[WIP] MGS-Styled Compound Environment

coolguyslims

Hello! I'm creating an environment piece of an advanced military compound for my portfolio. Something in the style of the motherbase from MGSV or the tanker incident from MGS2. Many of my reference photos are derived from these games, but also some from Battlefield 2042 and Cyberpunk 2077. I want the environment to give the impression of an advanced facility while showing a technically impressive yet insignificant corridor and security room, like something you would happen across in a game that alludes to the greater purpose of the facility. The environment shows a security room across from a small collection of servers surrounded by a security gate.

I just want to show off my progress in this thread and ask for criticisms and advice. Currently I'm replacing my blockout meshes with proper models. The catwalks and railings are all modular meshes with baked texture maps. The metal trims along the ground will be comprised of modular baked meshes and trim sheet elements. I don't have the trim sheet elements in yet, so there is only the modular meshes.

Do you like the layout of the environment? Does it look cool or illogical?

Part of my reference board since I can't fit it all in a single photo. It seems like most of this game was made with trim sheets.

This image gave me a lot of inspiration for the piece. This is from Battlefield 2042. I like the decals elements on the floor.

Another image that I liked a lot that I decided to include elements from.

A computer / control room across from a collection of servers surrounded by a security gate.


Modular catwalk meshes. I want the canopy of the facility to have a lot of clutter. Air ducts, electrical wires, cable trays, etc. I haven't fleshed it out yet.

I'm working on creating a modular set for the fence pieces and another modular set for the wires / piping.

Some of the modular metal trims I created for the project. I figured I'd work on the albedo later.

I've never worked on an indoor environment or something to this scale before. It seems like a lot of work. Do you have any suggestions about what I should do next / what is the best way to proceed?

Alex_J

Looks good so far to me.

One thought it that your scene feels a lot like a ship or submarine to me. I think the pipes along walls contributes to that as well as the style of railing and stairs. Not saying this is wrong or anything, just that this is the immediate reaction I have when looking at it. "Oh we are on some sort of high tech water vessel"

I'm only beginning to go a little deeper into enviro art like you and am at a similar stage in my own project. My plan is to try and increment the entire scene along so that whole thing is always at same resolution - like next only put in basic colors for materials, then refine geo if needed, and before making any custom textures or trim sheets, try to get as far as I can using premade stuff just to verify the ideas look good. Finally if that all holds up, then there should be a nice checklist for exactly what to make for textures/trims.

defragger

Nice work! I think as soon as there is material separation, the impression of being on a water vessel won't be there any more. Especially with concrete material on pillars and parts of the walls. The concrete elements could be a bit larger, as these are the structurally supporting elements.

coolguyslims

I've continued working on this enough to post an update.

I've created materials for each of my modules to include the standard PBR bake maps and then created a simple metal smart material to apply as a base for most of the metal modules. I'll have to pass by each of them later to give them a more individualized look so they don't all blend into each other.

I've been experimenting with how to create and apply floor decals along with the general look I'd like to go for. I'll probably have color coded lines for navigation like you'd see in a hospital because I want to find a way to break up all the boring and empty space on the floor. Also if anyone knows a way to use underlying normal details to chip away at a decal above it, I'd really like to know how to create a shader for that. The ground material features a lot of scratches and bumps and if the paint from the decals could be subtly worn in the same places the ground material is I think it would create a really cool look. The current decals are just generic text / lines with no details.

The metal trim modules bring a really cool material contrast against the decals and the ground. I really want to improve the look of each module piece later.

The security fence / barrier module includes a long and short barrier with posts that have interchangeable parts for intersections and corners. I've created the metal mesh part in Substance Designer and used POM to create some fake depth that really looks cool when it casts shadows. I still need to create the mesh frame and top connections part of the module as they're just primitive meshes at the moment. It'll be a 3-piece set.

The grate / mesh area of the catwalks was created in the same way I created the fence mesh. Just a simple bake onto a flat plane. I've been experimenting with adding POM but the results haven't been too great. I have to troubleshoot all the problems later, so for now it's just turned off. As for the guard rails, I'm really not liking the look. I can't quite get them to look how I want them to, so for now I just ignore them. The cables are also untextured.
If I turn it on there is a big offset that makes it look like there's a tripping hazard for every module piece. It also mirrors on the sides in an undesirable way.

coolguyslims

I finished the modular pipe set. I created a smart material in Substance Designer as a base for the pipes, then modeled a set of three pipe couplings that I can use to hide the seams of the pipes. Next I created a set of four pipe models. I made two long ones, a medium length, and a short length pipe. I textured them in Substance Painter with the smart material I made as well as some decals I created in Photoshop. The pipe couplings all share their texture maps and the four pipe models share their texture maps, too.

