[WIP] Western Homestead UT3

[Llama Juice]

Hey there, I have to create a western homestead environment for class this month, so... you kids are coming along on the trip.

I have to make a concept image to give to the instructor to get approved before moving onto actually making stuff, so when I realized how terrible I am at just painting straight up in photoshop I decided to start modeling a basic version of everything and I'll just paint ontop of that (basically use the render as an overall AO pass for the whole thing)

anyhow, I just rendered my blockin scene. I'll paint over it soon and repost.... but yea.

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/2056/gprbeginningrender2.jpg

Basically none of this stuff will really be used in the final version (maybe the windmill lol) but... I need to make a pretty picture before I can start in UT3.... I figure this is part of the process so I'll toss it in the thread.

6/9

http://img141.yfrog.com/img141/5057/house1z.jpg

6/10

http://img36.yfrog.com/img36/8702/ut3homestead2.jpg

6/11

http://img526.yfrog.com/img526/1695/ut3homestead7.jpg

6/23

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/7382/ut3lights.jpg

6/24

http://img145.yfrog.com/img145/5456/ut3fence.jpg

6/25

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/4351/ut3recolor3.jpg
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/3900/ut3porch1.jpg

6/26

http://img35.yfrog.com/img35/5969/ut3sun.jpg
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/4725/ut3barn.jpg

6/27 - COMPLETE
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/2677/ut3final1.jpg
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/5634/ut3final2.jpg
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/9093/ut3final3.jpg
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/963/ut3final4.jpg

TwIyQ_Hqp1s

1/7/10 -Started working on it again :P
http://www.llamajuice.com/img/Homestead2010.png

1/8
http://www.llamajuice.com/img/Western2.png

[Limited]

Pretty cool, are you allowed to use Sketchup? Its a great concepting tool, I export it out and render using max.

[Llama Juice]

Huh... didn't even think of sketchup. I haven't toyed with it at all... but I should play with it some.

Really we could use any method we wanted to get this first concept down. A lot of people just painted in photoshop.... I tried but my perspective was all off, and I just fail at drawing well anyways haha.

[Limited]

Yeah same here, for a game design project I created the sets in 3d. Even though it was a 2d game, I could render it out on a 2d plain using the left view port.

You can get a free version of sketchup only thing it doesnt do is export to 3ds files but you can get plugins that do that for free.

[Llama Juice]

can it export to .obj though? I'm a Maya user :P Maya doesn't care much for .3ds haha

[Limited]

The pro version can, dont think the free one can by default.

However you can get a plugin that can do it, here (http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2007/01/wavefront-obj-exporter.html) is a information about it and a download.

[Llama Juice]

I ended up texturing it rather than really painting it... I textured it in photoshop though which at first seemed like a good idea... but.. no. I originally was just going to paint over everything.. but it just looked bad... so I did this... and it still looks weird.. but it's a concept... so... yea.

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/8269/gprprepro5.jpg

[Joshflighter]

:o
Thats pretty cool! :)

[PlasbianX]

Reminds me of the barnyard map from UT2004. Such an amazing map.

[nick3d]

Looks pretty good, but the windows and stuff need to be done, you know that anyway, i was thinking maybe you could have them boarded up, but i dont know what type of theme i am looking at

[Limited]

Looks good, do you actually put it in UT3?

[Llama Juice]

That whole scene there is just a photoshop concept, I'm working on making the actual UT3 assets now. Right now I'm working on an awning piece, a support pillar, and a blank wall section for that house on the right. The final thing will basically be a scene in UT3 that'll be pretty, but not focused on gameplay at all.

[Limited]

Pretty is good :D Cant wait to see final result.

[Llama Juice]

http://img141.yfrog.com/img141/5057/house1z.jpg

Yea, the terrain was a horror to deal with.... and it's far from done.... but... yea. Also... it's all unlit so normals and specs don't show up... but that's... yea.

oh, and I don't have a skybox yet... if you didn't notice

[MetKiller Joe]

As I said over skype, nice stuff, but the darker wood texture needs to be more detailed.

[k9colin]

Wow that looks great. You used photoshop to paint on the textures right? Looked so good I thought you actually UV mapped the model :)

[Llama Juice]

A lot of it is still just standin stuff of course (including sky.. duh lol)

I was tired of the homing that was going on, so I made a silly sky for it all... (render clouds wooo)

http://img36.yfrog.com/img36/8702/ut3homestead2.jpg

I was playing with my windmill over there, not done with it yet... but... it's gettin there. I was playing with placing some stuff... and I'm gunna probably get the main part of the barn done tomorrow/tonight.... I'm not sure if I wanna just reuse my awning thing as the roof for my main house there or make something new.. but yea.


E:
Not sure if this is good enough or not... *shrug*

I'll be putting something on the ends of course

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/5786/ut3homestead3.jpg

[neuro]

i suppose this means you aren't going to make some nice normals for this?
those textures are painfully low-res >_<

we actually used 2k textures for most of the somewhat larger static meshes for ut3. you should res up your textures a bunch, and at least crazybump some normals for it, so it doesn't all look so terribly flat. you'll be amazed by the difference some simple shitty normals can make to bring your scene to life.

