UE4 Environment - Warhammer Gothic Cathedral - Feedback and crits needed
interpolator
Last Update
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Hi guys!
Thought it would be time for me to tackle a bigger environment project; and it sounded like a pretty cool occasion to pay a tribute to a universe i loved when i was younger; Warhammer 40K!
So i got my hand on a Gothic KitBash and already started the overall composition; trying to look for a interesting point of view and architecture; and would greatly appreciate feedbacks! It will be a long lasting project, since i am currently also busy looking for a new job; but i will (ho god how many people said that before, including me) hopefully finish it.
The big green guys will be huge space marines statue, the focus point being probably that guy on the left. I also thought about keeping some props on the foreground for a nice feel of scale.
So far the building itself look like this:
I realize there probably isn't much to say yet but posting already is a good old trick to push me to continue on that project hehe..
Cheers!
--------------------
Hi guys!
Thought it would be time for me to tackle a bigger environment project; and it sounded like a pretty cool occasion to pay a tribute to a universe i loved when i was younger; Warhammer 40K!
So i got my hand on a Gothic KitBash and already started the overall composition; trying to look for a interesting point of view and architecture; and would greatly appreciate feedbacks! It will be a long lasting project, since i am currently also busy looking for a new job; but i will (ho god how many people said that before, including me) hopefully finish it.
The big green guys will be huge space marines statue, the focus point being probably that guy on the left. I also thought about keeping some props on the foreground for a nice feel of scale.
So far the building itself look like this:
I realize there probably isn't much to say yet but posting already is a good old trick to push me to continue on that project hehe..
Cheers!
Replies
I took the time to work a bit on the definitive mesh for the pillars and benches:
Also started to do huge hanging incensors, to have sweet VFX slowly touching the ground (typical: already day dreaming about how i'll tweak the VFX when i am in the early grey box phase)
I still gotta a balcony hallway on the top, and much more, but step by step! First, balcony and windows.
About these windows; i started to draw some rough idea for the stained glass; i wanted to go for something with the iconic double headed imperial eagle:
Still really rough (i hate these derpy lill faces)
That's all for the moment!
Slowly advanced in cleaning the blocking and finishing the main structure!
Will soon be able to work on the statues and probably block the lighting already..
(Really) slowly but steadily i have cleaned the blocking around, and got rid of that weird wall and door in the middle of the curch!
I also started to work on the statues details. One of them will feature a sword/shield space marine, the other a more priest looking one with probably a hanging incensor in one of his hand.
I wanted to keep working a bit on something else than unwrapping UVs so i started working on the floor material; and get the perfect vertex painted material to leave some blood stains on the floor next to the still-to-come space dead space marines:
Hope you like it, i look forward to any feedback or thing to improve! It's a pretty simple shader but if you wanna see some details about it i will post some more.
Continued that scene bit; so far i still can't work on it during week end (PC reasons) but i managed to get first lighting in there.
I am a bit struggling with the overall architecture tho, could benefit for a bunch of feedbacks from you guys! Here is the current situation:
Tried to remove some of the support pillars/ arch on the side to break the monotony a thad, even tried adding some balcony there too (of course not the final pieces)
I know that having the statues, dead bodies and also candles everywhere will help but i feel like the base structure could be a bit more interesting.
Got to model some interesting stairs on the side and also a "pulpit" (had to google that one) on the side, this kind of thing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulpit
Don't mind the lighting i will go back on it when i am 100 sure of the overall layout
Gotta ginish the hands and stomach cables. I ll try to be done with the statues by this week to move on the modular and lighting!
Also quickely made some purity seals (typical w40k stuff: https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Purity_seal )
To paint all around the cathedral with the foliage tool
I am working on the lighting a bit, fun times!! I am slowly getting a mood i like, still not sure about which option to go for: small candles batches or just lighting up these sides alleys in warm contrasting colors:
Of course bakes are not final i will definitely increase these light bounces. I like the intensity of the candles spots on the first image but they somehow feel too random..
I kept playing around with the candles and actually might ended up being a bit... Heavy on the candle lighting haha but i really like the contrasting lighting it gives me!
Started to add Marvelous designer carpets and unwrapping all of these UV for the first texturing pass.
Got a bit excited with the little purity seals; i made a shader to have the text and paper change differently depending on the position of the mesh. That, combined with the 3 mesh variations used with the foliage tool will give me enough variations when painting them on the walls.
