[UE4] Stylized Cave Altar Environment

Recker

Hello, this is an environment I have worked on over the past few months on and off. It was inspired by the Darksiders series and the environments in those games. With this I had tried to push myself in creating something stylized. I am happy with the results, however I am aware of the flaws within the piece. I created the environment using Unreal Engine 4, ZBrush, 3DS Max, and Substance Painter, and all up I would say it is about two weeks worth of work. 

I have learned a lot  when creating the environment, such as:

• Learning how to create a tiling mesh in ZBrush.
• Getting a better understanding on how to better optimize, by using the inbuilt systems in Unreal Engine 4.
• Figuring out how much detail from the high gets lost in texture baking and as a result, scoping the time spent in ZBrush detailing.
• Sometimes a small change in environment placement can really change how the environment feels (raising the central platform).
• Creating blueprints for certain assets saves time in placements later on (the chain is spline based).

Overall I really enjoyed creating it, and I know that there are several areas for improvement but it had to be called done. My favorite asset is the stone face plate, and my least is the decal. Here is a simple fly-through of the environment.

I am keen to get started on the next environment, and hopefully I can create it a bit more efficiently and use what I learned in this environment further.

I will reply to this with the progression pictures.

Recker

Here is the progression of the environment, from initial block-out.