[Llama Juice]

I used crazy bump already, but I'm not liking the normals I got out of it so I'm gunna go through again with it and see what I can get.

Teacher wants us to not really go above 1024 unless the static is huge :/ Right there I have three textures (not including the terrain) just a 1024 for the awning and a 512 for the wall/pillar/support and a 1024 for the windmill. The 512 is tileable so it tiles 4 times on the wall piece, and the other pieces wrap around it somewhat.

There are four statics that make up a section of awning there on the porch. Theres the awning itself, the support pillar at the end of it, the pillar by the wall, and the wall itself.

I'm gunna bring my stuff through crazy bump again though.

E:
I haven't AO'd anything yet either btw. The way I'm doing a few of these things I'm going to be having to make material instances with different AOs in em and I'm not all that sure how to do that so I've kinda been avoiding it and doing other things.

[Malloy]

Yuckzor... Watch '3:10 to Yuma' for a real essence of a western homestead (Christian Bale's character's farm), there are some real good perspective shots of it mid film. What you got at the moment doesnt look western legit, sorry if that shits on your parade.

[SnaFuBAR]

don't watch that movie, just get pictures of it. that movie was trash.

[Llama Juice]

http://img526.yfrog.com/img526/1695/ut3homestead7.jpg

Little added on part to the building. I also made standin pieces for the roof area there....

I just got that movie too so I'll skim through it real quick.

BTW my terrain is like... super placeholder right now... it's not going to be OMFG GRASS lol I have a dirt and a hay and straw texture that I plan on painting on there as well (when I put up the barn it'll make more sense lol) ... and I plan on having some bushes and stuff scattered about too

[Llama Juice]

http://img195.yfrog.com/img195/9251/ut3homestead8.jpg

lul

[Malloy]

don't watch that movie, just get pictures of it. that movie was trash.

Yeah was certainly dissapointing.

[nick3d]

That toilet looks like shrek's toilet :P
Looks great btw

[Llama Juice]

Oh hai

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/7382/ut3lights.jpg

Still haven't really done much with my terrain, and there's still some stuff missing... but... yar... it's getting there.

Also, the plants/rocks all have a lot of tweaking left to em haha

[MetKiller Joe]

I'm liking it so far.

[Llama Juice]

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/92/ut3dirt2.jpg

The ground is still being worked on of course... :/

[DEElekgolo]

Needs more foliage and piles of hay.

[Llama Juice]

^K

For now... you get this lol

http://img145.yfrog.com/img145/5456/ut3fence.jpg

I also wanna make a tumbleweed, but I can't think of a good way to do it :/

[FluffyDucky™]

Bahaha that's cute! Looks good. :)

[Llama Juice]

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/331/ut3recolor1.jpg

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/9236/ut3recolor2.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/4351/ut3recolor3.jpg
I finally fixed the color of the wood on the main house... it was a weird green that I really didn't like at all... and I added a few more statics and textured a few more things... yup... it's getting there.

E:
Ignore the floating plants lmao.

E2:
Made a proper deck/porch thing for the house woooooo

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/3900/ut3porch1.jpg

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/6159/ut3porch2.jpg

[Llama Juice]

Don't feel like editing that post for a third time so... yea.

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/126/ut3sky.jpg

Not entirely happy with it, there's some stretching on the sky there... probably going to try to use a Depth of field volume or something to try to blur the edge of the terrain so that it will kind of blend in with the sky a little bit... but... *shrug* it works.

The clouds in the sky are animated too


E:
Changed the sky a lot, can't really tell from the two pics... but before the sky repeated lol... then I wanted to put a sun in there.... and the easiest way to make it still look good was to just make it wrap all the way around... so yar... Lighting doesn't match the sun, I know... it's okay. I'm getting there haha.

http://img35.yfrog.com/img35/5969/ut3sun.jpg

[SonicXtreme]

Try using spot lights to light the enviroment , and also a post processing volume for bloom and hue of the lighting , the terrain needs more texture layers on it to give it a better feel , cause atm the terrains just one texture by the looks of it , and theres no sort feel to it , personally i think the terrain should not be almost flat , needs something like a couple of raised sections to make it look abit more natural.

Still it looks good :)

[Llama Juice]

The problem with making it all hilly is that the grass patches that I painted on don't wanna rotate properly to the terrain automatically, so it's either I place 3000 of em manually, or I make it less hilly.

Plus, I toned down the hilly..ness so that you could see the skybox better, was planning on using a post process volume to get the depth of field to try to hide the seam between the terrain and the skybox, I think the bushes and grass do an okay job at it, but it needs a bigger push.

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/4725/ut3barn.jpg

(that one orange spot on the sky is the main problem IMO, I think the DOF would help that out a lot there)

I'm going to be playing with post process volumes today, I have eight hours left with this project before I turn it in, so I'm going to see what I can do with them. I still should fix my water tower, (AKA actually make one haha, the thing I have in there is just my standin one from when I was blocking everything out... :/) I want to make a bench for the porch yet, and a few piles of longer logs to put along side the barn (the idea is that it's like broken/extra fence pieces) so that will be a matter of just breaking my fence and such...

