Ok here's the updated rocks. I also started a rowboat model today as well. I continued messing with the trees and i reimported them completely which allowed me to use the improved normals. Sucks to have to replant a forest though... Anyways new pic.
Awesome, the new canopy looks great Sad to hear that my Max workflow doesn't translate too well to Maya. I've never had a chance to use it for too long, so I'm not even sure if it has anthing like Path Constraint. You might want to twist these trunks a little bit more; some of them look a little bit too straight.
Not much to say, but this just looks fantastic, glad you gave it its own thread. But I did like the cooler lighting scheme more than your current warmer one, maybe it's just the light/dark contrast getting to me.
Thanks, I think the problem with the trees was mainly that I should have imported everything new as opposed to reimporting the mesh. I'm getting used to the unique problems with UDK where one unchecked box will mess you up for days. I too liked the cool color scheme but i'm loving the warm tones as well. I think the warm tones give it more of a summertime feel.
I'm also at a loss when going forward with this. I wanted to give it some human elements but those i wanted to do feel like they have been done too many times before. So yeah what to do... I want something with fantasy influence and something that will show some contrast to the natural environment. Time to go find some concept art!
I have decided on what I want for this scene now. After really looking at things and evaluating my reasons for starting this project in the first place I know I wanted to do a medieval piece. So I am creating an Inn that resides on a forest road beside the lake. Travelers from far and wide stay and enjoy the beautiful lake as they travel to the city. Though the inn is away from any major towns it remains prosperous because of the seclusion and the beautiful peaceful surroundings.
I have already begun progress on the inn which I've also done some drawings for. I also plan on doing two other houses that will be in the distance. As I progress on the Inn I am also in the process of sculpting out my terrain better and adding more details and paths. The goal is to have an environment that looks playable and natural. In the meantime here is the last of the current layout.
I'm really, really loving this. Right along the lines of an environment I'm creating just now. Mine's on an island, instead of in a valley, but you know. Trees and rocks and stuff.
So, this is very inspiration, and, also, very cool, because I can learn from your mistakes a little! Haha
Keep up the good work.
Haha, I came stumbling in blind doing everything the wrong way. But it is a wonderful learning experience and I'm glad someone is learning something from this.
I'm really anxious to see how your pine texture looks, could you show us that and perhaps a shot of the tree in maya? The way you bent some of the geo?
I really love this type of environment, don't forget the obligatory bob ross mountain!
Excellent job on those Pine Trees! Some of your bark textures look far too noisy and you may want to define those better, but otherwise great job.
Often setting the mood and surrounding environment first is much better since it will tie together everything you bring in. You've got a great start and it should be much easier to build a focal point/environment around what you already have.
Aw yay! More flowers! I really like the spiky leaves they have, it makes them seem more wild. Also very much looking forward to seeing the inn progress, I think this scene will benefit greatly from the addition of that focal point.
Hey man, awesome work! Would you mind posting the Texture sheet (Diffuse and the mask) of the Firs? I always had big problems with Mipmaps when I did them, but you dont seem to have them for some reason...
Nielsen - I'm actually not too fond of my pine textures. I think the pine needles are too large and the detail too big. That said I built the tree by layering and being mindful of the negative space. I built 4 branches and then started at the bottom building up to the top going smaller.
paulsvoboda - Thanks and I will. I actually have lots of texture editing to do.
Jessica Dinh - Thanks my goal is to have it look natural and wild. I'll post more on the inn tomorrow after I get some more progress on it.
Fraeger - Thanks, I hope you like.
Bummer! photobucket's out of bandwith haha.
If you ever need a quick upload for anything try imgur.com, it's pretty handy.
(no this is not advertisement)
I know that feeling about not being satisfied with your pine branches.. the thing is they're very hard to come by on the net and if you do not live in an area with pine trees (such as myself) I suppose making them yourself is the only option. Still if you could show how they look it'd be another option of "how not to make them" if you get what I mean.
I'm tempted to model out an entire pinebranch but it might be overdoing it.
Ha, stupid photobucket. That's a first. Anyways I just reuploaded them to my blog instead. I do like photobucket because it keeps the sizes small and keeps the detail. Yeah, pine reference was hard to find, and once I did it became a game of mashup. I think making one from scratch though would be a pain in the butt moreso than helping.
