Sci Fi Scene CE3

theonebutcher

Hi Guys,

Ive been working on a sci fi scene based off a concept by Razor B im going to use the CryENGINE sdk to render it. This is one a few proejcts im working on to replace old portoflio content.

Here is the concept:



Here is the blockout so far:


Ive started work on some of the materials for the scene here are some grabs of the material previews. Ill try and post some texture flats later on.

Wall Panels:



Trims:



Any critique would be awesome as this will be going into my folio if it turns out well.

Cheers for taking a look.

ae.

Hey man nice start the textures looks nice, if i were you i would add a little bit more wear and tear on them, but it seems your going for a cleaner/sleeker looks so thats fine.

also i think you have the proportions of the level off with the character, if this was ingame the character would be a little bit smaller so he wouldn't hit his head coming in and out of the room.

Keep up the good job man cant wait to see this finished!

theonebutcher

Ah cheers man, had another look at my max scene and you're right the scale is a little off, it looks like the ceiling height is out a bit. Going to sort that out before the unwrapping starts. Thanks for taking a look!

e-freak

I think the scene is overall too small. I'd feel very uncomfortable going through that door as it looks right now. Might be just the perspective. What I usually do is get the original concept-art's FoV and scale and try to match a 3D Model of mine in there as a scale reference.

theonebutcher

@ae and e-freak Thanks for the feedback Ive had a look at changing the scales of the objects in the scene. I think there was a scaling issue as well as a difference in the FOV. Ive made some changes and got the blockout into the SDK so I can see how it will look.

Here is a shot of the scene in the SDK:


Let me know what you think of the changes.
I have started getting some of this stuff unwrapped and into the engine ill post up some progress shots and some flats in a while.

Cheers

[HP]

Will be keeping an eye on this one for sure! Good luck, shapping up to be awesome!

Prtofdacrowd

[HP] wrote: »

Will be keeping an eye on this one for sure! Good luck, shapping up to be awesome!

Ditto

theonebutcher

@HP and Prtofdacrowd, thanks for looking!

Right done some more work on the scene today. Got some of the objects unwrapped and into the engine. Ive set som of them up to check them for errors etc.

Here are a couple of Screen Grabs:





Going to post some updated texture flats asap.


Sorry about the image barrage!

Going to get on with making the remaining textures for the scene over the next week and then get onto unwrapping the remaining meshes and then start setting it all up in the SDK.



Cheers

PogoP

Oooh I checked this out yesterday, didn't realise it was you dude! Lookin' good so far, keep it up

theonebutcher

Cheers mate! going to get some more progress up soon, Ill post some updated texture flats tommorow. Hope you are well buddy!

theonebutcher

Ive been looking at some of the textures and made some minor changes, here are the texture flats to have a look at:
















I have also been working on a new material to be used on the wall by the door and the smaller sections of panelling. I think the spec might need some more work so ill address that later.

Here is a screengrab of the new material.






I am moving on to the floor material and starting to set the meshes up within the engine now.

Any feedback appretiated

Cheers

theonebutcher

Ive started getting all the meshes unwrapped and the materials that are finished applied.

Here is a new Screengrab of the scene:




Any feedback appretiated.

Cheers

Wonkey

The door still feels wrong to me. It almost seems like the hallway should be longer than it is, even in the concept.

Iciban

how did you make the normals? with crazy bump or did you have a higher res and you baked it.

theonebutcher

@ wonkey: yeah the doorway has been a bit of a pain. What do you think is the door too tall or too wide? In the scene I mean, I've tried making the door taller but if its made much bigger it starts to deviate from the concept a lot and also throws other scales. Any suggestions would be appretiated!

@ Iciban: a great deal of the normals have been created using nDo2, this is my first time in using it this way for a scene. I never got on with crazybump tbh. nDo is pretty cool I've found so far!

Cheers for taking a look guys!

theonebutcher

Ive imported the majority of the meshes and started looking into the lighting. Some of the meshes need smoothing groups sorting. Going to move onto getting the remaining materials completed.

Here is an updated screengrab:



I was having a read about iradiance volumes in the SDK and I had a go at setting one up. Though once setup I couldnt get any shadows working? if anyone knows why this might be I would appretiate some help!

Cheers again

Ark

The Irradiance volume doesn't support shadow casting lights.
http://freesdk.crydev.net/display/SDKDOC2/Irradiance+Volumes

e-freak

Any special reasons you want to use an irradiance volume? I think this scene should work just fine with a standard vis-area to block the ToD system out.

theonebutcher

@ ark: cheers man, was looking at that earlier and musnt have seen where it says it doesn't support shadows. being blind! That will teach me skim read stuff!

@e-freak: I was just attempting something different and having a play round but it doesn't seem fit for purpose at all. Are there any engine feature I might be overlooking or you might consider using for a scene like this?

Cheers for taking the time to have a gander, and thanks for taking the time to reply!

Ark

One way you you could get the same effect that the Irradiance volume tries to recreate, the colour bleeding, is to use the sun to light the scene and use the GI option.