Sorry for the slow updates; i really keep this project as my side little pleasure out of work, and to be honest i am pretty happy about continuing at my pace even if finally getting to the core of texturing and lighting makes me wanna rush it more than before!
@switz Usually i do a big blockout scene in maya; all in one piece, just to try some fast iteration but pretty quickly i split my pieces in "modular" parts, it gives me a better control on the overall scene (moving the stairs around or the pillars order) and on the lightmap resolution of course; but i keep these parts big enough so that rebuilding the scene isn't too annoying (in my case the overal architecture being super simple it's really not an issue):
EDIT: forgot to mention to everything is snapped on a grid (4m for most)
Some pieces are still pretty big and absolutely not modular like the central parts..
@sirHelix Thanks a lot!! Yeah it's a nice reference too whenever it comes to gothic/dark architecture
It's way past my level of complexity or scope to give any technical feedback, other than to say it looks great so far and looking forward to see it progress
I only have a basic knowledge of Warhammer from a brief attempt at painting the models some years ago. The Warhammer world has amazing creatures and designs. I used to love looking at the magazines with the amazing painted models by the talented artists in the community.
The space marine is looking great! That alone would be a whole project for me
Yeah i am not even that much into warhammer myself recently, but painted soooo many of these small guys as a kid, had to pay a tribute to it!!
I got a bit scared by making a full space marine on top of the environment but i hope it will bring some "human scale" to the project. I am currently working on their weapons, and finished the statues already!
Still thinking about adding an incensor to the right guy's hand
Just gotta texture them in stone then re use the base mesh for the dead bodies.
Started to work on it again, got nice updates on UV unfolding (took me craaazy long time, should really have get these first rough UV before modelling the details and duplicating..) Next BIG step is the trim sheet and finally finishing these lamps and dead bodies!
Also id some quick texturing on the weapons for the dead space marines on the ground and also one of the two statues:
I would really appreciate hash critiques on the environment composition and lighting!
View from the choir:
You can still see the default cube of first person example map of UE, i like to keep the FPS prefab working to walk around in my scene and have fun, i even changed the gun to a bolter
Thanks for reading!
After receiving pretty nice feedback i totally gave up on static lighting (up, goodbye baking) and re started everything in full dynamic!! (below)
What do you guys think? Still a loooot to tweak i'm even more of a newbie in dynamic lighting than static
I reworked the lighting to try to get this high contrast feel again! Also had some teture work going on on the marines and the new benches.
Got a bit more work to do on the dead marines in term of texturing but slowly getting there!
Still left to go (before the never ending polish phase) :
-Finish the encensors
-Finish the choir area
-Finish the trimsheet
-VFX : i really wanna add embers and smokes from the encensors!
As always i look forward to hear your feedbacks, it would greatly help me
@Vexod14 Thanks so much! Dude i followed your star wars fan project, craaaazy stuff you did there
As i was working on getting these walls texture and UV better and polishing the lighting, i decided to also try a totally different lighting to deal with the lack of focal point issue i had!
First a look at the walls: the texture is probably not definitive but i will go for something smooth and thin joints like it.
And finally... Behold... My other lighting test: I would have to break up the ceiling to make a huuuuge light shaft in the middle!
And the first broken ceiling test: definitely needs to check reference of broken ceiling and cathedrals...
After taking a pretty long break i thought it was time to finish my church!
So when i looked again with fresh eyes i bumped into the same issue i had before: lack of focal point. I like the solution i was going for: BREAKING STUFF...
But i decided to go for something more central to avoid having the stained glass (that are not stained at all so far) to get most of the attention.
So after playing around with Houdini (Crazy piece of software!!! A friend guided me through it, which really helped me. At first glance it's pretty scary
Of course you will notice still a lot of things to fix, i will focus on:
-cleaning the broken statue mesh
-cleaning the broken floor mesh
-BREAK THE BENCHES (2 or 3 variations)
-Polish the tiling textures.
-Make the statues base
And for the pleasure of your eyes; a satisfying GIF of how i scientifically and really accurately proceeded to break the statue:
Also fewer breaks would more easily show off the work you put into sculpting the statue. Like how the David replica statue on the left (see below:) still generally looks like a David replica even in rubble form.
In my mind, your 'thicc' space marine wouldn't have that many weak points though, and would probably break more like the statue on the right (see below:).
Thanks that s totally true!! I think I got a bit overexcited with breaking stuff indeed haha; when I first tried that scene setup I tried by simply laying the “broken” statue on the ground and it was way easier to read indeed