Environment in need of constructive critique

deod116 · Sep 2014

Hi!

This is an environment i started working on a while ago, i never finished it then, i just got to the point where i was so sick and tired of it and almost abandoned my abandoned environment.

The idea for this environment was "abandoned communication base in Russia", so i wanted some pre communistic feel to it, and overgrown with graffiti and vegetation

This is where i started working on the environment (from the stage where i last worked on it)

And this is the current stage

I'm using cryengine for this project, and i wonder if anyone have some nice tips or tutorials for post process effects. And critique in general would be very appreciated.

Cheers!

fearian · Sep 2014

What you have so far looks very solid - it would be a shame to call it quits now!

I feel like your environment is lacking in atmosphere at the moment. Lighting looks like work-lighting with not much thought put in. I definitely get a south american communist military base vibe, but not so much the Soviet feel. I think this is because of the warm colours, the sunny lighting and high constrast shadows.

sit down with some of your favourite films and skip around to some nice looking exterior shots that fit the mood of what you picture in your head. Take some screengabs and use it as a lighting and colour guide.

Personally when I imagine a soviet base, I think of cool colours contrasted with deep red iconography and warning lights.
This is heavily influenced by hollywood films and cheesy games, but you get the idea.

Swarm22 · Sep 2014

Take a look at Call of Duty Black Ops. If I remember correctly there are quite a few russian base type environments just like this. Might give you some ideas/inspiration. I really like what you have so far.

Robbie222 · Sep 2014

Looks very good!

Maybe it's just me ...but the concrete in the first pic seems too noisy.

Also like mentioned above the you could try tone down the shadows contrast.

fearian · Sep 2014

I think the concrete seems too noisy because it is very plain, with only high frequency detail. It needs another pass with medium res details to break things up!

deod116 · Sep 2014

Thanks for the feedback and the comments! I made some changes to the lightning, the light is more dimmed and the shadows is lighter, does it get the feel of abandoned? I could do a color correction too.

I din't see the last posts when i made the changes tho, but i will look in to Black ops and see what i can find, Do you have any examples maybe, because I never played the game haha..

I want to fix the concrete, but got any tips on how? Is it a good idea to make a decal and lay it over or do i have to redo some of the textures?

So this is what i got right now..in the right direction?

Xazas · Sep 2014

I like it quite a lot.

I'd maybe look into the placement of the cracks in the parking lot more, I assume they're done with vertex painting? The cracks itself look nice but the placement seems a bit to random and a little to much maybe.

Maybe put a stipped down rusted car or truck in the parking lot.

Also maybe some of the cables could've falle of the poles and lie half on the ground.

deod116 · Sep 2014

Thanks! The cracks are all decals, i will make them more sensible. Yea that's a good idea with the poles, will do ^^ The stripped car would be really cool to add, i will see what i can do with that tho.

unity3dcoder · Sep 2014

The broken down car or truck is a good idea and would be the ideal place to reinforce the Soviet feel with logos etc. If you want it to look like a cold environment maybe add frost/ice, a few icicles or snow patches. I think you need to increase the overgrown vegetation too, eg. there would be lots of grass growing through the cracks in the parking lot. Finally, not graphics-related but I would also add a howling wind audio effect.

Roxxor · Sep 2014

Looking very good. My only critique is that the steps leading up to the main building look like they still have a default gray applied to them. Is this intentional? If they are supposed to be concrete it doesn't look convincing enough.

DWalker · Sep 2014

Some of the textures - especially those on the roof & the white tower - have fairly obvious tiling issues.

The brick/stucco texture looks rather forced at the moment. Fewer transitions might look better.

deod116 · Sep 2014

unity3dcoder:
Some mossy cracks would be nice, just have to make them blend in the asphalt together with some grass. Any food tips on how to make stuff like that? Thanks!

Roxxor:
Thanks!! Yea the stairs is not textured yet. ^^

DWalker:
I tried to brake up the tower with some decals and a detailmap, I added some decals on the roofs to, but they got a rally weak effect, will try some other stuff too.
I really want to remake the architecture textures, i made them in a very dumb way, so mby some vertexpaing on them would do. What is the best way to make it better?

Thanks again people!

This is what i got now..

http://puu.sh/bwo9H/ceaeb02d8d.jpg

iconoplast · Sep 2014

The parking lot is good overall, but as mentioned before the cracks need some attention. Right now you've got large sections with a lot of cracks and then sections with no cracks, and real asphalt doesn't work that way. Also, plants will grow in every ccrack in asphalt every chance they get. I once lived in a townhouse where the entire yard was covered in asphalt, and one crack grew 5 foot tall weeds along the length of it in less than 2 months. You don't have to go that extreme, but if a parking lot has cracks and no one's pulled plants out for more than a few months there absolutely will be stuff growing. A great resource on that front, especially given your subject, would be photos from Pripyat (the city next to the Chernobyl plant).

My overall take: what's the story? Why is this place here? Which people are around, and what do they do while they're there? How long has it been around? Abandoned places are never totally empty (urban explorers and the homeless would be the most likely candidates for visitors). How long has it been abandoned? 3 years looks very different compared to 30. Why are no windows broken?

As far as the lighting goes, the biggest problem I see is that you've got very sharp defined shadows and a pretty cloudy sky. On a cloudy day there's almost no shadow information and there's definitely not anything well-defined. The lighting is definitely that of a sunny day and your sky isn't. You can change either one, but most people who have never been there tend to think of former Soviet countries as being very gray and dismal, so sunny would be harder to make convincing. You can also go for the sun breaking through the clouds, but in those cases the sunlight is generally pretty weak still.

deod116 · Sep 2014

Really nice input! I looked around for references of Pripyat and Chernobyl and found out how not to do in future projects. Like planing better for cracks in the asphalt, to make a better transition between the cracks and the asphalt. It didn't really work with just making a decal. Because it looked just bad having a decal and foliage on it. Definitely something i will think of in my next environment!

I Played around in the sky tools in cryengine and made a more brownish atmosphere, I'm really bad at setting a mood haha, but i did my best..

I wanted it to feel like it was abandoned for like 10 years or something, but a well visited place. I should maybe add some spray cans and bottles laying around, a fire place?

Wen it comes to shadows, is it all ambient or does it cast shadows if it's a big object in the way of the sun direction?

shubham kumar · Sep 2014

looking bit non realistic add more props water on surface and garbage,anyway nice work

DWalker · Sep 2014

I'd tone down the cracks in the asphalt - make them a dark gray rather than pure black. Also, make sure they're in the normal map - they are wide enough that the edges should be affected by lighting.

deod116 · Sep 2014

like this?

http://puu.sh/bBpef/a65e0c0daf.jpg

Environment in need of constructive critique

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