[UDK] Roman Atrium

[Billiz]

I'm making a roman style room to learn UDK and more advanced texturing. My goal is to make a really good looking UDK scene using custom models and textures.

Here is my main reference image for this project.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/fileadmin/historyLearningSite/roman_7.jpg


Thought I would add the final renders here too.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_artrium30.jpghttp://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_artrium30.jpghttp://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium30.jpg


http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium31.jpg


http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium32.jpg


http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium33.jpg

[Billiz]

This is my first day of working with UDK, been watching some tutorials.

Here is the basic layout of the room, I just made some quick brush pillars with UDK textures on.


http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium01.jpg

[HeadClot88]

Looks nice so far

Deffinatly Can Be improved - My Thoughts

The Pillars look too Blocky even for the Pillars of the time.

Get some Custom Textures for this! - www.CGtextures.com (http://www.CGtextures.com) offers allot of great high resolution textures. (Need to make an account)

Add a little more light to the scene - Feels to dark and gloomy.

- HeadClot

[dJolt]

Billy is the LAST guy that needs to be told about custom textures :P

[Foufoune_Rose]

Also he said it was a quick brushing, for the scaling purpose.

I'd see the space within the columns a little tighter, and the walls farther.
Also the height of the room and the size of the door don't fit the reference picture.

This is about to become another interesting thread for learning purpose, thanks for sharing Billiz!

[Billiz]

That first picture was just me learning UDK. Like I said before, I'm planing to make my own textures and models.

But right now I'm just trying to learn more about UDK lighting and environment effects.

Anyone know if there is any contrast or edge contrast post process thing in UDK like they have in Source?

[Foufoune_Rose]

Yep, post-processing is still present in UDK. Create a brush by right-clicking the blue cube in the tool bar, and go for "Post-process Volume".
Everything inside will be affected by it. There is also a colorization tool, but I don't know much about UDK.

You gave me the need to test it with UT3, here I come :

http://front1.monsterup.com/upload/130082902783.jpg
http://front1.monsterup.com/upload/1300829027301.jpg
Robot is for scaling, yes it doesn't match the environnement, blah blah blah...

[Nexusdog]

I kinda like the scale of this, gives it an epicness. Now on to the details, mate

[Billiz]

Nice Foufoune, for scaling it think I will be making something between what you did there and my first test level.

I have one question, how did you get that effect of the fussy lighting from the sky coming down?

I got the post process working, but there is no contrast or edge contrast like you have in source.

[Billiz]

Here is a shot of some basic lighting. I got one directional light, one omni light just sitting above the water and a static light beam thing coming down from the sky.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium02.jpg

[Billiz]

I'm done with the environment lighting for now. I made a dust partical system and minor changes to post process values.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium03.jpg

[Foufoune_Rose]

Good progression Billiz. The picture you found got a strong aesthetic.
The fairy feeling you're giving to it looks like it's your work. I call it the "Billiz Touch".

Well, for the technical part, UDK and UT3 are sometimes so close, sometimes so far. I wouldn't give you tips who would make you losing time.
I will try to redo it under an old build of UDK from 2010.

I you wanna try, I made all the lights "dynamic", with a greater brightness and a strong saturation of the colors. I simulated the bouncing of the light with a small set of pointlights with a higher "FallOff Exponent", so their lighting could fade since their centers.
With the post-process, I added a severe desaturation, and forced the yellow tone.
On top of the opening, there is a plane with a white material with a heavy brightness/blue glowing. To add more "blurry-white" to the roof, I added some lights with an extreme brightness.
BUT the lightmapping system is different with UDK, it's called Lightmass. It's a lot more powerful/accurate.

My try under UDK (http://www.mediafire.com/?y6rsq477nsa1w)
Well, under UDK, I had to get rid of the light bouncing to create my own with more accuracy. But I fucking love it :D.

[Billiz]

I'm done with the scaling of the room. I also learned how to make custom UDK materials, my first time making normal and specular maps.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium04.jpg

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium05.jpg

[WarrenM]

Awesome stuff, Billy. It's great to watch you stretching out and trying new stuff. Learning is amazing. :)

[Billiz]

Thanks Warren, so far I'm loving UDK!

[keithgarry]

Well done. Who is that on the rug? How is UDK compared to SDK?

[Billiz]

Well done. Who is that on the rug? How is UDK compared to SDK?

Thanks Keith, the mosaic portrait is just a textures I got from CG, but I'm planing to change the middle section of that later on, I don't want the same image on all tiles in the end, right now I have 8 of them in the room.

UDK is a lot better and easier when it comes to making custom content and there are lots of good tutorials out there. SDK feels really outdated when compared to UDK, maybe thats why they are working so hard on the Source editor, I saw someone post that on the general forum I think?

[AlexG]

Another great wip thread Billiz. Thanks for sharing your work.

[Billiz]

I wanted to show you a preview of the floor texture concept I'm working on, I'm mixing mosaic patterns with marble tiles, I did a lot of cut and paste to make the marble tile texture using a base texture from CG. I also made some small mosaic square details to from the first mosaic texture.

I have been testing different patterns but I liked how the mosaic texture blends more with the floor when I added the square mosaic tiles around it. Looks a lot more interesting then having just square textures next to each other.

I also did a quick photoshop paint over attempt of replacing the portrait with an image of the roman war god Mars, I was thinking it would be cool to have differnt gods on the tiles. Currently it looks a bit weak because it has no normal map on it since it's just a paint over, but I think that will look really nice after I add all the info in UDK.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium06.jpg

[keithgarry]

Excellent. Each god/ess would have have their own theme?

[Billiz]

Excellent. Each god/ess would have have their own theme?

No just changing the middle picture, don't want to put more time into that at this point.

[Pete_Bottomley]

Hey Billi, really like your work :)

I hadn't come across any of it since before today and its great to see how much progress you've made in such a small space of time! I'm sure you've already got a library full of tutorials to go from but just in case you haven't come across these, they're all good websites, especially for creating some interesting materials. Hope they help :)

http://www.chrisalbeluhn.com/3D_Tutorials.html
http://www.hourences.com/tutorials/
http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_videonav.php?fid=32e2cb4031b918e13f1ffffcbabc3c 39
http://waylon-art.com/LearningUnreal/UE3-11-MaterialBasics.htm

[Billiz]

Thanks Pete

[Billiz]

More or less done with my floor now, it's currently made up of brushes, three different textures and a custom decal texture I made.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium07.jpg

Most people here know about all about decals, but I wanted to focus on how much impact a really subtile decal can have on a environment.

I'm not really trying to make the floor look dirty just a more interesting and realistic.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium08.jpg

[Pete_Bottomley]

Hey Billiz,

I'm not a huge fan of those decals if I'm honest. They seem to be placed too randomly and in places where you wouldn't necessarily find them. I'd say a more staind style decal would look nice, like the one here (http://www.cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=55726&PHPSESSID=utlosmm2p1ui1e0e4bk818r1u5), around the edges where the water bath would have been (if that's what the square pit in the center is) and also more cylindrical ones round the base of the pillar to give the impressions that water has run down the pillar and collected at the base.

[Aldighieri]

I'm not sure why, but for some reason the dirt overlay doesn't look right on the floor. Perhaps it's the placement? I think if you made the texture look more "Dusty", then it would be better?

EDIT: After looking at the image some more, I think making the overlay more subtle(Larger, with a fade effect to it) would make it look quite nice.

[Billiz]

Good feedback, I agree with you both. The placement was really fast so that is one thing and make it more dusty would be a good thing I think.

I was planing to do some kind of water stain around the middle and maybe something around the pillars like you said, but I still like the kind of decal I made here to go with that, it's just different things and I want to have both of them in there.

