[Critique] Cultist Temple Project

Blue_Pixel

Hello. This project is still WIP. All critiques are appreciated. Thank you!

Please let me know how this scene is turning out visually. I've recently been trying to improve my lighting skills, and have applied it to the best of my ability within this project. 

Note: 

• My interests are in game art, currently focused on environment art, and enjoy the methods within it when it comes to creating art with efficiency in mind.
• I created this project using Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop, and Unreal Engine.
• I don't animate so the waterfall and side waters are simple image planes. I purchased the fire animation from the Unreal Store. I was thinking of creating a video after finishing the project but since I don't know how to animate (and honestly not a skill I'm focused on learning right now) I figured the waterfall and side waters not moving would be too distracting.

This project was made with one set of 2048 UV map for the props:
and two sets of 2048 trim sheet maps for the larger structures (one set used for vertex painting):



Currently, I am also trying to add God rays into the scene but I'm not sure which approach to take. Below are 3 approaches I am testing out:

1. God ray centered and above the pillar:
   
   
2. God ray angled towards the podium (directional light was centered above the pillar and its lighting was a little stronger on this image):
   
   
3. Multiple God rays angled towards the podium:
   
   
4. maybe the scene doesn't need god rays?
   
   

Here's other angles for reference:

Vertrucio

Right from the start I'm seeing that it's too dark despite having so much glowing stuff and god rays. If you keep the glowing water make sure to add the light from it into the scene.

The glowing water, the scattered torches, etc makes it hard to determine what are the focal points in the scene. It seems like you want the center column to be the main focus, but your lighting doesn't say that, nor does the composition.

ThisisVictoriaZ

You don't have to know how to animate in order to get the water to move. In unreal engine you can use the material editor to create a scrolling effect with your uvs, here is a tutorial that is pretty popular for a stylized water shader in unreal engine 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix7K_IubTig  ( for this to work your water would be its own separate tiling material which is the standard for game water anyway as far as I know) 
For lighting in unreal I would suggest anything by Polygon Academy on YouTube as a good starting point  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsN0LBgrj14&t=932s

Blue_Pixel

Thank you @ThisisVictoriaZ and @Vertrucio for the comments.

The water planes have emissive maps on them and no other light source. Before, the emissive values were very high and it made the water glow too bright, which hid its details. So I reduced it down. I'll adjust the light values overall to help balance this out.

I was a bit conflicted on what I wanted to have as the focal point, but I'm going to change the focus towards the front center, where the leaders sits. I would use the center pillar as some form of secondary interest point...

I will continue on updating this project and come back with a follow-up again soon!

Vertrucio

Are you working with exposure or hdr? If your scene is literally dim in terms of values then you may need to adjust the exposure. Otherwise, I'd light it like a movie night scene, with night colors but not actually that dark.

Blue_Pixel

@Vertrucio - by exposure setting do you mean the auto exposure? I recall adjusting an auto exposure setting so that it doesn't automatically adjust my lighting based on where I am in the scene.

In the beginning I adjusted the setting for each unique light source, but once I started learning a bit more about lighting, I learned about the Post Process setting. So right now I have the lighting settings set for each source and if I need to increase the brightness I think I will do that in the Post Process. 

I have yet to watch the lighting tutorial by Polygon Academy. I started learning lighting from William Faucher's video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSbBsXbjxPo

Blue_Pixel

Here is an update based on the feedbacks you guys provided:

• I adjusted the post process settings to brighten up the scene.
• I removed the god ray (kept its lighting) and side torches to help adjust the focal point towards the front center.
• I removed the still waterfall plane I created and replaced them with purchased animated waterfalls. 
• I replaced and created the side water pools, using the tutorial suggested by ThisisVictoriaZ to create water animations .
• I added a fog system created by William Faucher on the floor to give the scene some mood.
• I changed the texture resolution to 4K for closeup shots.
• There's still some detail I am reconsidering onto the pillar.

Thank you!