Run-Down Prison

Hello everyone!

My name’s Alex and over the last few hours, I’ve been working on this run-down prison project. I’ve decided I want to to make this thing my next ‘big project’.

Here it is so far:



(1280x1080 @ 150 samples)

Sorry for the low quality, the .png file was too large.

I’m aiming for a photo-realistic look. I know I’m a long way off and there is definitely work to do, but I’m out of ideas. It would be awesome if you could critique this as harshly as possible.

I feel like everything could be improved, but I’m out of ideas on how to improve them. I think the easiest and most practical way to approach this would be if you all list the three main problems with the scene and tell me what’s wrong with them, and if possible how to improve them. I’ll get to work on it and then post the results with a change log.

I’m hoping that by the end of this, the scene will look passable in terms of realism. 100% Realism is, I think, a bit overly ambitious but let’s aim for it anyway to see how close we can get.

Here are the areas I personally think need improvement the most, so any tips on these will be useful as well:

  • The back wall - to empty, not as interesting as the rest of the scene. Maybe add pipes?
  • The balconies - They just don’t look right. Options include chipping away at edges and replacing the texture.
  • The floor - Did I get the texture right? Is there any extra mess I could put in there? Is it too messy?
  • Overall emptiness - I was considering adding in ivy but thought it was too extreme. Good decision?
  • Prison bars - Was going to bend them. Decided time can’t do that to steel bars. Still look wrong though.

Like I say, any feedback on anything in any form is welcome so fire away with the criticism.

Thank you in advance for anything!
-Alex

Great start. Photorealism can be like a mirage in the dessert, the closer you get the farther it seems. The things thta jump out to me initially are:
The cells themselves don’t look functional. Some are missing bars, but there seems no way to open or close them. Maybe they slide, I don’t know.

The texture below the railings looks similar to the floor, and it seems on the large side. Maybe choose another similar grunge texture and use a mapping node, or scale the uvs so the texture appears smaller.

I think your using a mist pass, and fading the background into a grey, that works in my opinion and adds a larger sense of scale, but the staircases (the top one) looks hard to access, or otherwise non functional.

More randomness to the objects scatttered on the floor. Too many of the same piece of paper, more junk. Tiny little low poly objects, be it rat dropping or cigarette butts.

Excellent starting render, look forward to seeing more.

The cell bars were deliberately removed and scattered around the floor, and yes they were meant to slide open :slight_smile: The reference image I used was from the TV show Prison Break in which the cells would slide open. The prison isn’t supposed to be functional as it’s an abandoned cell block. Sorry for not making that clearer earlier :S This raises another concern actually, there is no reason for the lights to be on but what other light sources could there be? Maybe a window or a hole in the wall?

Thanks for this though, I’ll make the improvements to the staircase and floor clutter now :slight_smile:

EDIT: The staircases may have looked dysfunctional because they look like at the top you walk into the wall, this is however just an illusion. There is a roughly 1m platform at the top that connects to the balcony.

Here’s the updated render:


Here’s the change log, just say if you think something should be changed back or changed again:

Camera:
-Resolution set to 1920x1080
-Camera moved back slightly and rotated

Balconies:
-Balconies subdivided and sculpted on to look worn
-Balconies made thinner
-Gloss roughness on Balconies changed
-Texture co-ordinates on grunge texture changed on balcony
-Brightness/Contrast changed on grunge texture on balcony

Railings:
-Geometry changed. Makes them look more attatched to balconies.
-Array adjustments to mend problems caused by geometric changes

Stairs:
-Stair geometry changed
-Stair railings bent
-Some stairs removed and damaged

Floor:
-Rat droppings and cigarette butts added to particle system
-Particle rock gloss modified
-Particle amount increased
-Particle counts modified

Jail Bars:
-Extra geometry added to bend them

Additionals:
-Pipes Added and bent

I’ve made several changes in addition to your suggestions. Is everything you mentioned fixed? If so, what needs to be done now?

It looks really good. The color of the lights look white too me, I think it might be a good idea to make them slightly blue, to give a colder feel. I think the bars could use some rust, and the cement materials (balcony) look a bit funky.

For the compasition, it might be a good idea to add an object down the hall. The rails are guiding my eyes down the hall to nothing. The broken bars are also guiding my eyes away towards the cells, but they mess up the nice line you get from the rails. Also adding some sharp shadows (some pipes that partially cover the lights maybe?) would also help make it feel colder. It looks like the scene ends once you enter the cells. They may be abandoned cells, but they should still look like they have something in them. Maybe add some ruins of a chair or something to one or two.

The floor still looks to uniform. I thinks it’s mostly the broken off bars. They look to similar. Maybe add some bends and rust to them?

Nice job on this so far Alex. Truthfully I think the weak link is the cells… it’s like there needs to be something along the bottom of the cell framing wise. You would never see bars going right into the cement.

Most all cells have somekind of framing http://www.shutterstock.com/s/prison+cell/search.html even very old ones.

