HandPainted Sci-fi scene in UDK.

Mazvix · Mar 2010

Hello everyone,

This is what I have been working on, I decided it is time to bring it out from the dark. It is based off a concept from Feng Zhu.

The spec is temporarily at the moment. I didn't want to add much details for close up, so I am posting it here for crits in terms of camera angle only. I do not see a point in putting extra work that might not get seen, been doing that a lot lately... You can say I learned from my past experiences.

The aim for this project was to practice modularity and lighting in UDK. Logos or letters can all be subject to change depending on the crits. I will also post the separate pieces for a texture close up later. Tell me what you think and please be honest!

thanks

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3108540/WoW%20Gilneas/MarkAbadier_Scifi1.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3108540/WoW%20Gilneas/MarkAbadier_Scifi2.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3108540/WoW%20Gilneas/MarkAbadier_Scifi3.jpg

Unlit version:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3108540/WoW%20Gilneas/MarkAbadier_Scifi4.jpg

I have tried to give you an idea for the highpoly but I know they suck at the moment. 3ds Max kept crashing on me claiming not enough memory so I got what I can

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3108540/WoW%20Gilneas/Hp.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3108540/WoW%20Gilneas/Hp2.jpg

EDIT: I still haven't added post process or fog.

man_o_mule · Mar 2010

that is sick. really liking the colors and lighting. surprised it's all grey when the finished result is so colorful. No crits from me. How long did this take you?

Mazvix · Mar 2010

Hey man,

thanks

it took about 2 and half weeks on and off. It was my intention to let the lighting do all the work which is why I kept the color pallete neutral as you saw in the unlit.

Jeremy Lindstrom · Mar 2010

too many 7's...

shinobix · Mar 2010

Lookin good! I was contemplating building that exact same scene when I was looking at Feng's website. haha. Beat me to it I guess!

Mazvix · Mar 2010

hehe, ya it looked fun to do

I am still waiting for more feed back whether the lighting is working or maybe do sun light to show off the details? Not sure.

shinobix · Mar 2010

I like the colour scheme you've gone with for the lighting. It's got a lot of violet hughes to it. You don't see that too often, makes it feel more spacey.

mathes · Mar 2010

Nice and clean, well done.

As far as lighting and composition goes, maybe do something with the hole. Could add a steam/fog layer or greatly reduce the lighting that bleeds down to make the center piece pop out even more.

ScoobyDoofus · Mar 2010

Seems a bit odd to me that you've titled this "HandPainted" yet I don't really see that in evidence from the shots, particularly the unlit shot. Also, by using normal mapping you've diminished the effect handpainting would have since your lighting information is more about how the normals respond to your lights than what you've illustrated in your textures. Speaking of how the normals respond to your lights...it looks to me like some of your normals may have the Y axis inverted and are shading incorrectly as a result.

yiannisk · Mar 2010

hehe it reminds me one of my first sci-fi scenes

i used to do only hand painted style back then.

Looks good man although too clean.

You can also try to add more painterly feel to it by giving some variation on the grey.
A larger noise level perhaps.

How large can this scene possible be and it is crashing?

Something else might be your reason. Which version are you using?
How much memory you have? what texture format you are using on the viewports?
Have you enabled hardware shaders?

Vailias · Mar 2010

I'm with scoob here.
This COULD go hand painted, or it could just be unfinished.
Also what are you planning to do with the normal maps and high poly? Are they integral to your end shader setup, or are you just doing it that way because stuff in unreal tends to have normal maps?

IN a lot of ways the bloom and soft falloff of the lighting on the objects is working against the handpainted theme.

Mazvix · Mar 2010

Hey guys,

thanks for the feedback, it really helped.

