pieces together to make more complete modules for building the environment in UDK. For the pieces for walls and floors, I've offset and rotated the plates slightly to break the linearity of the wall (if it is even noticeable).
Next step, testing in UDK before texturing it all!
So I tried to import a model into UDK to make sure everything would turn out okay, but as it turns out, it is not okay. Compared to the viewport render in max, I get some gradients in my normal map in UDK (areas circled in red). I exported my model following the qualified normals guide that was linked on the front page.
Does anyone know what might be causing this? I am guessing it is the same gradient that is in my normal map, but why would it show okay in Max ):
I hope I dont have to rebake my stuff.
@coots7 Haha, I am glad you find that it is a good idea. It let me get a sense of scale for the different pieces I was planning to build, but in the end almost none of the measures were kept.
So after the problems with my normal map and after doing the second UV sets for every piece for lightmaps, I FINALLY managed to get my stuff into UDK. With plain colors and lighting from the template scene from UDK, here's what it looks like now.
(I also decided to go back to the slanted rails)
You'll also save time later with diffuse and spec texturing.
Here is the early stages of building my level in UDK, it's all orange and rusty (The rust was my test to try out vertex blending materials). I don't really like the orange all that much anymore, and I think I am going to go for something cleaner than that all orange rusty stuff. Also, I am going to focus on one or two still shots instead of building a large level due to the little amount of time left.
So with that in mind, I removed the rust, and decided to focus on getting my lighting down, which is proving much harder than expected. I'd like to have sunlight coming from the back, and the foreground being lit a bit by the neon lights. I'm also trying to have some nice cast shadows from the railing and the girders.
I am thinking of keeping this camera for my final shot; what do you think of the composition?
I still have to do my textures and finish up dressing up my shot.
6 days left before the deadline!
Your architectural elements are composed in a way that makes it difficult to understand the scene... looks like something Escher would have done in his early stages.
Modularity success though... the pieces work for what they're intended to be used for...
I was planning to add some small crates and misc props to fill it up a bit, but I'm not sure if its a good idea anymore or if it will only make the scene messier.
I reviewed my color palette and worked on the texture a bit. At this distance though, it seems that textures still are plain colors lol.
i feel the reason its not as readable now is because your trying to make us focus on the scene as a whole, rather than one particular area of it. try moving the camera around to 5 different angles, and see if anything reads better.
other than that the scene is coming along nicely
Only thing I would bother you about is create a corner piece for your railing rather than not having one. It'll clean things up a bit.
+1.
By going back and redoing your UV's you'd be doing yourself a huge favor.
So, to try to make my scene read better, I reworked and simplified the structure of the tower/building thing.
Don't mind the purply lights coming out of nowhere, I didn't rebuild lights yet because my computer is poopoo.
This was a fun project and has helped me learn the workflow in UDK. Next time, I will definitely approach it in a more optimal and efficient use of my assets as other users have been saying. The next project is supposed to focus on budget and optimisation. Look forward to it!
In any case, good job, I'm sure this exercise has taught you a lot and the next scene will benefit from the knowledge for sure.
You've done a great job here!
I think you could/should push that if you have some time in the future, and make it more unique and interesting. You wouldn't need to do much, maybe a banner thingy, some futuristic (bugzapping?) version of a lantern and some curly deco piece for the corners. Of course you could add more stuff, but just these 3 should be enough to enhance the 'asian' feel.
Technically the piece is quite solid, but I'd tone down the SSAO a bit.
@roosterMAP: In UDK, I used the AmbientOcclusion and UberPostProcess nodes and left pretty much everything on default settings only to use the DoF component of it. Oh, I tweaked the AO settings because they were too jittery.
After, I imported the screenshot into Photoshop and did some color correction with Levels, added a vignette, sharpened it and then downsized it.
@Snader: I had noticed the asian-y vibe when i changed the colors to white and red. I agree that it could indeed be interesting to add some elements to push that characteristic more. I probably will have some time this week to work on it a bit more to push it a bit further.
This is exactly what I was thinking. The proportions and especially the use of red and white gave it an instant future-pagoda sort of vibe to it.