Environment creation workflow?

jordank95

Hey guys -

new to environment art, as I've always been mainly a props artist. Just trying to figure out the most efficient steps in the right order to creating an environment. I'm currently working on a basement in a house type environment and struggling with what order I should be doing things to save me headaches in the end. 

After I create the blockout for the room, what should be my next steps? Here's what I *think* it should be:

blockout > start modeling all the actual props > UV everything to check texel density is correct > start baking all my maps and texturing?

I see some people start doing all the big tiling texture pieces first (walls, floors, etc.) and getting those all textured out and imported into UE4 - BEFORE they start modeling the props. Seems like jumping the gun a bit. I guess this might just be personal preference?

Anyone have any tips for a good workflow that will save me headaches and confusion?

Klawd

Some environment artists do a general blockout and then get straight to nailing the lighting. This is what I learned myself to be a good process based on my (small yet) experience in the matter.
After the lighting is done, you can do polish passes on the blockout, start working on some base tiling materials, and so on until you get to the various props. But generally something to avoid is to start from a single prop/hero prop right away, thinking "I'll build the environment on top of this". This usually fails.

PS: there are plenty of good articles on 80lv written by professionals from the industry that explain their own processes when doing environment works. I highly recommended going through these reads!

jordank95

Klawd said:

Some environment artists do a general blockout and then get straight to nailing the lighting. This is what I learned myself to be a good process based on my (small yet) experience in the matter.
After the lighting is done, you can do polish passes on the blockout, start working on some base tiling materials, and so on until you get to the various props. But generally something to avoid is to start from a single prop/hero prop right away, thinking "I'll build the environment on top of this". This usually fails.

PS: there are plenty of good articles on 80lv written by professionals from the industry that explain their own processes when doing environment works. I highly recommended going through these reads!

Thanks for the reply. I've seen some go straight to lighting as well, but it always baffled me since you get such a better idea (in my opinion) of lighting when you have all your textures applied. I'm sure there's perfectly good reason for this, but that always seemed counter intuitive. 

So maybe it is best to get the foundation textured first (walls, ceiling etc.) and then start on props. Start with the big stuff and work my way down?

Joao Sapiro

its like building a house. Dont start with the door handles nor the finish of the chromed surfaces on the soap bars, you start by leveling the terrain , checking where the sunlight will come, and lay the foundations/walls.

Most of the enviro topics that pop out in polycount have these amazing moodboards etc, huge walls of text saying what they will do and then they start to do a brick wall on substance and maybe 1 or 2 updates and they loose interest.

Worl from big details ( blockout with lighting pass ) to details.

Klawd

Joao Sapiro said:

its like building a house. Dont start with the door handles nor the finish of the chromed surfaces on the soap bars, you start by leveling the terrain , checking where the sunlight will come, and lay the foundations/walls.
[...]
Work from big details ( blockout with lighting pass ) to details.

^ this is my suggestion too

Larry

I would build the lighting mostly to check my big shadows and get a general feeling of the scene. Its a good workflow to start from boxes to build walls and door openings and get the architecture, then moving on to some columns then ventrilation etc. Its good to go from more simplistic to more complicated and try to finish a particular category first. I mean, dont build 1 column then start on ventrilation then plants and going back to columns... as for the materials, I like doing most of then at once to be able to keep it consistent easily.