You've either gotten that from that website that sells plastic fake plants or mashed it up using something else I presume, have you got the link to the former perhaps? I have misplaced that.
If not then good job mashing it up, like the end result of the tree.
Texture does look rather dull though...
Maybe add a few more brown-yellow splotches on it?
Thanks for posting by the way. Good to see this scene progressing from good to better all the time.
Yeah, I'll keep cleaning up my textures as I go, right now though I've been focused on cleaning up my scene. I've fixed my ground shaders and changed my bark textures as well as doing edits to the foliage. I have also made progress on my inn as well. Here is a shot of it in udk. Just testing out the scale and some really basic uv's.
Here are some shots of my WIP textures for the inn. I still have a lot of optomising and playing with uv's to go but I think I'm making some good progress.
Thanks guys, I've taken a bit of a break to finish up some work related stuff. But here is my current progress. I am continuing working on the inn, editing UV's and organizing my texture space. I am going to create one more texture for doors, windows, chimneys signs, and larger wood pieces.
I also started placement of my grasses and trees in earnest. Next up is the flowers and more bushes and rocks. I also reworked my water so it is smoother and calmer than before though you can't see that from this shot which is going to be the primary shot of the inn.
Some cleaning up on textures before adding windows, doors and such. I've already done the uv's and just have some high res modeling to complete. Here is also the primary texture for the inn.
that texture looks great. in engine however it seems a bit over saturated. say desaturate it slightly (i tossed it in PS and 30% looks kinda nice), and then level it to get as much diffuse detail as possible out of it. what do the normals look like for that texture?
That looks great! But as Oniram mentioned, it is probably looking a bit too vibrant and yellow/orange.
In terms of base texture and UVs though, everything looks dapper
Thanks guys for the crits. The inn color is supposed to be yellow but maybe it is a bit overblown atm. I didn't want it to be just brown or white. Sorry about the photobucket, I'm using imgur now as suggested earlier. I added in windows and now you can see what's left to texture as well. I'll hopefully be done with the building soon so I can work on other aspects of the scene.
Yeah that yellow feels a bit odd to me, maybe try removing color from it in places so it looks more like paint that's peeling away (doesn't have to be much). At the moment it just looks too uniform I think. Building as a whole looks good though, but where are the doors and ground-level windows? :P
With my texture usage the way it is it would look weird to have larger areas of chipped paint. It is there in the texture just from that distance harder to see. I will add more color variation though and areas where it looks more worn.
They're getting done lol, I don't have a lot of time to work on it so it's not going in leaps in bounds like I want but it's getting there. The lower windows and doors as well as the few remaining untextured places will be done soon.
You could vertex paint in that kind of large-scale wear though, I think just having some underlying material would help sell it a lot. It's coming along, definitely, don't worry about a rush or anything, just some thoughts on where to go as it develops further
Yeah I totally forgot about vertex paint, I'll give that a try soon. I think it'll add in the variation I want and should add some cool detail as well.
Ok, I've got a bit further on with texturing the inn. I added in the lower windows and started texturing the wood planks on the lower floor. I still need the chimneys, doors and signs. I worked on the specular maps as well as the scene lighting and post processing. There are still a lot of small things and texture tweaks everywhere to make. I am also trying to put in collision for the building but instead of using the collision I made for it, UDK keeps giving it a premade one that sucks... If anyone knows why it does that I would love to know. Anyways, heres my progress.
Something about the sides of the building is really throwing it off and making it look very digital at the moment. Try adding in some diagonal beams here and there.
looking cool. for your collision if you have an auto convex just remove it through the static mesh editor and then reimport your mesh with the new collision. are you doing it through .fbx or .ase?
SirCalalot: Thanks I didn't even realize how saturated it was before even when people were saying so until I made the changes. It looks sooooo much better now, thanks guys.
PogoP: Thanks, I'll try it out and see what other changes I can make before finishing the building.
Oniram: I'm using FBX and when I go to reimport it it just makes the default one still. I even tried deleting the current file and starting over with the collision on but it still goes with their version. I don't know why it's doing that.
hmm. im not familiar with fbx and collision, but one thing you could do is instead of putting your collision to the static mesh, import it as its own static mesh and use per poly collision. then place it in the world ontop of the inn, and set it to hidden in game mode.
usually i use ase for collision when exporting from max since all you have to do is label it UCX_(whatevernameyouchoose) and when exported together the ase picks it up as collision.
