UDK Pirate Challenge - BasketQase

[BasketQase]

Hello, WoLD!

I just ran across the WoLD site last night while I was looking up level design resources and I saw this challenge and figured I'd try my hand. I don't have much experience with level editors, but I know my around a 3D modeler . . . I figure they can't be too different, right? The hardest part is gonna be keeping up with the WIP thread. I'm horrible at keeping a journal of anything! : ) Anyway, I think this will be a fun way to get my feet wet with UDK and the Unreal engine in general.

I'm looking forward to the feedback and seeing what everyone comes up with!

~Rob


Updates:

- Direct link to final submission.
- A compilation of my favorite images from the contest.

[BasketQase]

Alright, I'm starting a week behind, but I think I can still put together something worthwhile. I spent the night going over some basic UDK tutorials, getting myself up to speed, and looking over the pirate assets. I also glanced through everyone's threads and was really impressed with what people were able to accomplish with such a limited selection of objects. It inspired me to think a little bigger than I was originally.

So here's my grand scheme: I'm going to create a sea cave that has an open roof like a cenote or the Melissani Cave at Kefalonia. I plan to have a pirate's hideout within the cave, complete with dock and treasure "room." The focal piece will be a ship moored at the underground dock. There's a cherry on top of this plan, but I'll leave that for later as my grand surprise. : )

I'll post some stuff as soon as I figure out how to do scans, screenshots, and the like in Windows (I'm running bootcamp on a Mac, and don't have experience with that kinda stuff on the Windows side).

In the meantime, here are a couple of pics I'm using for inspiration. I believe they are concepts for a game called Tera PvP:




Cheers!
~R

[BasketQase]

Cool, got my HP all-in-one working with Windows so I can show my first bit of work.

After spending some time downloading tons of reference images (and then losing the majority of them when my flash drive corrupted itself), I drew up a rough layout of the environment:



In it I've also mapped out where I expect to shoot the beauty shots so that I know where to focus my efforts if I run out of time.

Funny, it's actually easier to read here than it is on my paper . . .

~R

[Exigopro]

I'm not sure if you're shots will be perfect; the boat gets all attention, because it seems like you can see it on every screenshot. I would add another location, or make the boat so damn sexy that we want to see it on 3 pictures . -> Just my opinion btw.

[BasketQase]

Well, I do, in fact, plan to make a sexy boat. : ) Hopefully it'll be sexy enough to justify popping up in all three shots.

[BasketQase]

So, for now at least, I gave up on doing the rough pass in UDK. It's cumbersome to work with, and I haven't figured out enough workflow tricks yet to feel like I'm moving as quickly as I'd like. Instead, I'm roughing the main shots in Cinema 4D to quickly get to the actual 3D position and scale of stuff. I plan to import the C4D scene into UDK later to use as a framework, or outline when I'm ready to put it all together for reals.

Here's a rough of shot 2 in C4D. I'm not sold on the angle yet, but I like the foreground elements. The far back will be the system of crevices and bridges that make up the living quarters for our band of pirates. That will be my next step:



If there are any composition experts out there, I'd love to get some feedback on this.

Peace!
~R

[BasketQase]

Oops . . . forgot to get some sleep!

Alright, I roughed together the three key shots based on my concept sketches. I'm not quite sure I love any of them yet, but they each have things I like. Oh, and I guess I'm unveiling the last part of my concept -- the pirate airship! Here are the mock-ups (and, again, these are roughed in Cinema 4D not UDK):







Feedback is always appreciated!

~R

[BasketQase]

Okie dokie! Quick update before I head to dinner.

Got my mesh layout thrown into UDK. Very exciting. Learned that you don't want to have C4D's "figure" object in there, 'cause it'll take forever to import (realized later that the reason is that the figure is rigged, so UDK was importing character rigging information . . . oops).

Anyway, here's a shot of the layout in UDK. Fun!



~R

[BasketQase]

I'm starting to form a bad habit . . . that's two nights in a row where I've been working on this thing till six in the morning . . .

I've got the level roughed out with the cave, ship, dock, and treasure area. I can tell lighting is gonna need a lot of love at the end, so now I know to leave some time for that.

Here's the first shot roughed in UDK:



The floating rock and lamp are placeholders for the airship. The camera renders a little different focal length and/or field of view than the default Cinema 4D camera, so I'll have to move things around a little bit to get what I had before.


Shot two:



Again, floating rock and lamp are airship placeholders. The lamp in the foreground will either be a wrecked skiff or a rock depending on the time I have. I still plan to have the system of bridges and crevices in the background, though I haven't even started roughing those out yet.


Shot three:



Not much to be said here. It's roughed in. : )


Airship:



Progress so far on the ship itself. Reference model is in the background.

[BasketQase]

Last night's efforts got me the ship's hull. In addition, I learned how to mirror things and apply/change textures on static meshes (thanks Warren and Hulkspidey)!

I'm a little bummed 'cause I've got some work coming up and may not be able to work on this much. I'm gonna truck on as much as I can, though.

Anyway, here's some more progress on the pirate airship:



~R

[BasketQase]

Alrighty, I'm at a decent stopping point for the ship. Here are some beauty shots of it:







Moving on to the docks next . . . though prolly after some sleep -_- zzzzzzZZZZZZ

[channie]

Outstanding oO

[PhantomFragger]

Really liking the concept of the ship, will be a nice centrepiece for your scene good job

[Deltathunder]

OOOO.I like this..Thats one fine looking air ship.Lots of detail..Very well done.arrr we be flying .

[BasketQase]

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words ^_^

I ended up passing on sleep and just went ahead with the dock. Here's what I got so far:





Next up: treasure! Yarrrrr!

~R