@ForgottenWorld (ForgottenWorld) posted a new topic, subject "Post apocalyptic world". It read:

   As the title stated, I was trying make something with post apocalyptic world feel. A refugee camp under a bridge
    
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    world.jpg690×828 167 KB

To which @nickdiesel (nickdiesel) replied

    You should really make it more dramatic!  
    Maybe make the sky darker and put some more destruction, apocalypse and dirt in it

So @The_Dude1 (The Dude) replied

    yap, its way too clean. i think especially the columns need a makeover…they should look like theyre nearly falling into pieces…  
    i just found this picture, i know you shouldnt use a 3d image for 3d reference but i think theyre just perfect…i hope i dont piss anyone off if i post that here.
    
    ColumnFinalSculpt.jpg799×436 75 KB
    
      
    
    
    maybe you should do similar with the bridge.
    
    another thing in my opinion is, that you have a bright blue sky, but the dominant color above the bridge is red…i dont know, maybe its just me, but somehow it looks kinda wrong if you know what i mean =P i would like to see even the sky a little more ‘destroyed' maybe add some dirty clouds.  
    i like the red tone under the bridge and the atmosphere it creates, but maybe you could experiment a litttle with the color balance, maybe try out a greenish atmosphere, something little more dark, you know.

After which, @ForgottenWorld (ForgottenWorld) added

    Thanks for the comments, but there is just one problem…how do i make the columns look beat up? using sculpt mode? but I am just bad at it…

So @The_Dude1 (The Dude) replied

    i just remembered this tutorial: http://vimeo.com/26174136
    
    maybe you find it useful

@AdamEtheredge (AdamEtheredge) replied

    I love the idea, but I also agree with the above crits. And who could disagree with The Dude? (Well, besides those pesky German nihilists…)  
    If you go back to late '80s anti-nuclear war movies, you always have a sky with an extremely heavy cloud deck, and it's usually some glowing phosphorescent red or orange, regardless of time of day. Those movies made the sky look like an emitter, and frightening. If this is a Cycles thing, try making some Emission Clouds…  
    As far as the columns go, I'm not sure how beat up they would be. If it's ten years after the nuke-out, they wouldn't be aged or weathered. Although they might be cracked. Depends on what you're going for, and exactly what happened on this world.  
    Another great influence, and something that probably has more to do with this shot than anything else, is the cover of Isaac Asimov's “Foundation's Edge” novel (I think it was that one, although I could be wrong. That series all runs together in my head, and I don't want to go look through the closet to find out exactly which book it is…), or at least the cover of one of the later Foundation books. It's a painting of a young girl in front of a giant supertech city, with mile-high skyscrapers in the background. However, it's been several thousand years since the Galactic Empire fell, so those skyscrapers are falling apart. Though they are still huge and incredibly hitech, they look as if they might collapse any second. And the girl looks like a vandal.
    
    So is this a BI render or a Cycles thing? I'd suggest trying it in Cycles and posting that render in Cycles Test. You'll get great feedback, learn more about Cycles, you might even cause us all to come up a new way of doing things in the new prototype. At least, you'd find it very easy to make Emitting Clouds and smashed columns…  
    Keep up the cool work. It's a cool project. Can't wait to see more.

Then @ForgottenWorld (ForgottenWorld) said

    Okay, I try my best with the sculpt tool…  
    by the way, the setting is many years after the end of world, so that is why I keep the blue sky
    
    world2.jpg690×828 171 KB

So @AdamEtheredge (AdamEtheredge) replied

    Hmm. I see. Well, that would make a little more sense then.  
    I'm not sure about this sculpting approach, though. It makes the columns look a little like they were constructed out of hollow plastic which got squished by a giant when he sat on the highway. It might work, though, if you play with it some…  
    I'd suggest testing out the Fracture Tool. That's exactly what you'd need to really smash that old structure up some. There's a few good tutorials on Fracking on YouTube…  
    But I'm glad to see you're coming along with it. Keep up the good work. This'll get there!

Then @ForgottenWorld (ForgottenWorld) said

    I try the fracture tool and it didn't do anything… any idea why?

