looking really good! just wondering what the dimesions are for the doors and walls in udk (height and width)? much appreciated for a project im working on
looking really good! just wondering what the dimesions are for the doors and walls in udk (height and width)? much appreciated for a project im working on
Well, as it stands my doors are 128 high and 96 wide, this seems to work well for when the UDK gametype is set to none, but when it's set as UDK deathmatch the character is a fair bit smaller.
I've largely gone by eye for the scale in this project...
Those tubes look real good. Can we see the material on that?
Thanks, What are you looking to see?
It's made up using 3 separate materials, the tube, glass and energy flow.
I can get some images of the shaders if that's what you want?
What might be a useful exercise for you with regards to working out some interesting compositions in the scene, would be to place cameras in key locations and try and build interesting compositions around those. No matter how awesome your lab looks, a flat on shot with no focal point is always going to look flat.
What might be a useful exercise for you with regards to working out some interesting compositions in the scene, would be to place cameras in key locations and try and build interesting compositions around those. No matter how awesome your lab looks, a flat on shot with no focal point is always going to look flat.
Thanks, I get what you're saying and think I'll definitely be adding cameras at key points.
That said, the composition is something I chose not to focus on for this scene, as I intend on making a fly through / explorable map rather than a scene designed to be displayed from one angle.
Although I'll make an active decision right now to try and put composition as my top priority in my next scene, whatever that may be.
Decided to rework the hall a bit with strip lights in the support pillars, I understand a lot of people hate bloom, but for me, this really adds to what I want the scene to be.
Had a flash of inspiration today, the control room area was looking massive and empty and I had no Idea what to do, so I decided to sort it out. Between the pillars I'm having massive screens detailing all sorts of info.
Oh and where the table is lit i'll have some dangling lighting to make it make sense.
Looking good.
I personally think that the bloom in this case helps to sell the cold feel of the environment.
With that said, perhaps it would be a good idea to put some frost/ice crawling up some of the walls?
Thanks, I like the ice idea, I may explore that in the energy extraction area where It's REALLY cold. I'm also toying with the idea of an icy entrance area like something I saw in tribes ascend.
Tried to make the energy containers more striking, I've definitely nailed a better silhouette, not perfect, but they're better than before.
Added some temp screens, they're a bit iffy, but portray the idea, got some hanging cables in there and a power box (lower left), it's strange how just adding a few power boxes makes the scene seem a lot more complete.
Also, the floor is now purely tiles everywhere, even the hall, this allows the scene to blend together better and frees up a whopping 25% of my texture space, handy as I now nee to model and texture an outside to the lab aswell, since the outside is viewable from certain angles.
Decided to start on an entrance, basically a hub room that leads to other areas of the lab, allowing for future expansion once I'm done with what I've got.
The hallway floor has been re-designed to be fit in better and be more blinding .
Also, sadly the windows have had the shutters put down due to feirce blizzard outside (this has completely nothing to do with the fact I couldn't get decent outdoor lighting.)
I think it would be good to start focusing on making this place look habited.
Some coffee mugs complete with stains, papers, keyboards, mice, crisp wrappers, bins, snowy footprints - the works.
Hey I think there are some nice ideas in this project but you really need to give your textures some love... they look very generic, clean and not alive.
look at some art books or videos or even better play some games and look at the textures.
As suggested, I've added a few of the props that SirCal suggested, just wanted to show what a difference just these few made really. I'll be adding quite a lot more.
again, something small that makes the whole scene 'live' a little more.
Hey I think there are some nice ideas in this project but you really need to give your textures some love... they look very generic, clean and not alive.
look at some art books or videos or even better play some games and look at the textures.
Thanks, I've spent a little time trying to add more grime, scratches etc. but my texture work has always been a major downfall.
I knew it was going to be a challenge hitting the clean textures I wanted, but hopefully I'll get there. I've been considering going borderlands style and adding some drawn lines in to help make the texture work look less bland...
It's probably partly down to the shader too, but what can I say, this whole experience so far has been a giant learning experience and has probably taught me more than any class ever did.
EDIT: Messed around a bit more with textures, think I'm getting closer to the mix of used and clean that I need. (Just the floor has been edited)
EDIT (Again): Think I'll go back to basics with the textures, try and get everything looking nice without the aid of normal/specular maps.
I'll probably start looking in to a more painted/comic book look so I can really nail some decent textures.
