Serpent Cave Entrance - Hive Inspired [WIP Environment]

Vastra

Hello everyone 👋 , I'm an aspiring environment artist. I’ve been focusing on building out my portfolio with environment concepts and trying to push my Blender & Unreal workflow further with each project.

I’ve been working in Blender for a while now, and recently started exploring Unreal Engine 5 to bring my ideas into a more complete environment context. Sculpting organic forms is still new territory for me, but I’m really enjoying the learning process and pushing myself further with each project.

Right now I’m working on a serpent cave entrance. The idea is a massive snake skull, Hive-inspired from the game Destiny 2. Acting as the entrance to a subterranean environment. I’ve been sculpting the main head form in Blender, and I’m starting to think about how it’ll look in Unreal with materials, lighting, and atmosphere.

Here are a few early WIP screenshots:
Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

It’s still in the sculpt stage, but I’d love to hear your thoughts and any tips.  

The end goal is to make this feel like an ominous environment piece you wouldn’t want to walk into.

Thanks for checking it out, feedback is welcome! 🙏
Pleased to meet you all, and I’m looking forward to learning and sharing more here.

Vastra

Update:
I’d like to share some progress on my project. 🙂

Things are moving along well, though it’s still very much a work in progress. I’ll be refining the textures, making adjustments to the materials, and continuing to polish the overall project.

I’ve also started experimenting with lighting and scene adjustments to push the mood further and get closer to the Hive-inspired atmosphere I’m aiming for.

In the meantime, I put together a short cinematic flythrough as a preview. It’s been a great opportunity for me to practice camera work and sequencing inside Unreal, while also testing how the environment reads in motion.

Once the project is finalized, I’ll be uploading the completed video to ArtStation.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and any suggestions for improvement.

ThisisVictoriaZ

Hi! I love Destiny 2, so im looking forward to seeing how cool you can make this. As far as critique goes, do you have a purref or something where you can have your references all put together? I would suggest not only looking at a bunch of destiny references but also real life references to help your cave feel grounded and like a real place you can actually go. Your cave is completely empty except for the snake thing which is very unrealistic, there would be scattered rocks and stalagmites/stalactites, as well as something that makes it feel like its part of the destiny universe ( small pops or "alien" shaped rocks and foliage.) Again, go on art station and try to find lots of art from the game and compare those screenshots to you're to see what's missing. 

As far as lighting I think your scene would greatly benefit from a fog to help it actually feel like a humid scary cave, and to help diffuse your lighting. The snake eyes are super intense lol i would turn down the intensity and leave them as wip until you have a more finalized version of the materials. Having a super bright neon green light right in the center of the image completely messes with the composition, and makes it hard for the viewers eyes to focus on anything else.

Finally as you mentioned your textures need to be refined, the rock texture looks good but your texel density needs to be adjusted because it looks way too large/ it needs to be tiled more. The snake texture kind of looks like its made of plastic right now, and its hard to say but im assuming the texel density is probably a bit off there as well. 

Vastra

ThisisVictoriaZ said:

Hi! I love Destiny 2, so im looking forward to seeing how cool you can make this. As far as critique goes, do you have a purref or something where you can have your references all put together? I would suggest not only looking at a bunch of destiny references but also real life references to help your cave feel grounded and like a real place you can actually go. Your cave is completely empty except for the snake thing which is very unrealistic, there would be scattered rocks and stalagmites/stalactites, as well as something that makes it feel like its part of the destiny universe ( small pops or "alien" shaped rocks and foliage.) Again, go on art station and try to find lots of art from the game and compare those screenshots to you're to see what's missing. 

As far as lighting I think your scene would greatly benefit from a fog to help it actually feel like a humid scary cave, and to help diffuse your lighting. The snake eyes are super intense lol i would turn down the intensity and leave them as wip until you have a more finalized version of the materials. Having a super bright neon green light right in the center of the image completely messes with the composition, and makes it hard for the viewers eyes to focus on anything else.

Finally as you mentioned your textures need to be refined, the rock texture looks good but your texel density needs to be adjusted because it looks way too large/ it needs to be tiled more. The snake texture kind of looks like its made of plastic right now, and its hard to say but im assuming the texel density is probably a bit off there as well. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to give such detailed feedback!  I really appreciate it, it’s given me a lot of insight and clear direction for how I can push this scene further. I know feedback like this is one of the best ways to grow, and I really appreciate being able to learn from others with more experience.

The points about grounding the cave with more environmental dressing, refining lighting, and reworking textures are especially helpful. I’m looking forward to applying these notes in my next pass. Your critique has been very helpful. I will admit I was a bit stalled, a bit unsure how to proceed further.

And yes I do have a purref board with some images and references. The "vibe" or style I'm going for is more Moon inspired. I always liked that environment a lot, it's imposing and darn cool! 

Vastra

Quick update on my Serpent Hive Cave environment! 🐍 

I’ve been refining the scene composition and adding new elements to strengthen the overall mood and structure, such as the spiked barricades and environmental dressing.

The lighting setup you see here is still temporary, WIP lighting. I plan to make the final version darker and more atmospheric to fit the subterranean tone.

My current focus is on improving the new geometry details and refining the materials, especially the metal surfaces. I find metallic materials to be quite challenging to get right. Finding that balance between believable roughness, reflectivity, and texture breakup is proving to be a fun puzzle.

Feedback and critique are always welcome! I’m especially interested in thoughts on the material read and overall atmosphere so far.

Thanks for checking it out!  

ThisisVictoriaZ

Hi! Its looking better, really nice progress!. I think your fog is way too intense, its drowning out a lot of your details here. Its hard to find the right balance but I would say keep messing around with it, you want it to add to the overall composition of your environment, right now its taking away from what I thin is the most important part, the snake head entrance. 
Your materials are looking better too, I think they are looking very flat tho. Are you texturing this in substance painter? If so I would recommend playing around with different smart masks, hand painting your own masks, and different layering materials to get a more realistic look. A good way to think about realistic texturing is to really try to imagine how these things would work in real life, for example:
First there is stone
Over time maybe water drips on the stone to erode it revealing new stone underneath which may be a different color
Then dirt is layered on top and maybe there is more dirt sitting in the cracks than on the edges 
Next is maybe moss or something like that which grows only in certain areas 
Examples 
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LR1Nx5 

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4965R1