Yet Another UE4 Horror Game in the works- advice and suggestions wanted
I'm working with a small team of people to create a horror game in UE4- despite the vast number of horror survival games already on the market. We're trying hard to come up with a unique game, utilizing some interesting concepts that, at this stage, are just that-- concepts. Right now we're struggling with the basic "making of assets" part of Game Design. I am the project's 3d modeler, but I might have to fill in as the Texture Artist, Lighting whatever, etc.
I haven't quite got a workflow down for UV unwrapping, texturing, normalmap creation, etc. and would appreciate any suggestions anyone has on how I might go about this. I'm working on a pretty small budget right now, so I can't afford tools like Zbrush or nDo, most of what I've done has been in 3ds max (educational license, I'm in the process of transitioning to a commercial license, that'll suck of most of my moolah) and Sketchup (cheap!).
Other feedback I would appreciate includes models you think would enhance the environment and suggestions as to how I might use UE4's lighting system to good effect (right now, everything is lit by static lights).
Some backstory- the game is set in 1988, on the brink of the collapse of the Soviet Union in an arctic base (Северный полюс-33) that doubles as a research station and military nuclear installation. We're planning on playing off of the Ukrainian independence movement, having elements such as propaganda, the outlawed Ukrainian anthem, etc. to characterize the setting a little more. The base itself is supposed to appear very industrial/scientific-- lots of concrete and steel. I'll post a few screenshots of the UE4 level where we're testing our asset's visual appearance below. Thank you!
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Baking normals is an enormous topic and there are loads of tutorials/information both on the forums, youtube, and the polycount wiki. I'd start by finding a tutorial on youtube for your particular software (max I suppose), follow that and when you're at least familiar with the process then read up a lot more about it here on the forums and the wiki.
Baking normals is a pretty new topic to me, so I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction! I do currently have a subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes Photoshop, but I'm still mostly at a loss as to how I might create game textures with it. For these purposes, would I use ddo, substance, or some other software in conjunction with it, or is there an effective way to make textures with Photoshop alone?