First off the handpainted issue: since this is still a WIP I created the textures and kept them half finished as you saw. Examples I took starcraft 2 and ME2 for that super clean monotone look. Because when I worked on Unearthly challenge 09, I realized a lot of details and hardwork gets lost within the lighting especially if it is a beauty shot. If you can run around this as if it were to be a game, things would be different.
Since all this was done on purpose, and I wanted this to look like scifi, I depended on the specs and normals. If I were to say add color variations and small details I do not think you would see a HUGE difference in the renders. Unless offcourse I dim down the brightness of the lights and take a complete approach towards it. For anything to look handpainted you need a universal ambient light to show texture work from everyside, like in wow or diablo.

As for the Normal maps: I had to increase their intensity by using vectorx3 in unreal nodes because Lightmass flattens a lot of things out. I used xNormal to bake all my normal maps so I know they should be correct. If they look off in the renders I beleive it could be the use of black lines that makes it hard for you to distinguish where it meets the normal map lines. I will either take the color out or grey it out more and see.

I am using max 2010 and whenever I am using spot light with shadows plus skylight and shadows it says not enough memory to render out Raytrace shadows. I am sure I will find a way around it.

Edit: @Scooby: you are correct in what you said but even if it looks a bit realistic-it is still made by hand...No one said doing handpainted and normals dont mix a lot of companies are doing that nowadays. But as I mentioned above In order for this to prolly look more handpainted I will have to minimize the lights effect on the scene/ increase skylight intensity. Or just go ahead and make the light coming from the ceiling so it lights everything and you can actually see something. I have played the sc2 beta- I have seen the models upclose they are made by hand, small grunge brushes and diff color pallete with normals and spec doing the rest. I will wait and see either more feed back or what I come up with.

Thanks again for your time

Mazvix · Mar 2010

Update:

This is basically still a WIP. So far this is my new base layer and from there I am working on different color variations so objects are ready easily then from there go into medium- finer detail then into Polishing phase.

As for the lighting I will keep the glow feel to the light source but I am thinking of decreasing its influence and actually have lights on the ceiling to show off the entire room with all the work that I did. C&c are welcome

Mazvix · Apr 2010

Hello guys,

I am about 98% done with this. I still need fog/vapor VFX and DOF/Post processing. Here are the higher res images. C&C are welcome.

roosterMAP · Apr 2010

nice job! floor tiles remind me of system shock 2 meets tetris. lol

vcortis · Apr 2010

Hey I'm liking this a lot so far, the only thing that stands out ot me right now is you have a pretty nasty seam on your floor walkway on the left and right side in your last lit picture. It looks like it might have something to do with the normals... not sure though.

My other crit would e the specular on the materials... I'm not sure if you've done this yet, but I would assume that the majority of this scene is metal. However a lot of the bigger panels and a few of the smaller objects are really coming off as plastic.

Metal has a lot more variation. Even very new/smooth metal will have slight scratches on it and small blotches of discoloration. Things are just a tad bit too clean and perfect looking at the moment, which even for SCI-Fi is a bit much. During construction of this they were bound to bang things around slightly. Not to mention if this thing was used there would be a little bit of grime build up.

Mazvix · Apr 2010

Hey guys,

thanks for your honest critiques. I am well aware of the things you mentioned: the floor and offcourse the spec. I used the diffuse for the spec for a quickie as you can say. Had a job application so tried to get this out the door as fast as possible.

In the next few days I will fix everything. I already have a spec file just never got around to actually applying it. I thank you guys again for being honest and helping me towards improving myself!

crazyfingers · Apr 2010

I'm REALLY diggin' this. This looks like it could go right into a starcaft MMO, simple and effective. The central point of interest came out great, in fact i think you should draw more attention to it, maybe throw a bit more yellow lighting in the middle. The walkways also match the walls a bit much, maybe darken them a bit? give the scene more flow?

Top of the room also feels a bit empty, maybe some simple pipes coming out towards the top of the walls going up? Doesn't have to be fancy, just to fill out the scene and extend the ominous vertical detailing you have going downward. But at this point i'm just nit picking. Good stuff!

One last thing! The room looks a bit too symetrical, especially with the repeated emblem on the walls, maybe consider having the emblem just 2 times, and a touch of unique detailing to either side of the room would go a long way.

natetheartist · Apr 2010

looks just like any given part of Mass Effect (1)

duxun · Apr 2010

loving this mark . i like this alot...

