Home 3D Art Showcase & Critiques

[WIP][UE5] Oasis Observatory Environment

polycounter lvl 6
Offline / Send Message
Druwed polycounter lvl 6
Going to be following this concept by Alexander Borodin i really like the sense of scale and wonder this concept has.

It has a nostalgic fantasy vibe(that screams tabletop RPG dungeon) to it that I fell in love with it and the vibrant colors and lighting.


Planning and breaking down the scene and concept


References for the general Architecture and Foliage.


Blocking out the structures

Replies

  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6
    First unreal engine blockout
    Mostly working on the scale and composition at this point

  • AkkeeArtist1991
    Oooo I'm enjoying reading your process of this. I hope this turns out fantastic! Can't wait to see the final results
  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6
    Oooo I'm enjoying reading your process of this. I hope this turns out fantastic! Can't wait to see the final results
    Thanks for the reply, progress has been slow this week but I should have some cool things to show soon
  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6
    Blockout Refinement -
    Getting the shapes and scale to be more in line with the concept.
    Also added a cubemap to the scene and changed the fog colors and opacity.



  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6
    More Light, Fog and terrain adjustments.
    Some adjustments and basic sand and stone landscape material.


  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6


    video with ambient effects
     
    Attempting to add some wind effects and dust/sand to the scene, it still needs a lot of tweaking, currently it feels repetitive and kind of noisy

    Made a simple panning material for the vertical "runes" going up the crevice.
     
    Also made some simple bramble/thorn meshes, i still need to make some foliage and also work on the water.
    Spent a lot of time working on the sky and the atmospheric fog, I still need to tweak some of the values and colors but I'm happy with the current result
    Sculped a trim  sheet and used it to texture the stone portions of the main object

  • Druwed
  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6

    Working on the High-poly meshes of the pillars and the center mandala structure
    Pillar #1 - Going to make 1 or 2 more variations to populate the scene


    Center Mandala

  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6


    Finished more pillars and placed them around the scene.
    Now i will focus on finishing the main structure, making high poly version of the obelisks, work on the river/lake, fog, floating debris and the foliage

  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6

    Sculpted and Textured the missing elements of the main structure, and added a basic river.


    Entrance pillars and stairs High Poly


    Top structure High Poly

    Will work on making some sand particles, the floating debris and fog around the tower and Foliage next
  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6

    Adjusted some landscape colors, added a few more elements to the scene.
    Worked on a basic sand vfx and some floating debris and i feel like i'm in the final 20-30% of the scene.
    Next I will work on the clouds, fog, making some broken pillars, foliage and setting up a couple more(1-2) camera shots .


  • Eric Chadwick
    Looking great!

    Beware uncomfortable tangents in your composition. The foreground pillar on the left is lined up with the distant pillar, making a bit of visual confusion. Compare with the concept, where the artist was careful to offset the overlaps.
  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6
    Looking great!

    Beware uncomfortable tangents in your composition. The foreground pillar on the left is lined up with the distant pillar, making a bit of visual confusion. Compare with the concept, where the artist was careful to offset the overlaps.
    Thanks for the critique ill try to break up those tangents.
  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6

    Added some foliage and falling sand to the scene, also changed some of the positioning of the assets.



  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6


    Figured out how to enable Run Time Virtual Textures
    Changed the landscape texture colors 
    And made the cloud material by following this amazing tutorial https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/xkDm/ue4-cloud-creation-tutorial by Tyler smith
    I believe I'm almost finished at this point, going to make some small rocks, adjustments to the main tower and smaller obelisks, refine or remove the wind effects and some of the lights before calling it done.
  • Druwed
  • Eric Chadwick
    This is coming along great.

    The color scheme is pretty jarring though. The deep purple sky doesn't fit with the orang fog, and the contrast in values is too strong. I would suggest taking a close look at the original concept, and trying to replicate those colors as close as possible.

    Try to understand why the artist made those color and value choices. It's a very specific time of day, when the sun is close to setting, and it is peeking underneath low clouds.