Hmm... When I export an FBX with collision into UDK the naming convention of UBX and UCX etc should carry over. If you're exporting from Maya, I've found that if you combine the collision pieces into one mesh that it doesn't read when you import it into UDK (using Sep 2011 beta) for some reason. I have to keep the pieces separate. Also make sure the collision has the same name as the mesh, but with the prefix.
So if you have a an object called BadassObj, then the collision pieces are named UCX_BadassObj_01, UCX_BadassObj_02, etc. I usually just name one box, and when I duplicate it it automatically adds the incremental numbering. Then select all the collision pieces + mesh and export the selection together.
Have you tried removing the collision from the mesh in the preview window and then reimporting? When you reimport it there should be a dialogue box that asks if you want to replace the existing collision, if there.
Hope that helps. Been following your enviro for a while and it's coming along great!
Ok for the collision i exported it as seperate pieces and it worked though I had to restart UDK to really see any changes. It wasn't the naming conventions that was wrong it was that each part of the collision had to be separate as sybrix said.
I had some free time today so I started filling the scene more around the inn. There is going to be a sign near the inn as well as some fencing. I want it to feel used and lived in more than it does now. I also need to define the path a bit more and widen it a bit. I may change the dirt textures to for the path as well.
For now I've also created a really quick hay bale and got that working in the scene. Right now it's a 1k map but I'll be bringing it down to 512 later on. There will also be some barrels, a wood pile and various tools and props around. I also changed the bush model and textures and created a variation. It still needs a detail pass for color and branches. I would also like to create a smaller tree model or two to break up the lower levels of the forest a bit more. But I'll only do that if I have extra free time. I then changed the wood to make it darker and make it a bit more even across the entire model.
Although I'm aware that the path leading to the inn is WIP, I thought I'd still bring this up.
If you look at the reference, you'll notice that the path dips in and looks more convex due to the erosion of people constantly walking back and forth along it.
At the moment, yours looks like a barely used walkway, regardless of the nice textures on it.
Hopefully your terrain/landscape is a high enough resolution to paint the dip into the height map. If not, you could always make a mesh of the path and blend that into the Landscape
Thanks sir, I've been working on the path and hopefully it looks better. It is still a bit lumpy so I'll be cleaning it up as I go. I also changed my foliage texture for the bushes, completely redid the water now that I'm more familiar with shaders some. I changed the lighting, and post processing so it now has more of a warm color palette that feels a lot more focused to me than before. I feel it also gives it more of a sense of place and time as well. I've also got some sculpting going for the stone texture I'll be using for the chimney so I'll post progress of that soon. As always all crits are welcome I'm eager to learn more, thanks!
Replies
I'm also at a loss when going forward with this. I wanted to give it some human elements but those i wanted to do feel like they have been done too many times before. So yeah what to do... I want something with fantasy influence and something that will show some contrast to the natural environment. Time to go find some concept art!
I have already begun progress on the inn which I've also done some drawings for. I also plan on doing two other houses that will be in the distance. As I progress on the Inn I am also in the process of sculpting out my terrain better and adding more details and paths. The goal is to have an environment that looks playable and natural. In the meantime here is the last of the current layout.
So, this is very inspiration, and, also, very cool, because I can learn from your mistakes a little! Haha
Keep up the good work.
I really love this type of environment, don't forget the obligatory bob ross mountain!
Often setting the mood and surrounding environment first is much better since it will tie together everything you bring in. You've got a great start and it should be much easier to build a focal point/environment around what you already have.
paulsvoboda - Thanks and I will. I actually have lots of texture editing to do.
Jessica Dinh - Thanks my goal is to have it look natural and wild. I'll post more on the inn tomorrow after I get some more progress on it.
Fraeger - Thanks, I hope you like.
If you ever need a quick upload for anything try imgur.com, it's pretty handy.
(no this is not advertisement)
I know that feeling about not being satisfied with your pine branches.. the thing is they're very hard to come by on the net and if you do not live in an area with pine trees (such as myself) I suppose making them yourself is the only option. Still if you could show how they look it'd be another option of "how not to make them" if you get what I mean.
I'm tempted to model out an entire pinebranch but it might be overdoing it.
If not then good job mashing it up, like the end result of the tree.
