Hey there. A long time ago I worked on a little level design project I called Sixties (some of you might remember), thread can be found here http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68138&highlight=sixties but as you might guess I put it on ice, Well. It's been gnawing on me ever since so I decided to restructure it and put my new found unreal skills to good use.
Even in the early stages you can really see the potential of this level. It has plenty of style, mood and intrigue. The strongest parts are how you see the monsters ever so slightly or off in the distance, just hinting at what's out there. GENIUS!
Wow. This was more well received than I thought it would be. Thanks guys. Really. Here's some of those shots I promised. As you can see I've not really done much graphics yet, just the super rough essentials.
Bardler: I hear you man. I don't intend to keep it. I'm not a wiz on unreal script yet so my wussiness has kept me away from touching it. I've done some slight reading about the subject and it seems easy enough. I'll try and have it sorted out by the next long video I do
toxic: These effects are the standard UDK ones. Will have to redo them all together at some point but I'm def gonna listen to you. Should be almost 1/3 of what it is here and not that "high".
All others: Cheer's bro's.
Today and yesterday-lunch break I fiddled around with "Crowley" and today I wanted to see if i could take it all the way into UDK before I put to much time into it. Turns out, I can. (Haven't rigged and skinned "organics" in years.)
Expect tons of birds, everywhere! Doing all kinds of crazy shenanigans. I'll give you all some proper art to oogle next time.
Did a brief entry into the darksiders 2 comp which took time away from this but I got some spare time yesterday and decided to do some work on the level. This is what i did.
- Added the electrical wires + birds mockup.
- A first pass on the landscape material. Need to sort it out with my own textures. Currently UDK supplied.
- Added the new design test mockup for the diner sign.
- Reimported the car at a higher detail.
- Added a moon with animated clouds.
- Did a first art and material pass on the wooden fences.
- Messed around with the post settings.
I love the rain and the lighting but the models look a bit unpolished. It still looks amazing considering how early in the development process this is.
how did you do the rain/raindrop splashes? is your rain particles or planes with a panning texture?
Hey.
The rain is a panning texture on intersecting planes. Just like you thought. I plan to change it to cylinders tho.
The splashes are from an effect emitter that spawns meshes. That one is made by epic but i plan to change it out at some point. Either way, if you have udk you can take a look
The windows are made kinda the same. 1 texture with 2 channels panning at different speeds. Third is static. If you want more detailed info just ask and I'll hook you up.
You definitely have a nice atmosphere going on here. I think you could do a little bit more to make it obvious of the path that you should take. The main thing that stuck out to me was that I didn't realize there was a gate that could be opened immediately. Of course you know the direction you would need to take, but those kinds of things are important in a level so a player doesn't get lost.
hey thanks for the info on the rain. i'm doing a sci-fi scene with rain in it, 2 more questions, how did you get to not rain inside the diner and do you have rainsplash actors all over your scene or did you use kismet to make them move with the camera?
i do like your scene so far, its very inspirational
Whoa, Sorry for the late reply guys. Wasn't really checking my own thread after it fell down the pages. Im going to do alot this week so keep your eyes out. Long easter holiday! Gsokol: Most def. Im going to do more with lights and actual objects now and kinda navigate the player better. I think you'll like my next update a ton as I'm working out some logic issues etc. I'll write down everything I've done aswell but I've focused some more on lights, events, player behavior and pathing (I got some very good tips from a really awesome designer).
euclidius: Thanks man. Feel free to throw some crits my way!
nightshade: The rain is on planes and i've positioned the planes so they don't actually intersect the diner. Like this. (I dont have this many planes however)
(I posted this in what are you working on but felt i needed to post something so it's not just text :P)
Looks pretty sweet, but needs more cowbell :poly142:
As I told you before, it's awesome that you're giving some love to the interactive bits. I should start doing that myself, instead of making pointless slideshows. I hope (wink, wink) you will post some detailed breakdowns of your process as you go along.
For sure tea. What would you like to see in particular? I don't know what would be interesting to you guys but I'd def be up for showing you some breakdowns
Alec, Cheers man. Yeah the lowpoly isn't very proper at the moment. It's actually a crunched version of the high poly *cough* xD
Also, put some more polys in the steering wheel of the car. It looks very faceted at the moment, and seeming as it's right in the player's face, it makes sense to make it a bit more rounded.
