The Conservatorium
For this project, I have decided to a greenhouse concept under the name 'The Conservatorium'. I have plans to upload my work to the epic library store so users are able to download my asset pack and create their own greenhouses... or use the plants. with this said, i got onto researching into what type of items you may find inside a greenhouse. This naturally went onto gathering reference images and for this process, I used miro to keep this all organised and sorted for me.
I am able to easily update this image board with more reference images, notes and shapes to help with my organisation, for now though this will do for me, I will now need to create the same for the list of foliage i have assembled. I also have plans to have Lods ready for all the assets in this pack, this means i will need to create everything at least 2-3 times depending on what is worth adding more Lods to, I will also seek out a better workflow to create Lods from the original asset so i can maximise my work efficiency.
I usually put a timer on my asset lists, but because this is a solo project with such a large scale of assets, i have chosen to change my usual excel theme so i can keep track of the modelling, texture and Lods Progress, I have also split up the asset list into Foliage, Assets, Structures and Materials. I did mention that there may be effects in this pack too, but there will be too few to list in an asset list.
Once i was finished with creating my asset list, i went ahead and threw a few of the images i found of greenhouses, and made a quick colour palette in Photoshop. This helped me find out the layout of the greenhouse i want to do, as well as the placement of certain flowers depending on their colours
Once i was finished up with the colour palette and moodboard, i went ahead and attempted to block out a quick environment, i made a small wall piece what i could use to replicate, then created two quick textures in unreal, one white wood, and the other glass. This was so i could apply it to the walls and have it seamlessly replicate around, this made it more appealing and easier to blockout with. I then created a simple floor piece and a concrete material to go along with it, with all this i was able to create the blockout of the greenhouses main structure.
Once i did this, i then used the geometry within Unreal to add more block out and structures, such as the catwalk behind the Willow tree, Once i had added in enough blockouts for all the structural parts, I then started to add more geometry into the scene to represent the foliage i will be placing. I tried to do as much blocking out as possible without making assets because i only want to create assets what need to be made, using the geometry in unreal allowed me to efficiently block out without having to create excess assets which will save me time.
Now that I had my environment blocked out, I knew what the layout was going to be so I could start thinking about my foliage more. Just like i did with my assets, I will start to add references for the foliage i plan to make, this will benefit me in the long run. Before i could get into creating my foliage, i will need to figure out what workflow i wanted to use for the project, i chose between either using Substance Designer, or sculpting and baking down to a plane. After testing the two, i came out with pros and cons on either side, my rose petals on the sculpt workflow (Right Rose) look a lot more realistic and richer, however on the other hand the sculpted leaves on the rose stem (Left Rose) look too cartoony.
I came to a conclusion that i will take on each plant case by case, and depending on its structure, i will go between zbrush and substance designer. I also found that sculpting a high poly, then baking in Substance designer gives you a lot of freedom as you can then adjust your maps with the nodes within Designer, you will also be able to boost the details by adding more roughness values.
Next thing to do is start creating all the modular pieces i need, I have already got a list of the modular pieces i may need so it will just be a case of figuring out the dimensions of the space im using, and ensure when i make the modular pieces that thy are snapped to the grid, and the correct size.
Any feedback or tips would be much appreciated!