Texture does look rather dull though...
Maybe add a few more brown-yellow splotches on it?
Thanks for posting by the way. Good to see this scene progressing from good to better all the time.
Yeah, I'll keep cleaning up my textures as I go, right now though I've been focused on cleaning up my scene. I've fixed my ground shaders and changed my bark textures as well as doing edits to the foliage. I have also made progress on my inn as well. Here is a shot of it in udk. Just testing out the scale and some really basic uv's.
Here's an update on my roof texture before I call it a night.
I won't lend any critiques on the house until you've come further with it though, but it's looking pretty solid
I also started placement of my grasses and trees in earnest. Next up is the flowers and more bushes and rocks. I also reworked my water so it is smoother and calmer than before though you can't see that from this shot which is going to be the primary shot of the inn.
I mean, really, Photobucket? THIS IS WHY WE CANT HAVE NICE THINGS.
Btw to the op, nice work so far!
In terms of base texture and UVs though, everything looks dapper
Thanks guys for the crits. The inn color is supposed to be yellow but maybe it is a bit overblown atm. I didn't want it to be just brown or white. Sorry about the photobucket, I'm using imgur now as suggested earlier. I added in windows and now you can see what's left to texture as well. I'll hopefully be done with the building soon so I can work on other aspects of the scene.
With my texture usage the way it is it would look weird to have larger areas of chipped paint. It is there in the texture just from that distance harder to see. I will add more color variation though and areas where it looks more worn.
They're getting done lol, I don't have a lot of time to work on it so it's not going in leaps in bounds like I want but it's getting there. The lower windows and doors as well as the few remaining untextured places will be done soon.
Everything in general is looking a lot more realistic
Are you planning on getting some BumpOffset going on the roof tiles?
PogoP: Thanks, I'll try it out and see what other changes I can make before finishing the building.
Oniram: I'm using FBX and when I go to reimport it it just makes the default one still. I even tried deleting the current file and starting over with the collision on but it still goes with their version. I don't know why it's doing that.
usually i use ase for collision when exporting from max since all you have to do is label it UCX_(whatevernameyouchoose) and when exported together the ase picks it up as collision.
So if you have a an object called BadassObj, then the collision pieces are named UCX_BadassObj_01, UCX_BadassObj_02, etc. I usually just name one box, and when I duplicate it it automatically adds the incremental numbering. Then select all the collision pieces + mesh and export the selection together.
Have you tried removing the collision from the mesh in the preview window and then reimporting? When you reimport it there should be a dialogue box that asks if you want to replace the existing collision, if there.
Hope that helps. Been following your enviro for a while and it's coming along great!
I had some free time today so I started filling the scene more around the inn. There is going to be a sign near the inn as well as some fencing. I want it to feel used and lived in more than it does now. I also need to define the path a bit more and widen it a bit. I may change the dirt textures to for the path as well.
For now I've also created a really quick hay bale and got that working in the scene. Right now it's a 1k map but I'll be bringing it down to 512 later on. There will also be some barrels, a wood pile and various tools and props around. I also changed the bush model and textures and created a variation. It still needs a detail pass for color and branches. I would also like to create a smaller tree model or two to break up the lower levels of the forest a bit more. But I'll only do that if I have extra free time. I then changed the wood to make it darker and make it a bit more even across the entire model.
Although I'm aware that the path leading to the inn is WIP, I thought I'd still bring this up.
If you look at the reference, you'll notice that the path dips in and looks more convex due to the erosion of people constantly walking back and forth along it.
At the moment, yours looks like a barely used walkway, regardless of the nice textures on it.
Hopefully your terrain/landscape is a high enough resolution to paint the dip into the height map. If not, you could always make a mesh of the path and blend that into the Landscape
Hope that helps!
Thanks sir, I've been working on the path and hopefully it looks better. It is still a bit lumpy so I'll be cleaning it up as I go. I also changed my foliage texture for the bushes, completely redid the water now that I'm more familiar with shaders some. I changed the lighting, and post processing so it now has more of a warm color palette that feels a lot more focused to me than before. I feel it also gives it more of a sense of place and time as well. I've also got some sculpting going for the stone texture I'll be using for the chimney so I'll post progress of that soon. As always all crits are welcome I'm eager to learn more, thanks!
Are you using speedtree for the trees?