First Full Environmental Scene

TicoTaco

Hey everyone, pretty excited for this one. I have never seen something through to the end, let alone a scene in UDK. I however need this for my art exam, so I will be posting my progress, to get help from (hopefully) everyone here who has something to critique. I drew up a very crappy concept in my sketchpad, I don't have a scanner currently hooked up, so I unfortunately cannot post it right now.

Anyways, my scene is going to be a old fort ruin type place buried into a rock wall, with a porch type thing out front , stairs leading down, and rock brick walls leading down a path lit with torches or some type of lighting.

I am going for a tropical deserted island feel here with maybe sandstone/redrock for the rock walls, and regular stone (grey/greens) for the fort walls. Also I will be using dead grass foliage, and hopefully get some palm trees, and other minor peops.

Here is my blockout so far with normals, and ambient occlusion maps.



Basically where I am at is. Modelling the brick walls (ledges) that will line the pathway towards the fort, and fill in those gaps between the ground, and porch plane.
Model the palm trees, and some ground plants, and other little rocks to fill it in.
Find a colour palette that will compliment over other colour in the environment I hope to achieve.
Then, anything else someone wants to tear apart, and tell me to do differently.

Thanks for looking, and c&c is highly welcome, and anticipated.

samcole

I know the feeling of starting, but not finishing a scene Taco. Good Luck. I've actually started a small project scene of my own for my portfolio. I'll be keeping an eye on this.

TicoTaco

Hey , thanks Samcole for taking interest. Sadly, I was hoping this would have brought in more attention, but I guess I didn't give people much to c&c. I have added in a few more models, and some basic textures (rocks/rockwall).



Maybe this will draw some people in here, really hoping for people to help me make this scene as best as it can be.

Jhburton

Got my interest thats for sure! Kepp going this is interesting!

Jhburton

Just to add, whats up with those weird shadows you're getting on the bricks?

TicoTaco

Thanks JhBurton, I am thinking it is something to do with the AO maps that I have set in the Diffuse textures. I am for sure going to go back and render them out again, and redo the maps for the wall. Really every texture right now is kind of a placeholder so I can get a basic feel of what colours I would like to actually use.

Macattackk

looks good. i guess youre still blocking it out but i feel like those modular bricks leading up to the stairs seem kinda obvious and dont blend into each other that well. the seam part seems kinda muddied and not definitive.

TicoTaco

Macattackk wrote: »

looks good. i guess youre still blocking it out but i feel like those modular bricks leading up to the stairs seem kinda obvious and dont blend into each other that well. the seam part seems kinda muddied and not definitive.

Ya, I didn't notice that seam until you pointed it out, thankyou ! I was thinking about doing another brick wall similar, but with a different brick pattern to break up the repetition, right now that is only one model duplicated to make those walls.

CrackRockSteady

Do you have some reference that you are using for the cliffs? Right now it doesn't read very well as stone, it just looks very lumpy and brown.

As for the rest, it looks alright but there still isn't much to crit at this point.

TicoTaco

I didn't use any reference, no. Should I go back and re sculpt some new ones out? I was looking for a tutorial that helped you make rocks from zspheres, but I couldn't find it, so I took a box into Zbrush, and came out with those (two different models) Then just put a simple stone texture on it.

Thanks for the reply, and critique.

SaferDan

are those rocks modular or is it just one mesh? The texture looks a bit blurry?

TicoTaco

I was thinking the same thing SaferDan. It is two modular pieces, I originally did them for a test to see what they would have looked liked together, and never really went back to make more. Thinking now, I am going to get rid of them, and re-do them with nicer looking meshes, and textures.

ZFerguson

Yeah, rocks are very difficult without any reference. Find some of rocks you're looking for and really study them. You should also check out the polycount wiki, I've been currently working on some rocks and there are some interesting threads I've read such as:

http://wiki.polycount.com/TilingRockWallBeyer
or
http://wiki.polycount.com/ModularBoulderCave?highlight=%28%5CbCategoryEnvironmentModeling%5Cb%29

hope some of these help, but always have some sort of reference out, it's easier to see detail in pictures rather than memory

TicoTaco

Thanks for the links! I have been for the last few hours, doing trial and error with all of these tutorials, the modular cave is new to me though. Hopefully I will have an update with better rocks by night's end.

SaferDan

Yeah just having the two means you would have to have a crazy high texture resolution! Where if they were modular you could make 3 or four and build it using them.

Just to add to ZFerguson's links PhillipK also has an epic tutorial!

http://www.philipk.net/tutorials/modular_rocks/modular_rocks.html

ZFerguson

Great Link SaferDan, I was actually trying to re-find that tutorial, +1 to you for posting it!

/bookmarks for safekeeping.

Darkmaster

Show us the sketch! That will help us critique a block in much better! Also, any reference to help us get a feel for the mood would be great!

TicoTaco

Hey everyone, sorry for the hiatus there. I had to do the other part of my art exam, while slowly picking away at this one.

So here I am sitting with this. I am certainly not done with it, I need to make a few more rock variations , maybe a new tree, and a few more plants. I have tweaked the Post Processing effects, went in blind firing. I wasn't really to sure on what anything did, so I have something some what nice. I also added in a layer fog, that is why the door is slightly blurred, I need to fix this.



Alright, so I am looking for feedback on now how to really push this scene to as realistic as possible. Hopefully that doesn't mean redoing everything lol.

Also, I almost forgot, the rocks.. I redid them for about 3 hours, different approaches, everything. I could not come up with anything that looked better, so I just stuck with a new model I did, but not much better. My exam is due Monday, and I don't feel I have the time to get the rocks down, however I am planning on really ripping this scene apart after exams, and put more time into the models.

Once again, C&C is always welcome, and anticipated.

TicoTaco

Hey again everyone. Kind of a bump, but more so a question about foliage. I need some grass, and other ground plants. I was wondering what is the best way to do plants? Model them out, or planes? and is there any place with a good tutorial on plant building anyone can offer?
Also, this is due tomorrow, anybody got some critique for me
Thanks.

BradleyWascher

My advice would be to add a different colored texture to the door, or at least if the door is also stone a slight color variation. Also remember environments that tell a story are the best so try and play that up. Maybe some signs of a battle, or possible some treasure chests and gold that were being stolen and the thieves ran off in a hurry as they heard you approach. Its a good start just keep at it

TicoTaco

It does blend pretty badly, thankyou! I know what you're saying, I have been thinking about adding a wrecked shipped ( row boat type, not full on pirate ) to the shoreline so the whole scene isn't filled up with just foliage. I also have some fire emitters I created, I am just having trouble finding how to fit them in. I also think the flame emitters would give a better, more interesting lighting set-up.

Thanks again for the replies guys!

z0ltan

Right now you have a lot of large geometry detail, and little to no medium and small detail. I think adding some different sized rocks towards the base of the cliffs would add to the scene and also give you an opportunity to break up the ground texture. That along with some variation to the ground texture blending should help make the scene more interesting.