So I posted the other day asking for a portfolio critique the other day and it seems the consensus was that I needed to push the realism in my work, so that's what I really want to do with this piece. Something that wouldn't look out of place in a current gen game. I'm also not the best at getting critique for my work, so I'm going to try and keep on top of posting in this thread.
So I just finished playing Until Dawn and I got major artist envy, so many parts of that game were stunning! So I was inspired by the mines from that game and wanted to make something like it, but I have references from all sorts of mines in real life and other games.
Anyway, let's jump in!
This is just a quick block out for the scene just to get an idea of layout and composition.





And I started on a Substance Material today, this rock wall should be the basis for the mine walls. I'll be building boulders and other materials too.

Replies
This is where I'm at now:
Lighting is very WIP, it's just a few dynamic lights scattered all over. I didn't want to waste too much time baking lights. The track is also very WIP, I spent all day yesterday trying to figure out splines in UE4, so that's just the blockout mesh with a basic material. And that back room hasn't really been touched at all.
These are the rocks I started off with, but they didn't feel very miney. I changed the colour and decided to move away from that substance, although it still uses the same base which is tiling in world space. It also has a unique normal and an edge wear/dust mask to make it look good.
So I broke them up a bit, hopefully, now the walls look like they've been broken away. I still need to break up the third one, I liked the depth it gave. It's basically those two rocks making up all the shapes. But I want to make a base cave piece with less tris to surround the mine and then use these to add shape and detail.
The wood in the scene is all made with these few base pieces. Right now it's one texture, but I want to use a tiling wood material as a base with the sculpted normal and an edge wear mask so each piece of wood is slightly different. I'd also like to make a painted variant for the shack thing. Hopefully, I can use this for all the wood in the scene and hopefully it won't look repetitive.
Hopefully, all these repeating pieces won't make the scene look boring. I've already noticed it looks very brown. But once I get some of the detail props in, like barrels and signs, they'll add some colour. And if all goes well my next post will come a lot sooner! Hopefully!