Another would be to use manually placed bounced lights, just be careful not have a lot of them overlapping has this eats up fillrate.

I don't think your textures are that strongly saturated that you'd get a lot of colour bleeding. The holographic displays might be a different story.

e-freak

not sure if i'm mixing this up, but I think GI (light bouncing) always works. The important thing is to use a vis area to block out the sunlight, otherwise there will always be glitches in the lighting (if you don't want any sunlight in the scene).

theonebutcher

@ Ark: Cheers for replying! I think im going to use placed bounced lights, I agree I think that the holo signs will make a huge difference in the lighting Im thinking of giving an environment cubmemap a go to see if it adds anything dont think anything has the spec to really show up though.

At the moment im trying to work out how many texture sheets i need to produce to finish the scene off including decals etc. Im planning on using a few decals to add some grime in places and wall signage etc. trying to get as many assets as possible per sheet without compromising on quality.

Ill post some more progress later. Going to try and get another map and few objects completed today!

theonebutcher

@e-freak: cheers, im using a vis area the results when I wasnt were aweful! all sorted now though! cheers again!

theonebutcher

So ive got anotehr material finished and setup now, also go another 3 assets unwrapped and in the scene.

Here is the new floor material:



Here is the floor material applied to the mesh:



Here is an update of the scene:



Again any comments appretiated

Cheers

theonebutcher

Here are the texture flats for the floor section and additional meshes incase anyone wanted a look.







If anyone has an Crits or comments it would be awesome as this will hopefully be going into my portoflio.

Cheers again for looking!

Clarky

This is most excellent, I'd perhaps argue that the specular details are too fine when in direct comparison to the concept. Perhaps widen some of those scratches up. Exaggerate things a bit more towards the finished piece.

Otherwise I really like the details so far

Matt.

theonebutcher

Cheers mate! thanks for the crits and feedback!

Here is a new material that being used for the last piece of flooring and soon for the door frame.




And a new render of the mehs with new material:



Any feedback or crits appretiated!

Cheers again.

theonebutcher

Hi Guys,

Been a bit busy so not a huge amount of progress! I have updated the latest floor material however. The staining on the floor looked rubbish so its been changed and some additional specular details have been added.



I have also taken some time to take a step back from the project have another read through the posts and review the critique given so far. I still dont know how I feel about the scale of the scene and the door way in relation to the human scae ref. What is everyone elses opinion of the scenes scale?

I am also at a point where any crits will be really helpful so if anyone has any crits or comments on the scene I would love to hear them!

Cheers!

PogoP

It's a little hard to tell the scale at the moment because there is nothing we as humans can relate to (not a bad thing, its early days). When there are some consoles/pipes in there, I think it'll start to get grounded a little more.

Are you using an environment map at the moment? Might be nice to get it looking really shiny. Try increasing the specular slightly and tightening the spec power to give it that extra 'sheen'.

One of my main criticisms is composition of the scene. Whilst the assets are nice, the scene itself looks a little 'flat' at the moment, like an old Half-life level. Looks more like its made of brushes than individual assets.

Try making some modular pieces and connecting those up. Perhaps some flat wall pieces with little shape variation, and then some pillars coming down. Then you could change some of the flat wall pieces for more detailed sections like with pipes or panels alongside the wall, for a bit of variation.

Perhaps work on the lighting a bit more too. Decide on a distinct direction you want to take this. Think about where the scene is set. In the concept, there is a slightly fog/mist, and the lighting is very moody and sort of creepy. Perhaps a Dead Space vibe would be good here, more along the lines of horror? Making some light models would help to define the lighting.

I know its a lot of criticisms but they're all constructive to really help make this scene shine, it has a lot of potential. Nice high poly-low poly baking!

Daaaave

Some awesome work dude, I've done a Paintover of a couple of my ideas which I think would add to the scene.
I think you need to break up some of the straight lines, if just with some colour. The yell tips on the base of the wall pillars, would break up some of the floor/wall lines as well as giving variety.
you could add a hint of a pillar on the right wall as well. given that the pillars are quite straight it seems odd that these pillars are only on 1 wall.
The small lights could have some emissive lighting, but also there's some wall sections without light, although this would be dull if everywhere I think you need to consider where these tiles are placed.
I'd suggest adding a few more points of interest to the scene, the plane on the wall could be a poster/propaganda/advert/game hint etc.
There's some alignment issues between some of the horizontal banding on the wall tiles towards the door at the top

Daaaave

Lol. just read liam's reply. and agree with everything he said xD

theonebutcher

Cheers for all the crits guys! im making a list of stuff to change! thanks again for all the crits! Keep em coming!!!!

theonebutcher

Hi Guys,

Cheers again for the crits ive been working on some of the pointers given. Ive had another look at the lighting and addressed some issues with exisiting materials.

I have also had a look at the other end of the coridoor thats not in the concept.

Here are the updated screengrabs:





And here are the updated materials:





Cheers again for looking and if anyone has any crits or feedback I would love to hear them!

