Final Render Sheets

Here are my final render sheets for the Asteroid environment, I am really pleased with the result and would love to see it in UDK; unfortunately I don't have time so the 3DS Max renders will have to do.

Environment Renders

Here are a selection of different lighting techniques I am trying out to best achieve a hallucination like appearance, whilst also keeping that cartoony hand painted art style. 

Progression with Environment.

Now I have successfully textured every asset in the Environment, I am really happy with the result and can't wait to add some atmospheric lighting and other effects to give it that hallucination like appearance. For this I tried to add fog, however the attempts were unsuccessful due to the Mental Ray lens effect I am using to render, making the fog invisible; therefore I created my own using a plane and opacity maps. I also added the rat silhouettes, I feel it is beginning to match the concept more closely. Also notice the added bump maps in the path and rocks, as well as a Mental Ray glass material used on the window.

Creation of Plantlife & Sign

I have got to a stage where my environment is almost complete, however I feel it was still lacking something and looked fairly bare; so I decided to create some plant life to occupy the plant pots and hopefully add a little more depth to the design; I chose to create a stylistic tree rather than a realistic one, due to the art style I thought an obscure design would fit the environment better. I am quite happy with how it turned out, quite a memorable design; something a little different than your standard opacity mapped planes.

I have also textured the sign, with the annotation "The Love Shack" due to it being the home of a once happy hippy couple; here is a close up of the sign:

Progression with Assets

Today I textured the Piano asset for my environment, using Mental Ray to achieve a realistically reflective look whilst still having a hand painted texture, I am quite happy with the result and think it works well in the environment.

I followed this tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7IZStYmImY, to make some grass for my environment. I then added it to the model but wasn't happy with the result, as I feel it didn't compliment the art style I had gone for.

I will try a different style of grass that will hopefully work better with the Art Style.

Environment Development

I have modeled all the assets for my sign and painted textures for the Asteroid and the House; I have decided to go for a stylized hand painted style, reminiscent of Zelda: The Windwaker. Now I need to work into the models, added hand painted textures and bump maps. Also need to figure out how to get a realistic glass texture for the window, and a nice reflective surface for the piano! 

Final Concept Variations

I decided to take my final design and make it feel more like a hallucination, as before it was more of a blueprint with no real atmosphere. Here I have tried several different techniques to achieve this effect.

This is my final design with an added background, a strange purple glow and ominous sillhouttes.

For this concept I made the cottage and surrounding grass/assets 50% visible and created a wavy effect. This looks good on the concept but not sure how I'd achieve this effect in UDK.

Here I layered the faded view and the clear view on top of each other, to give a less drastic effect. Think this could be achieved through a particle system in UDK similar to the heat haze one already packaged.

For this one I altered the Hue and Saturation of the image, to give it a more eerie; hallucination like appearance. From my research I have also found that colour displacement is common in hallucinations so this concept works on multiple levels, and I believe it creates a nice balance between the colours; adopting a much more extra-ordinary undertone.

I personally think the final concept with the altered Hue and Saturation is my favourite and conveys the story successfully, I will have to get some feedback of other people and my tutors first but for now, this is the design I'm sticking with.