I decided on a whim to create a separate orange set of pipes just using my master material parameters and I like the look a lot. I might create another set of orange pipes but not as sophisticated as the black pipes, I don't know. Tell me what you think. I think the MGS look is really starting to show through now, too.



I think this angle looks really cool.

coolguyslims

I created some trim sheets for the walls and some structural assets along with some simple modular pieces.
Created a simple decal generator for the floor decals.
General shifting around of assets and adding simple placeholder models.

Starting to work on some walls and details using the trim sheets. I don't like how flat some of them look at the moment. I also experimented with painting any structural metal assets with blue paint as a kind of half-wall look as you can see in the supports in the back. I want to introduce some more color in areas and get away from the everything-being-gray-metal look.
I only created one decal using the decal generator I made. I'll have to go back and make one more of these so I'm not using the same lines over and over again. I want some that are more visually distinct. I also want to create or use some Megascans decals to create some wear where the concrete meets the metal trims.

This is quickly becoming my favorite area. I added some windows with a simple glass material that I'd like to reiterate upon later.

Blue paint texture for the first floor I created in Substance Designer.

Trying to make the canopy look interesting. Most is unfinished and in an early design period. I created a simple girder base mesh to be used in tandem with scalable girder center pieces with face weighted normals and a simple tiling texture.
The base mesh and the center girder piece. It's really hard to see where they connect but it's possible up close.
I also used them here.

Please tell me what you like / don't like about this project!

coolguyslims

• Update to materials and textures to try and add more color and variation in the metal materials.
• Added the base mesh for the large doors. In the end the large doors will have three texture sets for the base (included), actual door, and some detailed electronic components that will be attached to the panels, like a card reader, visual display, cable box, etc. I'm not happy with the texture work right now, so it's subject to change.
• General tweaking and such.
• Added some metal cable tray models that I bought on the Unreal Marketplace.
• Added some floor decals to break up the empty space on the ground and add more color.

I've been a bit busy, so I haven't made that many changes. I feel like the project has maybe stagnated a bit since I'm coming close to finishing it and realizing where the quality bar is going to be set. I'm having trouble deciding if it looks good or not. There are parts I really like but I also can't help but think that a lot of the other stuff I see on Artstation is just better. I know I'm not done yet but I'm close enough to where I don't feel like the project will change that much anymore.

My biggest difficulty so far has trying to make models that are fully metal more visually interesting. I'm having a hard time breaking my models up when everything is metal. I've created another metal material to try and add variety but I don't think it's working. Maybe I'll try to convert some things to a plastic look instead of all metal.

This is an image from this Artstation post: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LRJeXP
I really like how these walls look. How can I get this look in Substance Painter / Designer? For the metallic value, is this like a mixed percentage? 0.5 or something? I think if I incorporated this kind of look it could really break things up in an interesting way.

My goal is to get hired as an environment artist. Is this kind of work good enough so far?

Flmn

coolguyslims said:

I really like how these walls look. How can I get this look in Substance Painter / Designer? For the metallic value, is this like a mixed percentage? 0.5 or something? I think if I incorporated this kind of look it could really break things up in an interesting way.

I think it's 0 - 0.3 metallic value. There's also slightly visible leaky thing in albedo/roughness.
Try to make your lighting softer and only accent lights - sharper (like warning lights, whatever). I suggest you to try color correction - at this moment I found your screenshots too bright and contrast.

coolguyslims

I see, I changed some stuff around and I have a really good looking material for those pieces now. I adjusted the lighting a bit too, thanks for the perspective.

rollin

Ahh sweet.. I'm bit of a MGS5 nerd and I always thought that the game could use some more technical maps like MGS2 has - like an underground facility in the mountains or something. I would love to see stuff like your work as small mod done with Foxkit. But even just as portfolio peace it is nice to see.
Btw: imo what makes the metal pieces interesting is the way of lighting them - your currently lighting is nice for judging the overall layout and setup but they will not push the visual effect of the different materials to its limit.
Keep up the good work!

coolguyslims

• Lighting rework
• New staircase models
• Additional trim models
• Created a tan plastic smart material
• Updated models
• Updated panel textures
• Edited trim sheets texture and models
• Added some placeholder crates and utility boxes

I think I'm pretty close to finishing this project. I have to finish the doors and do a little work inside the fenced in server area. I also want to create and add some tiling detail textures to break up repeating textures in some areas.