Took a little break, back on it now, started to add a comic book style to the scene to give the textures more life. It's fun trying to merge two styles that I really wouldn't associate with each other.
MASSIVE thanks to a post made by Oniram 2 years ago, I've scoured the internet all over for a simple sobel edge effect in UDK and couldn't find anything until I came upon this thread. http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69086&page=2
And once again I've changed my mind about something, I just wasn't 'feeling' the extraction room, so it'll be an AI core room, that smiley little face will be the face of the AI. Hopefully I'll figure out how to make it follow the players movements.
That terrible drawing on the wall is the company name and logo, I'm going to start plastering it around on posters, along with generic inspirational company gibberish.
^^Definitely remember seeing that beautiful concept before. Maybe it inspired me more than I'd thought.
The whole scene now finally has anti-aliasing, since I somehow got to work post process effects play nicely with the sobel edge effect, which just wasn't happening before.
I made some hanging flag type things with the company logo on, think I need to spread more of this type of stuff about to make it feel more 'real'.
And I got some cables in and land mass for the globe, right this second there's a sort of flowing electricity effect on the cables which I'm unsure if I'll keep.
Also I've been looking at some default UDK cascade stuff and have a slightly better idea of how I could improve the look of the hologram effects.
As cool as it looks (loving the Borderlands-esque style) I think it might be wise to stick to the one theme/style and get it completed.
So far it's like you have made three or four completely different projects and not finished one of them.
Perhaps doing some concept sketches before a project will keep your ideas more focused on a specific look throughout?
I'm not saying it works for everyone, but it's an idea.
so there are some obvious problems here:
the biggest one being lack of contrast.
there are several types of contrast, and you should use most, if not all of them in a scene, to make it visualy appealing.
the only type of contrast you currently use is contrast of complements.
actualy there are 7 distinct types of contrast defined: http://www.worqx.com/color/itten.htm
and as i mentioned before, you should try to use most of them in a scene, to create places for the viewer to focus on.
currently, there is just nothing that "leads the eye" through the scene.
everything is very evenly lit, there is no light/dark contrast.
look at that awesome concept, this is something you should go for.
it has realy intense shadow to light contrasts, saturatation to desaturation contrasts and although it uses a lot of colors from different sides of the colorwheel, it doesnt feel overwhelming like your scene, although it offers way more detail and variation.
So far it's like you have made three or four completely different projects and not finished one of them.
Perhaps doing some concept sketches before a project will keep your ideas more focused on a specific look throughout?
I'm not saying it works for everyone, but it's an idea.
The lack of a deadline was the kicker here, I just kept thinking, 'oohhh, this would be cool' and going off on a tangent all the time.
Believe it or not, I've got a sketchpad and a half full of sketches for this project.
I think what will really hep in future is to set everything in stone right at the start, style, theme, scene size, objects etc.
so there are some obvious problems here:
the biggest one being lack of contrast.
everything is very evenly lit, there is no light/dark contrast.
Thanks for the tips, I've decided to go back to light maps for the bulk of the emvironment, in an attempt to achieve some more defined shadows and an overall less flat environment.
It's not as drastic as you suggested, but It's certainly helped to give the scene more depth.
The only thing with shadows in this scene Is that they'll be pretty hard to achieve, since it's not a grimey dimly lit hallway I'm going for, It's a cleaner, brighter style, similar I suppose to that of a hospital.
Some images Just to show the difference light maps have made.
And a couple of posters I've got scattered about.
EDIT
Added a bit of a variation in tone in areas, specifically walls. Helps add to the comic style and just makes the textures a little less flat and bland.
I think this environment is coming out pretty good. However, I do agree with RogelioD, you have a lot of cool color. I think adding a little bit of warmth will give you some nice results.
^^I have to say, I think adding some warm colours Is high on my thoughts for this project right now.
After a week long headache, I can finally get back to this again.
Toyed with the idea of whiter lighting, but it just didn't look right, the light blue tone really helps with the feel of the environment.
The AI core has been transformed in to a power core for 'story' reasons, the glowy purple cubes are a source of power that this company is the sole manufacturer of, they use a giant one to power the facility.
The light shafts don't really come across as strongly as I'd hoped in the video above, they'r much more obvious while playing.
I'll try and tweak the room to better reflect that the room is a power core. Red lights, darker, more cables etc.
