Pirate Cave [FINISHED]

andrewmelfi

Hi everyone! This is my first ever post on Polycount

I recently graduated from university and am working towards improving my portfolio to apply for jobs and internships. You can find my portfolio Here. This one in particular is inspired by a game called 'Sea of Thieves' and even though the art style in my piece is different, I tried to include stylization with the lighting.

Everything was created and textured by myself using Photoshop, Maya, ZBrush and Substance Painter before being implemented into Unreal Engine 4. The rocks however were taken from a package on the Epic Games Marketplace called 'Soul: Cave', and the greenery from Megascans.

I hope you like it! Any feedback / critiques are welcomed and appreciated .

Any questions, just ask!

Eric Chadwick

Great start. And welcome to Polycount!

I'd like to see a bit more attention to lighting. Pure blacks are usually not great.

It would also help to blend another couple textures into the sand floor, to ease the transitions for props/rocks  penetrating the sand.

First shot makes the completely flat floor a bit too obvious. Either don't choose such low camera angles, or add some height variation.

andrewmelfi

Eric Chadwick said:

Great start. And welcome to Polycount!

I'd like to see a bit more attention to lighting. Pure blacks are usually not great.

It would also help to blend another couple textures into the sand floor, to ease the transitions for props/rocks  penetrating the sand.

First shot makes the completely flat floor a bit too obvious. Either don't choose such low camera angles, or add some height variation.

I initially wanted the contrast between the light in the middle and the lack of light towards the sides of the cave, however I can notice the problem with that now you've pointed it out so I'll definitely work on the lighting some more.

I see that the first screenshot looks very weird because it's so flat, I'll possibly add a displacement map to add the height variation which could sort out the issue with the props/rocks. Or simply just use higher camera angles as you mentioned.

Thanks for the feedback!

teodar23

On top of what Eric said, there is a very good tutorial for blending terrain with other objects on quixels site.


There are some light leaks here and there.

And objects like this chest without any shadow whatsoever.

These barrels go through the floor for some reason and have very sharp edges, ouch!
Also, theres a clear distinction between some assets that are (semi)stylised and others (like the sand texture) that are realistic.

andrewmelfi

Thanks for the help guys! 

I've been working on the lighting in the environment, I think my monitors colours appear more desaturated than normal as the scene didn't seem too dark for me, however I've added lighting in the areas around the edge of the cave to make them a little brighter.

Having done all this though, yesterday a green light appeared from somewhere and is lighting up walls and assets around the waterfall area. I have no idea what made this happen or where the green light came from, it appears to be somewhere below? Any help would be appreciated!







I've checked all the lighting in the whole scene to see if I changed one of the colours but nope! Nothing. I thought it might've been a reflectioon from something since I had added a SphereReflectionCapture effect to make the area a little darker but again that doesn't seem to be it.

If you need anymore info or screenshots let me know!

teodar23

I bet its the skylight. Try setting the lower hemisphere to a dark gray. If not its probably an ambient cube.

andrewmelfi

Thanks for all the help! I managed to get it to a standard where I am very happy with it and even though it may not be perfect, I've learnt a lot throughout the project . You can find the finished environment on my portfolio - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xJYGW2