[WIP] [UE4] - Scars 3D Game Environment

JonJo

Hey Polycount, this is a UE4 scene I've been working on for a about a month and a half now, and I could really use some feedback. The scene is based on Pablo Carpio's concept, Scars, which I'll link below. I've been playing with altering the scene a little bit and adding some story telling of my own. I've been trying to show a large attack on this ethereal plaza, by adding a lot of damage, debris and marks left by giant and small weaponry. I've used quite a few greek influences for putting the scene together. I want to further the story telling influences, and add more visually interesting areas, specifically for the fountain and pool areas.

Some places I feel are quite lacking right now include; the pool areas (3), the empty space (2), and the whole fountain area with the spear (5). I could really use some feedback on any of screenshots. 

 The scene is intended as a game environment portfolio piece, so please, don't hold back!

Thanks in advance! 

JonJo

Over the past few days, I've been working on Foliage and PFX, trying to add some extra visual detail and colour. I feel like the addition of the orange wall foliage is really helping to add to the harmonious colours. I've placed a few leaf decals for the trees and shrubbery around to show fallen leaves, as well as adding some extra marble debris around the broken statue. I've also rotated the statues head to be facing the camera in the second screenshot to add some interesting details. I still feel he's getting a little lost in the rubble so maybe i'll dig some out

Any feedback or pointers would be great! Cheers!

JonJo

I've been working on a couple of things I've noticed sine my last post. The sense of scale seems off with some of the larger pillar assets, which is kind of making the larger floating pillars seem smaller comparatively. So I made them a lot smaller, so that the arch would have more emphasis.

I also felt these pool areas were really lacking in decoration or detail, so I've been experimenting with some Gazebo style structures attached to either side of the area to add some more visually interesting architecture. I also have some plans to move / add some different mountains to compliment these as vista points. I've just used blockout pieces to try achieve the look with minimal time investment so they still look a bit out of place, but it would be cool too see what you think. I've also experimented with a cylindrical shape, and an 8 sided shape just to see which feels better, but I'm leaning more to the cylindrical. 

I've also made an effort to play with some roughness values to get a better light bounce off my metallic objects (specifically the rings in the center) as they were rather darn in all other images. Next steps are to work on adding some more visually interesting geo to the fountain area and work on more human scale assets to provide a better sense of scale to the scene. 

Lemme know what you think! Cheers

Gaafah

Nice scene ! If I can add something, be careful, you're AO is way too boosted I think ^^ Especially around the statue Good luck keep the good work !

serriffe

oh nice- this is different, different good- keep going! 

JonJo

Thanks @Gaafah! I'll tweak my post process values on the cameras where it's not working so well, cheers!
Cheers @serriffe I appreciate it!

Lou_

Perhaps experiment with a lack of gravity in the scene with smashed stone work floating around it might help to unionise the other floating pieces with the main piece. 

JonJo

Hey Lou, i'll see if it's feasible to add it to any of the other geometry around the scene, cheers

For the past two days I've been working on a couple of different things. I've received a lot of great crit from peers and lecturers so I've been working on putting them into my scene. Some of the crit I've been working on this week is trying to break up the straightness of the rows of pillars and wall foliage, which I thought would be a fitting place to place a huge hole in. I'll hopefully continue this hole through the geometry in it's path. 

The next bit of feedback was working on adding some bits of cloth to some of the benches. I pushed myself to re-visit marvelous and see how quickly I could get something out. It took me about 35 mins to get quite a nice cloth at around 800 tris, which I thought was a solid result. I plan on keeping all cloth pieces square so I can just switch out the normal map per cloth piece. 

Finally, I continued work on the gazebos, and have been putting in some stair pieces and walls to support. However, I feel these look way too chunky. In my opinion, they're really over-powering the gazebos, making them feel smaller in comparison. 

Any feedback on my progress would be super useful, cheers!

JonJo

Hey people, I've been spending some time on post process and Substance Designer over the past few days. I've been trying to remove the purple hue that's plagued my screenshots, and make the lighting resemble that of the concept a little closer. It's not perfect (it's wayyyy too saturated), but it's progress. I've been making this ornamental tile for the roof of the gazebo, and it's been a lot of fun. Never attempted anything ornamental in Substance Designer, and with the help of some JRO alphas it's been quick and really fun to set this up. Looking forwards to trying more Designer on ornamental pieces in the future. 

As always, lemme know what you think!

Lou_

Composition is looks really nice, colors and lighting is working very nicely in tandom! The leading lines moving towards the head are sweet but it is still kinda hard to workout the face in the rubble. Have you played with the scale of that head from this camera angle to see if it is worth the exaggeration. Also a change of hue to match one of your existing colors in the scene might help it pop out, if that is what you are going for. 

JonJo

Cheers lou, solid feedback as usual I've tried to emphasise the face a little more, and upped the FOV to 70 on the main screenshot. I think if I enlarge it any more than that it might look a bit too unnatural. 

Over the past few days I've been working on adding some more areas of interest around the pool and back areas. I've added some more floating pillars around the back and some fallen debris into the large pools to further emphasise the conflict. I've also been messing with my post effects and fog to get a more interesting look. I think I need to play with some of the background mountains to make them sit in the backdrop a little better, but that's for a little later. I've been playing with adding some smaller props to add a little bit of detail, but they're mostly untextured for now. 

Lemme know what you think! 

JonJo

Hey Polycount, getting closer to finishing the project. I've had some big set backs over the past few days in the form of my project corrupting and my losing my scene! Thank god Unreal does such a good job with back ups else I'd be pretty screwed. So far, I've been refining my main shots, and playing with lighting in in my other camera angles. I've also been playing with the background mountains, adding a "fog" overlay in the material to add some fake depth. 

I've made an imgur post as to not spam here. I've also done a couple of screenshots with different lighting conditions, let me know which one of each you like more!

Any feedback at this stage would be super valuable! Cheers guys

https://imgur.com/a/m7p3TdW


ScreenshotA  - 1 / 2

ScreenshotB - 1 / 2

ScreenshotC- 1 / 2

JonJo

Hey Polycount, getting really close to finishing! I've been working on 6 screenshots, cutting out the ones I didn't get much of a reception to. I've been focusing a lot of my efforts on comments from my friends and lecturers at Uni, and have produced these. My good friend Lou has provided me with a little silhouette man to place around the scene which I feel adds a lot of life and story to the scene which was not previously present. Cheers again for that Lou!

The third screenshot (the one with the giant spear) has been recieveing the most love this week. One of the big comments made was that the angle was cool, but the spear just looked to generic and needed to really stand out for something of that scale. My friend, Dom, did a quick moodboard of his idea and I quickly roughed out this spear. It's still rather rough and needs refining and crit! Hopefully I should be able to get this finished within the next week!

Any feedback at this final push would be amazing, cheers!

JonJo

Hey Polycount, Just wrapped this project up and I've posted it to artstation. There's a break down on there too for anyone who might be interested. Overall the project took about 2 months, and I'm pretty happy with the result. Cheers for the support throughout this one! Let me know what you think  

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/58XNk1

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/W2KZgX