The Neon Graveyard - 05 - Cyberpunk Caskets

Main Camera Shot

Main camera screenshot from Unreal. The mausoleums to the left of the path leading to the cathedral now have textures on them. Their signs are also improved slightly.

The view from the main camera. Started putting the brick textures from the last post in. Also created a metal trim to go on the mausoleums roofs.

Cyberpunk Gravestones

Maya screenshot. There is an Unreal mannequin. Next to him is a large gravestone. The slot in which the casket would go is visible and there is a headstone now too. The place where the casket would be, is open though, and up from it protrudes like in an offense a cyberpunk device with lots of servers and ventilators like from a PC tower.

The more interesting part though, is that I started development on the gravestones.

Close up of the screenshot above. Now the little racks of servers and HDDs and SSDs is more noticeable. Next to each server device is a cluster of computer fans. Lots of cables around, like ones from ATX components.

My idea from the very start of the project, was to create a spacious environment and then showcase it in some interesting video with nice camera movements and maybe even some basic animations. While working on the layout and general mood, I was thinking all the time on what I want to do with the gravestones themselves. I knew I wanted to turn them in some weird, cyberpunk devices that serve a purpose.

At first look they appear ordinary (apart from the neon signs, and the disc looking device) but upon close inspection you see there is something that might be going on with them.

The Concept

The holes of the gravestones will look like any ordinary ones. The camera zooms into one though and some movements starts. The entire hole, in which a casket would go, starts moving up. Pressure release sounds plays and some vapour particle systems triggers. With the upward movement we suddenly see the side of the “coffin” and realise that there is something weird to it. Lots of wires run through it, connecting cooling systems and servers together. Lots of small lights flick on and off.

The middle prolonged shapes (seen in the picture above), I want to give the look of as if they are storage space (digital ones, of course). Hopefully I will find a nice way to wire up the gravestones with some cables that go towards the cathedral itself. If that is visible from the main camera, the viewer could have a hint towards those gravestones way before the camera zooms in and the whole sequence I described plays.

The above images prop seen from an angle now letting one inspect the little computer terminal attached to it. It looks like an unfolded laptop with a keyboard to input code into a CMD.

At the very front of the “casket” I put a terminal. Going to have some fun animating the screen with some weird numbers and code showing later on. Also, texturing that keyboard should be quite interesting too.

I want to have this whole prop be quite more detailed in both geometry and texture, compared to what I ordinary do. In a way that its obvious that its a prop, meant to be inspected from very up close in a first person game. I’ll still do my best with optimisation too, nothing is going to be too crazy (the spinning fans, which are the most heavy on geometry objects, would be an instance of a single object, and I will animate them to spin in the sockets).

I’ve UV mapped a big chunk of it already and I hope to have some interesting stuff to show next time. In the meantime, tell me what you think of the idea and the general look of this “casket” so far. Hoping to bring it to life with lots of cyberpunky lights and wires.

Until next time,

Pete.

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