[UE4] The Dredgeon - Steampunk Environment

alytlebird

Hi all!

This past semester, I worked on a large-scale environment project I dubbed "the Dredgeon". It's based off a Steampunk short story I wrote years back, focusing on this big wayfinding and refinery station floating above an ocean. In essence, this station has a giant pipe connected to deep-sea ocean vents, which rises hundreds of feet above sea level to the refinery, where it is turned into a fuel source for passing airship, and the remaining gas is heated and used to power the balloons keeping the station afloat.

I'd love any feedback or critique you may have for this project. I'm moving towards my Capstone next semester so I'm looking for as many tips as I can get!

Artstation link: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Bmn14z

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsGK5sW4MG8





I have a more in-depth breakdown on my Artstation post: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Bmn14z

Zack Fowler

Hi there! This is a cool design for an environment, and you executed well on a lot of nice details!

But I think something that's holding it back a bit right now is the lack of ambient sky lighting. Between that and the relative lack of surfaces for direct sunlight to bounce off of, the outdoor shots have very dark shadows that almost look like bounced lighting is disabled. But the greenhouse area has plenty of light bouncing going on, so I'm guessing this is just a lack of ambient sky lighting. Try punching ambient lighting from the sky way up and making it more blue or purple-ish.

One smaller detail: in the wide-shot image, the sunlight seems to be coming from the camera's right judging by the way the surfaces are lit, but the highlight on the surface of the ocean indicates that the sun is actually directly ahead. Feels a bit odd.

TheGabmeister

I really like the concept and the setting. As previously mentioned, I think more work on the lighting will improve this scene. Moreover, this scene is on the same height as the clouds. Maybe you can play around with volumetric clouds or increase the density of the fog to really deliver the feeling that the user is up in the sky. Check out this Reddit link where someone made painterly clouds using Truesky: