Desert Outpost (Working Title)
Hey Polycount community!
This is perhaps a little different than most posts here, but I hope you like it anyways. I decided to do a little 5-day challenge, since I desperately need something new for my portfolio. I have a license for Unreal Engine 4, so that was my engine of choice (I actually beta tested the engine since June last year), but I am a Level Designer, not really an Environment Artist. So in three days, I have to construct a scene focused on the graphics side of things (this is not a gameplay space) to help me on my presentation skills and in adding personality to a scene.
I decided to post my WIP here to hopefully get feedback from this awesome community, but I am using mostly pre-created assets provided with the VehicleGame project for Unreal Engine 4, as well as a few assets from a commercial project I am spearheading in my spare time (though none of those are in there yet). I will be making modifications to some assets, and I am able to make some original stuff if needed/suggested, but the idea is to use as much pre-created art as possible to save time.
My goals are to enhance my visual composition skills, learn more about and use landscapes in conjunction with meshing and splines, and successfully juxtapose man-made structure with the desert. I will be posting WIP often, perhaps even more than once a day, so keep an eye out; here's my first WIP:
Most Recent:
First WIP:
Thanks for reading, and I would love your feedback!
This is perhaps a little different than most posts here, but I hope you like it anyways. I decided to do a little 5-day challenge, since I desperately need something new for my portfolio. I have a license for Unreal Engine 4, so that was my engine of choice (I actually beta tested the engine since June last year), but I am a Level Designer, not really an Environment Artist. So in three days, I have to construct a scene focused on the graphics side of things (this is not a gameplay space) to help me on my presentation skills and in adding personality to a scene.
I decided to post my WIP here to hopefully get feedback from this awesome community, but I am using mostly pre-created assets provided with the VehicleGame project for Unreal Engine 4, as well as a few assets from a commercial project I am spearheading in my spare time (though none of those are in there yet). I will be making modifications to some assets, and I am able to make some original stuff if needed/suggested, but the idea is to use as much pre-created art as possible to save time.
My goals are to enhance my visual composition skills, learn more about and use landscapes in conjunction with meshing and splines, and successfully juxtapose man-made structure with the desert. I will be posting WIP often, perhaps even more than once a day, so keep an eye out; here's my first WIP:
Most Recent:
First WIP:
Thanks for reading, and I would love your feedback!
Replies
Anyways, this update has some further improvements to the water shader, adding more varied movement and utilizing vertex painting to paint foam around edges. In addition, I made a "wet" version of Epic's cliff shader for use in and around the water. I still want to modify the landscape shader to include wet sand for the shores, and I still need to do a full foliage pass, as well as finish placing the cliffs. And that doesn't even include whatever I want to do with the area above this and the waterfall(s) I have on the list...Definitely going to need all 5 of those days.
As always, I would really appreciate any feedback you have!
Like, the only thing I'm thinking is that the bank might look a little more convincing with some tire-tracks, since there's a heavy looking car sitting there, but nothing that tells me how it got there.
It's looking good, dude, keep it up! I like the work you've been doing on the water, it looks lovely.
I think having the "wet" look on the rocks is part of it - if it's a hot climate pretty much everything but what's been VERY recently submerged is going to be dry. I also don't really think the water looks quite appropriate for the climate.
Generally speaking bodies of water in the desert are placid and murky - they tend to be standing pools and gather a lot of crap on the surface. Even if it's a flowing body like a river or something they are often dry for much of the year so when water starts flowing through it usually has a lot of sediment to pick up and ends up quite brown.
If you're going with a more permanent body there should be a lot more small foliage hugging the shore - the contrast with the rest of the dry landscape will probably help push the dry climate as well. (i know you said you're not done with the foliage pass).
additionally the sky doesn't feel terribly hot/dry either. There are a lot of casual clouds and the distance fog makes the air look humid rather than dry or dusty.
I'm sticking mostly to mood and setting critique because all of the modeling looks pretty damn solid. I would avoid putting that rock in the foreground though - the faceting and tiling texture are pretty glaring when it's such a focal point like that.
couple of references that highlight my points. note the sky and the foliage colors at the shore.
@BagelHero:
Thanks for the praise dude! I spent a pretty good amount of time on that water (probably like 3-4 hours on the shader, plus time for vertex painting, placement, etc). I also like the tire tracks idea, and I will look into it; not sure if I have enough time to fit it in, but I will certainly try.
@ReverendK:
Those are some good points on the water. Those rocks didn't feel perfect to me either; maybe I need to do some vertex painting material there instead...As for the foliage, I actually added in some smaller foliage (grass and mid-size plant), and I will definitely look into the sky stuff you mentioned.
Progress:
Day 3 was mostly focused on adding in some distance objects, fleshing out the foliage (including building a new grass shader that moves in the wind), creating a wet sand layer for the landscape, and adding in a bunch of reflection spheres to augment SSR. The following screenshots show progress from the day.
Wet Sand Shader:
Overview Shots:
Tomorrow I will be focusing on improving the water shader by making it a bit murkier, creating a waterfall particle system (for the larger oasis area), finishing the cliffs surrounding the main area, populating the ground with additional small rocks and such, and finally, if I have time, a lighting pass. Lots of stuff...