Mountain Logging Camp Environment (UDK)
polycounter lvl 5
Hi everyone, this is going to be my first post on here thought I'd get some eyes on and hopefully keep my motivation and momentum on this project not to mention some crit!:)
The idea is a contemporary mountainous logging camp inspired by Alan Wake.
Ive not been done much at the moment. Just doing the hard surfaced pieces and then going to move onto the vegetation.
Im not texturing just now either as going to do this in passes:
- first pass on geo and bakes
- then vegetation (as this will play huge part)
- basic lighting
- basic texturing
- additional set dress
- final texturing
- final lighting/post process
So here is just a couple of assets nothing exciting: (the green highlight is a broken env map btw
)
Here is the hi-res of the excavator that will eventually be used in the scene. Although I think I'll change the scoop at the end to be more of a claw. The low will follow soonish.
The idea is a contemporary mountainous logging camp inspired by Alan Wake.
Ive not been done much at the moment. Just doing the hard surfaced pieces and then going to move onto the vegetation.
Im not texturing just now either as going to do this in passes:
- first pass on geo and bakes
- then vegetation (as this will play huge part)
- basic lighting
- basic texturing
- additional set dress
- final texturing
- final lighting/post process
So here is just a couple of assets nothing exciting: (the green highlight is a broken env map btw
)Here is the hi-res of the excavator that will eventually be used in the scene. Although I think I'll change the scoop at the end to be more of a claw. The low will follow soonish.
Replies
I like the idea of an Alan Wakish (:))scene.
All the bakes and assets seem clean. Dunno if the 2 spotlights on the generator are a seperate mesh, but it could be cool to put some of them on the roof of the building, on a tripod in the forest or even on top of the fences.
It also could be cool to have like some variations for the fences, a more "destroyed" one for example; like that : http://lh5.ggpht.com/_EpkjkRhY_RI/S6raF8f_B7I/AAAAAAAADH0/NFaG1V0gCdE/BundyMarch24a.gif
This is probably some stuff you already thought of but it was just to put my 2 cents in
Can't wait to see this excavator baked
Yeah, I plan on having some more artifical lighting dotted around the place as it'll be more of a night scene.
Defo get some more variation on the wire fences, planning on some placing some tarps as selectal meshes on some too to get some colour and movement in there
So not a huge update:
-Completed small security cabin type thing.
-Blocked in really roughly the whole scene. Still some assets to block in (mainly wooden logs and trees) So excuse some crap geo and the trees are super quickly done with a broken material!
- Quick play with lighting. The final scene will be at dusk, almost night but some sunlight casting long shadows with some rain) but its all very blocky at the mo
Rough lighting in place
Started with the foliage now. Having trouble with the pine branch texture, anyone have any advice how to tackle it?
Been blocking in some basic textures and playing with some simple postprocess.
I'm still working on the fir tree branches, these are proving abit tricky.
Also had some feedback on the lighting being too low contrast and too diffuse, any pointers as lighting is a real weak point for me esp night lighting.
To increase contrast, just turn up the intensity and sharpness of the lights rather than toning the environment down.
I think that the general ambience was good
Ok so had a look at boosting the ambient lighting somewhat. Still could be improved I think but maybe going in the right direction. What do you think?
Got a couple of shrub sized plants done too. Next big ticket is the trees which finding it bit tricky with. Might post a WIP of the branch texture for some advice.
You might want to do a bit of optimising by clipping your mesh to closer follow the silhouette of your texture though. Having empty transparent space on your mesh increases the possibility of Overdraw (the time wasted by the graphics card drawing transparent pixels to a screen as well as the all ones behind it) which can really make a scene chug.
In Maya you can go into the Move Tool options and tick the box 'Preserve UVs' to move your vertices around without affecting the texture.
I hope that helps - keep up the good work!
Now you mention it yeah the fern could be better optimised. I'll have a look at that, I did cut round the texture more on the bush.
i personally would think more about the composition of some of the props, if its a mountainous area it might be good to to have things on abit of a splope, the ground to me seems too flat and industrially developped for what appears to be a make shift base of opperations.... do you know what i mean?
I've had a play with introducting some varying slopes/heights in there, as you are right it wouldn't be flat as I have had it. Might try and push this some more as I'm playing with the scene composition now abit.
So here is my update:
Been playing around with the composition now I have the majority of the assets to a decent level.
The trees are still WIP. Did a quick test with the texture and placement of the branches. Neither of which I'm happy with, so back to the drawing board.
Trying to add some varying heights in the scene so its not all flat ground.
Next tasks are:
Logs
Rocks to break up the ground
low poly of the excavator/JCB log carrier thingy
Distant mountains
Some more ground plants
Small prop/set dress assets