Japanese hot spring scene [Unreal Engine]

athelwulf

Hi guys, this is my first post on Polycount (and I am a little scared).
I adore the community and the work thats being shown here, and I hope to become an active member myself.

In this thread I am sharing my most recent 3D environment;
A Japanese inspired, game ready environment. 
This one has been on the backburner for a long while, started ages back, but actively I think I have spent just under a month on it. 
When making the scene I tried to keep everything effective and not be a perfectionist on every asset, simply to speed up the process.
I also wanted to try and tell a story through mysterious environmental effects. Did I make it intriguing at all?

Feedback and critique is heartily welcome, so I can improve on future projects. 

Artstation link here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3oqLbY
Video showcase https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9hkIctF09Y

athelwulf

WIP and other gifs can be found on my Twitter: https://twitter.com/Stompedgoomba

athelwulf

A preview of the assets included in the scene

athelwulf

Overview of the main materials used and included in my pack.

athelwulf

Do GIFs play here? This is to show the updated water effect after receiving feedback.

https://twitter.com/Stompedgoomba/status/1066306450618810368

Ashervisalis

Hey Rob, looks cool. Here's some crit;

- It's raining but there aren't any ripples in the water. Would be a nice touch.
- You should work on your colour theory. There are scenes where the colours are clashing. Also, composition. Both those elements are a little weak in your work.
- In your video, the camera is panning far too fast.

athelwulf

Ashervisalis said:

Hey Rob, looks cool. Here's some crit;

- It's raining but there aren't any ripples in the water. Would be a nice touch.
- You should work on your colour theory. There are scenes where the colours are clashing. Also, composition. Both those elements are a little weak in your work.
- In your video, the camera is panning far too fast.

Hey, thanks!

Definitely things I should look more into. I did put ripples in the water, but they arent visible enough then (I am brand new to particles, but I will get there!)
I thought the camera speed was alright, and afraid of slowing down in case people would loose interest and exit before the end. 

Cheers.

KristinMays

You can add a panning normal map to your water so it appears as if it is flowing! Even still waters move a bit! Also it isn't taking any reflection so it doesn't quite read as water. I would consider making the water quite dark and more translucent (Think about what would be at the bottom of the water, would it be concrete? soil? rocks?)  For your scene I'd really push the lighting atmosphere! A good combination of colors is blue + orange, so having a mostly blue and dark scene with gentle orange lights really can pop. Here is an example:
Think about what your light source is, is it the moon or the sun? It looks like you're going for a night scene so I would use some post processing to take out some of the harsh contrast some of your models have and to make your scene look a lot cooler (temperature wise). 

Your models are fantastic! Just know lighting makes a whole WORLD of difference :-) 

athelwulf

KristinMays said:

You can add a panning normal map to your water so it appears as if it is flowing! Even still waters move a bit! Also it isn't taking any reflection so it doesn't quite read as water. I would consider making the water quite dark and more translucent (Think about what would be at the bottom of the water, would it be concrete? soil? rocks?)  For your scene I'd really push the lighting atmosphere! A good combination of colors is blue + orange, so having a mostly blue and dark scene with gentle orange lights really can pop. Here is an example:
Think about what your light source is, is it the moon or the sun? It looks like you're going for a night scene so I would use some post processing to take out some of the harsh contrast some of your models have and to make your scene look a lot cooler (temperature wise). 

Your models are fantastic! Just know lighting makes a whole WORLD of difference :-) 

Wonderful feedback, thank you very much! 

Also pointing out those water features make me feel stupid, but I guess its a good example of going blind about ones own project.

Thank you, again.

athelwulf

Here is a gif with updated progress on colours and water. The ripples need to calm down and fade out more, but I cant seem to get my head around the "colour over life" module. (The gif also plays things quicker than usual)
There is definitely more life there now though, thank you, Kristin!

athelwulf

After more tweaking and lots of quality control, the scene was finally approved by the Unreal Marketplace. Here is the link to it: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/onsen-environment