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[UDK] Autumn scene

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polycounter lvl 14
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sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
This is a school assignment and i have three weeks to work on this. How it looks right now i'm aiming for the whole scene in UDK. But then UDK is pretty new stuff for me, so i'll see how far i'll get in that time.
If i don't, i'll still finish it.

Concept done by Dvigatiel, found this over at conceptart.org

2rm09bk.jpg

I've done the layout and modular planning for the house now. It's 20 different pieces, allot of them will use the same highpoly and texture. I'm thinking of starting with it before i go to deep into UDK.

91b7m9.jpg

So far I've a small list over stuff to research and read a bit more about in UDK. I know I've missed some points, so if you think about anything don't hesitate to say it (:
    • Look at what channel in the normal to flip, and then have a prepared network in UDK
    • Volumetric fog
    • Go deeper with lights and lightmass
    • Not that important, but still. Semi translucent material for the pumpkins.

This is my first content list
  • Fence
  • Pile of leafs
  • Grass two different sizes
  • White flowers
  • Pumpkin
  • Two different trees

    Textures
  • Leafs
  • Dried grass
  • Dark dirt

    Blend all this with a material layer on a terrain object in UDK.

Replies

  • Will Faucher
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    Will Faucher polycounter lvl 12
    It might be just me, but that modular house you've built up seems really, really confusing. Almost looks like it will be more work than if you just made it unique.
    Good preparation though, curious to see how this will turn out!
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Yeah, maybe it is. I really want a modular house piece in my folio, so that's half the reason why i do it (: but it's not really that much when you think about how much work it will be to do the house unique.
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    Yeah I'm like Prophecies on this one, the modular plan is really complicated where just 5 to 6 modular objects would suffice to create a small house like that. You can play Lego of course, but for a small portfolio scene like this the very small modular pieces are not of any use. Now if you were doing a complete village..

    The concept is really nice, cant wait to see more of this.
  • Mike Yevin
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    Mike Yevin polycounter lvl 11
    I agree with prophecies, that house looks pretty confusing. I would suggest an approach like this if you are designing a scene with tons of houses, and you wish to "customize" each one so they don't look like duplicates, but for a scene with what looks like 3 houses it seems overkill. Regardless, it looks like you are fully prepared for what your starting and I envy that. I jumped into UDK the wrong way, and I'm paying for it now lol

    I'll be keeping my eye on this to see how it grows, good luck
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    What ever you guys think, i'll do. And that's final :poly142:
  • BlvdNights
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    BlvdNights polycounter lvl 8
    If you want a modular house piece, I'd pick something that's more impressive and something that you can make different kinds of structures and shapes out of.
  • PixelMasher
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    PixelMasher veteran polycounter
    yea for something like a small house trying to make it all modualr and figure everything out takes suuuper long, when you could just model it and slap some tiling textures on there in half the time.

    modular works well to an extent, mostly on large buildings and bigger stuff, making EVERYTHING modular is a common misconception. its really time consuming and if its only going to be used once there is no point really. it becomes valuable when you are planning to make an entire level/city with like 20 pieces.

    if you are set on making it modular, I would make a one big roof piece, a chimney and a building piece. keep in mind the time it takes to make the object, if going modular will save you time thats when you do it, wheras just modeling out that house itself and uving it would probably take less than an hour.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Okey. The pressure got to me :P But i guess you right, i'll reuse some of the pieces directly in maya instead. I'll split it up to windows, door, chimney and roof. Then tile the house walls.

    I'll start the HP work tomorrow (:

    It will save me time. My extreme will for modularity will be put on hold.

    Thx and good noight!
  • paulsvoboda
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    paulsvoboda polycounter lvl 12
    Firstly, I love that concept. Great potential to create a really great scene.
    I agree with everyone on the modularity but no point to re-iterate.

