[UE4] Desert Crash Environment

PBrain

I've been really enamored lately by the few images Campo Santo released for In the Valley of the Gods, so I wanted to take a crack at the atmosphere and lighting for my own. Still working on some more handpainted textures but here's what I got so far. Cheers!







 

MarcoAntonio

Oh my...!! Great job!! I love it.

PBrain

Thank you @MarcoAntonio !

chriszuko

@PBrain I think overall, there is a ton of good things going on with this piece. I don't usually post this much feedback but i feel like you can really use it to take it to the next level.

A super super nitpicky thing that I saw was the secondary landscape texture you have going on the edge of your water. I think for the most part (Unless there are rocks or anything of that sort) The smoothest part of sand will be right at the water due to the fact that the water is always rushing in and smoothing it out. What you have is opposite.

The next thing is. If you have some screenshots specifically that you are working off of, that would be awesome to see. I found this one

If you look at this image, I think its good to pay attention to a few things. The overall cleanliness of the textures. Hand painted is extremely tough and what you have so far is very mixed. The clouds almost look like a photoshop filter (Not sure if you painted those)  and some super awesome stuff like sand effects along the peaks of the mountains. This stuff adds a ton of life to the scene. You have moving water and a moving cloth on the plane with a few ground FX, but i think it could still be taken another step further. 

Lastly, the sand up against the rocks. It has a lighter hue to it and has a nice erosion pattern so you can follow the curvature of the landscape. This is something that I think really looks awesome and helps solidify the style and overall look and feel.

That all being said, the big picture fits together really nicely and the lighting and composition is fantastic! Excited to see how this progresses!

PBrain

@chriszuko  Thanks for the great feedback! I definitely see what you're saying about all these small details, I think these are some awesome suggestions! I'm looking forward to doing a detail pass for this piece.

I think you're right about cleaning up the handpainted textures, that'll really sharpen this when I finish that. Still trying to improve my hand painted technique, do you have any good resources? 

Thanks again for the kind words!!

chriszuko

This tutorial here might be useful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNa49OY0o9E

And here is another one. Maybe you can translate what they are doing with the stone to the sand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeL2djas2gM

Good luck!

Forest_Cat

Very cool! 

PBrain

chriszuko said:

This tutorial here might be useful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNa49OY0o9E

Hey thanks for the reference! Lol I actually went to school with this guy, he's great! shout out to @Kairosmith

chriszuko

HAHA! Awesome!

Doxturtle

Nice work on this so far, the lighting on that sand looks really good. My one crit would be that the rust on the front of the plane feels a bit blurry, it might look better to have more defined patches of rust with harder edges

Ashervisalis

I think you could add more polys to your meshes for sure. Things which are cylindrical, where you see the end, tend to need a decent amount of polygons, unless its for mobile or something. Your work looks great otherwise

PBrain

@Doxturtle Thanks! And yeah I think you're right about the metal textures, definitely gonna rework it.

@Ashervisalis Thank you! Haha I always tend to go on the light side when modeling, I'll up the fidelity.

PBrain

@chriszuko  Thanks for the great feedback! I definitely see what you're saying about all these small details, I think these are some awesome suggestions! I'm looking forward to doing a detail pass for this piece.

I think you're right about cleaning up the handpainted textures, that'll really sharpen this when I finish that. Still trying to improve my hand painted technique, do you have any good resources? 

Thanks again for the kind words!!

PBrain

@chriszuko  Thanks for the great feedback! I definitely see what you're saying about all these small details, I think these are some awesome suggestions! I'm looking forward to doing a detail pass for this piece.

I think you're right about cleaning up the handpainted textures, that'll really sharpen this when I finish that. Still trying to improve my hand painted technique, do you have any good resources? 

Thanks again for the kind words!!