How do you guys use reference art for 3D environment art?

aaeriam

Hi all,

I'm taking my first serious step into creating 3D environment art. I'm familiar with the basic high -> low poly baking, unwrapping, and PBR texturing since I've messed around with characters and sculpts in Zbrush, Blender, Quixel Suite 2, and a few other programs but I've never really attempted creating environment pieces to put together in an engine (specifically UE4). Right now I'm just trying to take it a step at a time and I'm starting with research and gathering references for a few simple buildings. When you guys gather references for your projects like this, what do you look for in your references? Materials, silhouettes, general shapes, architecture, and composition are the first things that come to my mind but that's just me guessing. 

Right now my short-term goal is that I'd like to start out with is to create a small medieval/fantasy themed house and my long-term goal is to eventually create a small town scene but I'm not rushing that. 

Larry

I dont have any information on the subjects you mention but I think large scale modeling like cities and forrests are another career path, 3d matte painter

alexk

When I look for environment references, I look for things that look "cool". Example, if I'm looking for door references, I won't just pick a generic door. I'll look for something with a cool design, pattern, or a unique looking door knob. Something more interesting then just a flat surface with a round knob. Same for buildings, rocks, tables, everything. I won't always make it look exactly like it, but now I'll have a set of refs with unique characteristics that I can add to anything else to spice it up