Alley Way Environment

reneemars · Sep 2011

i have been working on this alley way piece for a few weeks now, i haven't been able to spend as much time as i would have liked on this so far but i will hopefully be dedicating more of my time to it now.

These are the props i have made for it so far.

reneemars · Sep 2011

some screens of my props in UDK. Everything seen here is mine accept for the wall textures which are from UDK, i am just using them as fillers for now.

Hammed Al-Tamimi · Sep 2011

This looks like a good start. If anything, I think you should add more geometry (or normals) to the sides of the fire escape ladders. It might help if you add bolts or weld spots to where the stair steps meet the scaffolding.

reneemars · Sep 2011

thanks! yeah i was planning on adding some extra detail to the ladders but accidentally left it out when finishing it off. Thanks for the crit

Rick_D · Sep 2011

finally, someone has the strength of character to take on an alleyway scene.

don't forget the wooden pallets.

reneemars · Sep 2011

heheh will do

Cexar · Sep 2011

Make this a CSI dead hooker alley and you have my vote (and my axe). Keep at it

reneemars · Sep 2011

made some gungy boxes to put in my scene.

Pedro Amorim · Sep 2011

Rick_D wrote: »

finally, someone has the strength of character to take on an alleyway scene.

don't forget the wooden pallets.

olololol

reneemars · Sep 2011

yes i am doing an alley way scene. They have been done before.. i am very aware of that. i am just doing it to practice my skills and hand it in as a project for tafe.

also, i am looking for critiques.. not over done memes..
thanks

euclidius · Sep 2011

reneemars wrote: »

yes i am doing an alley way scene. They have been done before.. i am very aware of that. i am just doing it to practice my skills and hand it in as a project for tafe.

also, i am looking for critiques.. not over done memes..
thanks

just keep at it- still too early for critiques in my opinion-

snow · Sep 2011

I'd tame down the noise on the dumpster lid the, rest of it is looking pretty solid.

the ac unit looks like it could have been done a little more efficiently. For the tubing, i'd have one long pipe unit, and one angled unit. Then use these to build the rest of what you have there. Do it in a more modular way and you'll get more out of your texture space.

Looks like you're cutting yourself short on the texture size of these assets too.

Keep at it.

Say hi to Dan for me

reneemars · Sep 2011

your advice on the tubing for the ac unit is a good idea i will work on that. Going more modular is a good point also

thanks!

reneemars · Sep 2011

a hi poly i sculpted of a garbage bag. This is like my second time ever using zbrush so im still a little bleh.

reneemars · Sep 2011

reneemars · Sep 2011

figured i should start putting my texture sheets up too.

Lucas Annunziata · Sep 2011

I don't know if youve done a spec map for the metal objects in the scene, but they really aren't reading as metal right now. The textures are kinda noisy and looking a bit like stone. I also think if you added a bit more geometry to the box and made it sag a little like it had been rained on it would look much better. You may also want to mess around a bit with the lighting first, but its really up to you as to what stage you start lighting.

Good start though, keep at it.

reneemars · Sep 2011

thanks, yeah i will be worrying about the lighting stuff towards the end. this is basically just a quick level to put in all my stuff so far. And i think i will be going back in a re doing the metal textures. they looked a lot more metal-esk when i rendered them out in marmoset

reneemars · Sep 2011

reneemars · Sep 2011

[Deleted User] · Sep 2011

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reneemars · Sep 2011

thanks, i will work on that.

snow · Sep 2011

good stuff for one of your first zbrush sculpts! I'm not positive if its the problem, but i think you need to play with the gloss value of the garbage bag, if you're not familiar with gloss maps, just plug a constant into the specular power node in the material in UDK. I'd use a high value (tighter highilght), have a play around. I also think you could have more contrast between the diffuse and specular, ie make the diffuse darker, and the specular a lot whiter. Take for example the below image. The bag itself is black, the highlights are white, and there's some reflective detail as well that you could use a cubemap for. Notice also the tight highlights.

for the metal textures, think less is more, go very very subtle almostb oring on the diffuse and then bring out the details in the spec! I aways am weary of having noisy normal detail on metal, tends to make things look like stone.

keep at it!

reneemars · Sep 2011

thanks snow! i made some changes to the garbage bags as you suggested. looking any better you think? (ignore the fact that one of the bags are floating) i also have to change the levels around abit to fix the seam on top of the bags

snow · Sep 2011

definitely an improvement, they don't look so pearlescent now! however i'm comparing the marmoset shot to this udk shot, so i'm not sure how they originally looked in UDK.

I think you should overlay some finer detail on the normal map eg. http://cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=40923&PHPSESSID=cnirdq9vmkguj18988ankt26d3 . you've sculpted in the main forms which is great, but nothing wrong with overlaying some finer normal detail, again im looking at the pic i added above.

reneemars · Sep 2011

the only thing i am worried about there is seems (especially with the way the UVs have been laid out). however, I will give it a shot making a very fine map and see how it goes. thanks

snow · Sep 2011

Not entirely sure what the problem is there, just plonk em in and erase them at the seam edges, see how it looks - i could be wrong >_> .

explodingseashells · Sep 2011

looking great! have to agree with what's been said, and yeah the bag would look great with some smaller detail to help break up the larger forms. Those plastic textures look perfect, just use the patch tool/clone brush/warp transform in photoshop and stick it on.