Ged · Apr 2010

really nice well done, looking forward to the finishing touches

Mazvix · Apr 2010

Hey guys,

Thank you so much for the crits! It helped a lot...I took this scene to a totally new level, you can say I wanted to challenge myself. I am calling it done and polished, going to update my website now. Tell me whatcha think!

Enjoy.

Ged · Apr 2010

woah pretty intensely detailed with all the little glowy bits but its all good, nice work

poopinmymouth · Apr 2010

Really nice feel to it, the colors are warm and gooey.

ZacD · Apr 2010

I'd replace the cameras with something else, they really don't fit, maybe make them into lazer guns?

OrganizedChaos · Apr 2010

Hey, great job. I love how this has such a unique almost toyish feel to it. Like Buzz Lightyear could come running in or something.

vcortis · Apr 2010

Hey man this turned out great! The lighting is just awesome and you did a great job of adding in those little details and improving the metal textures.

I do however have two crits for you. Which is exactly what you wanted to hear right!? Good

.

1. The yellow decals (spaceship with circles) have a little too much of a 3-d feel to them. The white highlight outlining the decal is being read by me as very noisy. I wonder if it'd just be better if it lay flat against the wall instead of having a slight bump to it. (make it more like your 5s)

2. Your exit door/ladder area is CRAZY disproportionate. The camera on that same wall is bigger than the door! Even with some perspective going on they just seem crazy small unless this is some sort of Alien Spaceship where midgets run the joint.

You need to bring those in the foreground and scale them up until things match correctly. For instance your caution sign on the ground should be smaller than a door if you are going to read it as you walk over it. Then drag it back to where it was.

If it doesn't fit there then just get rid of it and move it to a different spot.

Hope that helps man. It's looking awesome!

Pedro Amorim · Apr 2010

This is very cool, i like it alot

Reminds me of mass effect

Mazvix · Apr 2010

Hey guys!

Thanks for all your kind words, the hard work really pays off when I get your support.

@Vctoris- thanks! You are right on the crits, I can't beleive I had family look at it and still no one noticed it, and I have been stairing at it for a while so I got used to it lols. *ashamed* As much as this hurts me from the inside going back to fix it, It will pay off. Thanks again man, keep me in check yo :P

The emblem compared to the 5 is different because the normal map is inverted so it looks carved inside the metal but It looks like I have to flip it so it looks less noisy and more clean. I will play around with it.

It is a good thing you caught me though before I was about to apply to blizzard rofl.
I want to thank everyone again for their support and crits. I will go ahead now and fix everything

Orb · Apr 2010

nice work! i realy love that purp/yellow lightning.
The only thing that dont fit imo, if the very specularish/bumpy yellow logo, maybe something more subtle. And the "no smoking" logo looks too big for the scene scale.

vcortis · Apr 2010

Hey Mazvix, no problem the same thing happens to me all the time. That's really why polycount is so important, especially for people trying to find a job. I really dig your work, you have an awesome style and got me more into the hand-painting stuff myself.

Good luck with your job hunt, let me know how it goes!

Mazvix · Apr 2010

@Orb: thanks dude, I appreciate your crits. It is a good thing you guys respond quick before I do the final bake- I agree on the logo, I took the normal map off just kept it as a paint decal, plain and simple. and the No smoking sign ill scale it down since I have fixed everything now. I will definately change it up!

@Vctoris: I am glad polycount is sooo great

I learn so much from you guys all the time and will never stop learning. I want to thank everyone and you for giving me a wake up call on these tiny bits that I need to fix in my work. I hope to keep growing with everyone here and be able to give as much back as I receive

yiannisk · Apr 2010

yeah i would agree the cameras look too much 90's and also the non smoking sign doesn't look all that great. a couple of things others mentioned,

Overall i think you're heading the right way!

keep it up

HandPainted Sci-fi scene in UDK.

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