Yeah Pogo i hear ya bro. It's just a crunched high poly base at the moment. So there's not really and lowpoly asset atm.
A quick test on how to make stitching in Maya. The spline is a bit borked but the technique is sound, just need to iron out a few issues. The plan is to have one stitch by the side and then just update that one and voila. BANG. All the stitches in the car gets auto updated.
I'd like to be able to work on all the stitchings at once ya know. NOt have to reproject them every time. I should make the base of the seat more exciting but really. You'll never see it.
Put a few hours into this sucker yesterday night and this afternoon so the kismet is a little bit iffy in spots. It's basically just a first draft (in fact, i got it available if you guys wanna see the bare essentials!)
Using alot of UDK placeholders for now which will be replaced. Kinda wanted to mock something up quickly. The song is Big sky from Reverend horton heat.
Didn't think about it tbh. As we discussed on MSN it might not be ideal if I want to make it a menu but then again, Why would I want to make it a menu? After all, it's only gonna have a start game button.
I'm gonna give it a go. Thanks man, that's why i come here, cool tricks! If anything it means I could make a higher quality version of the intro for showing you guys.
A behind the scenes look on the environment. I've attached all objects to a box that is animated and looping, thats the one im showing at the end. Since all the assets are equally distanced on a line you never notice the pop. The car is standing perfectly still, never getting animated.
If my mic was working i'd give you a better rundown.
I've done a terrible thing... I didn't realize I'd put UDK on my C: drive... which i formatted yesterday... Sixties levels and intro were on that drive... my goddamn accomplishments from the last few months that I was really proud of are gone. Since it's an SSD i can't do any recovery either.
I've basically lost the map, the kismet, the layouts and the materials... all my settings and matinees. This is what I spent majority of my time on.
At least I have my graphics/sourcefiles intact on another drive but i'm gonna be very bummed out for a very very long time now. Right now I fucking hate myself and I don't think there's anyway to spin this into a positive. It's a tremendous blow.
I have found a older file of the level though but i'd still say around 90% was lost... The art sourcefiles i still got but almost all the udk stuff is gone.
EDIT: I realize I should have backed it up elsewhere, 20/20 hindsight but I didn't think longer than , "eh, udk does autobackups"...
I've learnt alot and I don't want to give up on the project.
Shitty thing is, I just sat down to do a short videotutorial on it as a test.
Just got a working mic and everything.
That's really sucky, @Wahlgren.
But as you say, you didn't lose everything.
As corny as it sounds too, the most valuable thing you have is what you learned while making it. If you wanted to start again, the whole process will be much quicker and more refined
Replies
lol!
It's shaping up great. Love the style you've got aswell. It has the cartoony charm.
Keep it up, I'll be following this for sure.
The intro really reminded me of House of the Dead: Overkill in style.
I'll be keeping an eye on this.
*Subscribed*
could use maybe a little more ambient light for my tatses but that's a personal thing.
:thumbup: I agree
I can't really crit any more now than I have already have over MSN, so It's just praise
Looking great!
Looks great though!
edit: subscribed!
toxic: These effects are the standard UDK ones. Will have to redo them all together at some point but I'm def gonna listen to you. Should be almost 1/3 of what it is here and not that "high".
All others: Cheer's bro's.
Today and yesterday-lunch break I fiddled around with "Crowley" and today I wanted to see if i could take it all the way into UDK before I put to much time into it. Turns out, I can. (Haven't rigged and skinned "organics" in years.)
Expect tons of birds, everywhere! Doing all kinds of crazy shenanigans. I'll give you all some proper art to oogle next time.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F4qh6Eq_ik"]Crow/Raven first pass test. - YouTube[/ame]
- Added the electrical wires + birds mockup.
- A first pass on the landscape material. Need to sort it out with my own textures. Currently UDK supplied.
- Added the new design test mockup for the diner sign.
- Reimported the car at a higher detail.
- Added a moon with animated clouds.
- Did a first art and material pass on the wooden fences.
- Messed around with the post settings.
Random wip images.
The utility pole looks really thick though...can you post a closer shot of it please?
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9odYJF7mhE"]Sixties - 29/03 - WIP - Car interior and slight environment work. - YouTube[/ame]
Looking forward to see some more updates
Hey.
The rain is a panning texture on intersecting planes. Just like you thought. I plan to change it to cylinders tho.
