Modular Environment- Steampunk Inspired

Rabant · Jan 2014

Hey Guys and Gals,
I've been tinkering for awhile on projects but never taken any seriously. So with the start of the year I decided to take a short sabbatical of a couple of months and work on some pieces to fill out a portfolio. I figure its time to chase down the dream

The first project that I am working on is a modular environment that I want to put into UDK. I feel like this is a lofty goal but one that I will learn a lot of useful skills. I have never done anything outside of a few side projects, so much of this environment work is new to me.

I am looking for lots of honest crits of my work, the goal of me taking time off of work is to work on my skills and hopefully get a little more exposure to the art community at large. So any input is of great value to me

So to kick it off, here are a bunch of images of what I already have started on. These are all just screen capped from the Maya view port for now. I really haven't gotten much in the way of texture done yet as I am in a real groove on sculpting and I want to run with that until I need a break from it. These are all low poly with Normal Maps attached.

This one is being redone, I only include it to show what I am going for with the texture styling.

Thanks again for any crits that you have for me and I look forward to showing more of my work on a fairly frequent basis.

Dimfist · Jan 2014

I think its a good start. The stone is throwing me off though. It looks more like clay. I think if you made the edges a little more solid, and maybe tone down on the noise a bit it would define it better.
Where's the steampunk parts? I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Rabant · Jan 2014

So when you mention making the edges a little more solid, do you mean sharper edges? Part of it might be that I just threw a Phong shader on so help bring out the Normal map details. I can turn down the noise on them, I have just had in the past a problem with not having my details as noticeable and got lost when I get a diffuse on the model.
The steampunk parts are coming. I am working on the basic section first before I start adding more elements (hero pieces and variance).
Thanks for the feed back Dimfist!

Rabant · Jan 2014

Alright, so not much new to post tonight, but I think that I am solving the problem with my cement looking too much like clay. Let me know if these are a little better. Its still very WIP at this moment.

Tomorrow I should have a tile able brick texture up and running and possibly some other new wall segments as well

/edit - can't type tonight....

Rabant · Jan 2014

Alright, so after about a day of working in Mudbox I had come up with this.

I didn't like it and I was super frustrated. Mostly because I didn't have the knowledge that I had needed to produce what was in my head. So I spent a little time, watched some videos and read a few articles and in a fraction of the time, this is what I came up with this evening.

I like these results much better. It looks a lot more like stone and has a lot more detail in it. The only downside is that I now have to go back to my previous sculpts and apply my new knowledge to them, just to bring them up to that next notch. This is what I was going for in the first place, so I am glad that I got there

Rabant · Feb 2014

So I have spent the last couple of days learning a bunch of new things and wrapping up the sculpts on this pillar. So first up will be the final High Poly sculpts from Mudbox.

So again, I feel that I learn a lot of new techniques and these pieces reflect that from what I have previously done on this project.

Next up, here are some screen shots in Maya viewport of the Low poly with the Normal Map and AO applied as a diffuse map.

I'm quite happy with how the Normal maps turned out. This was the first time that I had really worked from a pretty detailed High Poly, so it was also a learning curve for retopology as well. The only thing that I am not entirely sold on is the gears. I used a flat cylinder as floating geometry to help make that area pop, but I wanted to try and keep poly count as low as possible, so I didn't sculpt out the edge spoke parts.

The next step of learn was to get this all into UDK. I have very basic knowledge of how to use UDK, so I am sure that I am going to miss a lot of things. Here is the pillar in UDK with a Normal Map applied and the AO map as a diffuse map.

This one has some weird artifacts going on with the interior of the I-beam that didn't show up in Maya....So I'm not sure what is causing that. The other challenge that I had, was learning how to UV map with smoothing groups. The way that I had everything set up in Maya was great, it displayed well and I was happy with it. As I exported it to UDK, it was completely off. So after reading up I realized that I needed to have separate Smoothing groups for each UV island, which is what I ended up doing for these screen shots. It did leave some undesirable lighting issues like in this image.

#1- This is the edge of my UV island and it generates these seams, which I understand is unavoidable, however, is this something that tends to be masked when you add a proper diffuse and spec map?
#2- For some reason, UDK does not want to represent the Normal map in the same way that Maya does for soft edges on the bottom part of structure. So right now I have everything with hard edges on this part, its displaying properly but I am losing a lot of the edge detailing due to it being a hard edge normal. Is this something that is pretty normal when working from a 3D app to a game engine? If so, that's okay, I can work with this and find work arounds or just really make the diffuse pop, but if there is something that I am missing, I'd like to know

Oh and what is a safe Poly count for an environment piece. I know it can vary, but there should be a safe target. Currently this piece is approx 4000 triangles. Is that too much?