Other than that... I wanted to make a tumbleweed but I can't think of a good way to get the look right... the only thing that's really sounding right is to just use a sprite... but that's weird.... and... yea.

The terrain is mostly that sand texture, I do have a few patches where it's grass or dirt, but mostly it's that sandish one.... or a blend of the sand and the dirt or something like that.... yar.

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2820/ut3topdown.jpg

[SonicXtreme]

looks alot better in the recent pictures , nice job llama :)

[MetKiller Joe]

I think it looks great.

[DEElekgolo]

Maybe a road passing in front of it with an old mail box?

[Llama Juice]

Well, it's as done as it's gunna get haha.

There's a few things I wanted to do, but couldn't get to due to time constraints... and now I'm on break... and gunna hop on a plane in a few hours... and probably won't really touch this again...

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/2677/ut3final1.jpg
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/5634/ut3final2.jpg
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/9093/ut3final3.jpg
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/963/ut3final4.jpg

TwIyQ_Hqp1s

Some things I don't like..

Teacher at the last moment said "Oh hey, you need detail normal maps on everything!" So I had to go in and modify my 30 materials to add in a detail normal... and didn't really have time to see what to set them all too... so my outhouse looks kinda fuzzy... but... meh

My "window" on the end of the barn is solid gray. I just noticed while watching the video that I got a little bit of another plant in one of the planes for the bush, so above the bush there's like a floating leaf haha.

I didn't get to do my post process volume. I wanted to make a bench for the porch, I got rid of the water tower, Wanted to make a few different cacti to put around. Originally I wanted an overhang off the side of the barn... Didn't have enough time for any of that stuff though :/

I also wanted to make a tumble weed... couldn't make one worth looking at so I got rid of it.

[SonicXtreme]

only thing i dont like is the shadows , they look abit meh , apart from that good level :)

[Llama Juice]

http://www.llamajuice.com/img/Homestead2010.png

Playing around with it a bit more, gunna try to add in some particles to make it look like there's sand blowing around... we'll see how that goes haha.

I fixed some ground textures, redid most of the foliage, spent a bit of time painting the ground better, and placed a few more assets.

There's gunna be a bunch more done to this, but... for now... yar.

[Limited]

Oh that is sexi.

[SonicXtreme]

looks a hell of a lot better now

[Chainsy]

Is it bad while scrolling down I read this as "Western Homosexual UT3" and clicked on it?:ohdear:

[NuggetWarmer]

Put some haybales and tumbleweed in there.

[Chainsy]

Needs more hoaers.

[Llama Juice]

Thanks everyone :P

@ Nugget I wanted to add some tumbleweeds originally as mesh particles so that they could just kinda flail around... but I couldn't really think of a good way to make a tumbleweed in 3D... lol

http://www.llamajuice.com/img/Western2.png

I made some cute little wooden barrels to throw around, made a house off in the distance, and I added a "road" going through the environment. You can't see it very well in that picture, but... yar. I'll grab other pictures tomorrow. For now I get to sleep.

[BobtheGreatII]

Need bigger pictures.

[Inferno]

Thanks everyone :P

@ Nugget I wanted to add some tumbleweeds originally as mesh particles so that they could just kinda flail around... but I couldn't really think of a good way to make a tumbleweed in 3D... lol

http://www.llamajuice.com/img/Western2.png

I made some cute little wooden barrels to throw around, made a house off in the distance, and I added a "road" going through the environment. You can't see it very well in that picture, but... yar. I'll grab other pictures tomorrow. For now I get to sleep.


More detail rocks/dead grass.

Maybe some cracked dirt here and there. And variations in dirt.

Looks good though. Keep it up.

[NuggetWarmer]

I'll model up an example model for you of some tumbleweed.

Also, needs moar courage the cowardly dog.

[Limited]

Its a shame in UT3 (and most engines) you cant easily add a pile of dirt using a paint brush (rather than dropping an object in).

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/2346/dirtpiles.png
I would have put a pile of dirt on the edge of the building (red circle) and just random clumps all over the green area. Gives it more of a unique and dynamic feel. Plus the bit with the building, it creates that blend of ground plane and building object and smoothens the transition.

That in combination with Infernos thought would look good, shame I dont know any engine that can easily and fluidly do my dirt thing.

[Llama Juice]

Well you kinda can do that with a paint brush in UT3 using their terrain stuff.... I'll play around with it to try to add some fun stuff to it.

[Inferno]

You can do it. It's pretty easy once you learn to blend with the terrain tool.

[Limited]

Hills yeah, I mean piles of grain or sand.

[Inferno]

Hills yeah, I mean piles of grain or sand.

You can paint more than 2 material layers on a terrain.

[Llama Juice]

Yea, I have like five loaded in that map, not using em all though :/ The terrain tools always frustrate me. I wish it supported tablet sensitivity :P