[UE4] Forgotten ATST
polycounter
Hi guys, with a new star wars film coming soon I started to get the itch and started blocking out a new environment. I normally don't post my progress much or if I do I start late so I decided I should try and start this thread early and try to keep it up to date as the more feedback I can get the better this should turn out 
This is pretty early stages but it's a start!
I started roughing out the scene last night using the landscape tool + some kite demo assets that I plan to replace. I've also started putting together materials (that still need work) using a combination of megascans, quixel suite and substance designer.
My plan is to make the ATST look very overgrown, like it's been there for a while with a lot of moss and roots growing up the legs.
This is pretty early stages but it's a start!
I started roughing out the scene last night using the landscape tool + some kite demo assets that I plan to replace. I've also started putting together materials (that still need work) using a combination of megascans, quixel suite and substance designer.
My plan is to make the ATST look very overgrown, like it's been there for a while with a lot of moss and roots growing up the legs.
Replies
I've spent my spare time recently getting some materials put together with Megascans Studio so that I could play with tesselation on ground materials, I ended up throwing away the landscape that I had built with the UE4 tools as they were giving me far too many problems and started sculpting it in Modo instead. This is a real shame as my iteration time is much slower but I was getting corrupt map saves and all sorts with the landscape tool so it'll be worth it. Next up I'll probably look at getting some sort of canopy and some more foliage into the scene.
Maybe you just haven't gotten to it yet, but that is some calm water. Especially on the banks where it meets the dirt.
For the foliage I would recommend a little more variance in color. Getting some brown mixed in would make it feel more convincing. Even a lush forest will have a number of dead/eaten leaves on live plants. Right now its a swath of similarity.
Keep up the nice job!
Subscribed.
I've spent some time today trying to figure out a way to grow roots up my AT-ST using speed tree, I'm not getting the right results at the moment as I want them to be straighter but as far as I know you can hand draw the splines so I'll use that if need be. I started out by using zbrush and zspheres for roots but that was obviously extremely slow and allowed for no iteration so I scrapped that.
A few other notes as you work on the roots:
I would put a tree nearby where those big roots come out of the ground. Right now its very strange that they sprout on their own. Vines would be fine sprouting on their own, but what you have looks like roots, so they need to belong to something bigger.
Also the At-ST's foot seems to be planted on the surface of the water. I'd submerge that side a little more.
Feedback welcome
The AT-ST looks jarring to me though, like it shouldn't be upright. Even if it was abandoned roots growing around the legs likely would have knocked it over or at least not level. I don't know if it could be resolved by sticking a leg into mud like it got stuck and abandoned, or leaning of the cliffside would also throw the turret off kilter which might help, or simply a composition where it has fallen over.
In any case, looking forward to see how this one comes out.
I have no idea what I'm doing with the StormWok, he pretty much just wonders around the scene. The splines hanging from the AT-St represent ropes that the Ewoks have used to sure up the ATST. The shapes in the tree are stand in models for the little ewok houses in the trees from the film. I've worked on adding some clovers, new ferns, improving ground blending and a few other bits and bobs.
I plan on adding a couple more types of foliage in order to thicken up the forest so they'll probably be next
Feedback welcome!
The bark was feeling really weak so I improved that a little but it'll need some more love, I also got some undulation and tinting into the muddy areas. I improved the roots on the ATST legs and have added some plant life to those. I've thickened up the canopy some and added some midsize trees in order to really give the scene some volume.
I need to spend a little time on the ewok houses and bridges up in the trees to try and make it feel more like Endor next really but any feedback is appreciated!
I also tipped the ewoks head up towards the ATST and I reworked his spear a little as something was really bugging me with it, My list is getting close to done so I'll be looking for some more crits soon. I did play around with the ATST pose a little but it's hard to make it not look like it's about to collapse, I want it to look left behind and not broken down.
I'm not sure if its fog or bloom, but the white foggy white stuff thats happening near the ATST is hurting the shot a little bit for me. It immediately pulls my eye over to the ATST, but its causing that side of it to blend in with the tree in the background. I like earlier shots where you have more contrast on that edge of the ATST and it pulled it stronger into the foreground. The moss is pretty neat, how did you achieve that look? Is that cards? I think the moss climbing up the ATST looks strange, in that its just poking directly into the metal. Maybe adding a little bit of rust underneath will help make that transition smoother. Moss grows in moist places, so it would make sense to have some oxidation underneath it.
I think that the sharp contrast between the lush greenery and the brown/red dirt really defines the look of Endor. You certainly have that here, but I think you could play with the balance of these colors compositionally to get a really cool shot. Right now, everything is very green heavy.
I really like this image, notice how the brown slashy stuff even sits on shelves on the tree roots? Also seeing the ferns sticking right through that stuff is really pleasing to the eye.
I'm assuming the greenery is megascans stuff maybe? It certainly looks impressive up close, but isn't serving the mid read very well. A little bit of color contrast could go a long way here, both to break up the monotonous tone across the vegetation, but also carry that brown color across and balance the shot better. Similarly, I think the rust on the ATST can carry that brown across the right side of the image too!
I apologize for my crude painting, but I whipped this up. Looking at this now, I also think that the lens flair thing happening in the top left is a bit strong. Serves the composition well, but is maybe just a little too big.
Here's a quick render test, trying out the sequencer before I wrap up the scene. Tis always nice to see a little realtime motion
What it means for you is probably this:
- Work in more color variation into your ferns. Brown the bottom of them make them blend better with the ground/trees.
- Make sure the base of the moss is layered in color, make it deeper and browner at the base. (http://orig08.deviantart.net/f2c3/f/2013/061/1/3/rock_moss_by_danikamilles-d5wqcwo.jpg)
- Do some more LUT work I guess. The reason for my paint-over being more "evening sun" is because during the pass of me trying to make your greens more earthy-colored, it clashed quite heavily together with the cyan look of the background. Thus ended in me trying to unify the colors to be more yellow then bringing it a little bit back towards yours again.
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Final Shots
This scene is great. Love the depth. The vegetation looks awesome two. The story telling is superb my brain when crazy trying to come up with a story for this scene