Then @ForgottenWorld (ForgottenWorld) said

    Okay, I have to open up a new blender window in order to get the fracture tool to work (for some reason) and import the object to my scene.
    
    world2.jpg690×828 177 KB

@AdamEtheredge (AdamEtheredge) replied

    There ya go. That's starting to come along better.  
    Fracture is buggy. You have to mess with it a lot to get it to work, or not crash. I did a logo video a few weeks back and I had to mess with frac for hours before I got it to do what I wanted.  
    Sooner or later someone's going to rewrite Fracture, and it will be much more popular. Right now it can do some great things. And crash a lot in spectacular fashion…

@Evil_Moon_MOose (Evil Moon MOose) replied

    now rust the metal of the bridge…if you have an xbox or something I would try playing the Fallout 3 or Fallout New Vegas games…they really capture a destroyed world, with many reused parts, maybe take a look at some of theire bridges???

@Karakasimov (Karakasimov) replied

    How about making a night version as well?

@Luftmensch (Luftmensch) replied

    Something about the atmosphere doesn't feel desert-y. It seems like a regular, mildly humid climate. That said, it seems like there should be growth of some kind. Otherwise, maybe the atmosphere needs to be tweaked a bit, or made a bit browner?

After which, @ForgottenWorld (ForgottenWorld) added

    update: damage the bridge with fracture tool again, change the sun lamp to desert type (did it look more desert like??)  
    Night version seem interesting, once I find a way to make a good night sky… and definitely a giant moon!
    
    world.jpg690×828 186 KB

After which, @Jacob_Holt (Jacob Holt) added

    That's looking pretty good! But the ground could use a better texture and more rocks/concrete debris piled around the sides of the columns. The background, as others suggested, could be quite orange and cloudy, (like you would see from Mad Max…) Just very dusty/sandy.

@sdfgeoff (sdfgeoff) replied

    The thing to think about is why the world is post apocalyptic. What was the apocalypse?  
    If it was, say, a major disease that wiped out 90% of the population then there would only be weathering on the infrastructure.  
    If, on the other hand, it was a big war, then you would see a lot more debris, from the blasts, from crashed vehicles. Regardless of when it happened, there would still be some remnants of whatever caused the war/what happened in it. Think back, we still have remnants of roman battles, or greek battles from the ancient times. Does it not make sense that in the year 3568 someone will dig up a war site that is happening currently.
    
    Anyway, that got a bit off topic.
    
    A few other thoughts:  
    Fires inside tents? Ouch. I'm not going in there.  
    Is the ground wet sand? or what exactly?  
    The shadows are very sharp. I do know that you have AO turned on, but is there a way to blur the edges of shadows?  
    Is there a background? I just see an edge of the world beyond the bridge. Any chance of mountains, a ruined city or something like that beyond the bridge. Clouds might also help here.
    
    Other than that it is brilliant, better than I could do with modeling the pillars.

Then @AdamEtheredge (AdamEtheredge) said

    sdfgsdfg:
    
    > The shadows are very sharp. I do know that you have AO turned on, but is there a way to blur the edges of shadows?
    
    Cubic Interpolation. And Mineart shader is a good way of doing things with shadows that Lambert won't do particularly well. I've started using Minneart all the time on almost everything now. I don't like the way Lambert looks anymore, whenever I try going back. It just looks dull.
    
    You know, looking at this most recent one, all the colors on the pillars, inside the tents, on the ground, almost everything… it would all look perfect if you just used clicked Blend Sky and Real Sky, then used a very orange background, something almost Martian. Looking at the way the light is playing on everything in the scene, if you set up the sky to look deep orange, the way it looks during the very last moments before the sun goes down… you'd be just about done with this scene. And it would make it look a lot more lonely, too. Subtitle: “Sunset of Man”  
    And if you pulled out that pillar on the right nearest the camera, you could put a really red sun in the distance in it's place. That's the sun location the shadows indicate. It would be creepy.
    
    You're starting to have some really good progress on this, ForgottenWorld. The columns and architecture probably look about right, imo, depending on the cause of the apocalypse.  
    I've had dreams about an apocalypse before. I wouldn't say, judging from them, that there is any one “cause” specifically. Instead, in these dreams, I just have visions of complete and random chaos and insanity, people driving down the highway at ridiculous speeds, cops shooting at them randomly (and at everyone else) as they speed past, houses on fire, just a complete breakdown of rationality. As if the apocalypse was a viral outbreak, but the virus was just complete lunacy itself.
    
