[UE4] (Yet another) Stylized, modular dungeon

eekhammer

Hey guys!

First time poster here. We currently have a class in environment art, and the assignment is to make a modular environment together with 3 other people in the class. So we each have different locations, but the scenes should work together, style and building/modular wise.

So we decided to have Overwatch as our main game influence, when it comes to the style and aesthetics. So I guess my scene will (hopefully) land somewhere between Overwatch and Diablo III (since it's a dungeon). Another thing we put in the style guide is that we all will have some kind of occult bird theme to our scenes, and we chose to have the raven as our go-to bird. So my hero piece will have something to do with a raven.

What I hope to have learned in a few weeks:
- Get a better workflow for modular environments (duh)
- Optimization
- LODS
- Make tiling textures that are not repetitive and boring
- Overall UE4 stuff, but will focus on mostly lighting and materials(vertex painting/masking)

The first week was spent on deciding what kind of environments we wanted to make, and also make a comprehensive style guide for the group when everything was decided. We also made personal reference images/breakdowns for the modular pieces, textures and props. Here is my reference image:



Week 2 was spent on blockout/speedmodels. Here are my pieces for the scene.



This week we have been making some high polys, textures and just working on making the environments awesome. I worked alot on making the textures for the floor and walls, sculpting and learning how to make tileable textures in Zbrush.  Here are some progress shots:



Would love feedback on ALL aspects of environment art. Cheers!

Larry

You might want to spend a bit more polygons for the cylindrical objects for LOD 0.They are looking blocky. Overall I cannot comment anything on the project yet as it is something you make and there is not anything referencing from.

Place the camera at eye level, about 1.8meters. Thats how we get a better understanding of scale.

In general though I cannot see your scene clearly to get an understanding of it
For early stages better light up your scene really good to see everythibg clearly and spot any mistakes, and when you finish it make the mood you want with the lighting.

eekhammer

@Larry Good points, thank you. Will definitely add more polys to the cylinders. And also light it up a bit more. Not really sure about the final composition either, should probably give that a bit more thought to get a better workflow.

I've been making three different textures for the floor. Standard / Very broken / Wet. I blend between these with vertex painting. Not really happy with the wet one, i have basically just lowered the roughness to almost 0. I would like to have it look like the water is filling up the crevices between the bricks.


Zbrush sculpt of the broken one:






A bit more lit up:

eekhammer

Got a chance to do some work today after the holiday break. Worked on some props, sculpting and texturing. Texturing is basically adding a smart material I made i Painter, so not much work in there. Will probably go back and polish the textures in SP at a later stage!

Really struggling on how to make a nice scene, probably should have spent a bit more time making a better blockout. The main problem for me is the walls, they just seem so boring. I reworked the texture a bit, but still very boring. Maybe I should add some trims and pillars to make the walls more interesting!

Some pictures of the props and scene:

Larry

For the wet look you can just use a plane (sculpted or not) to intersect with the sculpt to create a wet feeling but just fiy, you can do that in substance designer pretty easily if you create a material there

One thing I 've come to realise is that lighting plays 50% of the composition in a scene. You can watch lighting academy for some videos on that, he is propably the best guy I found

eekhammer

Had some weird issues with the last post, so will try to post it again here.

Got a chance to do some work today after the holiday break. Worked on some props, sculpting and texturing. Texturing is basically adding a smart material I made i Painter, so not much work in there. Will probably go back and polish the textures in SP at a later stage!

Really struggling on how to make a nice scene, probably should have spent a bit more time making a better blockout. The main problem for me is the walls, they just seem so boring. I reworked the texture a bit, but still very boring. Maybe I should add some trims and pillars to make the walls more interesting!

Some pictures of the props and scene:

jwsargent_me

Looking good!

eekhammer

@jwsargent_me Thank you!

Threw a few more textures on today and redesigned the scene a bit. I think it became better, but can still be improved. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make a cooler scene, that would be truly welcomed.

I added some geometry to the walls, I think it became much better. Every brick is now popping out. I still think I need some trims to make them look more interesting though.

Some pictures:







The wood textures are just a Unreal standard wood texture, I will sculpt and texture the beams soon. Still not sure if I should have the roof exactly above the beams or if it would be cooler to have some space between the roof and the beams.

Cheers!

eekhammer

Got back to school today, so now it's full time work on this environment for two weeks. Tried to do some wood scuplting and texturing today, and also played around a bit with the lighting. Starting to like the look of the stone textures now!

Pictures of the current state:

eekhammer

Todays main focus was to sculpt and texture the wooden door. I didnt spend too much time on the texturing because I wanted to get it into the engine quick to see how it looks. I will add a bit more color variation to the wood, right now it's just one color.

wirrexx

a lot of the meshes reminds me of Tobias Koepps stuff. Are you following his tutorial and adding your twist to it? 

eekhammer

wirrexx said:

a lot of the meshes reminds me of Tobias Koepps stuff. Are you following his tutorial and adding your twist to it? 

Yeah, they probably do Nope, not following his tutorial, but I think he's one of the best out there for stylized stuff, so he's definately an inspiration!

eekhammer

Starting to reach the end of this project, and I'm now focusing on lighting, which I find really hard. All natural light sources I have are basically the torches on the walls, and that would make the scene really dark. So I've put a few point lights in certain places, and a few spot lights in the ceiling, all with a bit of a blue tint to them to contrast to the orange light coming from the fires.

If anyone has any suggestions on the lighting of this scene, that would be helpful. The focal point will be on the altar where the hero piece will be placed. I also have an idea of opening up the roof right above the hero piece to let some natural light (and ofc godrays) come in.

Cheers!

eekhammer

Some lighting tweaks. Getting better and better! The monitor in school is really bright, so I'm using my phone as a second reference.

The hero piece is now also in place

eekhammer

Todays lighting tweaks! Got a bit more focus to the center piece I think, and also a bit less saturated in the orange parts (maybe still too much though?).

I also got some shadows coming from the torches now too, but still wanna get some nicer shadows dancing on the walls and pillars.

eekhammer

I'm calling this piece done now! I really learned a lot and I can't wait to start the next project. 

More pictures can be found on my ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/qGYeR

wirrexx

new lighting is so much better! keep it going! 

eekhammer

@wirrexx Thank you! I'm calling it done for now though, but might pick it up in a few months if I feel that I've learned some new tricks I can add to it.