Ruined Lands

ILYHugh

For 2021 I wanted to start on some new Environment Artwork. With permission from Robby Johnson I am going to start creating a 3D Environment from his Concept:


Here is what I have so far!



I blocked out the large structure shapes as well as the Camera Layout and Lighting for now. Coming up soon is breaking out shapes and setting up Base Meshes I can take into ZBrush and detail out.

ILYHugh

Here is some progress on the Ruins. I was able to sculpt out and size up a Base Pathwork for the Ruins, Next would be making a few Variants that are more damaged than others. I was also able to create the Large Ruined Wall Pieces. It so far is a bake down from a 

ZBrush Render:



Toolbag Render:


Next will come adding some features to the Material shader for some Vertex Paint and Position a Weight Paint function or a Position based mask for adding dust to the Asset to work in conjunction to a Dust/Dirt pile I'll create.

ILYHugh

Here is the latest Screengrab of the Ruined Lands. I added the new Balcony to the project. I also went in and added Mesh Landscapes to the vista  one is a valley with a river bed and the second is a mountain range for the structures in the back to lay in. I also added in a Water Master Material for the flowing River as well as the Pond in the structure. And finally I adjusted the composition and cleaned up the BSP used in the blocked out structures. I'm going in next and adding some new damaged structures like around the Path as well as working on the Stairways in the background. 

P.S. I also went into the Lightmass and adjusted some features like Mesh Distances and Source Angles for the Sun Directional Light. Hoping the Mesh Distance fields add details for the Foliage I'll add in the Vista.

Cheers Everyone!

Jean_Pierre_Varg

Really nice job man, one question, why did you sculp the pillars in zbrush instead of using a trim sheet or tileable? What do you consider to be the advantages of this workflow?

DEVgenesis

this gives me some shadow of the colossus vibes and i love it! love the texture and just the general vibe of this ancient ruin
 

ILYHugh

@DEVgenesis Thank you so much, I felt the same way once I saw Robby Johnson's original concept! You should check out some more of his concept work it is amazing!

@Jean_Pierre_Varg Thank you, I had thought about doing a Tileable or Trim for the Large Ruined Pillars, but in the end I thought it would be better atleast to make it from ZBrush atleast; one to polish my Zbrush skills on such a big and detailed asset. And two, I really don't think I could make a very convincing Damaged state mixing with either of the two methods. Since this guy is more or less a hero asset, I wanted to give it that amount of love. Though I did rework it a bit, instead of one large asset, I've composed it into smaller buildable pieces that would give me better texel density overall and be flexible for other uses in the level. I do intend to create a Trim Sheet to be used for some of the Vista assets as well as the ones that don't require a damaged state.

Jean_Pierre_Varg

ILYHugh said:

@DEVgenesis Thank you so much, I felt the same way once I saw Robby Johnson's original concept! You should check out some more of his concept work it is amazing!

@Jean_Pierre_Varg Thank you, I had thought about doing a Tileable or Trim for the Large Ruined Pillars, but in the end I thought it would be better atleast to make it from ZBrush atleast; one to polish my Zbrush skills on such a big and detailed asset. And two, I really don't think I could make a very convincing Damaged state mixing with either of the two methods. Since this guy is more or less a hero asset, I wanted to give it that amount of love. Though I did rework it a bit, instead of one large asset, I've composed it into smaller buildable pieces that would give me better texel density overall and be flexible for other uses in the level. I do intend to create a Trim Sheet to be used for some of the Vista assets as well as the ones that don't require a damaged state.

This is actually a really interesting insight, I sometimes get stuck with how things are supposed to be worked on in a production, but really at the end of the day I think it is more what works for the purpose of the asset and scene.

It looks really promising, I'm just starting with environments and I would like to see how your worfklow for this project progresses.

cello8080

excited to see this project progress

ILYHugh

cello8080 said:

excited to see this project progress

Same to you! I can't wait to see more of your Desert Temple's progress it looks great so far!

processornine

cool stuff. what was your method for adding the bricks to the blockout?

ILYHugh

processornine said:

cool stuff. what was your method for adding the bricks to the blockout?

All of the bricks are baked down from a High Poly mesh I sculpted, I hand placed everything, then baked it down. Though I am changing how I am handling the creation of the structures. I'll show more when I have some more progress.

ILYHugh

Hey Guys, I have some new progress to show.

Some updates are that I adjusted the Landscape a bit by lowering the contrast of the normal information as well as added a PDO blend to the shader allowing the two meshes I made to blend more cohesively. I also adjusted how the larger Ruins Walls are created. I created smaller modules that I can duplicate and adjust, then merge in UE4 as a single large static mesh. This way I have better control of creation and damage within ZBrush, I also get better texel density with having each mesh singled out. Also for the material, I was able to btter sample the original color of the stone from the concept and create these more neutral toned colors. The old one was too dark and gave off too much of a warm tone. I also fleshed out some of the side architecture on the left side of the ruins.

My next goals are to start some decals to add more detail for ruined and damaged areas. Also start on the Trim Sheet for some of the smaller assets I need to get around to creating.

Cheers you guys!



GIF:

Brandon_KyT

Looks super cool, you should do a breakdown of how you did all the destruction for the pillars and stone!