By the campfire - UE4 Forest Environment - WIP

BansheeWail

Hey guys! I've been currently working on a stylized game environment to expand my knowledge in Unreal Engine 4 (never worked with unreal before) and increase my skills in environmental storytelling. My goals are to improve my foliage skills, learning the unreal engine, getting better in substance designer by making at least 3 - 4 different textures and to develop a consistent art style throughout the environment. My idea was to create a camp scene in the middle of the woods full with flowers, a shit load of grass, twisted trees and a small pond. You might ask yourself "who's been staying at that camp?" well, it's a wandering elvish bard, who loves to stay a few days in peaceful places outside of the overcrowded cities to write his songs and poems about the next heroic deed. He's not rich in any means, so he carries only his most necessary stuff around but i thought it would be nice to recognize his elvish descent by the design of the things he's been carrying around. (I hope this makes some kind of sense and somehow understandable )

Here are some of the references I've collected:

I've decided to make give the environment a more of an harmonic tone to it, by mostly using soft colors, almost going more into the pastel range. It should give the viewer a some kind of summery vibe.

So here's a list of stuff that i'll definitely need:

5 - 6 Trees
2x Grass textures
1 - 2 Gravel texture
4x different type of grass
1x Tent
1x Fireplace
1x Caldron
5x Stones
1x Water Shader (Help! Does someone maybe have a good tutorial for nice water shader?)
Pond Plants
1x Lyre
2x Books
1x Backbag
1 - 2x Lamp
2x Candles
2x scrolls
1x ink with quill
1x plate with food on it (maybe bread and chesse)
1x fishing rod
1x sleeping bag type of thing
2x smaller flowers
3x bushes
1 - 3 smaller creatures like a frogg, butterfly (more of a nice-to-have than must-have ^^)
1x selfmade skybox
2x mushrooms
3x middle length flowers like lavender
1x ivy

(I hope I haven't forgot anything.. ^^)

So here are some screenshots!

-State 01-

-State 02-
-Current State-
(!!This not even near from being finished.!! Gonna replace the yellow trees, since they are way too stiff than the remaining trees and the texture is meh aswell... also the leaves a more or less a placeholder since i don't really know what's the best approach to make good looking leaves. .-. And obviously the water shader is a placeholder aswell.)

Things that I'll need to work on are definitely composition and foliage. Not really obsessed with the grass at all and I don't really know what I could do with the background.. (I guess placing some more tree would be useful since it is a forest.... but I also thought about mountains which are surrounded by fog) I know, I still got a lot room to improve and way more to do but to be honest I don't really have clue what to do next...

I'm kinda overwhelmed, soooo if anyone got some feedback, I'll appreciate it a lot! It will help me a lot!

Ashervisalis

This will look cool! Will it be a daytime or nighttime scene?

Auldbenkenobi

I wouldn't get rid of the yellow trees actually, I quite like them. They actually kind of remind me of Eyvind Earle's artwork, and along with the twistier purple trees, it helps break up the background a little. 

I do think you need to find a composition you're happy with. The last image is a good start, but having one, main camera angle will help you decide where most of your efforts should go.

Nice start though, looking forward to seeing where you take this.