The City's Secret

JValencia · Nov 2010

Wasn't going to post this until it was fully finished in December, but hell, I couldn't resist =p

Concept by Shaddy Safadi.
Inspiration from Nichol Normans work in the game version.

Nov 14
Update:

My current priority is to get rid of the BSP walls and fix the proportions(their currently all over the place).

Having trouble with the lighting too =/

Placeholder:
-Vegetation
-BSP walls
-Unreal Meshes roof
-Vertex Paint (walls and columns)
-Wood
-Statue

Any ideas on how to switch this scene up a bit?

I don't want to reproduce it exactly like in the game (going to switch up the statue a bit, for one).

I welcome any suggestions and critiques! (except from you, Ryan Benno. Yoko and I know your watching)

Tear it apart, Polycount.

uneditablepoly · Nov 2010

It's somewhat due to the difference of perspective, but the concept definitely feels more open and daunting. Like you said, you don't want to reproduce it exactly, but I definitely like the vastness present in the concept. One thing I'd do to bring that into your scene more is open up that right wall a bit more. Maybe bring in more of the balcony that I assume once stood on that side and widen the entire room a little, so that the statue isn't pushed up against the pillars which are pushed up against the walls.

The first thing I thought when I looked at the 3D was, "Oh, it's one of those rooms you just kinda run through in Prince of Persia." Make me think, "Oh, this is the room where important things happen." ;P

Just in terms of modeling and texturing, though, everything looks pretty good. Can't wait to see more!

JValencia · Dec 2010

Thanks uneditablepoly!

So here's another quick update:

Many of this stuff is still placeholder (The stairs under the water, the statue body, roof, BSP balcony on the left, etc). The hands of the statue are not posed yet either. What's a good way to pose the fingers into place? I tried Transpose Master in Zbrush but that gave me ugly results -__-

And as always, I suck at lighting so any help on that would be greatly appreciated

Work.work.work.

Habboi · Dec 2010

I think the golden lighting works well in your scene. But it needs to be more intensified and literally gleaming along that statue.

The water needs to look more like water. Looks like refracted glass to me. Maybe some lilly pads or something green on top to make it more...pond like.

I don't know if you're following the concept exactly but it'd look so good with lots of vegetation in the cracks and along the walls.

The red walls with green plants on top...those colours would look so good with the golden sun shining on them.

Keep it up.

mikezoo · Dec 2010

the concept feels much cooler than what was presented in the orignal game. Almost like this level was going to be in the MTs and not early on in Napel. ( they were in napel right?) less greens, more cool blues. That would be a cool direction to take this, perhaps? aways, cool stuff so far.

fearian · Dec 2010

Wall texture is really noisy. Makes it look like spotty shadows across the place.

JValencia · Dec 2010

Habboi: I agree with the lighting; making the statue gleam more with intensified lighting would add an extra zazz to the piece.

I'll tweak the water more. I like the Lilly pad idea. The concept had little boats and I was thinking of going with that, but I think the pads might help it out more, color wise. I'll leave this toward the end though.
As for the vegetation in the walls, I'll try it out and see how it looks.

fearian: Good point. I'll have that fixed by the next update.

mikezoo: Katmandu, I believe. I loved the intense gold lighting in the original, but the mysteries vibe the concept conveys is also appealing. But tackling the lighting of the concept WOULD give it a different direction and make it more unique.

What do you guys think? Should I go for the original gold lighting or the mysteries cool blue lighting from Shaddy's concept?

mikezoo · Dec 2010

Right now your going off whats in the game; not the concept. I mean, they (naughty dog artists) did divate from the original art concept, and made a really cool scene in the game, but that doesn't mean you couldn't pull this off just as good. Not to sound like a dick, but why re-create the exact same thing when its already been done?

i think it would be way cooler to match the concept spot on, and make it your own. Anyway, thats just my two cents. I am sure either-way you'll do something badass. :thumbup:

wisebrownmonkey · Dec 2010

mikezoo wrote: »

Right now your going off whats in the game; not the concept. I mean, they (naughty dog artists) did divate from the original art concept, and made a really cool scene in the game, but that doesn't mean you couldn't pull this off just as good. Not to sound like a dick, but why re-create the exact same thing when its already been done?

i think it would be way cooler to match the concept spot on, and make it your own. Anyway, thats just my two cents. I am sure either-way you'll do something badass. :thumbup:

I second this opinion

JValencia · Dec 2010

Well, you do bring up a good point about this already being done and it would be more interesting to make it more unique and mine. Plus it would be awesome to see a different take on this scene.

I'll start focusing more on the concept then and see were I could push it.

JValencia · Dec 2010

Hey guys, it's been a while.

Since my last post, I've tried to get into the mood of the original concept and well....it didn't turn out too well. Here is the only image I saved from the tests:

I just can't get into it. My motivation started fading when I tried the new look.

I still want to make the scene unique, but I am going to keep the gold lighting.
The pillars and the way the walls are damaged from the concept are going to be a start, but I haven't focused on that yet; I have been spending more of my time on the statue. I have a design I am happy with for the head, so you guys should be seeing that soon.

***The ball, roof, and several other things are still placeholder

I am either going to go with the Lilly pad idea for the pond or make the little boats from the concept. We'll see.

Again, C&C are encouraged as well as new directions to take this piece(except the depressing, blue lighting =p).

ayoub44 · Dec 2010

nice update

, i love light direction

Habboi · Dec 2010

Nice textures, hand painted?

Only crit is the lighting angle. I think it'd look cooler if the light rays and the light direction were pointing towards the statue as that's the center piece and our eyes draw towards it. It'll look nice once we see some green in there!

Rurouni Strife · Dec 2010

Nice work. Your models, textures, and lighting are all well done. Keep that hard work up!

Personally, I'm not a fan of recreating scenes from recent video games. Something like Uncharted especially is a no no for me. Can I recreate x scene in x engine with x feel? People remember playing and exploring that area and I mean come on...Uncharted looks freaking amazing. What am I saying? You have balls! Lol. Go make it awesome!

Interesting suggestion to try. I know you weren't a fan, but what if you kept the super strong lights you have now, but changed the atmosphere back to that darker ambiance? I'd be curious to see what the mix of light and dark would do to the scene.

But yea, whatever you do in this scene needs to be better than what they did in Uncharted 2.

warby · Dec 2010

that specific room in that specific game is what i currently call the greatest looking real time 3d art ever made !

aiming for the top ey ?!

Builder_Anthony · Dec 2010

Just something funny.........Id like to see that statue dribble the ball

looprix · Dec 2010

Really looks like that Uch2 level! The four top arms are all going the same direction I say twist some of them so the statue is more a symmetrical. I love the color map of the stones! The wood normal is looking flat maybe you could rotate some of the planks a few degrees and/or give the wood deeper crevices.

The City's Secret

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