    So, if you want a cause, you could just have it be that the world stopped making any sense.  
    I really don't know how to depict such a thing.  
    Sometimes I write my dreams down as soon as I wake up.  
    Often I just try very hard to forget them as quick as possible.

After which, @uniquedesign71 (uniquedesign71) added

    What if… A UFO accidentally was caught in the background sky when the photo was captured… Hmm =P Im not an expert or anything but i see you have really captured your concept well in this render. Whenever i start a project it seems i workout all the bugs and fine tune it then… I rebuild it from ground zero and then it turns out way better than origional because i kept all the details in mind. One thing i have noticed is the lighting under the bridge. The photo is unclear and somewhat sketchy. Also the ground sticks out under the concrete in a way that i wish you modeled the ground itself to support the bridge. maybe create the ground mesh like you would for any model making the ground wrap up over the bottom of the structure. I hope my opinions have helped in some way or another i really look forward to the progress of your project. -Josh

After which, @laser_blaster (laser blaster) added

    Overall, the scene looks good, but there's still plenty of improvements to be made.
    
    The modeling looks good, although some of the background objects don't look nearly as damaged as the ones in the foreground. Also the background seems to end rather abruptly. Add more things in the distance to fix this.
    
    The shading transitions between light and dark on the ground are way to harsh and sharp, and it looks really unrealistic, and the tents look a bit too bumpy. Also, the tent of the left side seems to have some really bad texture stretching.
    
    I think you should keep the blue sky. If, as you said, the apocalyptic event happened years ago, then there's no real reason to make the sky look ugly. Contrary to what the others here seem to believe, deserts usually do have blue skies, unless there's some sort of sandstorm or something.
    
    Also, the tents don't seem to shadow the vstokes@example.com.

To which @uniquedesign71 (uniquedesign71) replied

    I just noticed that those were tents… I thought they were Concrete barracades… The picture all makes more sense now… I would definitely adjust your lighting and see if you could make the scene clearer and not so intense…

So @ForgottenWorld (ForgottenWorld) replied

    Thanks for the helps! although the cause of the end is something I didn't really think of before… I will definitely think about it, will update it soon

Then @uniquedesign71 (uniquedesign71) said

    Maybe i could offer some inspiration? This is an underground tunnel i made… The idea is from a tutorial i watched awhile ago got bored the other day so i tested my memory and new knowledge of compositing… Sometimes the simplest things can make a picture look complicated and detailed… This scene is a perfect example… Theres a focal point “The Light in the tunnel” NAturally i want viewers eyes to follow the objects into the light… Maybe this will help to inspire something in your scene…
    
    Allthough the render looks complete it only has 5 lowpoly models… The tunnel, the tracks, the 3rd rail, the pipes, and the wires… Use the “Normal” slider in geometry below the texturing viewer “Checkerboard icon” To add a bumpmap using your textures this makes things look less flat and static and more like they are real. -Goodluck… Also the contrast of the red/orange rock and the tents red lights are making the forground look too red and unclear…

So @artigliphics (artigliphics) replied

    Hey if you'd need some graffiti to texture onto the walls let me know.

Then @ForgottenWorld (ForgottenWorld) said

    A little update, not a lots of time this week…
    
    ### Attachments
    
    world3.jpg689×827 107 KB

Then @AdamEtheredge (AdamEtheredge) said

    Know what? I don't know. It seems to me that, if the columns and bridge are all that weathered and beaten, then any object in the scene that is made of metal would have rusted down to a few small strips by now…

So @ForgottenWorld (ForgottenWorld) replied

    come back to this after a looooooong break. A night version this time
    
    world.png690×828 980 KB

Then @Wefyb (Wefyb) said

    I agree with AdamEtherage. Concrete doesn't just degrade like that. Any kinds of metal products would be long gone before that kind of weathering and damage was done to those pillars. Also, another question about that. Why would anybody want to stay under THAT for safety? To me it would seem more dangerous to be staying even NEAR that than to be sleeping under it. But I digress.
    
    The image itself is nice, but those pillars need to be toned down a bit. It is just too much to look right!


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