Kinmel Hall UE4 Environment Study

JamesRay

Hi!
In this thread I hope to share my WIP and gather critique, feedback and ask for help as I discover the Modular Design Workflow.
This project is my topic choice for the "Modular Environment" course on CGMA which I can only recommend if you are looking for a great platform to learn from. 

My topic is Kinmel Hall.

Kinmel Hall was built 1871-1876 

The house was commissioned by the Hughes family who remained in the home until 1929. 

The house was converted for use as a health center to treat people with rheumatism and then used as a hospital during World War II.

After the war the house became Clarendon Girls School and suffered a large fire in 1975. 

Today it lays derelict.

I found this history pretty diverse for one building and so I wanted to capture the house being used as a makeshift hospital in WW2. 

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/jamesray

JamesRay

WIP_01

Near the start of the course we started doing some planning and started Identifying some of the modular pieces and trim sheets that could be found from our reference.
  

I have since merged the pieces of the stairs into 3 pieces and I decided to no include some areas found in the reference, This was just for time management purposes. I wanted to make sure this project was achievable in the amount of time I have to complete it.

Here is some Trimsheet analysis.

JamesRay

WIP_02

Started blocking some pieces and bringing them into UE4. 

7bajwa

That is some nice planning and breakdown. Thank you for sharing!! I will look forward to the update

Dreyzie

Very solid blockout. I love the modular/trim sheet breakdown.

jakemoyo

Dang dude that is some clean work you got there, cant wait to see the finished piece

JamesRay

Thanks guys! I'm excited to share my progress! @7bajwa @Dreyzie @jakemoyo

JamesRay

WIP_03

I originally started making my wood panel trims in substance designer but I found that it looked a bit flat in engine and so I thought it would be a good chance to try making the trims as models first then backing it to texture, So I began creating those and I found that the result was a lot more natural. I did add some more geo to the wood panels as well to push their silhouette.  Also made a wheelchair!






I worked on a plaster material and also made a tillable ceiling texture.

Auldbenkenobi

Loving those trimsheets and tiling textures. Keep it up!

Dreyzie

Baking trims with actual geo seems to produce a better result. Plus it's more fun in my opinion. 

The ceiling looks awesome. I'm curious how you made the molding and accents. Did you use alphas or did you model them yourself before baking?

JamesRay

Hey @Dreyzie, Thanks, for the ornate pieces I used and tweaked some alphas from the JRO Ornate alpha pack and some from Textures.com as well. I would usually like to make my own because it can be pretty fun to do but considering how much time it would take and how I would struggle to hit that quality bar, I decided to go with the alphas. I am working on the scene after hours so it seemed like the best move. For the ceiling tillable I used Substance Designer to draft it up.

JJKA0322

Nice breakdown @JamesRay cant wait to see it al finished with the lighting looking forward to the next submission classmate!

Ozz14

Awesome work with the trim sheets! This course looks really useful. I'm more comfortable with organic stuff so these indoor scenes really impress me

JamesRay

@JJKA0322 Likewise dude! always good to branch out for feedback. Actually feeling sad knowing the course will eventually end XD. @Ozz14 Thanks! looks like you got some really cool substance stuff going! Excited to share more soon!

JamesRay

WIP_04

Started texturing the paneling and some floor materials. 






Spent time leaning the high poly baking workflow for props. I tested on these crutches which came out really well. 

JamesRay

WIP_05

(^Current WIP^)

Reworked the wooden floor material and started working with a vertex painting setup to paint between dirty/clean floors. I modeled a whole bunch of medium sized props.

I started creating a separate scene to help debug/test stuff. I took another asset though the high/low workflow and textured it.

Used some pieces to make some exterior to look at though the windows.

Mirbobo

I think you could still push the wooden materials further. To me they still seem more like a brown mass than wood, even in your reference picture you have a lot more contrast and color variation going on. I also feel your smoothness variations could be stronger, but this might just be from the current lighting. See how in the image below you can clearly see the wood rings and fibers as the surface is rougher.

JamesRay

@Mirbobo Hey! Thanks for pointing that out. The albedo and roughness of the wooden materials is something I have been battling. If you compare my last WIP to this one I feel like I made progress but I do agree that It still feels a bit unloved. I was thinking I should wait until I get some lighting in before I get too carried away and then end up changing it later again. Definitely a good reference of what I should aim for. Thanks for sharing! Appreciate it.

JamesRay

WIP_06

(^Current WIP^)

Really sad to say that my course is over, Its been awesome to have that sense of discovery as I learned a whole bunch of new stuff. I would absolutely recommend checking out the CGMA course for Modular Environments given by Clinton Crumpler. Clinton was an amazing teacher and made sure we had all the resources we needed, I hardly found myself stuck on some concepts and if I ever was there was always some shared resources, links, tutorials and other online material that was there to help. It was an absolute pleasure taking the course and I cant wait to spend more time in this environment and finishing it up!

LIGHTING


During the last week of the assignment we focused on post production settings and finishing up with some lighting stuff. I spent a lot more time lighting the scene though I am not totally 100 percent that this current lighting is going to support the narrative for the scene. I added Lots of volumeterics to the scene  and spent some time playing with bake settings in UE4, I still have plenty of light map issues that I will slowly sort out.

CEILING

I spent some time working on the ceiling pieces and tillable, I think the white plaster has become a bit too bright and clinical in this lighting setup.

NARRATIVE

I also started placing a few Narrative elements around the scene. Still plenty to do here with maybe some cloth sims to come! 

Please feel free to leave some feedback, I am especially struggling with the lighting stuff, Though I don't think it looks bad I do think its not supporting the story.  Otherwise, I am really excited to jump back on this soon!