[UE4] Cemetery At Sea (Concept by Graven Tung)
polycounter lvl 6
After doing a few speed environments for a client of mine I've picked up a lot of new techniques and also a lot more knowledge about working with UE4...
So I apologize for scrapping previous environments I swore to myself I'd do but after much consideration and concept digging I've found something I can see myself dedicating my time to.
I found this lovely concept by Graven Tung (Website here) and will be building this within UE4.
I will be working somewhat modular in the aspect of stair ways, pillars, few platforms, rocks etc... but the few unique assets within this piece would be the central platform with the sword in it, few of the platforms extruding from the ground for some intricacy to break up repetition and possibly the ship in the background (don't quote me because there's a good chance I'll make the ship modular for better background population.
Stay tuned.
As for the previous work I've been working on recently please visit my Artstation if you're interested. (HERE)
It's 3 separate environments based on the Kowloon Walled City.
I really wanted to work with something more organic / Zbrush orientated as I've spent much time building geometry sitting on 45-90 degree angles which has gotten a little repetitive recently.
This is my initial block out and will be moving into detailing once all blocking out is properly done / viewed within UE4.
Kidd.
So I apologize for scrapping previous environments I swore to myself I'd do but after much consideration and concept digging I've found something I can see myself dedicating my time to.
I found this lovely concept by Graven Tung (Website here) and will be building this within UE4.
I will be working somewhat modular in the aspect of stair ways, pillars, few platforms, rocks etc... but the few unique assets within this piece would be the central platform with the sword in it, few of the platforms extruding from the ground for some intricacy to break up repetition and possibly the ship in the background (don't quote me because there's a good chance I'll make the ship modular for better background population.
Stay tuned.
As for the previous work I've been working on recently please visit my Artstation if you're interested. (HERE)
It's 3 separate environments based on the Kowloon Walled City.
I really wanted to work with something more organic / Zbrush orientated as I've spent much time building geometry sitting on 45-90 degree angles which has gotten a little repetitive recently.
This is my initial block out and will be moving into detailing once all blocking out is properly done / viewed within UE4.
Kidd.
Replies
I spent the majority of tonight knocking out a gravel / patchy grass / grassy material for now... I'll be coming back to it to fix up later on in detail but for the time being will be a place holder.
C&C Welcome.
Screenie from UE4.
Quick painter over for fun to see how things will fall into place later on.
And the substance I pieced together tonight which is plugged into the floor with 3 graph instances blending between layers of grass visibility.
Made a move on the Stair Case atm... So I've decided to completely dissect it and go with modular building the steps for some variety within UE4.
This is an update on the sculpting process so far.
I haven't gotten around to the smaller pieces but there will be 3-4 broken segments which I'll be placing in a bit of a randomized fashion on the stair case as well for break up. I'll have them in the next update once I've gotten around to sculpting them
I also think the border around the decoration looks like it's going inwards but it's actually not haha... it's a separate subtool so it seems a little darker in the screenie.
C&C Welcome.
Kidd.
So here's another update, I'm still sculpting the stair case, I've only got the platform design to sculpt out before I can call the high poly done on that side. Not much has changed since my last update on it so there's no update for that for the time being.
What I have to show today is the largest cliff/rock segment to the level which I'll be using in modular around the base of the islands.
C&C Very welcome, I plan on baking out the main curvature detail on the sculpt and then applying a rocky substance which will be mapped to WorldScale value so the rocky texture will apply all over the models without continuity issues and harsh cuts for better blending in future.
Is it a procedural material by the way?
Haha thank you, I'll definitely share what I learn along this journey (Y) stay posted!
@Nomad - Nicolas Pirot
Thank you
I will follow your work, keep up !
That's in the itinerary yeah haha but it'll be a final prop if anything. Depending how long this piece drags out and how noisy it becomes as I place all the elements in bit by bit I may end up simplifying the details since it's at a distance. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it though
Right now I'm focusing on foliage & terrain. afterwards I'll be placing in major assets like the stairs kit/stone ledges/graves & stone platforms.
Just having fun with this as I'm going along if anything
So this is where I am with the ground foliage/lighting now... C&C Very Welcome.
I'm attempting to build a tree bark substance but I'm failing miserably... does anyone know of a decent tutorial on concepts to build tree bark shapes? or does anyone happen to feel kind enough to share some techniques for me to get the first few steps in? essentially anything I'm building towards the tree bark direction is coming out like a stylized cracked rock surface. Tried and failed around 4/5 times on shape generation/experimentation phase.
Until I hit something decent I may just move onto creating the trunk base/branches for the time being for silhouette blockout etc.
But there's definitely urgency for advice on how to go about building a tree bark substance. Thanks!
Keep it up!
Ah, you're right actually... Thanks for that, I hadn't noticed I flipped my grass billboard meshes... so the ones intended for smaller detail were being used for bigger detail instead haha... I've flipped them now... if you still think it's too thick then I'll go back and adjust the model/baked texture
Managed to knock out some base tree trunks, the branches are currently instances in 3dsmax... so once I've gotten around to building some tree leaf alpha sheets I'll just attach them to the instanced branches for a quick re-import
The sizes will be adjusted later on once the leaves are in for variation... any suggestions on how to go about building my leaf billboards/sheets is very much appreciated as well
C&C Welcome.
You paint the high poly branch with the paint tool in 3DSMax, then you make a HP leaf, you create the distribution by hand etc..then you bake all the thing AO, albedo, normal, color variation etc... etc....
The new grass is neat and cool now imo
Thanks for that! I'll definitely have a look into it
@Adelphia
Thanks for that observation... the normals I actually corrected with a hemisphere mesh... since my grass billboards aim outwards from each other.
I just corrected them to aim upwards, results seem quite similar but possibly just a bit better.
The light from bottom to top... it's actually affected by the Two-Sided Foliage model material... not quite sure how to get rid of it, I did some tweaking with the parametres I set for their colours but this is the best I could get from it... any better?
Also, I'm moving countries in the next few days... I may fall off from posting for a month or so but here's a heads up, it's not that I gave up haha.
C&C Very Welcome.
I had a thread about trees and such a little while ago you should check it out if you have the time might help you a little.
I finally found some time today to revisit a small part of this environment.
Thankfully my reasons for not being able to do this isn't because I haven't been practicing my craft, I've been putting in endless hours of diligent trial and error working on a project and it's given me a massive boost in knowledge about Substance Designer since where I last left off.
I've made a complete revisit on the gravel surface substance I posted early on, it was coming off very stylized and generally this entire environment was meant to look realistic instead.
I'm calling this surface done for now but I'm very open to C&C to improve it, the moment I'm free again I'll gladly work on this environment further, hopefully soon.
Thank you.