Desert Enviro - Update 8 – UE4 vs. Laptops.

 It’s been a while since the last update but I could not resist to port the desert scene to Unreal Engine 4. I started by putting together small diorama with new grass assets using subsurface scattering. All of the new foliage were made with Zbrush fibers. Old vista's coming back soon, hopefully.

PS laptops stand no chance against UE4. 

Desert Enviro - Update 7 – Zbrush madness continues.

 I was testing Headus UVlayout which is pretty cool but clunky at the first approach so, unwrapping the tree took more time then actually modelling it. Totally recommend the tool, though. 

I’ve been leaning towards the fantasy theme with this environment but the trees seem to be a bit too vivid I think. 

New bushes and grass clumps will drop in next week hopefully.

Tree: D=2k; N=2k; 4300tri

Desert Enviro - Update 6 – Just target it.

So I've spent the last two week on refining the rocks. The environment uses 3 rock models (cliff, horizontal and rubble). I’ve also added some proper sand textures but will be adding more blends soon. I’m currently bouncing between  visual target (small high detail piece) and overall composition for the scene.

Desert Enviro - Update 5 – It’s a middle of nowhere...

Lots of World Machine and Zbrushing last week. I'm happy with the form itself so probably won't be getting back to sculpting but I left the colours pretty desaturated, as I can tweak them with post later. There are still some problems with landscape’s diffuse boost that gives pink spots here and there, I will be looking into that next weekend. Also, I’m moving to first plan again, so more rock sculpts and ground blends coming! 

Desert Enviro - Update 4 – Cartographic pleasureZ.

Still lots of procedural repetition to break up and other issues to tackle but the new vista is shaping up! Will be adding some detail maps to the terrain and bringing all the rocks from the old scene soon.

Height = 2k; Colour = 4k; Normal = 2k 

I've set up a Polycount thread where I do breakdowns for this scene.

Composition grid for UDK viewport

I felt like the viewport is lacking such functionality so I added composition grid overlay controlled via simple material instance.  

DOWNLOAD

Plug ‘PPC_CompositionOverlay’ to your world post process chain or add ‘Mati_CompositionGrids’ as a material effect to the very end of existing post process chain.  

Hope this helps.

Desert Enviro - Update 3 – That’s a big one.

It was a challenging week. I had a few more shots at rock sculpts but I’m still not totally satisfied with the outcomes. However, I did spend some time on shaders and developed world position based sediment gradient that helps to tie the cliff pieces together more effectively as well as add an interesting colour variation to the dry pond. I have also added some basic vegetation and ground blends.

I’m quite happy with the overall progress but it’s still a long way to the finish line. Crits welcome as always.

No update next week due to workloads at the studio.

 so gradient. much position offset. wow.

Desert Enviro - Update 2 - More RAWKS!

A quick update. Was iterating on the rock formations last week, went through a few ups and downs but the current form seems interesting. The noise distribution is still outbalanced but I will fix it later.

I'm going to focus on either dry vegetation or some ground blends this week.

Desert Enviro - Update 1

I have been working on this scene for the last two weekends. The aim is to improve my organic modelling workflow. I started with creating the vista (still needs lots of love) in World Machine and now focusing on creating more detailed rock pieces in Zbrush. Will try to post an update once a week.

Feel free to share thoughts and tips!

Night Vision Shader

Some tests with material overlay effects in UDK

Distance controller - core part of the post-process chain

ULTIMATE ART DECO (wip)

Game project for UDK. A study of wet surface shaders and art deco architecture.

Composition mock-up

Animated DX11 shader using image based reflections

KARMIC FLOW

Speed composition test built with UDK. It took less than two days to complete.

Art test for PCF

Created in 2 days

SPEED SCULTPTING PRACTICE

Organic

Used with UDK's vertex paint material

Hard surface

Art test for Gameloft's Dungeon Hunter 2

Handpainted environment study. (under 3500 tri)

INGRAM MAC10

Speed weapon modelling.

 Tri count (with mag): 4547

Body: D:2048, N:1024, S:1024. 

Labels: D:1024x512 , N:512x256 , S:From diffuse.

Nocturnal Vapour released

The Nocturnal Vapour is my personal scene built with UDK. All assets and textures were created by me. The level was featured by Epic Games on their facebook profile.