Thanks for reading this quite lengthy post, and as always, I am looking for any feedback or critiques.:poly136:

Mr Significant · Feb 2014

So generally sculpt look good!

1. You cannot hide it in Diffuse and especially with spec. This will pop even more. It's something with your smoothgroups and maybe padding.

2. It's UDK

Are you made a second UV channel for that?

4k polys for that? Where? Show us the wire.

Rabant · Feb 2014

Here is the wires. Now this is 3 separate objects as I plan on re using with other pieces throughout the building my environment. In total its about 4K. I know there is a bit of trimming down I can do, but probably about 100-200 triangles accross the 3 meshes.

I also included a shot of the Normal Map with the UV map overlayed to hopefully illuminate a problem there if there is one.

And are you saying that I need to make a 2nd UV channel for the normal map in UDK?

Thanks for the feedback Mr Significant!

JustGarry · Feb 2014

The second UV map in UDK is a lightmap that your shadows get baked onto, so not really to do with the normal map but if you dont have a separate UV map then you will have issues with lighting and dodgey shadows. Hope this helps.

Mr Significant · Feb 2014

http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/udk/udk-lightmaps-01-basics-and-important-principles-for-creating-using-lightmaps.php

Here ^^

You can go down with the number of polys on that column.

Rabant · Mar 2014

Hey its been awhile since I have updated this. Mostly due to the fact that I have been making small strides and overcoming obstacles. However, I have finally started to make what seems like a lot of progress. Here is what I have so far:

I do have some more issues to figure out with lightmaps. I also have to work a little more on my knowledge base for Spec maps. If anyone has a link to any good resources for Spec maps, I am all for it.

Let me know what you think, or any issues that you see. I plan on making more regular updates as this project is starting to head down the home stretch for me.

Thanks in advance.

Heretic Interactive · Mar 2014

Hey, this may be a bit late but thought I'd suggest. Originally you said you wanted those pillars to be stone, but I'm not sure where the I beam comes into play then, as stone pillars would just be solid stone. Now it might be concrete pillars, if that is the case I suggest finding more reference photos of rubble and concrete pillars, as it currently does not read right. Generally construction would be rebar inside with the concrete formed on the outside. Concrete also breaks and erodes in fairly distinctive ways. Keep up the good work!

Rabant · Mar 2014

Hey Heretic, its never too late to make the change! Yah somewhere between the sculpt and the texture I changed in my mind that I wanted it to be cement, but it didn't dawn on me to reevaluate the sculpt. I'll take a look at it and make adjustments after a step away from it for a bit and work on other assets.
Thanks for the feedback

Rabant · Mar 2014

Alright, here is the weekends progress. I more or less finished up a brick archway. There is still a little tweaking when it comes to the Spec map, but otherwise its pretty much finished unless there is something glaring that I missed.
As always, I look forward to feedback and criticism.

Rabant · Mar 2014

Small update today. I just blocked out the building in UDK. I came up with the concept mostly in my head and had only made small sketches of overall form and details of some individual objects, so having this blockout finally helps put the picture together. Next project I will not be working this way. I will have a solid concept first. Some of the items need some updates to them (lousy lightmaps) and others are just place holders. I did a little paint over for the objects that I did not care to block out in UDK itself.
As always, I'm open to feedback

Zersixs · Mar 2014

Hi Rabant, amazing building! I do think you need to fix the textures on the pillars though, it kinda looks like it's wood over the concrete. Nice overall

Rabant · Mar 2014

Thanks for the feedback Zersixs. Yah those front pillars have been nothing but troubles for me. As Heretic pointed out, the sculpt is off. I need to revisit them soon, I just spent a bunch of time on them that I want to nail down a few other things before heading back to them.

Here is today's progress. I finished up the platform that the trees/plants are going to be on on the second level. I did touch up the upper pillar texture, but you really can't see it from here. I'm not really showing it because I'm not sure if they are going to stay or if I am going to revamp them as well.

And here it is in the block out.

Thanks for the taking a peek and thanks again for any feedback/crits that you guys/gals may have.

Modular Environment- Steampunk Inspired

Replies