Trying out something different with the tower inspired by some Bungie ish forerunner stuff. Its a little crude at the moment. Thinking about some different stuff for the foreground instead too. http://i.imgur.com/NdfScWZ.png
Your scene is looking pretty good right now. One thing I would say is that the rocks in the current render have a really tight, white spec on them and it is confusing the material a bit.
I am sorry to keep on harping on this but the grass still doesn't look very good. The normals look very weird, have you un-ticked the 'tangent space normals' option for the material or something? If that is the case, try to just edit the normals in you 3D application (if it has that feature). It simply doesn't look very natural at all ATM.
I don't know if you're planning on doing it already but the ground would probably look a bit better if you were to paint on a flat grass material under your grass planes as well.
You should also sharpen up the moss mask on the rocks as I think the transition is way too smooth at the moment. Here's an example of what I think you should try to strive towards for the moss mask in terms of sharpness:
As you can see there isn't a great deal of actual transition here. You could also use an additional blend texture to break up the transition of the moss and make it look a bit more interesting.
Another update, feeling a bit stuck with this scene now so if anyone has any more pointers they would be welcome. The tower texture feels a bit uninspired for one.
Not done a lot of with the grass but the maps are posted in the post above if anyone wants to take a look and make suggestions.
The lighting is quite dull. Most of the time why environments don't look right despite the fact that models and textures are good is because of lighting. It's one of the harder parts of getting a scene to look good. For now, think about what sort of lighting can help bring the scene out more.
I tried a very rough example of it onto your image. I know you want this serene and relaxing ambience but my suggestion is to make it set at dusk, that way you have more creativity in playing with colours.You get more contrast plus have this nice subtle purple hue to add to the serenity of the scene.
If it's an alien planet, have something visible in the sky, maybe a planet or maybe the planet's rings itself. Think about what elements you can throw in that relate to your scene that can make it look good.
Thanks that's helped a lot Will spend tomorrow trying out some different lighting set ups. Looking at your quick example a dusk type setting would help things a lot. Will see what I can come up with.
Replies
http://i.imgur.com/MLcE3HZ.png
http://i.imgur.com/NdfScWZ.png
I don't know if you're planning on doing it already but the ground would probably look a bit better if you were to paint on a flat grass material under your grass planes as well.
You should also sharpen up the moss mask on the rocks as I think the transition is way too smooth at the moment. Here's an example of what I think you should try to strive towards for the moss mask in terms of sharpness:
As you can see there isn't a great deal of actual transition here. You could also use an additional blend texture to break up the transition of the moss and make it look a bit more interesting.
Good luck!
Your right about the moss as well, thankfully its generated in the unreal material editor so I only had to change a few numbers to improve it.
Not done a lot of with the grass but the maps are posted in the post above if anyone wants to take a look and make suggestions.
cheers
http://i.imgur.com/0pgHAzn.png
I tried a very rough example of it onto your image. I know you want this serene and relaxing ambience but my suggestion is to make it set at dusk, that way you have more creativity in playing with colours.You get more contrast plus have this nice subtle purple hue to add to the serenity of the scene.
If it's an alien planet, have something visible in the sky, maybe a planet or maybe the planet's rings itself. Think about what elements you can throw in that relate to your scene that can make it look good.
http://i.imgur.com/KXp3DNS.png
http://i.imgur.com/bcfPdGS.png