    It looks like your jumping into your high poly next and, take this as only a suggestion, but I would try blocking out the whole scene first and throwing it into UDK. The blockout can be simple shapes with no real definition but it will really give you a sense of what you will need to focus on, what assets you'll need in order to fill out the scene and how you'll go about doing that, a general light setup, scale, etc. I have found it that it really helps. Often times I stress over different details and a blockout really helps me see the bigger picture and lets you see how a lot of times, different things can be "cheated".
    A great thread to read through would be TeaandCigarette's Medieval Cellar or Jason's DemonThrone and notice how, before anything else, they work out a strong lighting setup and composition which then dictates everything later on. And, as always, Adam's Forest Scene is great to look through as well.

    Blocking out can also help you with the decision on how modular you want to be. For instance, the fence can be just one section which is then instanced to eternity in UDK and could then fill things out. I see that there are more houses behind, perhaps simplify the modularity on the house - maybe the whole chimney is one piece, you have one wall piece extruding out from the house with a window and then the rest of the house is one piece and by simply moving these three pieces around you are able to create different houses.

    Looking at the concept, one thing that I find particularly nice is how loose it is and how much freedom that gives you. However, this looseness can also give you some trouble with things like...well, I know what I will put on the left side by the house but what do I do with the right side beyond the house? The concept has a lot of depth which is created by the barely visible mountains, the receding town. What is going on behind what is shown in the concept?

    Anyways, enough out of me. Sorry if I've ranted a bit. I just love this concept and it has me very excited to see what you come up with.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Thx paulsvoboda!

    My first thought on how to start this scene was just that, light and mood. Using just some speed trees and built in foliage.

    But then, i felt if i get stuck with UDK, which is a part of the progress, i would throw away important working days. (I only got like 4 weeks before our internship start, so i'm already pretty much behind) But if the house was done, i could put it as an portfolio piece and then get down to lightning.

    It feels like the house can be reused at least one time. But as far as the little village goes i don't know what to do really. Then their is the mountains. Could i maybe use big alpha plans for that?

    Thx for the feedback (:
  • vofff
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    vofff polycounter lvl 10
    hey the concept looks like paulsvoboda
    http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75196
    Are u guys going to compete each other? Or it just happened.

    You have 4 weeks before your internship starts, I would skip UDK and download the latest Marmoset and start to doodle stuff into your scene of the house you are working on. It would spice up a bit and get some nice lighting. I dont think you have time to add so much stuff like mountains,props and stuff to your scene if you are not willing to work at least 12h per day include weekends.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    I i guess i got some inspiration from paulsvobodas scene. Just coincidence (:

    I don't have 4 weeks until internship ~7 weeks, and the only thing i do atm is working with my portofilo, eat and sleep so you tell me..

    How it looks now, if i run out of time, i'll put the house with some ground and the trees into marmoset and do what ever. But marmoset isn't that good in making big scenes, or well you don't have the same control anyway. And i also want to learn udk.

    The big difference will be the light in UDK. When i'm done with that it's the same process as it would be in marmoset, more or less..

    Anyhow, I've been trying to get the scale and distance right, plus one crash. I'll try to work on the light and fog some now, and post a pic when it's something to look at (:
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Okey, some crashes, a bit of tender yelling from you guys (:poly136:) and a dozens of tutorials later, i have a first light/geo blockout!

    33dl7no.jpg

    I built the whole scene with terrain first. Works really nice with all the materials and foliages and what not. What doesn't work that well is lighting!(!!!!!!!!!!!!) Or didn't i see the magic button?
    I did this base mesh in maya instead and it works like a sharm. Now i need to do a shader so that i can blend the materials. I'm thinking of the shader using advanced vertex blending something something. Could be cool to have anyhow..

    One question that remains, simplest way of placing foliage now?

    So, i have a stuff to add to the content list/to do list.

