I found this concept while trolling on 3d total. By Eytan Zanathe guy is a concept artist who has worked for companies like naughty dog.http://ezdraws.blogspot.com/. I really found the lighting and ambiance of this scene captivating. The color and use of atmospheric perspective is also quite amazing. I wanted to really capture the tone of the scene. I am taking the modeling into a high poly then procedural textures. I then later decided that i might be better suited to high poly low poly and texture to import into the unreal engine. which is the eventual process I will go into.
I gathered reference from the 1940’s and mid-50s. the tone set by the images paint the picture of a simpler time. Notable facts include that after approximately 14 years, carving at Mount Rushmore concludes in October 1941. Walt Disney wins a 1943 Academy Award for his animated short film Der Fuehrer’s Face, Marvel comics introduces captain America in 1941. It was also during Americas 2nd world war, so I felt the concept depicted a time of uncertainty coupled with hope for a better tomorrow.
After sifting through a few of my personal reference database. I realized I didn’t have nearly enough reference to accurately describe my scene. I can only infer so much from a concept because at the end of the day it is just that. A classmate of mine suggested I check out a site called shorpy’s. A site that houses a good amount of photographic reference. The reference that supports my building decisions, a look bible so to speak.
The forgotten city to me was originally depicted with one alley way. I wanted to show how to use set extension to achieve a scene that can be composited in after effects. The time frame for this project was 1 Quarter (approx. 3 months). I started with a few rudimentary drawings of my own. First making what I call a set dome. A map of how the scene to be look to the camera, an eagle eyed perspective. Calculating for how effects would come into play, the sky and even camera placement. Placing the 3d elements in 2-3d space helped me breakdown the concept into tangible work through pieces which could then be carried out to plan and building stage.
BLOCKING
The buildings are an amalgamation of 1940’s styled structures and the mid 50’s.
Using the reference I gathered from the internet i was able to make more decisive choices in what to model instead of fumbling about.
Looking through my reference and images I saw a few pieces that looked like modern stucco and a bit of late Victorian design. I felt the forgotten city reminded me a bit of New York and Chicago during the days of the mafia.
I knew the scene was going to be very geometry heavy so I optimized and optimized and did a bit more optimizing.
I used just enough to get the shape and silhouette I want. And since it was going to be textured using procedural materials, I wasn’t worried about leaving objects uncapped
Using a few modifiers and displacement maps I made the stone walk way. I have tried, crazy bump, and ndo 2 and found the x-normal filter to be the best. It is free and it comes with a normal map filter for photoshop.
Using the uvw map modified I added uvs and went as far as to unwrap a few of the pieces for vertex paint.
Using pre-made set pieces I was able to reuse a good amount of the pieces I made for variation and extension
This is the abandoned bar on the right of the concept. I made the wood pieces modular so I could reuse the geometry instances.
This building has numerous light sources so, I wanted to accurately replicate the light pouring out of the windows; catching the wood beams, thus illuminating enough of the street to tease our sense of sight.
BUILD
When i reconstructed the scene i had a few things in mind
Build it in a way that it matches the original concept on one main street
All intersecting streets will be instances of the original with a few nuances of difference, this will save me rendering time since it isn’t calling out the geometry and textures every time it renders
The lighting should define the shapes of the building informing the viewer on the mood and atmosphere.
The streets should be wide enough for two cars and a man
I did a very rough lighting pass in this stage so I can judge how the elements I built on the forgotten street would work with lighting. I wanted to really set the mood for a dark destitute alley.
I wasn’t very happy with the state of the rubble so I planned to go and reiterate it. It would take some time before I could get to that but I was optimistic.
I tested a few things like tileable stone ground using zbrush.
I then projected y high poly onto a plane then added displacement to it
I ran into a problem using mental rays displacement map. It is actually on of the few downfalls of using the mental ray rendering engine.
The problem is that when you increase your displacement amount over the value of 1 it starts giving you the waves that you see in the second image to the right. I solved the problem of the waves by reducing my displacement to .8 which gave me a bit of raise and still looked nice.
Unlike v-ray that handles displacement much more accurately.
I devised that another option for me would have been to actually make the stones out of a few pieces of geometry. I was trying to save render time, so I opted for the first option. I learned a few things and just went around and implemented this technique wherever I saw valuable
These next series of images contain my build techniques for covering the forgotten city following my diagram.
Making the first one I added some of the support means giving it a stronger silhouette value to the entire image.
The flags will be put through the cloth simulation in order to get them to look a tad more like drapery
FATAI 