Ndo is great if u want to convert it to a nrm quickly inside photoshop.

Keep at it mate!

reneemars · Sep 2011

added a fine detail overlay to my normal map on the garbage bags. what do you think? need more?

explodingseashells · Sep 2011

i think u could push it more, and possibly scale it up (the smaller detail that is). Make sure the detail follows the flow of the plastic so that it empasizes it and doesn't just muddy it up. Remeber there is a difference between detail and noise.

reneemars · Sep 2011

ok, thanks. will fix it up soon.

i zbrushed some details in to the boxes so they aren't so perfectly square and boring.

reneemars · Sep 2011

fixed boxes further with more intense cavity map.

bassmatt00 · Sep 2011

looks pretty good so far, though I think you need to do something with that fire escape. They don't tend to be that far down to the ground where someone might knock their head, let alone what would seem to be their entire chest on it.

reneemars · Sep 2011

i made the brick wall and concrete wall texture. the floor and the light on the wall are not mine. Just place holders.

Mr_Paris · Sep 2011

It'd be great to see a concept piece for this scene. Something that establishes a focal point or lighting. You need something to direct the composition, at the very least.

reneemars · Sep 2011

yeah, i did do a few quick sketches but they are all on paper and i dont have easy access to a scanner

i also did a block out however i haven't uploaded that yet.

BlvdNights · Sep 2011

Your individual pieces look solid, but the composition is terrible. I really recommend just a quick sketch to figure that out.

Donavonyoung · Sep 2011

The trash bags feel a little stiff to me. Composition needs work, and so does the lighting. I do think you can really make this look good though with some extra love. It also feels a bit empty, and not really lived in. Maybe some graffiti or some stains on the ground, paper and trash strewn about. Give it some life.

reneemars · Sep 2011

keep in mind that this is not the level it will all be placed and finished in. this is just me putting my finished models and textures in to a scene. No real lighting, no composition, not finished.

Donavonyoung · Sep 2011

I understand that, but I feel like being this far into the production of pieces that should already be worked out to a pretty finished degree. That is what gets the least love in most scenes, and that is why they can never look as good as they can. Composition, and lighting should always be blocked out before and real production on assets begin. At least in my opinion.

reneemars · Oct 2011

still not finished yet, but it's progress (i hope).

chrisradsby · Oct 2011

I'd say you need to break it up more. Plus make sure that it tiles correctly, right now it's really really visable.

http://www.chrisalbeluhn.com/Building_Layout_Guideline_Tutorial.html

Maybe this will help

Good work so far!

paradise.engineering · Oct 2011

looks nice so far, the plastic bags must be really difficult to nail, seems like you sill need to work on them a bit

DrunkShaman · Oct 2011

This is a pretty straight forward model. Nice work so far.

BlvdNights · Oct 2011

reneemars wrote: »

keep in mind that this is not the level it will all be placed and finished in. this is just me putting my finished models and textures in to a scene. No real lighting, no composition, not finished.

Than don't show it in the state it's in. At least have a mock up of your composition and start filling it in. Putting up screens of an environment you haven't figured out what the comp, or lighting will be will only get you criticism.

System · Oct 2011

Your spec looks extremely weak on the dumpster and fire escape thing. I saw the strip on the flats.. any chance for a larger image. It looks like they could use a levels clamp, and some tweaks of the spec power.

Your diffuse maps look like they could use an unsharp mask as well. You could try lower resolution maps with a couple sharpens.

And finally the metal of the fire escape looks more like concrete than metal

Anyway I dont have a problem with the subject matter.. Do what you know! Youre off to a solid start

reneemars · Oct 2011

BlvdNights wrote: »

Than don't show it in the state it's in. At least have a mock up of your composition and start filling it in. Putting up screens of an environment you haven't figured out what the comp, or lighting will be will only get you criticism.

i understand what you mean, and lighting and comp is something i am having trouble figuring out. But i wanted to show that i am capable of putting props and so on into a actual game engine. Not just throwing them into marmoset and be done with it. Thank you though , i will try and work out comp and lighting , i am just not very good at that part

reneemars · Oct 2011

a street lamp i made today.

reneemars · Oct 2011

todays progress

re.wind · Oct 2011

Mamoth-sized garbage bags, the building looks tiny, and the curbs could use a lot of work.

I also recoomend you look at some actual references to get the composition better.

kn0r · Oct 2011

Yeah like re.wind mentioned you've got some serious scale issues going on. For a start, I suggest scaling the bricks so they're smaller.
Also helps to have a reference character in your scene to check for scale issues.

Alley Way Environment

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