[UE4] Wild West Environment - Sonoran Desert

Nathan3D

Hey guy so I have started my next environment today and jumped into world machine to make my height map I also took topological data of an area actually in the Sonoran Desert to try get a more realistic environment. I have never seen an outside environment like this to the finish and this is for my portfolio so Im trying to be the best i can be with this. Also I will be applying to Rockstar North, seen as I live near by, once my portfolio is created and i figure a red dead redemption themed environment would be a good bet soooo
here is my first image for you anything to critique? no plants or anything yet just barebones landscape

CB_Productions

You're off to a good start I think!

The stones in the background do look a bit wavy. They look more like cold lava. Or is this intended? 

Do you have any reference you are working from?

Nathan3D

@CB_Productions yea I think it's coz of the reflections I'll make the rock part a bit rougher and hopefully that will help with that. 
Well its the actual area in the desert so I have that and I've got some references for the stuff I plan on doing as well such as plant life and some buildings also going to put in a train track. 
I was things of doing rock formations as well and putting them into the rocky area to give some variation over there not sure if that will work out yet though

Benvox2

+1 to looking like a good start man! I am really interested to see how you go about the terrain with WM and material creation etc. I also think it is a great idea to target a company and show them you can replicate their styles. 

Nathan3D

thanks @Benvox2 hopefully it comes out good haha. im using substance designer for the materials and then placed them depening on a slope mask created in WM and a  little bit of painting to break up the repetition. here is another shot with some sand put in as well as the dirt and some corrected normals and reflectivity on the rocks

Nathan3D

created some cacti today

Nathan3D

working on some grass today created some regular grass and some clumped grass

Benvox2

Shaping up nicely man, I know this is likely influenced by Red Dead Redemption, but do you have any particular reference or mood board? Might increase the comments and critiques if you do.

Also, A large outdoor scene like this, I am assuming you will use the foliage tool to paint all the foliage like this? Does the light map get divided by all of your grass clusters here? Foliage is looking great as always, cactus have a subsurface am I right?

Nathan3D

Yea. @Benvox2 I can put up a ref board when I'm at the computer  
I will be using the foliage painter yea but I'm using a dynamic light as my main light just now so I'm not using lightness with my grass and the cactus has a slight subsurface yea  

Nathan3D

here is that mood board

cmc444

Keep Going looking forward to seeing more.

Nathan3D

@cmc444 thanks!
ive been working on some mesquite trees

Benvox2

Foliage on point as always man, keep it up!

Nathan3D

sculpted some desert rocks today with a couple of variations, you cant quite see it but i also have a vector based material on the rocks so that there is a layer of sand always on the top of the rock

Nathan3D

been almost a whole month since i last posted anything for this but its not forgotten and is actually turning into a scene for university i have since created the train tracks and a Palo Verde Tree as well as the spline generator blueprint that holds the train track

allengingrich

Very cool! Can't wait to see more.

cmc444

Looking good!

One comment: The rocky part where the tracks meet the sand and the rocks under the tracks look a little to different and dont blend to well. Maybe try matching the colors a bit more and finding a blend solution between the two?

RustySpannerz

Nice start, I'll be keeping an eye on this one. 

Nathan3D

Thanks guys  
@cmc444 I see your point I'm having trouble only having 3 materials to paint the landscape with I have the main rock one I use for the hills/mountainous area and smaller rocky areas a dirt material and a sand material how would you suggest I go forward? 
Maybe use the dirt material with some added planes to help with transition? 

cmc444

You can add another layer to your landscape and only use it in the foreground. Also you could separate your landscape into near and far. Adding dirt the cavities or blending the edge with a mask would help with the train rocks I think. 

Nathan3D

@cmc444 I think I'm going to have to rethink how Im doing the landscape material because as soon as a I add another texture sample into either a new material function or an existing one it goes to the checker board grey and can't see any so I think I've used the 16 textures I'm aloud to 

Cay

There's a way to set it (texture samplers) to shared, that should give you some options. (Haven't used it in a while, just google)
Landscapes themselves already reserve some samplers so you don't get the full number that you might expect.
Apart from that you should be able to split it up like Clinton suggested. Or even make the background mountains meshes and only keep the landscape for foreground/midground.

Nathan3D

@Cay thanks for that i didnt know about the shared:wrap stuff i took some of the stuff on board and made some changes to the material between the train tracks any better? @cmc444

allengingrich

That blend is so much better on the rocks!

How are you doing landscape mats -- those don't look procedural -- you photo sampling? Keep it up!

Also, you could channel pack three or four maps into one texture to save tex memory.

Nathan3D

@allengingrich thanks  
It's a bit of both I'm taking images into substance designer and editing them etc in there

Nuclear Angel

I think it looks very weird with the change in elevation beneath the tracks, as no train could ever go over that rail. Where ever they laid tracks before any change in the terrain had to be over a longer stretch of road. As of right now no train could use that track you have made. So straighten it out and it would look more believable. 

I also would recommend you to box out your composition of your scene so that you can play with the lighting and plan the rest of your assets. Keep it up. 

cmc444

Much better blend! Keep it up

Maybe look at adding some dirt or sand coloring around the wooden boards and tracks. In the desert I would think the sand would begin to build up around those tracks and raised areas.

amirabd2130

Nice progress so far.

• I also agree with what @Nuclear Angel  said about elevation.
• It would be nice if those tracks lead to something or someplace (a town or an station) or at least make them disappear between the mountains.
• I think DOF is a little too much.
• Overall suggestion, decide your main focal point and continue from there.

Keep rocking

Nathan3D

I havnt posted in ages but im back to this piece and im hoping to finish it within the next week or two, plans are to work on a small train station and a small area to tie up horses for a focal point as suggested above and make @amirabd2130 @cmc444 @Nuclear Angel thank you for the comments and tips. back to this I go. here is where i am at just now.

Benvox2

Wow huge improvement in that last shot. Seems like you have added a lot more mood and contrast to the scene overall. I am guessing this is what Red Dead 2 will look like! Good work!

Nathan3D

@Benvox2 thank you very much that's a huge compliment I was actually surprised myself at how different it was from the last one haha

Benvox2

Adelphia said:

@Benvox2 thank you very much that's a huge compliment I was actually surprised myself at how different it was from the last one haha

No problem man, if you put them side by side there is a massive improvement! 

Nathan3D

This is what i have so far, think im almost finished, ill post a picture closer to the station once im almost finished up there

Nathan3D

I think I have finished what do yous think? ive been looking at it so much i dont know what to think haha

Nathan3D

@Benvox2 what do you think? Was it you that liked them on my Facebook page? Cheers  

Benvox2

Adelphia said:

@Benvox2 what do you think? Was it you that liked them on my Facebook page? Cheers  

haha yes that is correct! It turned out really nice man. I really like the colour palette, seems very Red Dead. Still thinking of applying there? If so I would definitely make sure this is in your portfolio.

Nathan3D

@Benvox2 haha awesome. Thanks a lot  yea I think I'm going to apply, they always have job openings for environment artists and I live so close to them