Alien's tribute scene, looking for Critiques!

Zid

Hey everyone!
Long time reader first time poster here. Getting pretty close to graduation, so I figured I need to get more involved with the community. This is a scene I did a few months ago and I'm looking to add it to my portfolio. I've gotten great critiques from a few people, so now I want to know what you guys think since I've fixed most of what I can remember. Ill soon be posting up another scene I've been working on once I figure out some lighting issues. Critique away!

The full scene is at 41k tris, w/ 5 total pieces adding up to 4758 tris (pre-instanced)
Total scene texture space is currently at 2048x2048 Diffuse, Specular, & Normal.

Egg w/base: 722 tris, 1024x1024 D/S/N
Alien Wall: 1536 tris, 1024x512 D/S/N
Metal Wall: 1188 tris, 1024x512 D/S/N
Floor Mesh: 528 tris, 1024x1024 D/S/N
Roof Mesh: 660 tris, 1024x1024 D/S/N


Using 3Ds Max 2011, Zbrush 4, & Photoshop CS5 for currant scene.

jmt

At first glance, I thought that this was your reference image - either a screenshot from the movie or concept art. That's a good thing, by the way. You did a good job of portraying the mood of this scene. Some more fog might look cool. Web-like strands of mucus on the walls and little finger tentacle things stretching over the human tech would be a nice touch, too.

I'm not too familiar with the alien eggs, but from a quick image search, your eggs kind of look like green olives.

dpadam450

According to contra the definition of alien eggs is this:

Dimfist

I like the idea but I think you need to use some reference for the walls. I'm doing some alien stuffs too and the one thing about the walls is they are very intricate, a lot like their strange recesses and tubing on the aliens themselves.

Zid

@jmt - Thanks for the comments! I'll definitely play more with the fog and play around with hanging mucus strands. It would make for great detail, thanks a bunch!

@Dimfist - I've gotten similar critiques about the walls as well. I'll definitely be going back and trying more of the tube-like shapes. I'll get an update as soon as I can, balancing between 2 other projects right now so kinda time crunched but I'll definitely revisit my walls. Thanks for the critique

lincolnhughes

Hey man,

I worked on an alien scene awhile back, here's the thread:

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65374&highlight=aliens+hallway&page=3

Here's my website where the final product is:

http://www.lincoln-hughes.com/Pages/alien_eggs.html

Thought those might help a little bit. The hallway looks a little weird right now. Maybe it's the lack of variation in the walls / little crannies / detail missing from the films on the alien goo. Here's a ref image that might help:

http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2007_Aliens_vs._Predator_Requiem/2007_avp_requiem_009.jpg

One thing to keep in mind about the picture above is that it's kind of weird how the goo materials work in the aliens universe. Sometimes they look like goo, and then sometimes they have that hardened bone look. Kind of misleading, but establishing a visual mix between the two can be tough.

The lighting needs some work too. Most of the time most lighting in the films is pretty monochromatic. It doesn't have to be, it just depends on what you're trying to accomplish with it. Adding more atmosphere and making the lighting more emotionally suspenseful will help alot (darker / less saturated). I'd try to replicate the lighting from any scene you really like that works for the environment.

The eggs look like they need a bit more fleshy shit all over them. Adding a vertex blend on the walls that adds some goo might help alot too. Another thing might be to show alot more of the metal shit on the walls through holes in the goo. You have this really cool set piece for the walls that you just don't see at all because everything is goo. One thing I had to do in my scene is pretty much have a giant mesh that was exclusively the goo, that I could push and pull verts here and there so that I could show the walls randomly throughout the hallway. Having a fog that lies around the height of the eggs will add that extra bit of mystique and authenticism that it needs as well.

Hope that helps

Zid

Hey lincoln thanks a lot for the tips. The reference link isnt working on my phone so ill check it out after work today. actually its funny i found your website a few days ago and was checking our your scene. Ill definitly play more with the fleshy gooey stuff. Probably play around with a few different meshes. ill revisit the lighting as well, and get a few lighting passes done. I was also going to revist the egg and add more geo to the top to break out the mouth opening to help get a better feel so when i fix it up ill go and add more mucusy stuff to it. Ill post more screnes once im able to get it done. Thanks a tone for the feedback and reference!

lincolnhughes

np dude. one more thing, I'd invest some coin in buying the new avp game on pc and taking some print screens. Alot of people ragged on the game, but I fucking loved it. Some of the hallways with alien goo looked soooooo fuckin mint, and being able to get that 3d perspective as you walk through them would totally help.

Zid

Yeah for sure a good idea. Would help to see how they lay out their geo for sure