Chernobyl circa 2010.

Happy new years and all that stuff. I'm starting my new year off right by saying that Chernobyl is complete! No reworks. Case closed. It's always hard for me to walk away from projects due to the fact that I'm a perfectionist when it comes to just about everything. But, there comes a time when you have to lock the gate and move on to newer things. So here it be laddies and lads:

As you can tell, there have been even more changes. A list:

1) Four new props: paper towel dispenser, hand soap dispenser, ivy vines, and trash can. Though they're all mundane objects on their own, they help to make the level more believable. A sink without at least something to go with it just looks odd in my opinion. Not too much wear and tear on any of them. They all have normal maps but the only one done in Zbrush was the trash can. It was mainly just to keep Zbrush fresh in my mind for when I use it in the desert project later. Plus the trash bag detail and the grooves on the metal lent themselves to 3d sculpting extremely well. The vines especially make the room look older and overgrown as nature tends to retake things that haven't been kept up in awhile.

2) I desaturated some objects to give the level a more dead, abandoned feel. Some of the objects had too much chromatic pop to them, so I lowered it so they wouldn't stick out so much. The chair and wall tile are the most noticeable by far.

3) I added what is called a post process effect. It is basically a box that makes you able to make changes to stuff like color contrast, which is what I used it for. You might not be able to notice it that well, but it allows things to have more of a contrast that just looks more pleasing to the eye.

4) I darkened and desaturated the poster so that it would blend into the wall better. Stuck out like a sore thumb before.

5) Not big, but I moved the papers around on the floor to better compose the scene based on the new objects I added.

That's it! I will probably never be fully satisfied with it, but compared to how it looked before, I must say It looks pretty good for my first time using Unreal.

So, new things in the mix! I'm still waiting it out for Jake to get me some sketches of the desert, so I'm going to make one more run at the laser rifle and correct some minor issues. I hope to get the ball rolling on more detailed sketches by mid January, but I have a huge amount of things that I can do while I wait, like post production for the demo reel and reworking the website. The gun shouldn't take long to finish, so look for that soon.

Ryan out.