[Finished] Fox's Journey - Mountain - UE4 - Lighting Study

Muzammil

Just finished this piece. Inspired by Peter Trans Cats Adventure.

I only did the Level Design and Lighting for this using Megascans and Unreal Engine marketplace assets.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/YeE16b

C&C Welcome

JamesBrisnehan

I like the mood of it, but there are some things holding it back from looking awesome.

-The rock formations look kind of unnatural. Large rock formations like this usually have a consistent directionality to them. You have rock formations pointing up, down, left, right, and the sedimentary layers are all out of alignment as well. Getting all of your rocks oriented with each other will help with believability. (Mimicking real-world rock formations is a good place to start if you aren't familiar with geology and how rock formations are formed)
-The waterfall also lacks some believability. Where is all of that water coming from? Is the water flowing up the mountain just to fall off of it's peak, or is it coming from an underground spring that just happens to be pouring out from the apex of a giant rock. I mean, it does look cool, but it breaks the immersion in the scene. (I suppose you could be doing an alien planet, but the plants and animals look very Earth-like.)
-The ripple texture on the river surface is way too small scale and repetitive. 
-The grass in the distance looks bad (probably the Lowest LOD), but you said that everything is from asset stores so I'm not sure if there's much you can do about that. Maybe a distance cull so they're just not visible when they're that far away? That would put more focus on your terrain materials though.
-It could use more variety with trees, grass, and shrubs. All of the trees kind of look the same, maybe some could be alive, and different sizes. Maybe even get the whole life cycle if you can (sapling, small, medium, large, fallen etc.) You have a nice variety of grasses in the foreground, continue that into the mid and background too.

Overall though, I do like the scene. The lighting and composition are quite nice. Just be sure to find good references to study for nature and landscapes. 

Muzammil

JamesBrisnehan said:

I like the mood of it, but there are some things holding it back from looking awesome.

-The rock formations look kind of unnatural. Large rock formations like this usually have a consistent directionality to them. You have rock formations pointing up, down, left, right, and the sedimentary layers are all out of alignment as well. Getting all of your rocks oriented with each other will help with believability. (Mimicking real-world rock formations is a good place to start if you aren't familiar with geology and how rock formations are formed)
-The waterfall also lacks some believability. Where is all of that water coming from? Is the water flowing up the mountain just to fall off of it's peak, or is it coming from an underground spring that just happens to be pouring out from the apex of a giant rock. I mean, it does look cool, but it breaks the immersion in the scene. (I suppose you could be doing an alien planet, but the plants and animals look very Earth-like.)
-The ripple texture on the river surface is way too small scale and repetitive. 
-The grass in the distance looks bad (probably the Lowest LOD), but you said that everything is from asset stores so I'm not sure if there's much you can do about that. Maybe a distance cull so they're just not visible when they're that far away? That would put more focus on your terrain materials though.
-It could use more variety with trees, grass, and shrubs. All of the trees kind of look the same, maybe some could be alive, and different sizes. Maybe even get the whole life cycle if you can (sapling, small, medium, large, fallen etc.) You have a nice variety of grasses in the foreground, continue that into the mid and background too.

Overall though, I do like the scene. The lighting and composition are quite nice. Just be sure to find good references to study for nature and landscapes. 

Oh my gosh! what a nice and detailed feedback James.  Thanks alot. Now that you mentioned it, the rock do go in all directions lol. The main focus was lighting and composition for this study so i didnt pay extra attention to the rest. I will probably keep that in mind for future or i might come back to this afterawhile.

Waterfall was a last min thing so if it doesnt help the lighting and the composition then i can just remove it. what do you think.

and thanks again for this feedback