Brutal Advise wanted

[gldr327]

So here is the deal, Im wrapping up a movie and my CG guy had to put the movie on the back burner for dogfights, So looks like to make my deadline im going to be finishing a couple of the CG shots(god help me). So what I need and would like,is the brutally honest opinions and advise that you all ,my 3d cohorts excel at. Thank you in advance, I’ll be posting my first screen shots tonight.

[kiwi123]

bring it on ! :P

[cobra6]

/me is waiting :)

Cobra 6

[Hitori Kyo]

Im in, sounds intresting!

- Hitori Kyo

[gldr327]

the first shot is a night shot and will have a truck driving down the road of a small town and turn down an alley. Here are the first 3 playing around trying to get a right feel.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e143/harmlessgirl/DriveupTown1.jpg
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e143/harmlessgirl/DriveupTown2.jpg
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e143/harmlessgirl/DriveupTown3.jpg
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e143/harmlessgirl/DriveupTown4.jpg

[WonderWheeler]

To be totally brutal, I would say grunt, ppppt, harrumph, ug, cough and cachoo.

To give a little more educated advice, I'd say its a very good job so far.

As a old perfectionist, architect, builder and very amateur 3d renderer, i'd say that the large slab in the right foreground is a little naked and all alone. It needs some smaller stones in the gutter and right next to it. It looks a little artificial like someone shoveled, and swept around the big piece to clean up.

I like the smaller slab on top and twords the middle of it. But remember that:
debris forms "piles" sort of like this: . .;[|]i. . . .:+. . . .. .
A large piece of fallen debris would have little pieces near it.

The stars nearest the horizon should probably be almost invisible. Assume dust, fog, and smoke near the horizon. A touch of red here or there near the horizon also, might add the effect of a fire or two in the distance. Adding to the desolation and eerieness.

hope this makes sense...

There would probably be a fair amount of white powder everywhere from all the lime plaster pulverized enough that it would leave footprints. But I probably wouldn't go that far, all that white might not look right.

If you need additional accessories, you might try broken wooden barrels, a broken civilian cart left behind when the wheel came off, maybe a piece of luggage left behind by a fleeing civilian, maybe a loose empty container here or there. Maybe the occasional something unusual left behind by a looter near the front of a building and forgotten in the clutter. Or something valuable left behind because it was too heavy. Persian rug or gaudy lamp or broken high heel shoe. Also the odd bunch of shell casings, makeshift barricades. Crude or instututional signs showing directions to shelter, water or detour. Dangerous building signs even. The occasional chalked message that tresspassing is verbotten etc.
Maybe even a "kilroy was here" somewhere as an "easter egg".

Like the street light. If this is a residential street, it probably needs a tree skeleton or two if they haven't been cut down for firewood. And another streetlight in the distance if it is a good neighborhood.

I learn a lot from old broken down buildings and find them fun to investigate. Sometimes pieces of broken glass shine in the sunlight or moonlight by the way. Muddy pools and broken glass can even be beautiful at times.

The steel reinforcing bar sticking out the tops of the walls is good. Although in this age, I suspect that most of the buildings would have been made of unreinforced brick with almost no rebar. Except at occasional corners or openings. They could also be pipes I suppose. Sometimes bits of flapping curtain might be visible or even colored wallpaper inside the buildings. Also porcelain sinks, wooden rafters or floor joists sticking out here and there. In alleys on the other hand, you might have remains of signs, posters, sewage pipes traveling up the outside of walls and branching out, also upturned trash cans, wooden boxes, scattered papers, and crushed cans.

Just some rambling ideas, assume this is for an action game. Not a single scene. Am not really a game player.

The exterior walls seem to be rather thick on the upper floor, normally the lowest floor is maybe 1 1/3 times or so thicker than the one above. Say the first floor is 15 or 18" thick, the next one 12", the top one 8" or two widths of brick. The broken walls seem to have a uniform cut edge even where they are broken. Normally the middle of the wall stands taller than the edges (although not always, it depends which direction it fell also). The walls look a little too simple cookie cutter style, while chaos and destruction is a very complicated and hard to understand thing. A bit like a can of worms literally, and hard to reproduce I expect. Good torn edge on the broken cookie, but the edge of a broken cookie is uneven in 3 dimensions. Note the one on upper right. Hope that makes some sense.

As for the light level, they all may be a bit light. Darker would be spookier. The only light comes from above, so the areas near the bottom of walls should probably be darker. Am guessing to some extent, so one should investigate before accepting some of what I'm saying. The tops of walls might appear lighter for instance as they get more light (starlight). We assume there is no moon, as there are really no shadows.

The colors might want to be much more blue by the way. It is difficult for the eye to see red in low light levels, so the mind remembers a much bluer scene outside in the dark and cold. Maybe that is why humans seem to like low light levels to have a predominantly red theme, as it feels warmer and cozier. Successful bars and restaurants with low light levels strive to have a reddish color scheme usually.

[Hitori Kyo]

More rubble .. and some damage to the road would give a more realistic scene also.

- Hitori kyo

[Nils]

Very good but as Hitori says, where bricks have been fallen down they should be present on the ground, either in front or back of the wall :)
Also the pavements looks a bit too high.

[gldr327]

ok Wonderwheeler
1) Cooler background ---Check
2)more human debris and accessories floating around--Check
3)muddy pool is a bit out of my ability but i'll give it a shot--God help me i'll try
4)there is supposed to be a full moon i guess i need to make that one moe apparent


Hitori
1) I'll see about addign damage to the texture on the road

Nilis
)1 your right the curb is lookign to high i'll narrow the road a bit and drop it down
Thank you all