The thing that makes this kind of decal nice it that you can tie togehter different textures at the edges, the ones that look best is the ones that are just placed to go over the edge of the mosaic and the square details I think.

[Billiz]

I have been learning more advanced texturing the last week and I have made some progress on the Atrium.

I redesigned the floor patterns and designed my own mosaic and marble borders.

Here is the wall design I made, diffuse texture only atm.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium09.jpg

Here is a preview of the atrium design so far, I'm planing to go with dark green and black.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium10.jpg

[Billiz]

I moved all the meshes I have built so far into UDK and I had to make lightmaps for them all, which was a first time for me.

Here is a screen from UDK, Diffuse textures only.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium11.jpg

[Billiz]

Doorway model with diffuse texture.


http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium12.jpg


http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium13.jpg

[Deltathunder]

This is looking great Billiz,very nice indeed.
Love how sharp and clean your latest asset is ,very nice.
Floor textures are really good.
Great work...

[csyver]

the impluvium looks a bit too small in my eyes. not necessarily by itself, but compared to the rest of the room the scale is a bit off. just increasing the border width should help, might not be necessary to increase the actual opening. then again it might just be the resolution of the dev textures playing a trick on my mind.

enjoy udk! i doubt you're going to go back to whatever editor you used before. at least for custom stuff.

[Billiz]

Good call Csyver, that has been in the back of my head for a while, I want the pillars close together but I changed the size of the impluvium a bit and it looked better overall anyway so it was worth the change.

Here is a preview of the pillar, diffuse texture only.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium14.jpg

[Billiz]

I thought I might share my floor preview as well, I did a quick decal paintover on the floor to get a preview of how it will look in UDK will decals on the floor. Also I changed the small squares on the floors to gold to make it blend a bit with the pillars.

Still only Diffuse textures in Maya viewport, I will post UDK images with normal and specular later.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium15.jpg

[Billiz]

Pillar is just about done, hope you like it!

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium16.jpg

[Billiz]

Here is a screen from UDK.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium17.jpg

[Warden]

Beautiful work!

(This will be the first and only time my standardized education has come into play here) Can we get a look at the texture and UV maps for the capital of the column and maybe a look at the untextured model? I'm just dipping into modeling and it'd be incredibly useful to see what is model and what is UV map on such a complex piece of work.

What are your plans for the ceiling of the building? Anything in particular?

[Smog]

This is looking very beautiful indeed. I love the columns, great work on them.

[keithgarry]

Good job Billiz. They look great

[Billiz]

Thanks guys!

Here is the UV layout with some info.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium18.jpg

[Warden]

Ahhh . Thank you very much billiz!

[Aldighieri]

o_O I have a feeling that me and UVing won't get along when I get into more complicated models.

I love those pillars, though!

[zim*]

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium18.jpg

Awesome! I've never seen a UV Map labeled like that before, this is incredibly insightful.

[Billiz]

I accidently managed to overwrite the UV image, but since you found it useful I made a new one and I expanded a bit on the tiled border explanation.

Anway I'm done with the skylight part now, I even managed to make some lion heads for the rain water drainage. :P

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium19.jpg

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium20.jpg

[Aldighieri]

Those lion heads are pretty cool!

[Billiz]

Just about done with the wooden support beams, my own design, I wanted wooden beams but since I have fancy golden pillars next to it, I decided to add like a golden/copper metal to make it blend in more.

Here is a shot from the Maya viewport, Diffuse texture only.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium22.jpg

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium23.jpg

[Qmaster]

This is awesome! Where are you getting your textures from?

[Billiz]

I'm using this project as a work sample to apply for a game design school here in Stockholm. They want to know how you work and since some of you are also starting to get into modeling, I thought I share my texturing process. I'm going to submit it as a part of my work sample to the school.