    • Do backdrop mountains with one color or a very simple texture
    • Do simple tiling tree alpha and diffuse textures to have behind the mesh trees


    Any suggestions you have, any at all (except me not doing this at all thank you) PLEASE tell me! It feels like i need textures and foliage to get the basic fell to this. Or do i?
  • BlvdNights
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    BlvdNights polycounter lvl 8
    There's some minor things off from your screenshot and the concept. I'm not gonna get too picky cause I know it's just a block out and things will get moved and what not, but you really wanna get that negative space of the sky in the top right hand corner in the scene, and there seems to be a lack of as much distance in your scene as there is in the concept.
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    If you use a terrain actor, you can create foliage layers parented to your grass terrain layer.

    If you're using a staticmesh actor, you have two solutions I consider best:

    - Foliage factory volumes (but BPS placement is a hassle)
    - Static mesh mode (that's what I used to place all the grass in my latest scene).

    If you decide to go static mesh mode, model more than one grass clump, like 256*256 units of grass meshes scattered, and it'll be filled in no time in the editor.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    @ BlvdNights Thats acually my HightFog that's covering up my sky. I used one of the skys shiping with UDK. I'll try to get into volumetric fog tomorrow so that i can control it a bit better.

    @ ParoXum Thank you so so much! That's exactly what i'm looking for, one less problem to solve! I'm gonna go with static mesh mode, seems easy enuf!

    THX for the feedback :D Btw, any ideas how i should brighten up my shadows, that's in the lightmass settings right?
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 14
    sltrOlsson wrote: »
    @ BlvdNights Thats acually my HightFog that's covering up my sky. I used one of the skys shiping with UDK. I'll try to get into volumetric fog tomorrow so that i can control it a bit better.

    @ ParoXum Thank you so so much! That's exactly what i'm looking for, one less problem to solve! I'm gonna go with static mesh mode, seems easy enuf!

    THX for the feedback :D Btw, any ideas how i should brighten up my shadows, that's in the lightmass settings right?

    I'm still fiddling with Lightmass myself but I believe you can colour and brighten shadows in Lightmass.

    Although I have never had to do this really because my spherefog / heightfog, whatever (In UDK they got more fog options) always coloured and brightenend my shadows in the final product.

    As for the scene it's looking good, check out the moated grange thread or whatever it's called as it's virtually the same lighting and presentation, should be good inspiration and reference.


    P:S: I love the UT character standing there, keep it in the final product! Somehow, if you want, I dunno, just looks epic, like there's a story behind his pose! >_>;
  • BlvdNights
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    BlvdNights polycounter lvl 8
    sltrOlsson wrote: »
    @ BlvdNights Thats acually my HightFog that's covering up my sky. I used one of the skys shiping with UDK. I'll try to get into volumetric fog tomorrow so that i can control it a bit better.

    @ ParoXum Thank you so so much! That's exactly what i'm looking for, one less problem to solve! I'm gonna go with static mesh mode, seems easy enuf!

    THX for the feedback :D Btw, any ideas how i should brighten up my shadows, that's in the lightmass settings right?

    I was actually referring to how you cut off a few bits off the top of your screenshot. Also use light mass to change the shadow settings, as well as the in the lights themselves.
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    To brighten up the environment you can choose brighter environment colors and increase the environment intensity value in the lightmass options. But it may not be enough.

    If so, a real smooth skylight will help.

    For this particular scene I wouldnt go too strong with the fog since you have to display very far mountains (if we take that you'll place them that far and don't use billboards).

    You can solve things with fog but it tends to wash out your image.

    That's only my opinion of course. :)

    Keep it up
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    ParoXum wrote: »
    To brighten up the environment you can choose brighter environment colors and increase the environment intensity value in the lightmass options. But it may not be enough.

    If so, a real smooth skylight will help.

    For this particular scene I wouldnt go too strong with the fog since you have to display very far mountains (if we take that you'll place them that far and don't use billboards).

    You can solve things with fog but it tends to wash out your image.

    That's only my opinion of course. :)

    Keep it up

    Okey, i'll poke around with the lightmass options tomorrow. Thx :)
    I was actually referring to how you cut off a few bits off the top of your screenshot. Also use light mass to change the shadow settings, as well as the in the lights themselves.

