Apocalypse diorama
polycounter lvl 9
So here is my second environment in the making. The design is of my own making, so I am open to suggestion and critique.
Things that are on my list right now:
-Rebar (I have to remake the highpoly, the bakes didn't come out right)
-Barbed wire (Plan to do so with alphas)
-Resculpt the road (Maybe adding some potholes and irregular edges where it isn't touching the sidewalk)
-Possible rescuplt of sidewalk, I might just re-do the LP
-I have procedural rocks made to add to the scene
-Obviously finish the textures
-And I plan to add graffiti to the sign
None of the textures have spec applied and most are not final. Like I said before I am open to any and all suggestions/critiques.
Things that are on my list right now:
-Rebar (I have to remake the highpoly, the bakes didn't come out right)
-Barbed wire (Plan to do so with alphas)
-Resculpt the road (Maybe adding some potholes and irregular edges where it isn't touching the sidewalk)
-Possible rescuplt of sidewalk, I might just re-do the LP
-I have procedural rocks made to add to the scene
-Obviously finish the textures
-And I plan to add graffiti to the sign
None of the textures have spec applied and most are not final. Like I said before I am open to any and all suggestions/critiques.
Replies
Some things that jump out at me:
- the road's surface noise detail is too pronounced and too large. I don't know much about environment art, but maybe you'll need a detail map or something to handle things that fine. Otherwise it's just too distracting.
- even though things are obviously in disrepair, the scene feels rather new. Could use some more stains and build up of grime.
- The scene as a whole is rather light, if you blur your eyes. The road itself could be darker asphalt.
- The sign is difficult to read. I know it's supposed to be messed up, but as a viewer, I'd like to be able to make out the words. The sign's broken left side is kind of odd because it doesn't look like it got blown apart or impacted which I assume is what happened to it. The wooden planks still look pretty even, and make it seem as though it were stopped midway through construction instead.
- Some of your grime/wear is a little too evenly distributed throughout such as on the BP barrel and the stop sign. You'd probably want to vary the intensity of the damage depending on where it would most naturally occur.
Hope you finish it. It's always a little more interesting to see scenes than individual models.texel density is widely different between assets. The road shoulders have very low resolution, then the road surface is very low res compared to the cement barrier and barrel.
Some texture unification might also help. Try to keep most textures in a general range in terms of color saturation and brightness - it makes lighting much easier. What I mean is, like limiting colors to no more than 60% saturation in any color channel, or more than 215 in value. That gives you range to play with lighting color and brightness.
The scene lacks AO of any kind, which kills a lot of the depth and detail. There also doesn't seem to be any specularity or reflection which doesn't help either.
I would also expect more decay around the objects. So like, bricks and debris aroudn the sign, peeling paper, newspapers across the ground, concrete chunks near the barriers, pieces of road torn up, etc. Some kind of vegetation would also help. Dead grass through cracks in the road, or near the sign. Old moss or weeds around the base of the barriers.
It's a good start, but just needs some love and iteration.
I don't know why I didn't think of this, I even have the game.
I have been playing with the sign trying to get the words more easily seen with not much success, just have to keep messing with it. As far as the barrel damage and such goes, I am not really sure what you mean. I did look up old damaged oil barrels for reference and some of the ones I did come across did look similar to that minus the cut off top.(Which I have intentions of adding a fire inside of it)
I feel like such a dummy. I didn't even notice this thanks for pointing it out. I tried addressing it without repacking everything and retexturing. We will see if it is still noticeable in my next update and if so I will re do it all.
There is actually AO on most things but for some reason most of my AO bakes come out completely white washed and I am not entire sure why. (Using Xnormal for Ao and normal bakes)
The ground isn't ash it is just a straight AO bake...I hadn't applied textures to it yet
Thanks for the replies! I am completely re doing the road (as inspired by my fellow posters) to hopefully give it more character, hopefully I will have another update out later today.
And before anyone spots it and is wondering the seam on the light post will disappear with higher render settings
Also it looks to me like either the barrel is massively out of scale or the stone blocks are far too tall?
I could be wrong about it all but thats what it seems like to me!
I like what you have though
So I decided that I didn't like the road, so I decided to make another. I think I like this one far better. Where the cracks are I plan on adding dirt and debris and such.
-Added rebar
-Added the fence (isn't final, I still have to break and destroy it so it doesn't look so regular)
-Added a bg for ambiance (not really sure what to do for a background for this, any ideas are welcome!)
-Rescultped the median as well as retextured
-Played with the bump map on the barrel and a few other things, I am thinking it is to intense now. What do you think?
Any crits and comments are welcome!
I think the postioning of the red and white striped barrier needs looking at. I would put it closer to the stone barriers maybe?and i would have more than just one. It looks very lonely sitting there on it's own!
and i think that goes for the whole scene tbh. It needs filling out and have things added to it that make it feel lived in like rubbish and street stuff, im actually drawing a blank as to what to put in but yeah just stuff!
also some fire particle effects in the barrel would be good
is this in UDK btw?
overall though i like it alot and its a big improvement from your last post
It isn't in UDK atm, I will prob take it in after I finish it out. The only prob is I am not very experienced with lighting in general, let a alone UDK lighting, so that will be a bit of a learning experience on its own to make it look good.
On the scene itself:
-looks a bit too happy for an apocalypse.
-damage is inconsistent. everything is rusty, but no moss on the barricades. Hugeass cracks in the asphalt, but the fence is straight as an arrow. And so on.
-you seem to have too much lighting in the diffuse. Can we see some flats?
-you seem to have a bit much JPG in the last shot.
-blurry edges on the pedestrian island sides and asphalt sides.
In general you need to feel it more ... used/old as well, with several grime layers and a lot of tiny props, but I'm assuming you've just not gotten as far yet.
-Re-sculpted the sidewalk and textured. Not sure if I am happy with the grim.
-Trying a new sign out, hopefully it is more easily read? Still planning on damaging it.
-Busted up the fence, I feel it fits well.
Again disregard the background, it is just so it isn't sitting on a black background. As always crits/comments/suggestions are always welcome.
But its a good start. Keep up the good work.