[UDK] Concept project

[JakeMartin]

Hey everybody.

I decided to challenge myself with a new personal project. I went to http://cghub.com/ and browsed through the site for some interesting environmental concept pieces. I found several I really liked so the next step was to recreate them in the UDK. I'm restricting myself to using on the UDK assets and trying to use them in ways that won't necessarily look like I'm using the UDK assets. If that makes sense. Or at least keep the unique meshes down to a few. The environments are mostly non-functional with my goal to get as close to the concept as possible but I do plan on making it work in the future. I welcome the critiques and a fresh pair of eyes.

[JakeMartin]

The first concept piece is from Horia Dociu http://cghub.com/images/view/22660/

Concept

UDK

Update 03-30-2011 - I got to talk with Horia and he gave me some suggestions which I applied in this next screenshot. I warmed up the lighting, added some caustics to the right wall, extended out the grass and added more flowers. I'm working on changing those drainage spout square things. He said he didn't like them square and that he was just being lazy in the concept lol.

Update 03-31-2011 - A few more tweaks. I feel like I can almost say this is done. I need to fix the god awful water and the grass in the water is way over bright. The scene got really busy so I'm going bring in the fog some more. The screenshots end up looking hella dark compared to what's on my screen too. That's annoying.

Update 04-11-2011 - I actually updated this a while ago but never got around to posting. I'm still not happy with the water but I got distracted with another project. For this update I changed out the fog with the exponential fog and brought it in a lot closer to the camera. I also removed some of the grass that was branching out into the water and cast some shadows onto them so they don't get bright and glow green.

Final Update 04-19-2011 - I finally got around to fixing the water. Tweaked the AO and the height fog. The fog was hiding a lot of the detail and the AO wasn't nearly strong enough in some of those corners. Over all I'm happy with how this turned out. I also updated the video.

[Minos]

Very nice. The colors are way off from the concept piece though, you could work on that.

[JakeMartin]

Thanks Minotauro. I tried warming up the lighting a bit. That right wall is being a real pain to light. It just won't get enough bounce to brighten. I'm working on trying to fake it.

[Froyok]

You have removed the vidéo ? Why ?

[JakeMartin]

You have removed the vidéo ? Why ?

I wanted to upload a new one.

[luque]

Keep it going, looking good. Just noticed that orange light isn't flickering at all, this is supposed to be a torch I reckon?

[syver]

water could be nicer, the grass to water transition is a bit jarring. the rest looks pretty cool!

[PogoP]

Looks amazing! Great to see something new and different

[dux]

Very nice. I feel that the contrast is a bit too much though, but I guess it's all personal preference. I just prefer the softer smooth look the concept art has.

[JakeMartin]

Thanks guys. Lately I haven't been able to put more time into this. I definitely want to get that water looking better then maybe I could call it done.

[Kedhrin]

This is super dope dude!

Well done; a great strategy i like how you just took one concept art and not only made everything but also made it come to life... i do agree the water is your weakest point here but everything else is stellar!

[JakeMartin]

I'm going to call this little experiment done. I'm happy enough with it to move on to the next. I also uploaded a new video.