The splashes are from an effect emitter that spawns meshes. That one is made by epic but i plan to change it out at some point. Either way, if you have udk you can take a look
The windows are made kinda the same. 1 texture with 2 channels panning at different speeds. Third is static. If you want more detailed info just ask and I'll hook you up.
You definitely have a nice atmosphere going on here. I think you could do a little bit more to make it obvious of the path that you should take. The main thing that stuck out to me was that I didn't realize there was a gate that could be opened immediately. Of course you know the direction you would need to take, but those kinds of things are important in a level so a player doesn't get lost.
Looking forward to seeing this progress!
i do like your scene so far, its very inspirational
Gsokol: Most def. Im going to do more with lights and actual objects now and kinda navigate the player better. I think you'll like my next update a ton as I'm working out some logic issues etc. I'll write down everything I've done aswell but I've focused some more on lights, events, player behavior and pathing (I got some very good tips from a really awesome designer).
euclidius: Thanks man. Feel free to throw some crits my way!
nightshade: The rain is on planes and i've positioned the planes so they don't actually intersect the diner. Like this. (I dont have this many planes however)
(I posted this in what are you working on but felt i needed to post something so it's not just text :P)
As I told you before, it's awesome that you're giving some love to the interactive bits. I should start doing that myself, instead of making pointless slideshows. I hope (wink, wink) you will post some detailed breakdowns of your process as you go along.
Alec, Cheers man. Yeah the lowpoly isn't very proper at the moment. It's actually a crunched version of the high poly *cough* xD
Edit: I see you just beat me to it
I like this a lot.
There are definitely some Bioshock-esque moments that you are creating, intentional or not
A quick test on how to make stitching in Maya. The spline is a bit borked but the technique is sound, just need to iron out a few issues. The plan is to have one stitch by the side and then just update that one and voila. BANG. All the stitches in the car gets auto updated.
I'd like to be able to work on all the stitchings at once ya know. NOt have to reproject them every time. I should make the base of the seat more exciting but really. You'll never see it.
Using alot of UDK placeholders for now which will be replaced. Kinda wanted to mock something up quickly. The song is Big sky from Reverend horton heat.
(Im not ignoring you guys about the steering wheel, it's just that I haven't done the real low poly yet )
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pVHChJI4-Q"]Sixties - Intro/Menu mockup. - 28/04 - YouTube[/ame]
Sounds from www.freesounds.org (proper list later)
(oh and heres the finished seat, for now.). I'll just photoshop the leather i think.
The seat looks great
You've mentioned that it's running a bit slow on your PC, did you think of rendering the video on a frame-by-frame basis? http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CapturingCinematicsAndGameplay.html
This would get rid of the jerkiness; I did that with my Oasis enviro since it didn't run too well on my old PC.
I'm gonna give it a go. Thanks man, that's why i come here, cool tricks! If anything it means I could make a higher quality version of the intro for showing you guys.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNWXH5HRfnA"]Sixties - Behind the scenes - Intro/Mockup repeating environment. - YouTube[/ame]
A behind the scenes look on the environment. I've attached all objects to a box that is animated and looping, thats the one im showing at the end. Since all the assets are equally distanced on a line you never notice the pop. The car is standing perfectly still, never getting animated.
If my mic was working i'd give you a better rundown.
I've basically lost the map, the kismet, the layouts and the materials... all my settings and matinees. This is what I spent majority of my time on.
At least I have my graphics/sourcefiles intact on another drive but i'm gonna be very bummed out for a very very long time now. Right now I fucking hate myself and I don't think there's anyway to spin this into a positive. It's a tremendous blow.
I have found a older file of the level though but i'd still say around 90% was lost... The art sourcefiles i still got but almost all the udk stuff is gone.
EDIT: I realize I should have backed it up elsewhere, 20/20 hindsight but I didn't think longer than , "eh, udk does autobackups"...
Sure it's lost but you still learned shit load working with it?
Looking forward for a recovery and a new project!
Shitty thing is, I just sat down to do a short videotutorial on it as a test.
Just got a working mic and everything.
That's how i found out.
But as you say, you didn't lose everything.
As corny as it sounds too, the most valuable thing you have is what you learned while making it. If you wanted to start again, the whole process will be much quicker and more refined
I can't wait to see what you do next, regardless!
don't give up this was looking awesome !