Made some hover platforms to add to the clutter in the power core, I managed to get the to bob up and down in a somewhat convincingly hovery manner.
The entrance room has been tweaked a bit and every doorway has a functioning door now. What can't be seen is a valve handled entrance door, which is a small heater room, to dry out personnel on entry.
There are some light shafts which really don't come across to their full in the image.
A tweaked desk to make it a little more interesting.
Just had an idea for adding some warmth, if the 'unlocked' was to be orange, It could give off a nice warm glow where doors are open.
I was viewing my rooms from different angles today and realised that they seem to all work better from an almost 2D view as opposed to a first person view.
I think this change will allow me to finish up the project a lot sooner than I would have otherwise, since fewer objects will need to be added to make it complete and I don't need to worry about finding the right angle to show the scene off.
As much as I've decided there should be no more changes, I feel that this is really for the better, since I should be happy enough to finish and move on fairly soon.
Replies
Well, as it stands my doors are 128 high and 96 wide, this seems to work well for when the UDK gametype is set to none, but when it's set as UDK deathmatch the character is a fair bit smaller.
I've largely gone by eye for the scale in this project...
Thanks, What are you looking to see?
It's made up using 3 separate materials, the tube, glass and energy flow.
I can get some images of the shaders if that's what you want?
Thanks, I get what you're saying and think I'll definitely be adding cameras at key points.
That said, the composition is something I chose not to focus on for this scene, as I intend on making a fly through / explorable map rather than a scene designed to be displayed from one angle.
Although I'll make an active decision right now to try and put composition as my top priority in my next scene, whatever that may be.
Decided to rework the hall a bit with strip lights in the support pillars, I understand a lot of people hate bloom, but for me, this really adds to what I want the scene to be.
Had a flash of inspiration today, the control room area was looking massive and empty and I had no Idea what to do, so I decided to sort it out. Between the pillars I'm having massive screens detailing all sorts of info.
Oh and where the table is lit i'll have some dangling lighting to make it make sense.
I personally think that the bloom in this case helps to sell the cold feel of the environment.
With that said, perhaps it would be a good idea to put some frost/ice crawling up some of the walls?
Thanks, I like the ice idea, I may explore that in the energy extraction area where It's REALLY cold. I'm also toying with the idea of an icy entrance area like something I saw in tribes ascend.
Tried to make the energy containers more striking, I've definitely nailed a better silhouette, not perfect, but they're better than before.
Added some temp screens, they're a bit iffy, but portray the idea, got some hanging cables in there and a power box (lower left), it's strange how just adding a few power boxes makes the scene seem a lot more complete.
Also, the floor is now purely tiles everywhere, even the hall, this allows the scene to blend together better and frees up a whopping 25% of my texture space, handy as I now nee to model and texture an outside to the lab aswell, since the outside is viewable from certain angles.
The hallway floor has been re-designed to be fit in better and be more blinding
Also, sadly the windows have had the shutters put down due to feirce blizzard outside (this has completely nothing to do with the fact I couldn't get decent outdoor lighting.)
I think it would be good to start focusing on making this place look habited.
Some coffee mugs complete with stains, papers, keyboards, mice, crisp wrappers, bins, snowy footprints - the works.
Can't wait for the next update
look at some art books or videos or even better play some games and look at the textures.
again, something small that makes the whole scene 'live' a little more.
Thanks, I've spent a little time trying to add more grime, scratches etc. but my texture work has always been a major downfall.
I knew it was going to be a challenge hitting the clean textures I wanted, but hopefully I'll get there. I've been considering going borderlands style and adding some drawn lines in to help make the texture work look less bland...
It's probably partly down to the shader too, but what can I say, this whole experience so far has been a giant learning experience and has probably taught me more than any class ever did.
EDIT: Messed around a bit more with textures, think I'm getting closer to the mix of used and clean that I need. (Just the floor has been edited)
EDIT (Again): Think I'll go back to basics with the textures, try and get everything looking nice without the aid of normal/specular maps.
I'll probably start looking in to a more painted/comic book look so I can really nail some decent textures.
MASSIVE thanks to a post made by Oniram 2 years ago, I've scoured the internet all over for a simple sobel edge effect in UDK and couldn't find anything until I came upon this thread. http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69086&page=2
[ame="
And once again I've changed my mind about something, I just wasn't 'feeling' the extraction room, so it'll be an AI core room, that smiley little face will be the face of the AI. Hopefully I'll figure out how to make it follow the players movements.
