UE4-Forest House Project.

melviso

Hello all,I have decided to change what I am going to be doing for my masters project.I only have roughly a month to get this done but will see to it that its complete.I am doing a postgrad course in archviz and I will be using ue4 to create an architectural building located in a forest.
Just started today-



The wooden floor is just a place holder for now.Will be putting in the glass windows, interior wooden walls,furnitures and terrain within the next one week.Grass and trees will follow after that.

EDIT:
Latest screens:
New updates:

ClusterOne

From the title I kind of expected a log cabin or something a little bit more rustic.

The only advice I can really give is to be careful how you approach this project.To me it seems like you are working from your imagination, which is fine if you are really experienced, but as a student NEVER, EVER, work from your imagination alone if you want to create a quality piece of work in a small time frame. Projects created entirely from imagination are usually low quality and incohesive because you'll end up spending an unnecessarily long time fumbling between concept changes and asset creation.

If you are using a concept, please do share--it'll help people critique your work.

Good luck, I look forward to seeing your updates!

melviso

Hello ClusterOne,this is what I am going to be using roughly as reference.I am going for a different look with concrete for the external walls rather than wood.I have gathered a good number of references for the interior deco I am going for.

I am still modeling furniture assets to fill up the empty interior spaces.I will have to create time to do the lanscaping or terrain.I have been hearing of world machine. Is it used for building terrains or detailing?



Btw is it okay to use ue4 premade or modified materials in ur level for professional work or it is preferred u create ur own materials from scratch.I do understand in the professional field, most clients do not care how u go about getting the job done as far as it looks good?

ClusterOne

Firstly, I'm not sure about whether or whether not you can use the premade UE4 materials for commercial work (I would assume not since CE did not allow the use of their materials or assets). That being said I'm not sure if a school project or portfolio piece counts as commercial use. If this is an important project to you, you probably don't want to use premade materials.

As far as terrain creation goes, World Machine is the most widely used program. It does pretty much everything you can want in terms of terrain generation. You can get a free version assuming you don't need more than a 513x513 heightmap (which you shouldnt for this piece). You can also try Terresculptor which is another terrain generation program that at the moment is free (because its in alpha). Terresculptor doesn't feel quite as powerful as World Machine (from the brief time I played with it) but you will have unlimited terrain size, and it also has a smaller learning curve. If you want a very specific custom terrain you may also consider creating one in Mudbox using stamps.

Good luck!

Arendt

It's looking good so far and by they way you can use UE4 content for commercial work .
Scale is looking good .
Also for the terrain i don't think there is need for world machine or similar software since it's small environment , you can just use terrain using editor , that will give you more control as well .

Atokal

Looks a little glossy on the floor.
But I love your blockout, its awesome that you took to time to get lighting setup to see how that would work.
just have one major question... why is their no wall the second story? what do you plan on doing with that open area?
higher res screenshots would be a plus. try highresshot 3 or 4.

Carabiner

Ignore this if it's a temporary placeholder, but I'm not sure if the staircase aesthetic meshes well with the clean, almost midcentury style of the rest of the piece.

melviso

@ClusterOne Thanks ClusterOne.I intend to use my own materials as much as possible but if I there are already materials that u can use or alter to get the desired result.I think its okay.I was discussing this with someone,and he pointed out that a lot of artists use downloaded materials,textures and models especially in archviz but I have decided against using downloaded models in this. I am going to model everything.

@Arendt Thanks. I am trying out Landscape right now.Problem is it seems the Landscape material isn't working with bump offset for the normals for some reason.

@Atoka Thanks. Will tone down the glossy floor. I intend to fill the upperfloor up with a lot of living room mordern furniture assets.I am still conceptualizing on how it should look with reference whilst still modeling stuff for the ground floor.

@Carabiner I did worry about that for a moment.But I am going to leave it in till I put in all the funitures and have a feel of the interior design in general.The house is meant to look modern but out of place at the same time.Like what u see in the reference pic I posted.I am currently working on the terrain and assets.But I do feel I need to finish the terrain,trees,grass and rocks outside so when I bake the lightmass and start putting in the furniture. I can get a better picture of how to place the furniture,what type of textures would be more appropriate, and so on. Same way one would move into a house and arrange furniture based on the lighting from the exterior, mood and setting.


I am still considering using speed tree for the forest trees and modeling grass planes for the terrain.These will be blowing in the wind. My problem is lighmass only works with static meshes.Since these trees and grasses are dynamic.Its going to ruin the overall look of the scenery.UE4 does not support dynamic GI.What do u guys think?or should I make the trees and grasses static?

melviso

New updates:






I feel like the grass needs more worK. I am wondering why the grass isn't casting shadows on the terrain.