Here is the final cinematic for this environment, I used two different camera in kismet which pan around the scene moving throughout. I have added music to the scene and overall I am happy with how it looks, I focused on the interior which is what I wanted.
I feel I achieved what I wanted with the lighting, I like the transitions between the indoor and outdoor, the illuminated signs, table lighting, monitor lighting give the scene a nice 'cool' feeling from the inside then going to the outside you get a 'warmer' feeling from the sun light.
As far as texturing and materials go I wish I could have spent more time on these and set backs with light mapping and UV mapping made things worse, however I feel the scene does look realistic, I worked on making the wood and metal look good using specular maps and normal maps, with the metal I particularly used cube maps to create reflection on the floors.
As for dynamic elements I would have liked to add more to the scene such as a wind simulator and animated monitors however I feel the ceiling fans rotating as small as they are do help the scene out a lot rather that it being a static environment.
I am fast approaching the end of this project now and I am making some final adjustments to my materials and lighting as well as the exterior elements in my scene.
My idea was to focus on the interior section of the environment however due to the fact the back of the tavern is open I had to add a small exterior environment, I knew the cinematic wouldn't focus much on this so the quality of this area didn't matter too much as long as the interior looked good. So I created the bridge and the terrain myself, using vertex painting to blend two ground textures together, however the rest of the assets on the exterior were taken from UDK, the grass, rocks and water shader. The aim was to have an entrance which comes to the bridge then the tavern, with a river flowing under the bridge and large rocks surrounding the whole area so I can keep the scene enclosed.
Now I have reach the Alpha stage my next milestone is the final presentation and cinematic. So my focus is on improving the textures, materials, lighting, and polishing the environment.
But first I have re-evaluated my original plan since light mapping took longer than expected and here is the new version from week 9 and onwards, as you can see I have devoted a week to get light mapping complete and from the feedback I got from my alpha presentation the first thing I needed to do is get a lighting pass complete, this is one of the things I really dislike about UDK and looking back at it now I wish I worked with another engine such as CryEngine, light mapping takes far too long and is a lot of hassle and is something I could have done without.
However now this is done I have been working on improving my textures and materials to create a much more realistic scene, with the next week or two this should be complete and I can then finalise lighting and my cinematic sequence.
I'm at the alpha stage and my scene now has a basic texture pass, basic lighting and everything is set up correctly.
All of my normal maps will be created using nDo2 and Crazybump the reason behind this is high poly creation in Maya will take too long at this stage and these programs allow me to change a photo or selections in Photoshop into high detail normal map and these are especially good for hard surface assets which I have a lot of in my scene.
I need to look at the cinematic tools in UDK further, currently I have been using one camera that moves around the scene, however what I need is a director group that goes from one camera to another allowing better cinematic shots for my showreel.
To add on to my dynamic elements in my scene, I currently have the fans rotating but if I want to further this then I will need to do research in animating materials for my monitor and a wind simulator.
I also need to look into what music to add to the cinematic, I am currently thinking about soundtracks used in games, and I will see if I can find one from Defiance that works well with the scene.
This week I have added my first texture pass in, basic
colours that represent how the scene will look like at this stage instead of
the of a grey coloured scene. So from this stage I can work on the textures and
improve them working off the base texture, but for the purpose of the alpha
stage this needed to be done.
I have began to experiment with dynamic elements that I want
to add to the scene, beginning with the fans rotating. My idea is to have them
continually rotating around and it was quite simple to implement, going in the
settings and adding a movement to the fans.
I have also adding my first lighting elements, by adding
point lights to the scene where needed, such as around the TV screens, entrance
light, audio hub and table light as well as adjusting the directional sun
light. These are just place holders at the moment and will be improved at a
later stage by using the static mesh as a light source, using emissive maps to
create that effect.
I have altered the exterior area slightly using different UDK
rocks, and instead of leaving a space on the right side to allow another exit
out of the area, I have decided to add rocks around this area leaving one exit
where the bridge is which makes better sense and means I can keep the scene
more enclosed.
Currently I have left the landscape plane with a grass
texture on it however I will be making a more complex material at a later stage
which will involve vertex painting, blending textures together and adding some
grass planes to the scene to give it some depth. However the important thing
here is I want to not spend too much time working on the outside area and focus
on the inside because this is the most important area of the scene for me, but
the quality of the scene must be consistent.
This week I have been moving away from the block out and
making the transitions to making these assets game ready, improving them,
cleaning them up and UV mapping them. I began with starting with the prop
assets such as the speakers, chairs, table and so on, leaving the walls,
floors, ceiling areas for next week.
