[UDK] Small Modular Chapel
polycounter lvl 7
Yup, you guessed it, another church! 
I have a university project to make a modular environment in 3 weeks. I have chosen to do a church (Didn't realise they were so popular until after I started!)
Polycount limit is 15,000.
I just started using Zbrush so please go easy on me if my sculpting isn't up to scratch!
I have 2 weeks left to finish this.
A quick setup in UDK:
Screenshots from Maya:
And my start in Zbrush:
I have a university project to make a modular environment in 3 weeks. I have chosen to do a church (Didn't realise they were so popular until after I started!)
Polycount limit is 15,000.
I just started using Zbrush so please go easy on me if my sculpting isn't up to scratch!
I have 2 weeks left to finish this.A quick setup in UDK:
Screenshots from Maya:
And my start in Zbrush:
Replies
Here are few crits.
Your floor is a bit too high in tri count. You could get a very simmilar outcome by just tiling your texture on a less dense floor and make 2 small meshes of stone slabs that would be intersected with it in random places. That will give you a simmilar result of the stones being pushed up with alot less geometry. Alternatively you could setup some bump offset using a heightmap in the UDK shader.
Also try to think of how you could reuse the texture space with all the stone work and pillars. Sculpting is fun but it requires unique uv space for each pillar/stone structure. A simple tilable texture with the use of multi sub-object materials on different meshes does the job pretty well. Have a look here. This might help you http://www.matroskinworks.com/3d_ruins.html
Would like to see some more
Do you think the tiles look too big? I struggle with scale a lot
Everythings in UDK unwrapped now with the normal maps I have applied.
I am very curious about your workflow from Maya to UDK. A big mistake on my deus ex scene was not doing a proper block out in maya. It always seemed like more work than it needed to be. For example for the arches, when you did the blockout did you just pick one to unwrap and export to udk?
Sorry if it is worded weird.
I think your scene has some really interesting architecture, and I'm excited to see where it goes.
I agree that the tiles on the floor could be a little smaller.
I also think that there could be a little bit more detail on the pews, like little shelves where they'd have bibles, or maybe some dents and cracks from people kicking them/moving them around?
I also think that your edges are a little sharp on some of your columns which is a tiny bit distracting, and I think you could benefit from softening it.
I'm excited to see more!
@biofrost Wow man I'm flattered you like my scene, your Deus Ex piece is in my inspiration folder
I did it in a strange way. I started learning zbrush and made the wall normal. Then I did a semi blockout to see where things needed to be (everything is in the power of 2). Then I made High polys of some things and placed them in the scene to see how it looked. Then I realised the proportions were all of so I redid the scale. When I was happy with everything I imported it all to UDK. I've set up most of the normals in my content browser and just placed a white texture on everything so I can replace it when I make the texture
Sorry that was so long! Hah! Thank you man
@GragGunslinger Thank you, glad you like the architecture, I thought it was bit boring so you've given me hope
@oobersli I understand what you mean and I've planned to add a carpet down the center of the room. I've posted my ref sheets below.
@Alberto Rdrgz I agree that they need something to hold them up, I'll work on it as soon as I get a chance!
I've done the floor texture! Very eye opening
Added the windows in but really thinking of making them more interesting.
Added some detail to the arches with a normal and I've worked on the lighting a bit more!
If you are having trouble scaling things, try plonking a few Ironguard Skeletal Meshes at key points throughout the scene to better judge sizes against humans.
I can't wait to see more.
*Subscribed*
@Alberto Rdrgz Thank you man! I totally agree. I can honestly say the floor has been my biggest problem so far. I will sort it out if I have the time!
Updates, please ignore the hideous arch texture. I've been trying to use an emissive texture with a dominant directional light to get the patterns of the windows on the floor, but I can't get it to work!
With regards to your problem, the Lightmass section on the UDN has some good information on Translucent Shadows.
Although it is not entirely clear...
... Looks like the colour and intensity of the shadows from your windows would be derived from the Diffuse and Opacity values (and not the Emmissive) with the light coming behind it. Make sure that the material is set to Two-Sided and your lighting would have to be baked before you see any effect.
Failing that, you could always create a copy of your window material and assign it as a Light Function on a SpotlightToggleable or SpotlightMovable that would project the effect where you want! (Just make sure to set the "Use as Light Function" to 'on' inside the Mutually Exclusive Usage tab in the material's main Properties.)
EDit: I forgot to mention that this is coming along well!
i owuld either expand this while you are still early into production, or gather better references, and try to make it feel less poorly scaled.
by bad scale i mean things are too chunky, to squat, flat, etc.
@Rick_D Yes I totally agree with what you've said. If I had more time I would totally take this apart and try to use the assets I've made to make something a bit more grand. I'm afraid I only have 2 days left to finish. I have learnt my lesson and need to spend more time in the planning stage. Thanks for taking the time to reply
Everything still feels a bit nasty at the minute. I'm going to fix the ceilings and re-design the upper arches so they're being held up by something. :
[IMG][/img]
Those windows are coming along really nicely
If you were thinking of adding more interest in the scene, perhaps those upper arches could be held up by spiral columns?
This would complement the more square pillars, create variation and would be reletively quick and simple to create (basically a Twist Modifier on a Cylinder in Max?).
If you did this, maybe the pillars holding up the Alter would need to be made round too though, for visual coherence.
@SirCalalot I love that idea, I really wish I had time to implement it. Thanks for saying its a solid piece
@ikblue Thank you
Playing around with lighting:
1. Lighting:
- Get a fill light in there. There should be no full black in a scene with such strong lighting from the windows.
- Speaking of -- make the lighting come exclusively from the windows. Gothic churches were designed with this in mind and it is partially responsible for the haunting feeling of gothic architecture -- replicate this in 3d and use it to your advantage. Use spots coming in at the windows and keep is low key.
2. Scale of detail.
- Make a pass at addressing scale of detail concerns in your scene. The floor panels are pretty massive. I would highly recommend tiling them further.
You're doing good, we want to see you do GREAT!
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/images/paris/notre-dame-cathedral/resized/xti_9828.jpg
Notice how the light falls mostly on the floor and lower parts of the columns. The bounce light subtly lights the rest of the scene. It seems as though you're using point lights for all your lighting. Try switching to spot lights for the key lights (those coming from the windows), use a subtle sky light for your fill, and use some subtle local point lights for some local bounce.
Also! Be sure to pick a direction that the light is coming from and stick to it. It looks like lights coming from all the windows, but really the strong shafts should only come from the side of the building that faces the sun with much much weaker light from the sky coming from the back windows.
@GragGunslinger Thank you, that is so nice of you to say
@Xendance I agree, I'll change this as soon as I can.
@Jarm My god, that is so incredibly helpful I could come and find you IRL and hug you. I think thats why I've been struggling, not having good enough reference images. I will try to implement what you've said when I get the chance, although to be honest I feel like I've reached my limit with this scene and want to move onto something else xD
We believe in you!
To help lift those shadows from full black, you could try changing the Environment Colour (View > World Properties > Lightmass > Environment Colour) to more of a blue colour.
As well as this you might want to try increasing the bounce light intensity around your environment (View > World Properties > Lightmass > Diffuse Boost) to better get the effect that @Jarm was mentioning from just the scene's window lights