UE4 - Main menu scene

Mr Flopsie

Hey Everyone!
For my exam of Level Decoration we have to create an environment that is supposed to be a background for a game's main menu.
I'm looking for critique that would help me in any way, be it color, composition, lighting, textures, etc
I will post some updates with progress.
Deadline is next week friday(8/1)

The things I going to work on next are some rock and cliff sculpts for the hills.
This is my rough concept:


Here are some WIPS:

Landscape details and grass.

Asphalt road mesh with procedural water puddles.

Water drops on grass leaves  

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And finally, this is what I have now with some photoshop color tweaking.
I added TrueSKY clouds yesterday through their trial license, which gives awesome results.

At the moment the mipmapping of my grass textures is bothering me as it leaves empty spaces quite close to the camera. I'm going to have to fill those with rocks and various bushes..

Thanks for checking this out!

Shizaiphrein

Hey
Seems like a good start. I really like the water drops on the grass. how did you achieved that ? Do you have a water drops normal and roughness on your texture ?
Also , don't forget to make different height and colors for your grass .Because it seems pretty monochromatic for now.
Keep up the good work and good luck for you deadline .

Mr Flopsie

Thanks, yeah the water drops is a normal map and roughness that I added in the material editor on top of the normal material.
I actually have a color variation node(from speedtree I think) in my material, so I can crank that up a bit if I want.

Mr Flopsie

update:
I added a plant which is bit small here, trees, 2 rocks and a building.
I disabled mipmapping on the grass so that it doesn't disappear immediately.
The ray traced distance shadow field thing is butchering my fps, I'll probably have disable it in the end
Not sure about the colors here. And I might move the camera again a bit so that the water puddles on the road are better visible/catch a better reflection.
I still need some more buildings and add more details on the spaceships.
Not sure if I will have time left to create that mech..

mats effect

First of cool project and i really like the environment. I agree that the colour is a bit off on that latest screenshot. I think its all a little too dull and not much contrast. Try and bring more colour in and have more contrast between the ground and sky. I think really contrasting grey's in the sky with light breaking though a bit (like the sun is now more or less) and more colour in the grass and other foliage would work pretty well. 

Also if you have time I would maybe try to hide the road a bit for lack of a better word kind of around or just after that first corner in the distance. Look back at your concept and the road blends in a lot more with the landscape.

Awesome work so far though so just give it that extra push

Mr Flopsie

Thanks for your feedback!
I will post more updates later

Mr Flopsie

Another update, tomorrow is my last day I can work on this. I'll probably skip the mecha as I can't do that on 1 day. I'd like to add a simple flock of birds flying over. Some small ships that fly from the big ships to the city. Not sure what I can do with the mountain on the left, feels a bit empty. Maybe I create another bush.
I added a pixel depth lerp on the grass to disable the water drops after a certain distance as it made the grass look weird in the distance.

Thanks for checking out my work!

xhi

I really like the concept and the warm progress pics.  The last one you uploaded is a little too dull in my opinion and the glare from the sun actually made me keep blinking because I thought my eyes were foggy or something  It's really cool though.  Is it animated?

Mr Flopsie

Thank you!
I think it's also part of the unfortunate position of the ship which gives this weird god rays, I was going to change this a little bit.
Yes it's supposed to be a little bit animated, the camera stays in position though. There will only be small movement like the wind in the grass, the clouds and some birds idk.

Do you mean the previous picture was less dull? Because in the last on I have flowers and the colors are a bit more warm.  

Mr Flopsie

I finished the scene! There are some things I still wanted to add but I didn't have time left. Pretty happy with the result.



Watch in fullscreen and hd!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-_7-Ud1B9Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-6MeNMCPt8

nastobi123

man, how is this not that popular ? this is really epic. 

Mr Flopsie

Haha thanks!

ZombieDawgs

Looks dope, I know you've finished it but a really subtle forward movement on the ships. As well as making tweaking the city so it looks less like a cutout texture.

kohg

Yeah, the ships should be moving, and the perspective on the birds is totally off, might aswell remove them. Also think the cityscape probably needs more buildings doesn't quite look that epic, and it should be this place that we really want to visit and experience.

Mr Flopsie

Thanks @ZombieDawgs & @Kohg
The big ships were supposed to stay in place because they are loading stuff but I get what you're saying.
The city, even the ships are really not detailed and are basically a blockout of what it could've been.
I had to cut some stuff because of my deadline. I originally planned to let a mecha fly over the camera towards the city haha
But thanks for the feedback!