That terrible drawing on the wall is the company name and logo, I'm going to start plastering it around on posters, along with generic inspirational company gibberish.
Shoddy little paintover of the AI Core room...
It reminds me of a concept by Juan Martinez Pinilla:
The whole scene now finally has anti-aliasing, since I somehow got to work post process effects play nicely with the sobel edge effect, which just wasn't happening before.
I made some hanging flag type things with the company logo on, think I need to spread more of this type of stuff about to make it feel more 'real'.
And I got some cables in and land mass for the globe, right this second there's a sort of flowing electricity effect on the cables which I'm unsure if I'll keep.
Also I've been looking at some default UDK cascade stuff and have a slightly better idea of how I could improve the look of the hologram effects.
I've re done the lighting, having removed 90% of the lights there initially were.
The boxes have gone through a little re-design to make them more functional and overall just look better.
And there's been a spill in one of the hallways, helping to set the scene a bit more.
[ame="
So far it's like you have made three or four completely different projects and not finished one of them.
Perhaps doing some concept sketches before a project will keep your ideas more focused on a specific look throughout?
I'm not saying it works for everyone, but it's an idea.
the biggest one being lack of contrast.
there are several types of contrast, and you should use most, if not all of them in a scene, to make it visualy appealing.
the only type of contrast you currently use is contrast of complements.
actualy there are 7 distinct types of contrast defined:
http://www.worqx.com/color/itten.htm
and as i mentioned before, you should try to use most of them in a scene, to create places for the viewer to focus on.
currently, there is just nothing that "leads the eye" through the scene.
everything is very evenly lit, there is no light/dark contrast.
look at that awesome concept, this is something you should go for.
it has realy intense shadow to light contrasts, saturatation to desaturation contrasts and although it uses a lot of colors from different sides of the colorwheel, it doesnt feel overwhelming like your scene, although it offers way more detail and variation.
The comic book style is the DEFINITE sticking point here, no more theme changes allowed
The lack of a deadline was the kicker here, I just kept thinking, 'oohhh, this would be cool' and going off on a tangent all the time.
Believe it or not, I've got a sketchpad and a half full of sketches for this project.
I think what will really hep in future is to set everything in stone right at the start, style, theme, scene size, objects etc.
Thanks for the tips, I've decided to go back to light maps for the bulk of the emvironment, in an attempt to achieve some more defined shadows and an overall less flat environment.
It's not as drastic as you suggested, but It's certainly helped to give the scene more depth.
The only thing with shadows in this scene Is that they'll be pretty hard to achieve, since it's not a grimey dimly lit hallway I'm going for, It's a cleaner, brighter style, similar I suppose to that of a hospital.
Some images Just to show the difference light maps have made.
And a couple of posters I've got scattered about.
EDIT
Added a bit of a variation in tone in areas, specifically walls. Helps add to the comic style and just makes the textures a little less flat and bland.
^^I have to say, I think adding some warm colours Is high on my thoughts for this project right now.
After a week long headache, I can finally get back to this again.
Toyed with the idea of whiter lighting, but it just didn't look right, the light blue tone really helps with the feel of the environment.
The AI core has been transformed in to a power core for 'story' reasons, the glowy purple cubes are a source of power that this company is the sole manufacturer of, they use a giant one to power the facility.
[ame="
The light shafts don't really come across as strongly as I'd hoped in the video above, they'r much more obvious while playing.
I'll try and tweak the room to better reflect that the room is a power core. Red lights, darker, more cables etc.
Made some hover platforms to add to the clutter in the power core, I managed to get the to bob up and down in a somewhat convincingly hovery manner.
The entrance room has been tweaked a bit and every doorway has a functioning door now. What can't be seen is a valve handled entrance door, which is a small heater room, to dry out personnel on entry.
There are some light shafts which really don't come across to their full in the image.
A tweaked desk to make it a little more interesting.
Just had an idea for adding some warmth, if the 'unlocked' was to be orange, It could give off a nice warm glow where doors are open.
I think this change will allow me to finish up the project a lot sooner than I would have otherwise, since fewer objects will need to be added to make it complete and I don't need to worry about finding the right angle to show the scene off.
As much as I've decided there should be no more changes, I feel that this is really for the better, since I should be happy enough to finish and move on fairly soon.
[ame="