I like your idea of some plumbing or heating stuff running along the back walls. I really think you have a cool start to this, and have done a good job on the texturing and overall mood. In some ways since those mercury lights are pretty bright, I wonder if you wouldnt be getting some ambient light inside the cells.

Thanks guys, I’m going to start working on these improvements right away!

Okay so here’s the update! Thanks for all the help so far :slight_smile:


Here’s the change log for those who are interested:

Ceiling:
-Taken 1 count off of array due to clipping with pipes

Balconies:
-Geometry edit to smooth off bevelled edge
-Grime texture RGB curves adjusted to lower contrast with underlaying texture

Railings:
-Glossy roughness texture input RGB curve adjusted
-Glossy colour adjusted

Floor:
-Broken Glass added to particle system
-Particle amount increased
-Particle counts adjusted

Lights:
-Colour made to subtle blue
-Lights turned off for outside light

Bars:
-Bar glossy shader roughness input RGB curves adjustded
-Bar glossy shader colour input set to grime texture
-Bar positioning adjustments to avoid bent bars from clipping

Back Wall:
-Window Installed

Pipes:
-Rotated and placed along the top of the back wall

Additionals:
-Chair object added to some cells
-Lights added to some cells
-Outside light

Color Management:
-View set to RRT
-Exposure = 0.976
-Gamma = 1.142

Compositing:
-Colour Balance added (cold lifts, warm gains)


I personally prefer this new light set-up because of the contrast and highlight effects. Tell me if you prefer the old set-up as all the original shaders and objects are in the file, they are just hidden.

If everything is good, what else needs to be improved?

Its getting better but Way to rough and glossy concrete! Suggest smaller window and also horizontal bars on cells and window. And straighter bars, it looks like the hulk have been trashing the place… :wink:

I think it’s a great improvement. The concrete does look too glossy, I world lower the mix/fresnel factor some. My eyes keep getting drawn to the bars on the floor, it seems unlikely they would be ripped out like that, and some are off the ground in odd ways. You might consider the ivy gen add on, and it can add an organic element that might balance the sterile prison. An old ivy gen tutorial

excellent progress.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Here’s the latest. I’ll add the ivy now, I’ve fixed up the bars a bit already so they should be good although I might make a few adjustments to put them back.

EDIT: Some bars are still floating… I’m on it!


I’ll get on with the ivy now though. Yeah, Ivy Gen is my preferred way of getting the ivy in.

Here’s the change log for this render in case you miss them out but think they need changing:
Lamps:
-Extra grime added to glass

Balconies:
-Gloss dulled

Chairs:
-Chair rotation changed to avoid clipping with cell frame

Railings:
-Extra railing added on top level at the end for safety purposes

Bars:
-Fallen bars rotated and positions adjusted to avoid levitation and clipping with cell frame
-Bars on cells straightened
-Bars on cells moved back slightly

Ceiling:
-Glossy roughness input RGB curves adjusted
-Colour of gloss adjusted
-UV Maps adjusted
-Mapping node scales adjusted

Back Wall:
-Bottom edge loop lowered slightly to avoid anti-aliasing issue with map value node

Floor:
-Glass thickness adjusted
-Particle counts adjusted

Cells:
-Removed cell lights
-Added in cell light to all cells for subtle ambiency

World:
-World volume removed ~ Replaced by Map Value in Compositor

Compositing:
-Map value added to replace world volume node

Window:
-Seperated into two smaller windows
-Bars made horizontal as well as vertical

Colour Management:
-Exposure set to 1.463

Okay here’s the updated version with the ivy. I almost scrapped it because the materials just didn’t work but after adjusting them slightly, I’m very pleased with this result, let me know what you think!


No change log for this one, adding the ivy was literally - and I mean literally - is the only difference. This prison is getting quite close to completion now :slight_smile: I think I’ll put this up on CGSociety soon as well to see what the other 3D communities have to say.

Very good work! Now is better!

It is not my style but it look ok I think.

Here’s a render at 500 samples for extra detail. I made a few small adjustments to the colour on the rails but other than that it’s the same as before.


Are you sure about this ivy? It seems a bit over the top and my render times are now considerably than what they used to be. I prefer this to the older renders though… should I maybe just use less ivy or should I find something else to stick on the floor? The other thing is I really like how it works with the reflections on the floor making it look like there’s a puddle there. I don’t know. Any suggestions?

Maybe with less ivy on the floor the render will be ok.

Yes, cut back the ivy. Too much everywhere ands it has become the main focus. And I mean do what you want, I recommended trying it, looking at some side by sides, but its your piece. I think less will be more in this case. Great progress.

i agree with photox.
you lost the debree you had on the floor
but i would have run the ivy up the wall in random spots and along the front in front of the cells making leaveing the middle open and make it look like its going inside cells:)

i agree with photox.
you lost the debree you had on the floor
but i would have run the ivy up the wall in random spots and along the front in front of the cells making leaveing the middle open and make it look like its going inside cells:)
and wrap a little ivy around the beams on the roof

sorry was trying to edit post must have copied it by accident