[UDK ] Sci-Fi Facility WIP [first post]

reaxion

Hey Polycount,

Finally my first post. Short intro, I'm in my last year of college studying Game Development but find myself focusing most of my time on environment art related tasks.

This is a scene in UDK that I am working on , trying to make each environment I work on count as I complete this course in April. Hope to work eventually in teh games industry as an environment artist and am here to get there.

I did this scene using modular assets and 1x2048 texture for the main assets so far and 1x512 for the signage. 2 materials in total. This was completed in 2 days.

Thanks :thumbup:

Oniram

i think overall the execution of this is good. especially for 2 days, but you really need to focus on lighting now. everything is pretty dark in the scene, and you should try to find a balance of light and dark.

take a look at this thread and watch how the scene progresses.

snake85027

I think the scale of the moon is way to large, if the moon was really that close wouldn't the scene be a 1000 times brighter? move the placement back farther.

PixelMasher

try to avoid the sereotypical scifi cameron blue for night, it worked in aliens, but most of the time it looks overpowering. a subtle cooler tone for your ambiet would be better and allow all those scifi lights to blend color together to make a more appealing image.

SirCalalot

This is looking pretty good. The art style reminds me of the original Perfect Dark for the N64

Constructive criticism:
The scene is looking a bit bare at the moment and the real-world purpose of the area is unclear. Is this a civilian space, or Military?
You could try applying some variation to the space using decals or vertex-painting.

I noticed that the planets/moons in the sky are polygon mesh spheres as the jagged edges are a give-away. Perhaps replacing these with a single plane and an alpha-masked texture would not only look more crisp and round, but also free up a lot of unnecessary polygons. The objects should be too far away to notice how spherical they are anyway.

Lastly, as Oniram mentioned the lighting is a bit too dark and certain aspects such as the Emissive strips need to be emphasised more. I think I speak for many when I say that lighting is 60% of what makes a scene look great.

Keep us updated, I love the style so far

reaxion

Alright I'm done some classes for the week and and I'm going to be updating some stuff over the next couple days. Thanks for the replys so far, very motivating.


Oniram: I added a few more lights in this update trying to blend the colors more

snake85027: Yes i totally agree, I had jsut finished Melancholia and it had rubbed off a bit too much . I moved the moons/planet back

PixelMasher: the Aliens comment speaks volumes to me thanks. I desaturated the main DirectionalLight a bit in this update. Am going to be doing a final lighting pass for this environemnt when the final props are placed and will de-Cameron the lighting. Thanks man.

SirCalalot: this is a science/research facility, not military but would be light armed security present. I added some taller structures hoping to hint that scientists live/work in this facility which features a pretty strong emissive strip. Would like some comments on the emissives in general as well. too strong/weak /pointless. Glad you like the style , PD64 was good times


Applying Decals/Vertex painting I havent learned yet but have sifted through some tutorials, I understand it but have not yet applied it to my work.

Thanks.

some updates:

SirCalalot

That's looking wonderful - the scene is really starting to have some character

Are there plans to grunge the area up a bit? Or are you going for a clean look?

reaxion

SirCalalot: im going going for a cleaner look. Am going to be blending in normals generated outta crazy bump tonight to see how that looks.

messing with DOF:


some maps:

Jessica Dinh

The lighting is a great improvement from the first post! I like the space too, it's well designed.

locater16

Looking good, but looking at the pictures makes my mind desperately want those ultra bright gold glow strips to be casting light onto the scene.

reaxion

Jessica Dinh: Thanks for the comments. Also.. the the environment concept paintings in your portfolio are sweet!

locater16: i see what you mean, I will attempt a version soon with a more Deux:Ex-y lighting scenario where the gold glow is more dominant.

JohnnyCrespo

Maybe try using the Night Sky setup UDK has to give it a bit more realism and more mood. Looking good though.