[UE4] Big Desert Rock and Some Bushes - Finished

godejon

Latest


Pretty much ready to call this finished. C&C welcome.


OP ---
What up Polycount. I'm creating this piece with Rockstar's style in mind because their Toronto location is so close to me and they have junior positions open every once in a while. I've always admired RDR's setting so I'm making a desert environment.

Here's a general inspiration board


The bottom left image is the scene composition I have in mind.

This Simon Barle piece is the level of quality I'm trying to hit!



Here are some assets I've created so far.
Bushes


Shrubs


Rock x2


I'll keep you updated. Cheers

godejon

Hey all. Thanks for checking out the thread! Here are some shots.



Since last post I've overhauled all the materials. Rock diffuse is now generated by normal/AO/curvature maps, ground sand is now properly linked to the z-oriented sand on rocks, plants now actually use spec maps. New veg asset, and I also spent a blissful day making a custom skybox   



However, I've headed completely in the wrong direction stylistically, falling into my natural habits instead of pushing myself out of my comfort zone. This is the last post that will have the super saturated colors, and I'm really gonna be focusing on references from RDR from here on out.



Right now the scene has very much an "assets sitting on a terrain mesh" look. Overhauling the ground material will improve this a lot, but I'd love to hear any suggestions or ways that you've fought this look in the past.

Thanks again for reading, see you soon! 

Ashervisalis

Hey, I think your standing rock could use a lot of work. I can see the polygon edges everywhere. If this is a game object the mesh looks like it could be optimized a lot.

godejon

Ashervisalis said:

Hey, I think your standing rock could use a lot of work. I can see the polygon edges everywhere. If this is a game object the mesh looks like it could be optimized a lot.

Hey, don't worry, it's a placeholder The sculpt is on the chopping block right after ground material.

godejon

Yo. We've finally got a big desert rock!



Lighting and colors are updated and closer to their final form.



I did a lot of work on a rocky rubbley landscape material layer and didn't end up too happy with it. I'm going to try a plant litter layer next.



I'm going to put some work into the rock material's albedo layer because it's very simple right now. Any advice on how to sell these rocks more?



Long term plans are get some mountainous something in the background and one more foliage asset. See you all in two weeks.

godejon

The number one piece of feedback I've gotten so far is "Plants? In the desert?", so here's a new color scheme and placeholder ground material to turn this thing into more of a shrubland.





Proper dirt mat and rock update coming soon. Cheers!

Shirk

I actually quite like and prefer the rocks being more red rather than the grey you have now. The current rocks dont really strike me as something you would find in a desert. 

Doxturtle

IMO the rock at the moment looks a bit strange, like its balancing unrealistically. Without the big rock on top the scene would probably look better

Something like this could work



Overall the scene is looking good

godejon

Hey guys, been working on rocks and the ground for past week and a half. Done a ton of sculpting! Lots of lighting work as well, but that never ends. Here's some progress:





These are the main refs I've been following, planning on getting a lot more rock ground-cover in this scene.

godejon

@Shirk
I agree. Made some major changes to the rocks with this in mind. Thanks for the advice!

@Doxturtle
I've done about 8 or so sculpts trying to find a rock style that fits the scene. Currently saving the big rock for last as I think it'll be the most important. Thanks for the crit man!

gc3d

Hey, this is making good progress! my main feedback would be to give your shrubs some love, they look a little sea urchin like at the moment and are distracting from the main feature of the rock

godejon

@gc3d
Haha, I like that comparison. I put it on the list, thanks!

godejon

Stripped all the veg out of the scene so I can focus on getting these rocks nice and crispy. Gotta work on a better detail normal because the current one is making the sand blending look like that one ocean ripple photoshop filter





Oh, and I finally have a horizon line!! Background decoration incoming

godejon

New shrubs, threw the veg back on, made some rock mat adjustments.

Having the plants back in really makes the scene want for better ground materials or more ground cover. I plan on focusing the last vegetation asset on filling that hole.

Almost done!

godejon

Pretty much ready to call this finished. C&C welcome.

Kid.in.the.Dark

this looks muuuuch better haha... but I wouldn't call it done...

I still feel like the foliage and the ground aren't fitting in well together... Overall I feel that the ground textures could do with some polish, they don't have much detail in them right now and could do with some small scale details like gravel etc.
Also I'd like to know whether you have a dry grass like texture that you could use for directly under your foliage?
I feel adding some tree trunks would really help break up that emptiness in the ground height too

Discard critique at will but it's just what I feel I'd do to push this piece further.

Here are some references for what I mean

godejon

@Kid.in.the.Dark
I definitely think the ground textures are the weakest part of this scene, so I appreciate the crit. I had a few ground things on my to-do list but I wasn't sure if they were important enough so I'm glad you mentioned. I guess it's time to just buckle down and learn substance designer.. I'm not sure if I'll apply that to this scene, or whatever I'm going to work on next. I might make a couple trees and trunks this week though. Thanks a lot Desmond!

Kid.in.the.Dark

Anytime man, all we want is to better each other here anyway so don't mention it haha... as for Substance Designer, it was a very scary and daunting feeling when I decided to learn it but once you pick it up... you'll almost never want to texture with any other pipeline again haha. So make sure to get your butt in gear and try it out