[WIP][UE4] Ghibli Inspired Hermit Crab Mobile Home

Druwed

Going to replicate this concept by : Yoko M. Art (@YokoMatsuokail1 on twitter) https://twitter.com/YokoMatsuokail1

Choose this concept due to the great variety of materials and objects to work on, as well as the Ghibli/watercolor aesthetic this has going on.
Going to render this inside of UE4.

Moodboard and references for the project:

Druwed

Environment and house block out in maya

Druwed

Blocking out the crab and some refinements to the house

Druwed

Spent some time setting the scene up in Unreal and making a basic grass landscape shader 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJMd4d4viQ8 Used a lot of the techniques from this video.
Also played around a bit with some post processing cel shading, it looks interesting but i'll decide later if I will use it or not
Top is With CelShading and bottow is without.


Also started making some materials inside of Substance Designer, this is my first attempt at a grass material to put under the grass shader, but it does not look "painterly" enough currently and I will work on it more so I can get a more Ghibli/Watercolor feel.

Druwed

more Substance Designer Material attempts.

Dirt
 
Moss (still need to stylize this more)


Updated the grass too

Eric Chadwick

Looking great so far! Though I wonder if the crab's tail should be hidden inside the houses? Usually they're poking their front out of a shell, and they retreat fully back into the shell when frightened. Looks a bit odd to see the backside sticking out.

Druwed

Eric Chadwick said:

Looking great so far! Though I wonder if the crab's tail should be hidden inside the houses? Usually they're poking their front out of a shell, and they retreat fully back into the shell when frightened. Looks a bit odd to see the backside sticking out.

I'm thinking of making him a mix of a Tradiitonal Hermit Crab and a Coconut crab, 
But i understand what you are pointing out, i will keep that in mind as I keep developing this scene to see if it would feel better with his tail hidden or exposed.
some coconut crab images

Eric Chadwick

Coconut crabs are rad. I approve!

Druwed

Working on the material for the road the crab will be walking on
Need to make it a bit less noisy and add some subtle color variation

Going to make some base materials for the houses and then going to set things up in Unreal 

Druwed

A quick update to the road material
 

Druwed

applied some of the materials into Unreal and made a simple Landscape Material.
Going to need to re-work some of the materials so they tile better, and also get to work on some more plant variations and some Trees, as well as working on detailing and refine the Crab and House Textures and the post processing material

Without Post Processing


With Post Processing

Druwed

Working on different types of Foliage