[UE4] Generator Room Sci-fi Environment (WIP)
greentooth
Hey guys, I'm doing a sci-fi environment based on this wonderful concept by Jeremy Love:
This will be my first environment. I'm familiar with the process of creating individual assets but I wanted to take it a step further and do something that is a bit more challenging. The final shot will be from the same perspective as the concept so I decided to only model the things that are visible from that point of view.
First thing I did was bring the concept into Photoshop in order to break it apart and get a better understanding of the different pieces and how everything fits together. I also added two human silhouettes to get a better feeling for the size of the room.
This is how I currently have it planned:
Assets that have a unique material made in Substance Painter:
- generator
- red wall
- core
- purple wall
- support beam
Tileable materials made in Substance Designer:
- painted metal (for blue wall)
- concrete (for yellow floor)
- steel (for blue floor)
- chain link (also for blue floor)
The geometry below the floor will also be using some of these tileable materials.
Two texture atlases:
- ceiling
- pipes (including the ones below the floor that aren't marked)
For the pipes I will try creating a pipe generation system using splines in UE4.
Lastly we have a few props: a vent, computers and monitors. Each will have a unique material. I will do these last as they have zero impact on the scale of the surrounding geometry. In fact, I need to finish the room itself first before I can determine the exact size of these props.
Again, this is my first environment. Therefore I have no idea if this is the 'best' way of doing things. I planned this out intuitively based on my current experience and knowledge. If you would handle this environment in a different way that is more efficient, please let me know as I would really appreciate your thoughts and insights.
Moving on to the blockout phase:
I actually struggled with this part quite a bit. Due to my perfectionism I wanted to have the camera in UE4 to have the EXACT same perspective as in the concept art. I tried using perspective match in 3ds Max with no success, but also a neat tool called Kuadro where i can 'burn' the concept on my screen. Turned opacity to 50%, froze the image so I could click through it and started to move the camera in UE4 until it matched the concept. I kept going back and forth between changing the camera FOV + position and making changes to the blockout in 3ds Max. Reimport in UE4 and start over again. Eventually I realized that it was impossible, especially if the concept art is not drawn over a blockout in the first place.
So instead I started to simply block everything out based on the size of the human characters. I knew I couldn't make it exactly the same as the concept, so I tried to make it look reasonable from all perspectives. Besides, this is 3d right?
Next I will be doing a high poly for all the different pieces and make sure everything fits nicely before moving on to low poly and texturing.
Generator high poly:
And that's it for now! I will try to update this thread as regularly as I can.
Feedback is as always very much appreciated
.!
This will be my first environment. I'm familiar with the process of creating individual assets but I wanted to take it a step further and do something that is a bit more challenging. The final shot will be from the same perspective as the concept so I decided to only model the things that are visible from that point of view.
First thing I did was bring the concept into Photoshop in order to break it apart and get a better understanding of the different pieces and how everything fits together. I also added two human silhouettes to get a better feeling for the size of the room.
This is how I currently have it planned:
Assets that have a unique material made in Substance Painter:
- generator
- red wall
- core
- purple wall
- support beam
Tileable materials made in Substance Designer:
- painted metal (for blue wall)
- concrete (for yellow floor)
- steel (for blue floor)
- chain link (also for blue floor)
The geometry below the floor will also be using some of these tileable materials.
Two texture atlases:
- ceiling
- pipes (including the ones below the floor that aren't marked)
For the pipes I will try creating a pipe generation system using splines in UE4.
Lastly we have a few props: a vent, computers and monitors. Each will have a unique material. I will do these last as they have zero impact on the scale of the surrounding geometry. In fact, I need to finish the room itself first before I can determine the exact size of these props.
Again, this is my first environment. Therefore I have no idea if this is the 'best' way of doing things. I planned this out intuitively based on my current experience and knowledge. If you would handle this environment in a different way that is more efficient, please let me know as I would really appreciate your thoughts and insights.
Moving on to the blockout phase:
I actually struggled with this part quite a bit. Due to my perfectionism I wanted to have the camera in UE4 to have the EXACT same perspective as in the concept art. I tried using perspective match in 3ds Max with no success, but also a neat tool called Kuadro where i can 'burn' the concept on my screen. Turned opacity to 50%, froze the image so I could click through it and started to move the camera in UE4 until it matched the concept. I kept going back and forth between changing the camera FOV + position and making changes to the blockout in 3ds Max. Reimport in UE4 and start over again. Eventually I realized that it was impossible, especially if the concept art is not drawn over a blockout in the first place.
So instead I started to simply block everything out based on the size of the human characters. I knew I couldn't make it exactly the same as the concept, so I tried to make it look reasonable from all perspectives. Besides, this is 3d right?
Next I will be doing a high poly for all the different pieces and make sure everything fits nicely before moving on to low poly and texturing.
Generator high poly:
And that's it for now! I will try to update this thread as regularly as I can.
Feedback is as always very much appreciated
.!
Replies
That feeling of massiveness and power is exactly what I'm aiming for! I think the concept conveys it really well.
Red wall:
I think I'm finally ready to bring a bit more life into the scene by creating the low polys and slapping some textures on them. I still had a chain link material lying around so I'm using that one for now. Also started playing around with fog volumes, I was really curious to see what those would look like
Finished texturing the generator and the red wall. I'm not yet satisfied with the emissive on the generator, I feel like it needs more depth. In the concept it actually looks like there is a light source beneath the glass, does anyone have any tips or tricks for achieving that through textures?
Baked normals:
The generator is 16k polys, 1k for the wall
Shader at these stream has that thingy with camera angle... check it out, maybe you can apply it to your needs.