I began looking for inspiration looking at
post apocalyptic concept art, however I noticed these where very grungy and too
wrecked, I had to find the right balance between sci-fi and post apocalyptic, I
looked further into where the concept was from and found it has been used in a
game called Defiance. A smaller version of the crater tavern but the right
style I am aiming for which will help.
·Asset List Breakdown
I broke down the whole scene and made a big
list of assets, there are around 30 altogether, and many of these are
duplicated and reused in places but quite a lot of unique models are in there, going back to why I chose this scene, it was because I wanted to work on some generic props that are usually created in games all the time such as tables, monitors, payphones, ceiling fans, barriers, something that shows I can create these kind of assets well, but have a small scene within this for a good portfolio piece.
Here is an example of my asset plan, I have used the list of assets above but expanded on it, trying to estimate how long they may take, this not only allows me to keep track of my progress but also I can use this as a check list and see if I need to modify the times at a later stage.
The Plan
At this stage I have create a weekly plan, I have estimated how long each job should take for example modelling, UV mapping and light mapping should take around 3-4 weeks while texturing should take 3 weeks with 2 weeks polishing.
Hopefully I can stick to this and I have estimated it correctly, if not I will modify it at a later stage and try keep up with all the tasks needed to complete the scene to a good standard.
Challenges Ahead
There are many challenges ahead but here are some that I will highlight, firstly the transition between indoor and outdoor lighting may be a bit tricky, I have never done this before I usually stick to complete indoor or outdoor scenes, however I feel I can pull this off and have good composition in my scene. Another challenge for me will be animating in UDK, I have worked on a few things here and there, the ceiling fans rotating shouldn't be a problem but if I want to expand on that, animating the monitors or adding some sort of wind in my scene then I will need to research in that area.
Looking at my scene I have identified a few dynamic elements I could add in to make it more interesting, firstly I want the fans to rotate, I also want the monitors to be animated and that is something I need to look into, other elements I have been thinking about are the paper flags to be swaying as well as the bulbs on the outside. In addition to this I feel adding music to a scene can capture the atmosphere you want, so either adding relevant background music or having some sort of music playing that sounds like it is coming from the speakers or even both.
As much as I want to create the whole tavern I am not sure if I can pull it off to a good standard in time, so I will focus on the interior scene and create scenery such as trees, rocks, terrain surrounding the back which is viewable. However if I have time I would like to extend the tavern itself.
Looking further into the terrain, I want to create the river that looks like is it flowing at the side and the bridge, I have been looking into the UDK terrain editor and vertex painting for this and should have something to show soon.
The interior of the tavern is almost completely blocked out, the only thing missing are the paper flags, my next step is to break it down into an asset list and also identifying exactly what I want on the outside.
This module is based on advanced 3D rendering, and the focus of the next 12 weeks is to create a 3D scene and cinematic based on a concept. But not only to create a scene but to look further into methods and process when creating environments and this is what the blog is for. I have chosen a concept based on a futuristic styled diner created by Hethe Srodawa, there are several concepts on this piece but I want to focus on the interior of the diner itself rather than the exterior. The reason I have chosen this concept is because it has a unique style, you see many futuristic concepts out there that are very similar in some way or another but I like how this has a bit of colour in and it draws you eyes to the little details in the scene. Here are the two interior concepts I will be working off;
After some searching I have found the exterior concepts for this piece, I would like to expand and do the whole scene however I feel it may be too much of a task with two other modules which include environments along with this. So instead I will focus on the concepts above while taking reference from the exterior concept to build around the back of the diner. The idea is to use the large rocks and trees to surround the back of the diner to make you feel that you are at the back of the building rather than at the entrance which the concept shows. I like the idea of using the metal bridge and valley surrounding the back which could give some dynamic movement to the scene with the water, along with the monitors playing a video and ceiling fans moving. In addition to this to make the environment more believable I feel adding custom music to sound like it's coming from the speakers will help.
The problem I have come across is how I will create a cinematic on this very closed-in scene, which will have to be 30 seconds to a minute long. For the cinematic, I'm thinking of basing on the players perspective starting from the door entrance, but I will produce a storyboard at a later stage. Another problem I have come across is the playable area, it is quite closed-in so there is not much room for movement like a real game would have, having said that I will continue with it. Here is a list of things I need to consider;
Mix of indoor and outdoor lighting
Not very modular, many unique assets
Outside terrain
Water shader
Foliage
I have now broke the scene down identifying the assets needed and now I have a much better understanding of what is needed and if this project is realistic in the time given.
