Abandoned Boat Shed - UE4 - WIP

RustySpannerz

Current Progress:



Original Post: 
Currently working on this little piece. Wanted an eerie seaside setting inspired by the Scottish Hebrides where I'm from. I've been working on this on and off for a while now whilst also learning the various tools I've needed, but now I'm at a point where I've got a lot less distractions and hopefully production speed will pick up! 


Props: 


And then I made this yesterday, haven't had a chance to put it in the scene yet. 


Any criticism or ideas for what to include in the scene would be great! 

RustySpannerz

Made a rock today. 
And this is what they look like in the level so far. Texture might be wasted with the fog, but since it's a substance I plan on using the same one for a couple more rock models. 

RustySpannerz

Been away for a while so getting back into it has been slow. But this is kind of what it looks like now. 


Just slowly adding things. Going to add a pier next to the slipway and more of the long grass. Maybe some seaweed and bits of litter on the rocks.

RustySpannerz

Textured the boat today, pretty happy with it I'd say. I used a mix of Substance Designer and Painter. I didn't make a high poly for it, because I'm trying to be smarter with my time and I really don't think it's necessary. 

RustySpannerz

Decided that the shed is really the centre of the whole piece so I thought I'd give it a bit of an upgrade.  Or a downgrade depending on how you look at it... 

Ashervisalis

Digging this! The rocks in the foreground look a bit weird to me. Kind of looks like one of those man-made rock walls that are cemented together, not natural. The boat looks cool and I love the atmosphere of it all.

Zi0

Looks spooky, nice work so far.

Zammboomafoo

I like the mood, reminds me of a Left for Dead level back in the day.

gsokol

Its very hard to really read your picture.  The white rocks, the water, the larger stone, and what I think is a boat ramp are all so similar in color they blend together.

I'm getting the sense that you want to go for a spooky vibe, but its just not there for me...it comes off a bit bland and desaturated instead.  Your lack of shadows is playing a big part of that I think.  What is your main light source?  I think getting some moonlight casting an eerie glow and creating long shadows would be a good start.  Also are you using some fog?  Maybe consider pushing it to be behind the house a little more.  If you want to get more fog up in the foreground, fog planes might be a better option, so you can have them rolling across the ground instead of just generally desaturating the scene.

RustySpannerz

@Ashervisalis
Yeah, that's something that putting in a directional light has kind of fixed, gives it a bit of depth. But since it's just a substance, it's always going to look a little flat. I'm going to make another one with seaweed in it and vertex paint it on, so that should help. 

@gsokol
You have no idea how hard lighting this scene has been. I've never been happy with it and I've spent hours on it! It's primarily lit with an ambient skylight because I wanted to go for the foggy overcast look, but you're right it doesn't really read well because of it. 

I did put in a directional light which helps a little, but it still looks a little strange. What I'm thinking is incorporating a few more lamps into the scene, and making it a little darker to give it more shadows. 

This is what I got after spending another couple of hours on it, not sure if I'm happy with it but overcast lighting is such a pain! Also I don't like the pink buoy, so probably going to change that or move it or something. 

RustySpannerz

Some other stuff I did today, just some small props for inside. Slowly but surely! 

RustySpannerz

Made a couple of paint tins which was pretty fun! 

And a fishing net sack. 

Poinball

Haha I like the microsoft paint

Joopson

Looks good! Just a tip, the labels on the paint cans should be non-metal (unless you have some reference where the labels are, in fact, metallic).

RustySpannerz

It's my understanding that paint can labels are usually printed on the metal like this? 

Joopson

Hm, it does seem like Benjamin Moore uses a metallic finish, but that seems to be stylistic choice by them and a few other companies, and not something universal to paint cans.  In a game-art context though, it feels like a misuse of metalness. I would say, smoothing out the roughness map a little could help it feel more intentional. That's how I feel about it, at least.

The scene really is looking great. Love the shed itself. Glad you switched from vertical siding to horizontal; makes it feel very stern and foreboding, like many old boatsheds are.

RustySpannerz

It's been a little while since I worked on this, been working on other projects and stuff. It's crazy how much I've learned since doing this piece. It's actually difficult to work on now because of how badly I did everything back then. But I think its got potential so I want to finish it up and stick it in the portfolio. 




I'm having difficulty with the strange reflections inside this shed, not really sure what's causing it. 

So my next steps are to get more shedly clutter thrown in the shed to make it feel more lived in. Some ropes and stuff like that. Need to get some kind of mess on the floor, but not really sure what it should be? 

Any suggestions to get it to actual video game standards would be really cool! Thanks! 

RustySpannerz

Okay, I've finally taken some time to try and finish it, a couple things I still need to do are to make short grass so the transition between the long grass and the landscape is less abrupt. Also the reflection captures struggle with indoor/outdoor scenes, so I guess on the final renders I'll do two seperate captures.

But I'm getting ready to call this finished, so a helpful barrage of everything I still need to do would be helpful! 

Macebo

Good stuff buddy, turning out great.

The transition between the beach and the indoor environment is spot on. I liked the fog outside, the materials of the walls, the rocks... Also, big kudos for not going over the top with the post effects.

Is that a fisherman shed? You could add more variation to the objects you laid out into the shed. There is a lot of paint buckets, but why? Maybe adding fishing rods, fishing nets, fisherman tool boxes, a frame with a bait collection, even a dead fish on the table could add a lot to the story telling of the environment. Also, by doing that you can show your organic modeling skills

Prylos

I like the mood a lot, it's looking better with each post. Those buoys look a little too clean.  

RustySpannerz

It might not look like much has changed since the last post but I've taken some advice from a few different people, and I think I'm happy to call it done now! Gotta move on to the next thing at some point! 








Thanks for all the help advice guys, couldn't have done it without you all! 
Check it out on my ArtStation! https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Jzd3m