Work updates

Haven't posted i while as I've been so busy over X-mas! Mainly making changes to my rooftop and re-working the vespa with the feedback i got from people which has been really useful in pushing it a bit more.

Making some changes

Basically changed the lighting and re- made the sky box! Really wanted to get that moody night time feel from the rooftop. Also discovered that I could down res my textures to 256 x 256 which now means I have a lot more budget to play with and means I can get some really nice extra details in there.

Coming together

I've been working extra hard this week and have really pushed myself to get more of what I want on the rooftop. Here's some more progress shots of it coming together. Still making some changes and need to decorate the scene properly to as everything is just scattered a bit randomly at the moment as I'm just making sure the props work in the scene and look good. I've had a few people say they like the yellow pipes so will probably use them around the place a bit more to!

Updates

Here is some more screenshots of the rooftop , made some alterations to the lighting and added lightmass and a sky dome to. Started to unwrap and texture some of the assets for the roofotp though I have a few more to model and get out the way!

New Blog for my FMP

Here's the link to my other blog all about my shiny new FMP:- The odyssey Plaza

http://theplazafmp.blogspot.com/

p.s. This blog is still active! I'm just running the FMP blog for course reasons and plus helps me keep an eye what i'm posting so the projects don't get jumbled up.

enjoy! :)

More work updates

Here is some print screens of developments I have been making over the last few days, did more today but will post that stuff tomorrow when I remember to print screen!? I made some tiling textures and started  following my ideas of making a lot of stuff modular so I can save the small texture budget I have and also allow for variations to be made quickly and efficiently by working to a grid snapping system in UDK and 3Ds Max.

The Grid...

A little behind on my blogs so here is the work from last friday till today well sort of as I still need to screenshot some w.i.p's!

I've used UDK before a little bit but I still think of TRON when I create a new blank map!

Final Blockout

Here is the final blockout as it stands. I might tweak it later if I feel it isn't playing right in UDK, but I'm happy with it so far.

Final ideas

Really liked the U-shape idea with different levels of verticality. Expanded on it slightly to to try and give it more function and purpose. I sort of imagined it as some sort of hotel rooftop in Hell's kitchen downtown New York. A bit rough and ready, more function than aesthetics. Also thinking of putting some shiny clean buildings around it for contrast perhaps? Might try and throw some nice primary colours in there to stop the whole thing becoming next-gen brown / grey/ swamp colour ;) Might toy with idea of making it maybe a bit cleaner than originally planned but i'll see when I put some textures on it in Unreal and see how it goes!

Blockouts

Made some blockouts after looking at those images so here they are! This is first batch I made last week. enjoy.....

A minute to gather my thoughts...

So I've managed to grab a spare moment to upload my thoughts and stuff for the Rooftop project. New York style is the brief so I just started out grabbing a load of ref from New York rooftops and games that tackled rooftops to. I compiled some of the images into quick mood boards just represent some of the stuff I really liked and helped me come up with some ideas.

Vespa Render

Here's the vespa pretty much finished now! Just need to add some more normal map details to it to call it done but pretty happy with how it turned out.

CRASH!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo......

Due to a computer crash I have lost my layered PSD file for the vespa and has corrupted the back up to! Luckily I have the TGA files which I have now put together in a new document and tried to claim something back. I'm just glad that all the textures are still there that I had done!

W.I.P Texturing

Just getting on with the textures now. Made a quick render in marmoset to see what they would look like. I found the front didn't look that great so I'm going to change that. Also I need to work on the specular details and get more normal maps on the bike to. Hopefully have this done this week so I can get on with other stuff.

Wireframe Render

Now it's time for texturing this thing!

UN-Wrapping.........done!

Luckily I am armed with a cup of tea and the T.V in the background to keep me going! But I'm done with these UV's.

I'll sleep when I'm dead!!!

Last few days have been really productive and have finished all the tweaking and refinements to my mesh and added in all those important little details without going too crazy! Now onto the un-wrapping,  going to keep the pace up to finish this!!!

Tweaking here, there and everywhere

Need to sort out those brake handles as they are way to big! Oh and it would be nice if the PC's I'm working on actually didn't lie about saving my work and actually saved it, ARGGHHH!!!! Lost a good few hours so headphones and sign up saying I'm not in ;)

Right lets get a move on!

Right did quite a bit of work since my last post! I've tidied the mesh up around the main body of the vespa and put in more of the blockier shapes to get it looking like a bike and less like a floating thingy!

Refinements

Made the adjustments to the handle bars and also rotated them up a bit as they were too far down! Started thinking about the headlight topology being rather messy and high poly so going to fix that next.

Taking some crit

Made the basic shape of the handle bars  and found it very flat at the back. Asked around the lab and the guys agreed it needed to be sorted!

I can Handle this.......

As the "witty"....(cough)......title suggests I have started making my handle bars for the vespa.

Making progress...

Just bashing away at the vespa, hopefully have more done by the end of today. Mainly thinking of getting those tricky handle bars in there!

Coming along nicely

Starting to get that classic vespa shape going need to try and keep the mesh clean and low poly if I want to meet my 9000 tri budget!

Here we go then

Stage 1 of the modeling process. Set up reference planes and use simple primitives to start blocking out the main silhouette.

Step 1:- Gather reference

Managed to get hold of this image with some good views to start modeling from. It's a little dark but it will do for getting the basic silhouette down, going to keep hunting for more images to get a better understanding of how oit looks up close.