Abandoned tram yard UE5 environment (WIP)

stoli

Hello, 

I started this project originally a year ago when I decided I want to learn Blender. However soon after the proto / whitebox stage I gave up on the project and its been almost a year on hold now. 

I picked the project up again and thought I create a post of the progress here on polycount hoping this would force me to keep going with the project and help me stay motivated till I finish it. I have a bad habit of starting things that I never finish... I think this might be also my first post on the Polycount as well lol^^  

My initial goal for this project was to get more familiar with Blender. Then UE5 came and I thought why not move it to UE5 as well so I could learn something on that front too. Also its kind of learning project for Substance designer so quite many new challenges here for me at once. I hope this will not end up being too much to handle..

I am excited to read your comments and feedback and make new friends^^. Also all kind of help and tips and tricks are always welcome and feel free to ask if you are curious of anything. 

Below is my main reference & inspiration for the scene. However I am planning to take some freedom since the idea is not to execute a copy of this but instead make something that feels similar & similar theme. 

stoli

The beginning of my rebooted project. 

Line of props and modules in my Blender file.  

Beginning of my scene assembly in UE5

Assembled scene in UE5. Proto & whitebox stage. I did quick pass on terrain too to have a bit of variation going there. 

stoli

I started my texturing process by creating a simple concrete material broken and clean variations and doing basic vertex color blend. The texture was a bit challenging since Is on such a big surface I wanted it to be tileable on 4meters. Each time I thought things are looking good in SD once I took my textures to Unreal I realized my scales were closer to 2 m and everything was looking wrong. It took me some iterations and I am not completely sure still but will see how it works once I get more things in. (the current version does not have roughness map yet)

sacboi

Proportionally scale seems slightly off, are you using real world dimensions?

Secondly, the rolling stock in your scene and ref is a tram.

stoli

sacboi said:

Proportionally scale seems slightly off, are you using real world dimensions?

Secondly, the rolling stock in your scene and ref is a tram.

Thanks for the comment. I agree with the dimensions. I am using quite modular approach for most of the things so I am a bit limited by that but I think there is something I could still do to improve. Good to point lol. I was actually struggling to find good references for it so this explains why

stoli

I did this simple sketch of the level where my scene would take place. I am only going to be creating the single tram yard camera (A) but I still like to do these as if I would be working on a level^^.  The purpose is to come up with some storytelling ideas by exploring the world around the scene and mostly just fun^^. I created also a very basic level exploration flow. 

The level exploration:

You would start from the bottom left and try to reach to the door at the top right. There could be something hidden at the camp (B) or maybe group of enemies guarding the area. The makeshift camp (C) could have few NPCs sleeping. Those you dont want to wake up but if you go deeper into that room there would be also a treasure to find. Inside the tram yard building there would be the main encounter or a boss fight which is the finish you need to reach. Near the finish, there is the ladder which can be unlocked. The shortcut is not accessible by default but once its discovered you can use it to access the main encounter easier. 

A - The abandoned tram yard. This is where my scene camera is. A bit mysterious view with some signs of people living here. The main focus is the tram and once you get closer to the tram you would discover the camp (B) and a door leading to the next area (C). If you do more exploration you might discover the unlock-able shortcut. There could be a treasure at the end of the path in case this is discovered before reaching the roof. 
B, C, D - Some signs of people living here, could be people hiding from something in the post apocalyptic world. B is a bit like a guarding station. C is their main living quarters and D is where they have setup some comm device and are trying to contact someone but this is obviously not working so the people are stuck here. The level would continue inside of the tram yard building where the boss-fight could be but I didn't want it to be part of this sketch.