[WIP] Forest Path Lighting Study

Will1313A

Recently I've been working on a scene I was inspired to make my some concept art by Stefan Koidl, a very talented concet artist. His work in the horror genre really inspires me. I'm trying to re-create the following work using free assets from the UE4 marketplace.



So far I've put a few assets together and have been messing around with height fog and sky sphere settings. Still a long way to go with this one so any feedback, comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated. No camera's set up yet but I think I'll turn this one into a portrait shot like the concept art.



Also wanted to add a little something of my own in here so messing around with a free animal pack I found.



This section is way too dark and I haven't done that much work on it so far. Trying to get the first image looking right then I'll move on to this one.

Will1313A

Did some more work on this today, added in a second directional light as I only had one previously which was linked to the BP_Sky_Sphere and was mimicing the sun at night so wasn't getting any light from it. The second one I've used to give the scene some moon light, also been playing a lot with the volumetric fog trying to darken it in general but allow it to absorb more light from other sources. Most of the light in the above pictures is coming directly from the fog rather than light sources (apart from the street lights).

Pretty happy with the progress so far, I need to figure out what I'm doing with the second screenshot of the house and animals. It has no lightsources near it and is very dark even with the improved moonlight, might need to find a model of a torch so I can add a bit more story to that part of the map.

As always suggestions, comments and feedback welcomed.

Will1313A

Since last time I've spent a lot of time tweaking and re-tweaking the fog and added some ground fog for some added atmosphere. I had a big problem with not being able to get enough moonlight on the house whilst also getting enough moonlight on the rest of the scene. Someone I showed this to said I needed more light on the trees to give the scene more depth so I've tried to do that by rotating the directional light.

To counter the problem with lack of light on the house I've been experimenting with a few ideas. Initially I tried having a torch on the floor pointing up at the door but that had a few problems with being diffused by the ground fog too much so I settled on adding two new light sources. One on the side of the shack and a hanging lantern in a nearby tree. I'm still not too sure about the colour of the light on the side of the shack. I've gone for a desaturated yellow/green to try and keep it complimentry with the orange lighting in the scene. 

Apart from these changes I have dressed the scene with some more animals and hanging figures. I've also spent a little more time adjusting camera placements and settings to try and push the best renders out of the scene. Noticed that the fog was a flat colour even with the directional light so I've added in another directional light and placed it on a different light channel, rotated it to behind the house and ramped up the intensity. This has given the fog more of a gradient similar to the original concept. I'm happy with the results so far but I'm starting to hit a wall with new ideas. 

From this point I'm pretty certain I want to try a few different light colours out on the shack to see what that can achieve. I have still got the expossure cancelled out with min and max set to one so a bit of tweaking there and some light intensity values should finish off the scene for now. Not sure what else I'd want to change at this point, as I said hit a bit of a wall.

Shot 01

Shot 02

Shot 03

Shot 04