Railroad Hangout Scene [UE5] [FEEDBACK]
polycounter lvl 2
With this scene I wanted to try out using the new Nanite tessellation. I based my retaining wall off some reference images I took, and I also created the rocks under the train track, both as materials.
I also practiced my modeling and texturing with the train track, the pallets, the speaker, and the chairs, but all the foliage and additional clutter props were borrowed from Megascans.
I'd appreciate any feedback! I'm studying environment art and want to take these projects to the next level in hopes of finding a junior studio position this coming year.
Here are some images I used as reference as well:
Replies
It's a cute little scene. Your lighting and composition is well executed and is the main thing going for this piece. The renders you've selected demonstrate considered curation: not too many photos, and each has a considered purpose with respect to your narrative. The lighting & post-process is tonally balanced and subtle. The retaining wall is well done, but the ballast appears a bit polygonal and crunchy. It looks as though the retaining wall is something you've displaced? There is a bit of stretching that maybe would have been better served by being 'proper' geometry.
Fewer megascans assets (foliage is generally fine to use) would have served this piece a bit better as they're all quite simple props and I don't see why you couldn't have done them yourself. I can also recognise the default Substance cloth wrinkles grunge map on your chairs (at least I hope I can
Overall good work, but I think your pieces should probably be more ambitious, particularly if you're trying to turn them into a job offer.
Also thanks for the confidence boost and your advice. You're right that the wall has some stretching due to being a displaced texture. That was actually somewhat of an experiment since I knew I wanted to practice my material creation and I was just curious to see how much one can get away with. In a real production setting I'd certainly use real geometry, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't utterly hideous anyway. Here's a better render of the material:
As for the chairs, I'll definitely be more careful with the default texture folds in the future haha. It's funny because most of the wrinkles were baked from the high poly since the prop was made with a fabric simulation, but I couldn't resist giving it that extra bit of grunginess. Here it is with and without:
And lastly, you're once again right that I should be more ambitious. In fact, this project was meant to be a bit of a quick "back to basics" type of thing since I may have gone a bit too ambitious with my last project which left me exhausted and a bit disappointed. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do something relatively high quality and relatively quickly. Fortunately my next project is something much bigger again, so maybe I'll do that as a long term piece with updates here on Polycount.
Let me know if you hear of any work around town. Jk, jk. Unless ... No, jk, jk ... Unless ...