My Gears of War environment

AXEL · Dec 2015

Hello,
I'm new here. And this looks like a cool place to be

Anyway I'm currently making a Gears of War environment in UE4 based on this concept below by John Liberto.

I think I've seen this level in the game, could someone remind me what it's called ?

Here are some pieces I've done so far

Since I've been using ZBrush for only 2,5 months this piece is giving me problems
Here is my attempt

And here is the insanely good reference

What's the best way to learn to do realistic damage and scratches in ZBrush ?
Any feedback welcome !

Jack M. · Dec 2015

What I would use is lots of orbs cracks brushes to do that kind of damage. Although I wouldn't exactly call that realistic damage, it is very interesting.

Ultimately you really just need to analyze what makes Kevin Johnstone's work the way it is.

The first thing that comes to mind for me is long thin gouges. That's a large part of the look of the mesh. The metal also has a lot of dents in it but not uniformly so over the entire mesh. The main part of the door has no dents while the frame does. This gives the feeling that the frame was made to be hollow to save money on manufacturing. These are some things you need to think of and analyze in order to replicate the mesh.

That said you can also think about what's lacking there or what can be improved. For example I think there isn't enough difference between the metal damage and concrete damage to give each it's own identity. The concrete is also very obviously mirrored and it's a little off-putting.

Hope that helps

AXEL · Dec 2015

Hey Jack,
Thank you very much for everything.
Seems like games design and 3D artists are crazy when it comes to careful, complex planing, paying attention to every single detail, have a story about every dent, scratch etc

AXEL · Jan 2016

I had to finish this up as the evil deadline came.
Here is what I made:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/k4/78t183uid658.png

I went a little bit away from the concept as I felt that there is no need just to ctrl+c;ctrl+v the concept.

I will redo some parts of the environment such as lighting, ceiling, fixing that junk pile in front of the door and adding more interesting props.

Anyways hope you like it and I'm eagerly waiting for some useful critique

Thank you!

edit: why are there little pictures after my post ? how can I remove them ?

Cglewis · Jan 2016

I think its a good start...but as for critique ... it is really hard to give you one since you are so far off the concept.....i feel if you are trying to rein it back in to what the concept is depicting start with the lighting and dirty everything up. Really look at the concept and note the details of the architecture that really make this gears of war is that Gothic architecture, this scene feels very modern, clean and bright.

AXEL · Jan 2016

Thank you for the feedback CGLEWIS!
I was struggling with lighting as having less light made darker areas completely black and unrealistic and just basically ugly.
I don't really know how to make dark areas dark while still having some light in them

Is there some awesome ue4 dark lighting tutorials I have missed ?
Now I'm going to make a dark, dirty more damaged version of the scene, more closer to concept art atmosphere.

HughieDM · Jan 2016

As lewis said it is a good start.. I think you have your scale of the objects within the scene correct, but the lighting is to bright and happy. Your lighting is to blue you need it to be warmer or more yellow. Also you lighting fills the stairs while in the concept it comes from a sky light, the windows from the door atop the stairs and wholes in the ceiling. Dont spend to much time on the lighting just yet though, your lighting will also be effected by your assets. You need to get the colors of the concept correctly into your assets, that will effect the bounce lighting that will fill you scene.

Another thing I notice is you build your assets generally and go strait to micro detail. You should take more time in creating each piece of the scene. I like to think about how the scale of a scene is broken down. large <> medium <> small. Right now your scene is large <> small, and your large detail is just basic blocking out that have no character to them.

Take the vase and pedestal for an example. The ones you created look lumpy and basic. You should find a good real world reference and try to recreate that for your scene, but focus on large <> medium <> small. I find that if I try to create something without some sort of reference I end up with boring nondescript work.

Good luck and keep it up!

My Gears of War environment

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