Well here's the finished piece, hope you like =) Prolly the first piece I can actually put in my portfolio for once =)
Rather than typing out a long, arduous speech, here's my process instead =) Click 'Show Original Image' when in the black screen, and then click the img to maximise. Enjoy =)
And I thought to put up my nodes for the dynamic reflections in case anyone's curious.. =)
Here are nodes for the static reflections (easier) =)
And here's the nodes/example of the emissive mapping (glow maps) in Unreal (UDK) =)
Okay, made a start on the temple tonight, I'm a bit iffy about it, the texturing is a bit of a joke atm =) Will try to make it better tomorrow somehow =) Tried to use a modular approach on the temple, basically by texturing a flat plane (1024 x 1024 units) and then cutting out pieces of door and wall.
Then doing simple power of 2 extrusions on those pieces to create basic geometry which mimics the texture, hope that makes sense =) This tutorial explains modular building/texturing, except I'm pretty bad at it. =)
Earlier tonight I also got ladders working so you can climb up pipes, and then also got jump pads to work as well, all learnt from this tutorial. I couldn't seem to get ladders working on Static Mesh walls and such (like my own walls and fences for example). Could only get it working on BSP mesh. Hope that helps =)
Oh, and another tip, UDK editor seems to lag my computer a lot, if you open the Content Browser and click Import, but then leave that screen open, you can do like modeling in Max or stuff in Photoshop without any lag, Okay qwl =) See you guys tomorrow =)
More shots, sorry I'm dragging my heels with this temple area, just that I haven't been putting all my time into it, it's just something I work on in the evenings.. =) Okay so tonight I just did a quick sketch to get a feeling for the temple dimensions and then quickly blocked it out in 3DS Max, and popped it in the UDK. Also toned down the specularity for the Naga statues as they were a bit shiny - in the specular map itself, just made it darker in value, and then also in UDK in the material editor, you can tweak the Specular Power using a constant variable, I made it 33.0 or somesuch which is about the reflectivity for stone =)
Would like to actually step up development a bit next, so next will be making the temple, doing the foliage, perfecting the light, water and fog, and adding in some sound and any other little finishing touches =) Cheers! =)
So tonight I've just compiled some inspiration for a new UDK area. Yip, I have to make a new one for a school project. =) Spent way too long on this, practically most of the day, but I'm maybe picky about what inspiration I use, cuz I find it affects my choices on things.. =) I like the Cambodia Ruins and the Lingering Gardens the most. Cheers! =)
Hey heey =) Okay, sorry for no updates the past day or so, been busy with stuff. So tonight I did some more work on this area, not much mind, but just working on the temple stairs. Trying to get more texture in, I didn't much time tonight so that's all there is but just showing you guys the progress. =) Nights =)
Hiya =) I guess I'm not good enough yet to speed up in 3d cuz I'm behind schedule, the modeling takes me longer than I think, so I prolly should just practice the hell out of it until I get faster.. =) Excuse the obnoxiously bad naga sculpt.. I promise to improve it in future sculpts =) So got the platform and temple to do, the foliage (yip trees are important!) =) Then sound and vfx and finishing touches to lighting and such after that.. so still plenty to do, but that's it for tonight =) See you guys =)
Okay so tonight I worked on a few things even though it doesn't look like much work was done.. worked on the ambient lighting, scaling and proportion, I put a scaley in to try get a handle on this as it's been bothering me a bit, and then made the wall to hem in the area, give it a bit of solidity so to speak. Need to get a move on cuz I don't want to spend a lot more time on this. So basically next up will be more modeling and texturing =) See you guys soon =)
Hiya =) Just some quick previews of the area.. started to put in some basic geo.. The skybox was casting shadows so that's why the render time went up a bit =) Still fighting with scaling issues, hope to get those sorted out tomorrow.. Did a bit of reading up on lighting as well.. cuz I don't know how to light stuff properly.. =) See you guys tomorrow =)
Okay, so tonight just as I was about to save the latest area file, UDK corrupted the area.. =( So I quickly put together something similar, and tbh I think it looks better than what I had before if I do say so myself =)
Basically painted some more terrain, played with light bloom and water effects =) Started putting in my own textures for stuff as well =)
Next I'd like to fix the lighting, it's really bad, and suddenly my render times have gone up, not sure what's causing it, maybe the water.. =) Need to get a better handle on the scale in UDK, as to what I'm modeling in 3DS =) Then will start to build up more stuff like more of the platform/temple, some snake statues maybe and fix up the water a bit and make some plants too.. See you guys tomorrow =)
Hiya =)
Here's kind of a Wip/process.. not sure really..so if you are interested.. Basically blocked out the terrain with Tools -> Terrain.. (default 16 x 16 patch) in the UDK editor.. And then painted it with textures using the terrain painter (Shift + 3).. =)
The basic idea I have in mind is inspired by an Asian Naga temple (Angkor Wat and Neak Pean).. Mmm.. I quite like the idea of it.. =) There's some ref at the end so you can see what I like =)
Also made my own skydome and played around with a post process volume (there's a volume brush on the right hand side of the editor if you want to play around with the depth of field using a process volume).. =) Mmm.. Also put in a dominant light source to make the ambient lighting and then set the reflected light in the world properties.
Next, I'm going to try and refine the terrain a bit and then try work in my own building materials and textures. I may scrap this test altogether though, see how it goes =) See you guys =)
