Ancient Relic Environment (UE4) Crit Wanted

Nano Pixel

Hi everyone, I have been working on my first environment that's set in a wide open space. My usual environments tend to be closed in in design so as to allow me to finish an environment in a shorter time, so have decided to take the leap into building a scene with a large background in shot.

Here is where I am up to at the moment. I have a lot left to do from modelling and material creation, to lighting adjustments.

The sphere in the middle is what i am currently working on and the materials used on it now are what is available in substance painter.

The rocks and standing stones are using the final materials but are uniquely uv mapped, to add more detail to the models I am making a master material that utilises tilling textures and detail maps, and instancing from that, with the textures all parameterised so i can swap them out for each model.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.


Thanks

Nano Pixel

Just a quick update on yesterdays work. 

I have been playing around with materials in Substance Designer, and applying them with masks in Painter. Here are some renders of the materials, and of the main sphere.

Any feedback is welcome.

Nano Pixel

I have been trying to get the lighting to look like a misty morning, but i dont seem to be able to get there at the moment, without losing a lot of the details in the background. I have also tried adding in orange and yellow tones, as seen in previous shots and that does seem to help a bit, but the fog seems to imply what i want more, but it does loose a lot of detail, and really flattens out the background.

Does anyone know the best way to approach this lighting condition?

Also its my first attempt at building a distant background for a scene, what would be the best way to show there is grass towards the mid area of my scene, as well as show more variety with larger details such as erosion, with the landscape materials?

Apocrs1980

If you want controlled foggy areas I would suggest making fog cards with a depthfade node added to the material. It worked out well for me, that way you don't have the background loosing detail from UE4's fog system.

With the erosion it would be a material in your landscape layer lend and just painted where you want it.

FreneticPonies

I'd suggest an alternative to @Apocrs1980, and that's the newer volumetric fog controls: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Engine/Rendering/LightingAndShadows/VolumetricFog
No alpha blending worries and full lighting interaction, depending on your lighting setup.

Nano Pixel

Thank you for your reply's.

Apocrs1980, i think this way might work better as I now have a better lighting setup in my scene and adding fog any other way just flattens it all too much. I will look into making some fog cards as I need to have more control.


FreneticPonies, In the scene here I am using Volumetric Lighting and fog, and I cant seem to get the desired result with it. Maybe im setting something up wrong. What sort of lighting setup would/do you use?

FreneticPonies

Place particle systems with Volume where you need them, instead of just using the global controls. You can get custom placed patches of fog where you need them without making the background too foggy and blurred. Use a texture for noise on these to break them up a bit.

ZacD

Definitely want to control the fog so it sits in valleys. There's at least 2 youtube videos on the Unreal Engine channel about using the volumetric fog. 

Nano Pixel

FreneticPonies, im currently looking into particle effects now to add some fire, and will be adding fog afterwards to see what extra it adds.

ZacD, i'll have a look and see what I can get done with Volumetric Fog, I have seen some nice results with it, but i cant seem to get the desired results so far. Having the light rays that can come in through volumetric lighting would be a nice touch.



Heres where im up to at the moment, still got some other assets to add, mostly for storytelling purposes now.

Ashervisalis

Looking good! The trees at the very top of the mountain in the background look a bit funny. It might look good if they were in clumps. I also think you've gone a bit far with the post processing. The image looks a little too redish pink and slightly faded, whereas I think it looked slightly better with a more natural green to it.

Nano Pixel

Sorry for the late reply, and thanks for the feedback.

The background overall has been a challenge for me, as I have never approached anything like this before, I have always kept my scenes a bit more contained.

I have tried to alter the background slightly by adding some rock variation, and altering the trees a bit. I need to look into backgrounds more and try to find a better way to add details that don't effect the performance too much.

The colour is something I have been playing around with too, and have made the shadows cooler, which I think helps lead the eye more, and gives the scene some separation.

Here is the final piece, I have added everything that I aimed for, and a bit more and have learned so much from this. I hope keep learning more in future projects.

Thanks again.

Nano Pixel

Also heres a link to my artstation with a few extra screenshots, and some basic breakdowns.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ygKNJ

Cody

Hey Nano!  Liking this piece,  I see now you said you were done, but I prepared some critiques for you.  So here ya go.

-First standing out to me as a whole is a small lack of contrast and the overall post process is a bit too monochromatic.  
-Also I think it's a cool hero asset, so show it off!  Bring it a bit closer! 
-Your foreground flora and fauna looks real good.
-The background needs a bit more depth and fullness.  It feels caged in [can't see that far]  and trees are a bit sparse.

Did a paintover for you below, hope this helps a bit.  You could def take this scene to a whole new level, you got all the assets looking really good.  Or good luck on the next scene and keeping kicking butt!  

-Cody

Nano Pixel

Hi, thanks for the feedback.

I'll have a play around with the lighting again and see if it it improves the overall image. As for the background, its my first attempt at producing a more distant background, as normally my scenes are closed in. I will definitely take everything into account for the next big scene I do, and thanks for the paintover, its very useful.