This is the same process I use with more or less all textures I make. Before you start doing stuff like this you should know how to tiles textures and know the basics of photoshop layers and image adjustment.

Hope you find this useful! :P

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_texturing_01.jpg

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_texturing_02.jpg

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_texturing_03.jpg

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_texturing_04.jpg

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_texturing_05.jpg

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_texturing_06.jpg

Most of the textures I use are downloaded from http://www.cgtextures.com/

[Qmaster]

That was awesome!!

I get almost all my textures from cgtextures too (they need more alpha masked plants though lol)
You have very elaborate slides, little x/6 numbers in the corners and outlines and everything!

What's the textures dimensions on that? Or is it part of the overall texture for the beam model? Does UDK support bastard textures like 117x531? Source sure doesn't (without adding black space).

Your columns and everything is look really really good. Great textures always make things stand out, even if it's only a few polys.

[Billiz]

Glad you liked it Qmaster, That was just a small part of the beam texture, but the model texture is 2048x2048.

Here is a hanging textile model to go with the wooden beams. This is also my own design, ofc other people has used textile haning from beams :P But I didn't have any reference images for it.


http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium24.jpg

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium25.jpg


Here is a preview of what it will look like in the end.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium26.jpg

[Qmaster]

Why would you say that's only a preview? It looks great! What do you plan on having through the doors, and what's where the camera's at?

[Billiz]

Thanks :)

It's a preview because it's not done :P The deadline is in 7 days so I got a few days of work left, I need to make a few more models, sort out the lighting more, do some post process stuff, put in a skybox and change some textures.

The main camera angle will be in that corner I think.

[MkAndersson]

Looking good. A little saturated though. Some stronger colours would do nice i think.
I also think a tree in the middle would look nice or some kind of vegitation.

[WarrenM]

I think the colors are great. If I had to offer a crit, I would say that you would serve the scene nicely by making those cloth tarps a lot more noticeable. Have them be larger, hang down further, etc. As they are, you kind of notice them in the ceiling and it's somewhat anti-climatic.

[krateos_29]

Nice work!

love the color scheme. Also, great job explaining all the process making the scene.

In my opinion, you need a Unique something to make a little enviromental narrative.

[Nexusdog]

Purple would be a vibrant and suitable colour, or dark crimson (true Roman 'purple')

Link for further info (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Emperor)

[-PazD]

Looking great.

I think a nice fountain in the middle would top it off.

[Qmaster]

Ya a little pool in the middle would make sense with the lion head scuppers.

[Billiz]

Nice feedback guys!

I'm really running out of time now, there is still a lot more stuff I want to do but the deadline is next week and I need to sort out all the stuff I need to send in to the school as well.

I changed the haning textile a bit just like Warren suggested.

As for the color, I think it's ok as it is now, but I'm going to test other colors later on.

To explain a bit more, a Roman Atrium was used to gather rain water, I used the marble lion heads to direct the water down to the small pool instead of just having roof tiles doing the job. I'm also planing to make a rain video scene later where the water streams down the pool from the heads, but I was planing to do that later as a nice video for my portfolio.

As for narrative, I'm plaing to make this house as if it where owned by a roman general and the squares in each corner could have a mosaic numer of each legion under his command for ex "Leg XIV", kind of his tribute to the men under his command that helped with his accomplishments that in the end payed for his house. I'm also planing to make some roman tower shields and a gladius sword to hang on one of the walls, old and worn like the equipment the general used himself when he was in the lower ranks

[Qmaster]

Ah, that's cool. Some wall hangings would be nice, swords and the like. Maybe a mace (did they have those back then?) and some roundshields with spikes or maybe one big spike in the center.

[Billiz]

I'm more or less done with the lighting and post processing now, I have two more models I'm planing to get in by the end of the day, just some details in the entrance area.

Since the last render I posted I added a roof model to go with the big metal beams, added some more detail to the wall textures and improved the pillar and textile textures after the post process work.