    Haha, yeah sorry, don't know what i read :D And you'r right. I'm still trying to get the right angle, ground hight and placemnt, and placement of other things in general... Is their a way to get like a resolution gate/film gate in maya?
    P:S: I love the UT character standing there, keep it in the final product! Somehow, if you want, I dunno, just looks epic, like there's a story behind his pose! >_>;

    OFC he stays!!! :D
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Okey, i'll call the lights done for now. I need some models to play with.

    I am going to change the ground a bit and make it longer to.

    I've started on the house roof tiles.
    1. One base from Maya
    2. Five fast sculpts in Mudbox
    3. A quick pass in meshLab, from 172k --> 17k
    4. Bake bake bake

    Please tell me what you think! :D

    HighPoly


    2vnqogj.jpg

    259zg3n.jpg

    Lighter shadows and diffrent perspective

    33jo01z.jpg
  • itsmadman
    Loving the shingles (hope i spelled that right) how u going to handle the windows. transparent planes with light shining through them or just textures with lights on them.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Haha shingles? Where? :D I thought i just where going with a emessive texture, an i saw something about displacing (like a meter) the window texture so you get some 3D feel to it. Maybe not necessary..
  • itsmadman
    Yeah EMI s and global illumination is crazy in unreal. Im interested in seeing how your going to make the water reflect them
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    What do you mean? So that the water reflects the env? I'll have to research that :P

    Here's my updated for today.
    1. Maya base
    2. Mudbox sculpt
    3. Bake displacement in mudbox
    4. Offset the displacement in PS
    5. Sculpt with the map in mudbox
    6. In Mudbox, scult over the seams
    7. BAKEE THE FREAKI'N CAAAAAAKE!!!!!
    8. WIN

    PrtScn from marmoset with Diffuse, normal and parallax. Diffuse is W . I . P ! ! !

    23rv9g2.jpg

    The highpoly from Mudbox before three stones and some tile correction

    358thfc.jpg
  • itsmadman
    oh im just saying that the picture has the lights shimmering in the water. I was just wondering how u were going to recreate that.

    I dont know something to think about, The brick im curious to see how they would look with a parallax map
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    I has a parallax applied already.. ;)
  • itsmadman
    oh its hard to tell when your not looking at it while in editor
  • itsmadman
    i wanted to point u to this guys work if you have not already seen it. Gives you a very high bar to shoot for http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76356&goto=nextnewest
  • 100Chihuahuas
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    100Chihuahuas polycounter lvl 7
    Whoops! Itsmadman linked to my post, probably accidentally lol. go here instead
    http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75196
  • itsmadman
    I hav no idea how that happened. thanks
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Yeah, I've seen it (: I saw it, and then two days later found this concept, so in a way i'm inspired by it. It's basically the same light and season i'm aiming for, with the exception that i have a more ambient light..
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Call the normalmap/parallax and diffuse done for these materials. Test in Marmoset.

    2q9xqpy.jpg
  • paulsvoboda
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    paulsvoboda polycounter lvl 12
    Looking pretty good so far. That rock wall texture came out well along with the roof. How do you plan breaking up the tiling of the rock wall?

    Also, one thing I'd definitely recommend is trying to work out the overall environment before getting into the details of the houses/pumpkins/etc. With UDK's lightmass system colours are largely effected by what your diffuse looks like and trees and foliage will begin to have an effect on it.
    Good work so far. Look forward to seeing more.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Thx for the feedback!

    I was thinking of doing a darker moss version of the stones to have at the bottom, then just blending it with vertex colors in UDK.. I have no other idea how to break it up actually. Suggestions is warmly welcome! :D

    I created the house before finishing up the lights and what not as a safety net. So if i'm running out of time, i can still use it as an single portfolio piece. Time pressure is a fact.