    That's why the upper tower is in shadow, while the lower lower is sunlit, and the red band between is the sun diffusing through the bottom of the shadowing cloud.

    In the original, the foreground is also in heavy shadow. This helps focus the viewer's eye on the silhouetted figure, and the bright tower face.

    The lighting and colors tie it all together and tell a narrative. It'd be great if your piece got more of that feeling across.
  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6
    This is coming along great.

    The color scheme is pretty jarring though. The deep purple sky doesn't fit with the orang fog, and the contrast in values is too strong. I would suggest taking a close look at the original concept, and trying to replicate those colors as close as possible.

    Try to understand why the artist made those color and value choices. It's a very specific time of day, when the sun is close to setting, and it is peeking underneath low clouds.

    That's why the upper tower is in shadow, while the lower lower is sunlit, and the red band between is the sun diffusing through the bottom of the shadowing cloud.

    In the original, the foreground is also in heavy shadow. This helps focus the viewer's eye on the silhouetted figure, and the bright tower face.

    The lighting and colors tie it all together and tell a narrative. It'd be great if your piece got more of that feeling across.
    So something more along these lines? 
    I tried applying what you said and this is how it's turning out, I tried to tone down the purple and the intensity of the fog and generally reduced the intensity on some of the lights. 
    Also made some changes to the Cloud material and added some more cloud planes 
    I still need to tweak some of the colors in the sky a bit more

     i hope this is closer to the original feeling of the concept, and if i should tone some stuff down further




  • Druwed
  • Druwed
  • Eric Chadwick
    Getting closer, and love the animated fx. 

    Here's a possible guide... concept, next to your current, next to a paintover. I find it's super helpful to judge images side-by-side.

    Ultimately it's up to you, but I think it's important to show the ability to nail a concept, and show how to interpret it in 3D without losing the original flavor.

    I hope this helps!


  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6
    Getting closer, and love the animated fx. 

    Here's a possible guide... concept, next to your current, next to a paintover. I find it's super helpful to judge images side-by-side.

    Ultimately it's up to you, but I think it's important to show the ability to nail a concept, and show how to interpret it in 3D without losing the original flavor.

    I hope this helps!



    Your advice helps a lot
    I tend to go off course sometimes and end up doing my own thing and making a simulacrum of the original concept,
     what you said about showing the ability to nail a concept is completely correct.
    Your Paintover helps a ton and i'll try to get the environment closer to that aesthetic.
  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6
    It's getting pretty close, still need to do some adjustments to the cloud colors and work a bit o the fog
    Will also work on making some puddle meshes like in the paintover 

  • Druwed
  • Omar_Souissi
    Offline / Send Message
    Omar_Souissi polycounter lvl 4
    Hey Druwed. I really like your work so far and the choice of subject :) I think you could try desaturating the sky and get it closer to the almost grey sky of the concept. Along with this, finding a way to darken the foreground would help pulling the eye towards your tower. Right now your sky and foreground compete for attention with the tower. the light that hits the tower could also be brighter to pull the eye there. 
  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6
    Hey Druwed. I really like your work so far and the choice of subject :) I think you could try desaturating the sky and get it closer to the almost grey sky of the concept. Along with this, finding a way to darken the foreground would help pulling the eye towards your tower. Right now your sky and foreground compete for attention with the tower. the light that hits the tower could also be brighter to pull the eye there. 
    Thanks for your input
    Here is how the scene is looking after I desaturated the Sky and atmospheric fog a bit, increased the brightness of the lights hitting the tower and make the foreground darker.





  • Eric Chadwick
    Getting better. Put the concept directly next to your render, and compare. Where are they different, and why.


  • Druwed
    Offline / Send Message
    Druwed polycounter lvl 6

    trying to get the colors and values  closer to the concept
    I might have goon a bit overboard on some of the lights
  • Druwed
  • Eric Chadwick
    Dark purple sky needs to be brightened, desaturated.
Sign In or Register to comment.