There's some more I have to do, but is there anything (aside from the untextured stuff) that looks poor if I was to post this onto my portfolio as is?

rexo12

It's looking, in a technical sense, really good. I'm a bit concerned about the story you're telling, it does feel a bit empty and aimless currently.

coolguyslims

rexo12 said:

It's looking, in a technical sense, really good. I'm a bit concerned about the story you're telling, it does feel a bit empty and aimless currently.

This was originally going to be a server room surrounded by a security fence with a computer room adjacent to it, and some hallways nearby leading into other areas. I wanted to fill the room with the glass wall with computer desks, monitors, displays, lots of cabling and such. The blocks in the fenced in room are going to be replaced with servers I found on the UE marketplace and connected with the cables that feed into the cable trays.

I understand what you mean though, and I've felt the same way for a while. It feels very empty. I think if I included all the props I mentioned it would tell a more cohesive story and allude to the greater purpose of the facility more. I just feel like it would take too long to include all that stuff, though it would make the piece look a lot nicer.

An idea I had would be to create all those props quickly as low-poly assets in Maya and just apply an unlit material to them, so I could use their silhouettes without having to spend a bunch of time making the actual assets. I guess the idea is to show how I'd like the environment to look if I had more time to complete all that. Might be a good idea?

Fabi_G

I agree, looking good technically. Would look into the paint application generally. What is the purpose and how was it applied (after construction)?

Potential use cases:
- wayfinding and marking of zones
- Decorative (probably not in an industrial environment)
- protective coating
- ...

For wayfinding I would try to keep it consistent. Starting area in Half Life would be an example. Maybe behind angled panels on the top are more tech that needs access for maintenance (then no concrete probably), why else waste that space. Fire extinguishers for safety? Markings support architecture visually. Floor built in segments support perspective too.
A rough overpaint:

pxgeek

I agree with what others have already said. The textures look good but the environment as it's currently presented still looks like a generic, nondescript interior. If I had to guess from the visuals, maybe it's some sort of factory or refinery...but it's not really clear.

Is that central room a cargo bay or storage room? It looks like it might be since it has a larger door...perhaps for vehicles? If that were the case, then the pipes would be obstructing the way. I think storytelling/narrative elements like these is what make good art stand out (on top of all the technical stuff of course)

coolguyslims said:

I understand what you mean though, and I've felt the same way for a while. It feels very empty. I think if I included all the props I mentioned it would tell a more cohesive story and allude to the greater purpose of the facility more. I just feel like it would take too long to include all that stuff, though it would make the piece look a lot nicer.

If this is for your portfolio, then I think it would be absolutely worth the time for you to spend and do all that. That bit of extra time spent can pay off dividends if you're showing your work for the purpose of wanting to get hired.

You made a lot of good progress on it, looking forward to seeing how it looks when completed!

rexo12

coolguyslims said:

An idea I had would be to create all those props quickly as low-poly assets in Maya and just apply an unlit material to them, so I could use their silhouettes without having to spend a bunch of time making the actual assets. I guess the idea is to show how I'd like the environment to look if I had more time to complete all that. Might be a good idea?

It's an interesting idea and could look rather unique if executed correctly, however as others have said I'd err toward going all the way instead. If you really want to just get this done it wouldn't be the end of the world to purchase some assets, although you'll need to be careful to make it unique. Possibly spend some time on 1-2 hero assets, your server room, perhaps?

coolguyslims

Fabi_G said:

I agree, looking good technically. Would look into the paint application generally. What is the purpose and how was it applied (after construction)?

Potential use cases:
- wayfinding and marking of zones
- Decorative (probably not in an industrial environment)
- protective coating
- ...

That sketch is really cool, thanks for taking the time to do that! lol. I had the same idea about the fire extinguishers, too. I also think the lights hanging above as shown in the sketch look way more interesting than to the side.

My idea was that the walls would be color coded to denote which area of the facility you're located in. The orange stripes on the ground (which I realize should probably show a direction) are supposed to lead you to another area of the facility that uses the orange color notation. This blue area is for intelligence connected to the nearby servers.

I'll expand the paint graphics to also include some lettering / signage.