UE4 - Remember Me Environment Art

jakebelgian · Jan 2016

Evenin'!

For my Final Year Project I'm choosing to recreate this piece of concept art by Paul Chadeisson made for the game Remember Me. I'll be aiming to recreate the dark/rainy version found here.

Below is a couple of images of where I'm at so far (it's a long way to go!) and I'll be updating this as I go along - any and all feedback/crits would be greatly appreciated.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/gw/xrsd7awwdesc.jpg

Just some screencaps of what I have in engine so far. It's all loosely unwrapped but I'll be finalising UVs as I texture.

And to end off my first post, some materials I've made for the floors of the area from Substance Designer, and then one of those with some vertex painting inside Unreal.

Cheers!

jakebelgian · Jan 2016

Woot - thread approved!

Since those screenshots I've been building up some more materials and testing how they look in the scene alongside some small asset tests.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/uo/84ib764x39m1.jpg

Cheers

jakebelgian · Jan 2016

Back again.

As I'm aiming for the night concept for the scene, I had a play around with the lighting, and made some heavily inspired graffiti.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/by/i6koa8byqnut.jpg

Ged · Jan 2016

Good start, I think someone did a similar alleyway a while back, see if there's anything in their thread you can learn from? http://polycount.com/discussion/142304/ue4-remember-me-alleyway

jakebelgian · Jan 2016

Wow, that looks stunning!

It definitely helps with regards to laying the scene out and how it's structured above the shop fronts, for example.

Looks like I have some work cut out for me. Cheers for the link! Very helpful indeed.

jakebelgian · Jan 2016

Just a minor update - how dark the scene is hit me when I was working on another monitor in Uni, so I made a tweak on the lighting. Also added some more meshes such as the 'roof' over the main alleyway (It's still raining in the concept so for now there's no glass in said roof) and a few more textures.

I've also been doing my homework watching the Unreal Engine Youtube channel and looking at example VFX setups to try and create my own rain FX.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/n7/6wr8mh226ml2.jpg

Cheers! As always, C&C greatly appreciated.

shadacer · Jan 2016

Hey man, I did this exact same scene myself last year.... before I accidentally deleted it. Good luck

jakebelgian · Jan 2016

So you did! It looked amazing. Sorry to hear you lost the work, that sucks.

Right now I'm just moving on with texturing and assets - the only thing I'm having a real problem with is how I'm going to line up all the walls height wise and with what sort of details/panels. Any tips or advice you learning from doing it always welcome

I shall have an update mid week next week, been working on other University modules that have caught up with me.

shadacer · Jan 2016

Sure, I can help! For the heights of everything, I liked to imagine the shop facades were one floor, the arched windows were the storage attic areas above, and I also added some modular windows above them to denote the residential areas of the alleyways. The arches were used to section up the galleries, much as you're doing now, and height-wise ended before the residential story of the buildings. I used also a modular set of metal panels to break up flat walls where I wanted more sci-fi elements or where normal Paris brick wouldn't work with the scale.

Style - wise, the game used a lot of bright colours, mostly orange and black/white motifs, and smooth edges with minimal surface detail. Emissives were almost all light-blue.

To research the game, I looked at a lot of concept art and also researched the Paris galleries that inspired this location in real life. They retain a lot of its architecture in the sci-fi setting.

In terms of workload, I think it's best to build a modular set of different facade pieces, that can be coloured differently and changed around as you see fit. I also think it's good to block up facades with shutters to avoid burning out on interior detail, and also adding graffiti (which I was almost going to do before i initiated the creative apocalypse).

Hope that helps!

jakebelgian · Jan 2016

Great stuff, that helps a bunch. I don't have too long to whip it into shape so boarding up the interiors sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately my project seems fairly broken at the moment as all the translucent materials and shadow maps keep wildly popping in and out, so I'm not sure when I'll next get an update up.

Cheers!

jakebelgian · Jan 2016

I was just using far too many high res textures..... Oops! Problem solved.

Quick update, worked on some more textures, lighting and fleshing out the rest of the structure to the scene.