Nuclear Lab 2.0

EggE

Hey everyone! just wanted to finally share my second attempt at a level I worked on before ( Nuclear Lab 1.0 is on my website if you wanna check it out) but because of your suggestions I've worked really hard to produce something alot better this time around.

THEME: the level is about a private company that specializes in refining Nuclear material. In the middle is a case that stores a nuclear warhead surrounded by a shield. The robotic arm above it aids the scientist in there day to day work. The columns you see don't only support the structure of the room but are actually centrifuges also. Let me know what you guys think.

Slave_zero

I think your scene has some potential but your lighting is letting it down. At the moment you have a very light environment and you've pretty much overused the green glow elements and green lights for my taste. You whole scene is pretty much at one brightness level or at best reaching from bright to very bright to green glow.

I suggest to go for a darker scene and some some brighter but spaced highlight areas to create some points of interesting. Your goal must be to create light setup that guides the viewer through your screenshot or that guides the player through your scene.
Its no shame to have areas that do not perfectly show their details when on the other hand you have areas that show all theier glory in an interesting light. At the moment the whole scene is like: "in your face!" There is not much to discover and no need to take a second look to find some details <ou havent noticed before because everything is so much "visible".

Also you can try to use some contrasting light colors to improve your atmosphere.

I hope this helps. Maybe someone (or me, but I'm short on time) can do you some overpaint or you give it a try by yourself. doing quick paintings to test different lightsetups is a fast and efficient way to find out what works in your scene.

Gusti

I like the look of it, but in some parts agree with Slave_zero.
Its a little too "overall" bright. Like the overall ambiance is too high.
It might just need more contrast to it, to make the elements in the scene pop a bit more.
But given the number of light-sources within the scene, it would be fairly bright overall.
Perhaps darkening it up a bit the further towards the ceiling you get while adding more overall contrast would do the trick to move it from good to great

EggE

Slave_zero - i get what your saying, I had the level darker before but because my props weren't as visible to the player i brightened it up alittle too much. I'll experiment with the lighting some more but if you want to paint over the render to give me some direction i'll appreciate it.

BrettLewis

The environment is looking great, the problems I have with it that for one it is intense, the colours aren't complimenting each other and I find them distracting from the scene itself. maybe tone down some of the colours or look into different colours that would compliment the scene better and build a more solid atmosphere. I agree with Gusti and Slave_zero on the lighting, creating a contrast with the lighting will make the player "see" your props and details better.
Overall though I really like the environment! looking forward to seeing more

Slave_zero

So here we go with al little overpaint:


Notice that different areas are quite dark and don't give away all their detail. You'd have to move arround and have a look at different angles to see all the minor details which is a good thing, as you want the player to explore the place and get sucked into this hightech room. On the other hand you want to clearly point out the most important points of interest (pillars & containment-thing & doors) that the player doesn't have to search each wall for finding the necessary switches / panels / doors to continue his way.

The color sheme is somewhat overused but on the other hand I find it very appealing as a yellow-orange vs bluish contrast is mostly quite nice to look at. While I think that a contrast of green and red color is mostly quite loud and not easy to look at for a longer period in my opinion. Of course you can take an other color sheme. To find colors that complement each other the following can be very helpfull:

http://www.colorschemedesigner.com/

Also you could think of adding some kind of smoke / fog hovering above the ground or arround those pillars. This can heavily improve the mood of your scene and is worth a try.

EggE

sorry if it took me awhile, i was having some difficulties with Lightmass but with the September update I was able to resolve my lighting issues. wondering what you guys think about this render? the next render will have the color suggestions from Slave_zero, also thank you for the color scheme website!

[imglink]http://eggys@www.edgarespinal.com/Polycount_post/dark_render_1.png[/imglink]

ZacD

Why is there 50 radiation symbols everywhere?
I get warning signs on containers, but its just really excessive right now.

EggE

thought I'd warn the scientist what they're dealing with =/ lol

EggE

NEW RENDERS!