Hope you like it ;)

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium27.jpg

[Deltathunder]

Your assets are excellent but the post processing and lighting makes it look bland.
Keep working on it.
Good luck :).

[Nexusdog]

It's detail is beautiful but the colours are washed out, give it some vibrancy, Billy.

[Qmaster]

I don't think it looks bland. It looks great! Although the sunlight patch on the floor might be a tad too bright and washed out. Is that a library through the door on the right? It looks sort of like a bookshelf in there.

[Aldighieri]

Agreed, the lighting is too intense for my tastes. I find myself looking at the shaded parts, which is probably not what you want your viewers to do.

However, this scene is beautiful and you clearly put a lot of effort into it.

[Billiz]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I tried changing things around but more or less end up where I started, anyway I'm happy with the way it looks now and I have so sort out all the stuff I'm going to send to the school, if I have some time left I will try to improve it more.

[krateos_29]

Nice work, but I think postprocessing didn't help that unique blue and gold color scheme.

[Billiz]

Ok so I have improved the lighting and post process, the main problem was that in my frist attempt I did the post process before I was done with the lighting and one other thing that also had a huge impact was that I did not have lightmass AO enabled the first time, I had no idea that post process AO and lightmass AO where different things.

I also improved a few textures and fixed the pillar lightmap and normal texture to remove a few seams.

I'm going to do my final renders for the school later tonight, but I did a small preview of my lighting and post process.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium28.jpg

[Billiz]

Here are the final renders I'm using for my application to the school.

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium30.jpg

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium31.jpg

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium32.jpg

http://www.billyhallden.com/images/roman_atrium33.jpg

[keithgarry]

Beautiful. I'd love to walk outside and be in a garden.

[Billiz]

Beautiful. I'd love to walk outside and be in a garden.

Thanks! I'm planing to continue this later on and make a small movie clip for my portfolio when I'm done.

[Stupideye]

Beautiful. Nice work.

[Qmaster]

Awesome! It makes me just want to run around and explore the place. Oh what's through the doors I wonder? It's pretty cool.

[sarge mat]

Loads of really nice stuff!

[Billiz]

Thanks guys!

[krateos_29]

Billiz, that was almost perfect. Congratulations:)

[Qmaster]

Almost? Looks great to me!

[devmarc]

looking very nice

[Billiz]

Thanks guys, I'm done with this for now, but like I said, I'm going to continue this later on.

[nathanbarrett]

Fantastic images! What kind of post-process effects did you use out of interest?

[Deltathunder]

Thats better :).Love the last image
Have you ever considerd creating a master material you could use for Pfs.Would really come in handy for certain aspects of a scene.

[Qmaster]

Thats better :).Love the last image
Have you ever considerd creating a master material you could use for Pfs.Would really come in handy for certain aspects of a scene.

What's "Pfs"? And what do you mean by a master material?

[Deltathunder]

A master material is basically a parameterized brain behind your material Instances.
It holds all the material params you need.
Rim shading,Detailed normals,speculars,specular powers,Fresnals,Bumps,vertexing...... the list can go on.
You create a master material.Then from your basic material create a New material Instance.This is where you add the Master material as the Parent..."Basically Like all parents Tells you what to do".
Then you will have many parameters open up.You just add all your maps into these tweak params too your mats or assets use in enviro and Bammm amazing material has been created.
The PFs is Portfolio the s was a typo :).

[Billiz]

Thx guys!

I got accepted to the game design school I applied to, so I'm super happy about that! So for the next two years I will be studying 3D graphics at Futuregames in Stockholm Sweden.

:D :D :D

[WarrenM]

Woot, congrats!

[Billiz]

Thx Warren!

[Qmaster]

Sweden? Awesome! Gooden luck! You'll do-uh great!

Top of your class for sure, from what I've seen.

[Deltathunder]

Congrats,Im sure you will do extremely well.

[Billiz]

Thx guys! :)