[WIP][UE4] WW1 Trenches!

M.Petersen · May 2019

Hi everyone! My name is Martijn Petersen, I'm an environment art student at the BUAS (formerly known as NHTV) and wanted to share a personal project based on the british trenches during first world war that I am working on right now.

I have been working on it for quite a while now and its reaching towards finishing stage. It still needs some work and im struggling on a few points but it's comming along quite well so far.

Everything is made from scratch!

Feedback is much appreciated!

flyrthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPDji-ZF-Jg&feature=youtu.be

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/2t/ck807ftcnya2.png

Rurouni Strife · May 2019

First things first, I love what you have. The placement of assets and choice of said assets (be they self made, store bought, or some mix) is solid.

I think your atmosphere is also quite good. I wonder if you can add some volumetric fog or some localized volumes just for some additional effect once all is said and done.

Now, what your scene is missing is a break up of all of the colors and a degree of additional griminess, and this is most noticeable on the assets that intersect the muddy ground. I would utilize a few decals that project the mud material (or some version of it) on to your assets. use it liberally at ground and asset intersection points.

You can then take the same technique and use a mix of faint color textures to add a degree of variation to the scene too with some slight hue changes. I stress slight-it's a WWI trench, it's going to be really brown.

Check the scaling on the rifle. It looks huge compared to a two man machine gun. Speaking of guns, the mats are far too clean. If you can't dirty them up in a DCC program, see if you can find an interesting solution via the material editor.

I'd remove the hexagonal mesh from anything that is close to the camera. It doesn't hold up well. It works great from far away.

A nitpick is the footstep puddles. They look far too uniform and not quite foot like? It's a small detail I noticed as I kept scrolling looking at things to critique.

Again, really excellent scene! Just needs that final layer of polish

M.Petersen · May 2019

Thanks a lot! really appreciate it!
Assets are all self made.

You mean with for instance the lamps? Im currently only adding extra fog/thickness with some particles dust/smoke effects, but dont have any local fog or anything no, could be a nice addition!

I have some decals for dirt and blood stains, and also use vertex painting with a dirt materialm and using dithering to make things intersect. however indeed the rifle is very clean still, it was actually a seperate portfolio piece I made earlier so the textures are a lot cleaner. but good point that it sticks out so much!

Scaled the rifle down and looks a lot better right away.. I was bothered by it but couldnt get what it was so thanks for that haha!

Yeah, I just added some holes in the mud/dirt texture to add some water pools.. not necessarily footprints but that could be a nice detail to add!

Thanks a lot for the feedback! Working on some points right away!

M.Petersen · May 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPDji-ZF-Jg&feature=youtu.be updated flythrough shot with sequencer, just some tests. tried some slow zooming shots, as well as a camera just going through the scene in the end, seeing what works best for this..

-Scaled down the rifles
-did some work on the dirt
-changed some lighting and fod
-added a slight blue'ish tint
-made some tests with hanging roots through the bridge
-added bullet shells scattered in the mud in the area around the machine gun.
-Made new dead trees
-Removed the army of the teddybears.. only added one in the bed for now (had a lot of them spread around because I was working on the models)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/m4/dpfu5eayvynu.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/wb/fdf7gf8ca09c.png

thought this shot looked cool as well: (really want to put the tank more in focus since I put so much details into it..

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/qj/a1q5nuels7xf.png

Macebo · May 2019

Holy sh*t, how did i miss this? A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

Loved the heavy atmosphere, gives a great sense of the horrors of war.

The shot with the oil lamp on the side is pretty cool in terms of interest and composition. You could add more things like some photos, dog tags, etc to that area so you can ramp up the sentimental weight of your scene, showing everything that those soldiers lost or left behind. The teddy bear is a nice addition in that direction since it helps to create this contrast between death/horror and compassion/other good feelings.

M.Petersen · Jun 2019

Macebo said:

Holy sh*t, how did i miss this? A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

Loved the heavy atmosphere, gives a great sense of the horrors of war.

The shot with the oil lamp on the side is pretty cool in terms of interest and composition. You could add more things like some photos, dog tags, etc to that area so you can ramp up the sentimental weight of your scene, showing everything that those soldiers lost or left behind. The teddy bear is a nice addition in that direction since it helps to create this contrast between death/horror and compassion/other good feelings.

Thanks! really appreciate it! good stuff indeed. I already added some stuff, and actually had a dogtag hanging on the sniper rifle.. but it was a bit out of place it looked like. however I just finished it