    So i'll finish the house and then do one or two ground textures. After that i'll tweak in the lights and change what needs to be changed on the terrain. THEN i'm jumping on foliage and what not!
  • Minos
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    Minos polycounter lvl 16
    The rock texture looks good on renders... but repetitive as hell when tiled. The reason for that is because you have no bricks on the borders, which makes the seams very noticeable. You should never do that.

    Notice how the texture on the right looks better tiled. It's harder to see its seams:
    6162533cc518e04ceb585320ccf21c61e2f59e8.jpg
  • eric.
    Looking better and better sltrOlsson. I really like the roof texture!

    Great technique Minotaur0.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Minotaur0 wrote: »
    The rock texture looks good on renders... but repetitive as hell when tiled. The reason for that is because you have no bricks on the borders, which makes the seams very noticeable. You should never do that.

    Notice how the texture on the right looks better tiled. It's harder to see its seams:
    6162533cc518e04ceb585320ccf21c61e2f59e8.jpg

    You'r right, thx for the feedback! That's whats really making the texture repetitive. This is my first tiling texture done this way. Ofc i have experience doing usual tiling textures, but i guess my common sens in that workflow didn't follow me to this one.

    I put some smaller extra stones in the gap ( i know it's not a real solution. but it's better then nothing). I did the tiles with geometry on top of the roof to cover the seam.

    Sculpted and (test)-baked the door. I'm pretty happy with the style it got.

    Then their's the widows to sculpt. I'm also thinking about doing one more stone sculpt/texture for the chimney. Needed?

    Sorry for some weird wording.. It's freaking 5:19 in the AM over here! :poly127:

    35k3hur.jpg
  • Thegodzero
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    Thegodzero polycounter lvl 18
    That pattern tiles really bad! The art is good but you need to make more medium size rocks and get rocks that overlap on the edges of the texture.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Okidok! When you think about it, it's not that much work to change it. The texture and layer setup is already their. Most of the sculpt can be used to. I'll replace and ad a few more stones tomorrow. Thanks for the crits! :D
  • itsmadman
    Looking good. U can probably make another modular piece to break up the tiling for that stone. thou the stones may not be that easy to see any way, cause the placement of the house in the scene. u should put what u have so far in to the editor with your block in, so u can tell how much of the tiling your going to actually see
  • Thegodzero
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    Thegodzero polycounter lvl 18
    Oh and another great way to break up tiling even more is to put the uvs at a angle. Not something like 45 but like 30.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    itsmadman wrote: »
    Looking good. U can probably make another modular piece to break up the tiling for that stone. thou the stones may not be that easy to see any way, cause the placement of the house in the scene. u should put what u have so far in to the editor with your block in, so u can tell how much of the tiling your going to actually see

    Thx. I decided not to have any modular piece at all on the house. To fit in an other texture is to much of a hustle, got some nasty seams trying to do it last time. I guess you right, would be a good thing to see how much you see, then this should also work as a portfolio piece all by it self.
    Thegodzero wrote: »
    Oh and another great way to break up tiling even more is to put the uvs at a angle. Not something like 45 but like 30.

    Yeah, i have thought about that before, don't know why i haven't used it on this, i'll remember doing it in the future (:
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    New tile layout

    103u83m.jpg
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    The new stones

    15dxgk5.jpg
  • eric.
    Yeah man, looks way better :)

    Keep it up!
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Window sculpted and baked. Looks a bit shitty, but it's a good base.

    Then it's the roof wind plank that is left to do. Then it's texturing baby!

    [IMAGE] Something happened to this tinypic URL :S Don't know what.. It's nt ma textures anyways :P

    al3mzc.jpg
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    Merged new UV's and new baked. Which i think i need to redo >.<

    Textures and the chimney to do. Then it's of to UDK again, and some foliage (:

    egxz5h.jpg
  • kyle.rau
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    kyle.rau polycounter lvl 8
    Looking great and I really enjoyed your sculpts. Subscribed! :)
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