UE4 Fantasy enviroment - feedback needed

Lev216

Hello everyone! I'm trying to create environment from 23rd noob challenge concept thread. I need a feedback, because whatever I do, it's getting worse and worse. I'm stuck. Scene is modeled in Maya and completed in UE4. Scene is in big BSP box for better control of shadows and lighting. Thanks for feedback.

Concept:


My images:

modsoft

The blockout looks good so far. The only thing sticking out to me is the right side (chimney side) of the house could be elongated and the slant looks a little too steep. Rotating the house a bit more away from the camera may add more depth interest. I would eventually increase the terrain poly density. Cover up the base of the trees with foliage and rocks, and blend a moss vert-pain material into the tree trunks.

If you are stuck, go back and study the concept, then make a list of everything you see and write an asset list. Don't know if you have any other concepts, but those could help with details as well. (http://goo.gl/EC2pwS)

I'm noticing that the foliage detail will be key in this piece. Most of the foreground detail is vines, mushrooms, multi-colored plants, and such. It also seems to cover everything else (roof, house, trees, etc). It would be a necessary layer of detail for everything if you could make 5-10 nice (small) foliage assets and repeat them with instanced materials.

I think you have the right idea with lighting. I would suggest making one nice canopy mesh/alpa. Honestly one canopy and your existing tree meshes will be enough. Just duplicate and scale them, or deform them to create the forest around the house. dozens of trees and a thick tealish heightfog volume will give you the effect in the concept. I would eventually get rid of the container or expand it, and position the canopy meshes to create the circular lighting in the focal.

moleman

All what modsoft aid is super good feedback, but what else might help is simply applying base color materials to all your objects, so you can better visualize what you want with the scene.

Lev216

Thank you for tips! I agree with all your critiques. I did vegetation breakdown yesterday. It's written in czech so feel free to ask. I already have a vertex blend material on trunks. I'm gonna use color mask on small vegetation, so I can have color variation and change color on the fly.
Vegetation brakdown (WIP):

Moss shader:

Lev216

Update:
I did some mushrooms for the scene. I'll use the color changing shader I was talking before. I'm using alpha channel for color mask. I don't have the shader yet, so I faked desired effect in Blender.
Effect:

UE shot:

Edit:
I uploaded it on Sketchfab:
[SKETCHFAB]99e2b2d25b044affa621aacdf73da1db[/SKETCHFAB]

Lev216

UPDATE:
I added an plant to my scene. I'm not happy with the result, so I'll work on it more. I also deleted BSP box and adjusted fog. Terrain resolution is now increased. I played with the camera angle, so now it look better.

Arendt

Looks good so far ! The only thing that i would point out is the distance between the trees and the house , in the reference picture it looks like there is more space between and less FOV in camera instead . Keep it up !

modsoft

Hey, a few more notes if you want them:
Terrain: Don't know where you are with the terrain shape, but I would 'shape' the terrain a bit more. It suffers from being too flat in the moment (in the foreground specifically). Try pulling up the terrain where the trees sit (forming an upward cone around the base of the trees). Also, I see a bit of a dip in the middle between the trees. You could dramatize it a bit for better framing/foreground composition. (it is fantasy after all). I outlined some shapes below:

Look into using the foliage tool to 'paint' your foliage/rock models around the terrain/scene when the time comes.
Also, giving your terrain materials a full suite of height/bump/reflectance maps will add depth to the floor as well.

Lev216

Thank you all for your support! I'll try to update my project ASAP.

Lev216

UPDATE:
I'm back with new update. I modified the terrain slightly. I also added new flower. I'm able to change it's color. It's black in viewport, but when I switch to game mode it has defined color because of blueprint I used. I tried to sculpt some stone, but it looked more like crystal.

Flower:

modsoft

Nice, the terrain shaping in the foreground is much better. Also, you may want to experiment with masking on the leaves of that fern if you are going for that look over the thick/weighty style.

Check out this resource for sculpting rocks:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/EnvironmentSculpting#Rock_and_Stone
There are some useful rock generation scripts for Maya/Max that might help you

Shyralon

Blockout is looking good, the main thing that bothers me is the grass texture, it looks way to noisy compared to the concept. Depending on how stylized you want it to be, I would suggest working on material definition a bit more, I think broader brushstrokes and more defined edges could help.
Can't wait to see the final result

modsoft

Shyralon wrote: »

B..thing that bothers me is the grass texture,
...
I would suggest working on material definition a bit more, I think broader brushstrokes and more defined edges could help.

I agree,
You could experiment by downloading a 'wet oils' style brushes for photoshop (like this one) and paint a set of ground textures to get a look close to the concept (painterly)

Shyralon

If you want to learn more about handpainting about these stylized textures, I would recommend this tutorial by Jamin Shoulet:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_GWVez_UHM[/ame]

(don't forget part 2..)

It's long, but worth every minute!

lophead25

Looking solid with the blockout at the moment, make sure you don't make your textures too clean, and the key will be to make the lighting really strong in this piece, keep it up

Lev216

I tried to use that stylistic brushes you guys send me to create grass texture. I also watched that texturing workshop videos.

Edit: Oh, I forget my new stone try. I created procedural stone shape and then sculpted it. I used morph target to get back to original shape.