Key House from Locke & Key [WIP]
Hi Polycounters!
Here I am posting some work in progress screens of my current personal project. I'm re-creating the house from the awesome comic book series Locke & Key.
Here is an early shot with reference...
I'm pretty much done with the modeling now. I think...
And now I'm starting on texturing. More to follow when it's done.
Thanks for looking and feel free to leave comments!
Here I am posting some work in progress screens of my current personal project. I'm re-creating the house from the awesome comic book series Locke & Key.
Here is an early shot with reference...
I'm pretty much done with the modeling now. I think...
And now I'm starting on texturing. More to follow when it's done.
Thanks for looking and feel free to leave comments!
Replies
I've been working on unwrapping, texturing and a few other details here and there. I've only made diffuse textures so far and some of them still need some polish but I made a quick render in Max last night and I think it's coming along nicely.
I still have normal and spec maps to make and I'm not sure why the self illuminated windows didn't work on this render but I'm intending to put the whole thing into UDK anyway so that's not a big deal.
Let me know what you think!
Glow in Max = Ass...
Max is a little picky when it comes to adding glow or self illumination, you need to use a render setting that bounces light (scanline by default won't do it unless you turn on one of the "Advanced Lighting plug-ins" in the render setup window, or switch to mentalRay. Even then you need to use a specific material to get it working. You can add a glow effect that gets calculated at render time which will do the bloomy glow but I honestly would stuff it in UDK and work on it there, its easier and its where you ultimately plan to be anyway.
UV layout and Construction?
I'm not sure how the materials and UV's are laid out, it seems like a perfect candidate for tile textures and modular meshes. The pieces don't really tie together all that well. They are kind of missing that worn together effect. Roof tiles are the same wear (even hue/sat) in protected areas as they are in exposed. There is a general lack of Ambient Occlusion and the dirt that would accumulate there that is making look unfinished.
Color Choices?
I think the overall diffuse coloring needs some work, it seems like the reference is pretty monochromatic and leans toward using a lot of browns and deep reds. Maybe cool gray and periwinkle are closer to the actual subject matter or a different time in the houses history? I don't know I've never read Locke and Key before (seems kind of cool) but I did a quick image search and it seems to be colored with brown and red inside the comic also?
Right now you have distinct color groups that don't have a lot of variation to them and they don't have that much in common so its changing the mood quite a bit? I guess there is a lot you can do in UDK to even out materials using post effects and you normally want to start with brighter materials in general but I think you can do quite a bit to unify the color pallet between the different color groups, vary the shades used a bit of each in the others.
Re. the straight edges - I gave someone else the exact same advice recently about knocking some of the edges out. I fear the domino rally effect on this house though. It's so complex and has so many parts that line up with other parts etc that as soon as I move one piece out of line, I'll have to do another, then another and I'll end up having to redo the whole thing! I'll see how it goes...
UVs / Construction - yes all the textures are tiled, except the windows. I'm not sure if UDK supports 2nd UV channels on a mesh so that I can add dirt maps or in the polish stage maybe I can use alpha planes to add localised dirt and wear. It's a bit harder to do that in the main diffuse and not have a noticeable tiling dirt patch everywhere. The textures definitely are unfinished at the moment though, yes. I'll be adding a bit more wear and variation to the roof tiles especially.
As far as colours go, that reference image I posted was more for modelling ref. than colour. That particular comic cover has been tinted so it's very monochrome. In the comics, which I have the whole collection on my desk as reference, the house is generally quite 'natural' looking and neutral in colour. It does tend to change colour dramatically from book to book depending on the lighting at the time of day (there are a lot of night time shots), so it's hard to pin down exactly what colour to make it. If you check out Victorian houses, particularly 'stick style' which Key House closely resembles, they range from very neutral and grey tones to very vivid colours. So I think my options are fairly open on colour scheme. I will probably tone down the purple of the roof a bit and maybe darken the wood panels and stone walls a touch too. It's been a while since I used it but I seem to remember things turning out several shades lighter in the Unreal Engine?
Thanks again for the feedback and yes Locke & Key is a very cool book, definitely worth reading.
I'm pretty happy with it now, time to go into UDK and add all the normal/spec maps etc.