W.I.P Medieval Scene - Learning Modularity/Vertex Paint

EliotG · Jan 2013

Update (Copy of latest post)

Made a bunch of progress since I last posted here. Getting towards the end now, and I'm hoping for some feedback! Still got a bunch of stuff to finish as I'm sure you can see. It's my first 'sizeable' environment, and I'm using it to practice modular workflow and mesh paint.

Here's some shots, and a little look-around video.

Any thoughts or advice greatly appreciated, big or small!

[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMUEoCB0vl8"]Snowtown walkthrough - YouTube[/ame]

~~~~~~~~~~Old post~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi everyone!

I've started a new UDK project, the purpose of which is to create a realistic-looking scene while learning my way around vertex painting and modularity, things I've never really explored before.

It will be a snow-covered medieval town scene, probably erring a little on the fantasy side of things. I'll be updating my thread regularly to show how it's going.

Any advice or feedback you guys can offer me along the way is greatly appreciated

Snow Shader

Firstly I've spent quite some time looking at resources around the web to help me construct a snow shader for vertex painting. I cobbled together some quick test textures to use with it. It works using heightmaps for a more realistic transition, snow bunching up in cracks and crevices, etc.

Blocking Out Designs

In terms of modularity, so far I haven't built any actual game meshes, however I've been blocking out building designs in 3ds Max. The goal is that each major segment of a building (ground floor, roof...) should snap together so I can mix and match them. Then smaller parts like doors and windows, where possible, will also be modelled separately so they can be placed in various positions on the building segments.

I'm finding it quite challenging coming up with good designs while keeping things snapping together in power-of-two dimensions, but here's what I have currently:

Thanks for taking a look, let me know what you think so far!

PhoenixWolf · Jan 2013

love the snow looks legit keep it going cant wait to see the whole structure

JoshWilkinson · Jan 2013

Do you have Batman Arkham City? It's a UDK game showing bunched up snow applied with vertex paint all over the streets. Very cool stuff to study

EliotG · Jan 2013

Thanks PhoenixWolf, I was quite surprised at how well it turned out myself! I'll keep at it for sure.

As for Arkham City, no I don't have that - but I can see what you mean from some screenshots. Looks pretty cool, I'll see if I can get my hands on it. Would be great to compare with my work. Thanks for the heads-up!

ASGUARDVIKING · Jan 2013

Hey dude, The houses look nice man and the snow vertex shading is quite awesome. Ill have to look into it and see how it works and if it can benefit my workflow. Keep it up man!!

EliotG · Jan 2013

Thanks, appreciate the vote of confidence! It would be cool to see what you do with it, I've learnt a lot reading up about it. Try looking at Chris Albeluhn's vertex painting guide, it was very useful for me.

Owl · Jan 2013

I think its a good start. The thing about creating good modular sets is to make a solid set of modular pieces that you can do 80% of the work with, which, looking at your stuff for buildings now, I think you're headed in the right direction.

Then, make one-off stuff to break up the modularity of it all with the last remaining 20% of work.

So create you general modular "lego" house pieces so that you can build out stuff faster, but then take time to make a unique wall/tower/roof/chimney/window/blacksmith forge... Whatever you want to break up the modularity of it all.

The important thing about modularity to remember is that modular sets are just there to help you create a lot of content faster and also to gain a sense of continuity across your level, but the level should still feel like a "world" So don't make modularity look like modularity. Take time to make your one-off props to make buildings feel different from each other.

Another thing is that when you build your modular set first, its' good, because often you can kitbash off of your modular set to quickly create your one-off walls/roofs/whatever....

Just a little food for thought. It's looking good!

Keep going!

EliotG · Mar 2013

Thanks for the feedback Owl! Sorry I took so long updating/getting back to you, suffered some delays over the past few weeks so I had to pause my project, but I'm back now. I've tried to incorporate your advice into the first real building pieces I've been modelling, it's been a great help, saved quite a bit of time so far too

So here's a bit of progress for you all, moving onto actual game meshes now. Here I've got a few variations of the same basic building structure so far. Not quite finished yet, but getting there:

EliotG · May 2013

Update

Made a bunch of progress since I last posted here. Getting towards the end now, and I'm hoping for some feedback! Still got a bunch of stuff to finish as I'm sure you can see. It's my first 'sizeable' environment, and I'm using it to practice modular workflow and mesh paint.

Here's some shots, and a little look-around video.

Any thoughts or advice greatly appreciated, big or small!

[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMUEoCB0vl8"]Snowtown walkthrough - YouTube[/ame]

Let me know what you think

Mr Smo · May 2013

looks brilliant!

I think the sky could be darker though, if its snowing. Also the wood looks a bit light, I dont know if they covered them in animal fat or what ever but the wood would either be water proofed somewhat or wet, which would mean darker wood. but not too much!

I like the subtle swaying of the lamps, maybe a bit more movement in the little flags could help aswell.

Looking forward to the next update

EliotG · May 2013

Hi Mr Smo, thanks for the comments!

Yeah I see what you mean about the sky and the wood. I've been meaning to look into doing a skybox too, I definitely want to make my own one. I'll see what I can do!

sybrix · May 2013

This looks great, awesome progression here. Aside from the sky, which has already been pointed out as not matching the weather, one thing that also sticks out to me is the lightning. I don't know if you've messed with it yet, but your shadows are very harsh and dark making the scene very contrasty and it hides some of your nice details. Your snow effect is well done, but it's very dense and is cluttering up the scene a bit in your presentation shots, adding a lot of noise in some areas.

Looking forward to seeing more!

EliotG · May 2013

Hi sybrix!

Thanks for the thoughts and feedback, really helpful

I've been working on the scene and taking your comments into account. I definitely see what you mean about the lighting, I think that might also be partly because I've messed with the colour settings with a Post Process volume, though I definitely need to look into the lighting itself too. I'll be posting up an update as soon as I can get more free time!

W.I.P Medieval Scene - Learning Modularity/Vertex Paint

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