[Cinematic] Fallout Tribute Intro Video (School Project)

[CoffeeBob]

Hey all! So, this is my first post here, so here's a quick introduction;
I'm Marcus, an aspiring game developer currently living in southern Sweden. I have a huge interest in games, both playing and making them, and I'm going to study game graphics and/or design at university level, starting this fall.

When Fallout 3 was released a couple of years ago, I got it on the release day and loved it. The setting, the exploration, the struggle to survive, it all appealed to me in a way that it bumped up to being one of my favorite games ever. With it, I also got familiar with the first two games, and they've also managed to captivate and amaze me. In other words, I love the series.

Anyhow, let's get to the point, I was inspired by all this wasteland wandering to do my own Fallout-ish intro video for my final school project, both as a tribute video to the games and as exercise with modelling, texturing and using UDK. I'd just started using UDK when I started the project, gaining most of my knowledge with it through the tutorial videos and taking to how it worked very quickly. It's an awesome tool and I can't wait to use it for a project again, which I will, it's just confidential what that project is for now... :)

Without further delay/wall of text, here's the video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRwZzaSkvS4&hd=1

Edit: Also, here's a few screenshots of the scene.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/Largo/falloutintro_01.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/Largo/falloutintro_03.png

Any comments/crits/questions are welcome and much appreciated!

[thorbahn3]

Good job. It needs something awesome at the end though like how the original trailer had the brotherhood of steel solider appear.

[heyufool1]

Ahhhh so cool! I love the post-apocalyptic theme and this style of trailer is simply bad ass. Nice work!

[CoffeeBob]

Thanks a lot guys, comments much appreciated!

@thorbahn3: You know, I never thought of having something like that. That'd be a great detail, so if I ever go back to change some things I'll consider adding some 'life' to the end.

@heyufool1: Thanks man, I'm glad you like it!

[Drevlin]

Hey man, welcome to the forums. :)
Judging by your name I assume your swedish, or atleast scandinavian? Which school are you attending? Reason im asking is because I studied games dev in Skövde and thought you might be a fellow "DSU;are" :)

Some crits on the peice:
Some shots are really dark or occluded by heavy fog, like the zoom out just after you exit the house. Its in shadow and in combo with the heavy fog you cant see anything, really. Overall it the environment feels a bit flat. I think this is because you have simillar colours across the scene; Warm brown/yellow textures, brown/yellow fog and brown/yellow lighting. Mix it up! You also might want to turn up the brightess of the shadows (add a bit more bounce) to bring out details in the shadowy areas.

In the finishing shot, when it has zoomed out you have stuff in the background to make it interesting, you have stuff in the middle ground to make it interesting but you compleatly lack detail in the foreground. Just adding in some objects or vegetation or even just a few pebbles on the ground I think you can get a better shot.

The cloth inside the house has some floating bits in the alpha. Looks weird in the close up shot.

Not sure if you want it to keep all accurate to the original movie, but i think you should turn on the lamp next to the skeleton. To get some directional light in there that highlights the skeleton from one side would make for a really good shot.

The entire cinematic lacks effects. Make some floaty dust particles, godrays. It will make for a better depth in the overall peice.

Take it easy!

[CoffeeBob]

Thanks for the welcome, and thanks a lot for the feedback, Drevlin! :)

I am indeed swedish and right now I'm attending BTH (Blekinge Tekniska Högskola/Blekinge Institute of Technology) in Karlshamn. The Fallout project was made when I was still in secondary school though, at Ljud- och Bildskolan in Varberg.

All the points you've mentioned are very good, and I'll keep them in mind if I return to the project in the future. I might go back and touch it up a bit for when I need a nifty portfolio to impress possible future employers. :D

Most of the issues with lack of detail are there since I had to rush it a bit to finish the project up in time, and thus didn't have a lot of time left over to add the little bits that enhance the atmosphere.
As I said, your points and suggestions are very good, I'll keep them in mind for when I return to my wasteland once again. :)

[SageHunter]

Looks really good, but as Drevlin says, lacks effect.

BTH is in Karlskrona, not Karlshamn? Correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm thinking about going there, but I'm in programming in secondary school and have very little "game making" knowledge. You think that'd be a problem or do you learn everything you need there?
And also, do you get to start with programming, level design, modelling and such so you can decide what to specialize in later?

[CoffeeBob]

Thanks, SageHunter. I'll definitely try to add some more detail and effect to it sometime.

It's in both Karlskrona and Karlshamn. The school in Karlshamn is also known as "Digitala Medier". I don't think that'd be a problem, we started our 'programming workshop' course today and we started from scratch with C#. The game dev course lets you try out all the aspects of game making before you choose which specialization you want (there's graphics, design and programming.)