Tokoya

I'm sure I don't need to tell you this but your mats are amazing, you really have these metal panels down.

how do you feel about working with CE3 so far??

Ark

The Fog looks a bit to dense at the minute, it's robbing your scene of contrast.
Right now theres no gradation in your shading, once you have the glowing panels in place you could add some blue lights to break up the uniform lighting along the hallway.
Another idea would be to change the colour of the light you have coming from the right side to also break up the shading, maybe a more saturated orange to compliment the blue in the hallway.

Jessica Dinh

Very nice spec maps! x] I also agree the fog might be a little heavy. In the concept, the colors are much more saturated and vibrant than what you have now. How are you planning to address that?

theonebutcher

Double post sorry!!!

theonebutcher

@Tokoya: Thanks so much man! Im still seeing things I feel could improve on them, but they are the best of many many iterations! I love CE3 so far man, love the workflow for it and as a Max user I found the UI was easier to pickup than other engines! Thanks for looking and the feedback!

@Ark: Thanks for taking the time to crit dude, the fog is a bit OTT at the moment and needs to be reduced slightly im going to spend some more time bringing this under control. I like the idea of Orange lights and the smaller blue ones for the walls. Ill give these a try and post an update later mate! Thanks again!

@Jessica Dinh: Thanks re the specs, they are something ive always found really difficult and still feel as though I could improve on them. Im going to have a look at the fog and try and tone it down, regarding the saturation issues im not sure about how to address them, I think the concept get a gret deal of its vibrancy from the lighting so I think ill try starting to sort it from there.

Thanks again for looking guys! If anyone else has crits and feedback the more the better! really want to make this a scene I can be proud of!

Cheers!

theonebutcher

Also I have this real urge to give this a system shock 2 theme?

What do you guys think??

PixelMasher

instead of standard fog, it would be awesome to get some planes with a slightly animated fog texture, thta fade out the closer you get. dead space used these on their lights and in hallways for glows and fog that really add some wicked atmosphere without covering the whole scene in standard fog.

really great for adding depth and could work well here. I would imagine there are some already in cry engine or a shader that uses depth biased alpha somewhere to be found.

Iciban

wow looking good so far. be sweet if you add some broken pipes, something to give the piece more life. is Nod2 a plugin or a program. Looks amazing what it can do

ageshero

Oh my gosh! THAT IS AMAZING, uugghh. i want to be able to do this. lol

theonebutcher

@PixelMasher: thanks for the advice, Im going to look into this I think your right it will definatly look better than the current fog as I feel it doesnt make sense. I think I need more localised instances of fog as you say. Thanks for the crits appretiated man!

@Iciban: Cheers for the crits! Im currently looking at what kind of items I can add to make the scene look more lived in and have more detail im thinking maybe some medical supplies on a trolley or something like that. nDo2 is really powerful man, there is a big thread on here going somewhere check it out. Its current form is an app that works in conjuction with Photoshop, I really love it.

@ageshero: Cheers for the comments man, its nice to think some likes what im making! thanks for looking!

Thanks again for the comments and Crits guys!

Keep em coming, im going to have some more progress later hopefully as Ive made some changes to the lighting etc.

Cheers

theonebutcher

So more progress, ive tried implementing some feedback that you guys gave in your crits.

-Ive tried changing the light colour a little to some deeper blues and added some orange to the main light.

-Ive reduced the global fog level as it was overly harsh.

-Ive added some ground fog to the environment that fades dependant on camera position, this particle system ships with SDK.

Here are the updated grabs:




Anymore crits or feedback appretiated as they are really helping!

Cheers again.

Computron

use imgur.com instead of photobucket please.

SgtNasty

Ya, imgur would be good, I can't see any of the images right now.

theonebutcher

Sorry guys! Just in the process of re-uploading all the images and then ill update my posts. Didnt realise there was a bandwidth limit with photobucket!

Cheers!

theonebutcher

Right then all the images should be working again now guys, sorry about that!

Any crits or comments appretiated!

Cheers

Iciban

thanks, i'll be sure to check out nDo2.
What kind of theme are you going for? If your going for a more scary look. Something like dead space would be cool. Darker, some blood stains, broken pipes. Stuff like that

Goeddy

i dont know if this was mentionened here before, but the whole thing looks kinda "flat" to me.
maby crank up the spec by about 100%, this would get some more volume in here.
like that render of the wall/floor with the footprints on it, that one +30% spec and normal intensity should bring this to life a bit more.
right now it looks nearly like a max render, and i know CE3 can do a lot better than this :P

theonebutcher

@Iciban: I think im going to go with a System Shock theme! so horror really, dont think I want to go as dark as Dead space though. Im currently making some new versions of system shock 2 assets to add to the scene.

@Goeddy cheers the crit man, ive made some alterations to the materials ive attached some updated screens so let me know what you think!

Here are the updated grabs, ill have some new materials and updated meshes to post up later.






Again any crits please let me know.