[Finished] Numenor Inspired Environment UE5

ThisisVictoriaZ

Hello! Ive been working on this little alley environment based off of concept art I found for Rings of Power season 1! Numenor was one of the coolest places showcased in the show, and I felt like this concept was not only visually interesting, but it looks like it can help me to reach a few goals ive been wanting to practice in my free time, outside of work. 

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/NyQXyD?collection_id=2050873 Here is the original art by Julien Gauthier



Here is the block out and my most recent progress on this!
There's quite a few things that i know I want to change about my environment right now, including:

• Need to change the shade of green on right wall
• Replace brown stone wall on left side, its too noisy and not reading well
• Fix metal window frame on left wall
• Some things still feel too blocky, need to fix
• Add displacement to my brick wall materials?
• Replace all block mesh with real models 
• Replace water material
• Help models fit together better by messing with AO and adding some decals where edges meet
• Get started on foliage 
  
• Create custom decals to match the paint brush strokes on the concept

Here are my references and goals

I am working on this pretty slowly, I do work full time in the games industry but I would like to push through and finish this soon!
Looking forward to hearing your feedback and posting more updates on this

PeterGatchev

Hey nice start! First thing is to focus more on the blockout in graybox state and amtch the feeling of narrowness and depth. Allso focus more on the modularity and defining more modular elements before moving to colors and textures. Check for ref the art in Plague tale requieme, Mafia Old cunntry. ACK Mirrage, indiana jones great circle. 

ThisisVictoriaZ

@PeterGatchev Thanks for the feedback! I will check those out and add them to my board I moved onto the texturing partially to motivate myself to work on this more often, since that's my favorite part of the environment building process, but I will spend some more time on planning and composition 

PeterGatchev

Thats fine but focus on geeting every proportions right and the same feeling of the concept - for example the stairs - they are 2 inclimbs going up with flat walkway between where the arch is. the staris are not that steep so you can have the nice depth and view  of the second arch and builings down the strteet. the street curves to the left so the arch is also on angle in the concept. And i recomment to push back the camera to have the same point of view in the concept when you are doing the blockout

PeterGatchev

ofcource also check if the concept sacle is realistic 

ThisisVictoriaZ

@PeterGatchev Thank you for the sketch thats actually super helpful! I actually didnt notice there was a second set of stairs there haha ill add those details next time I work on this!

Peyd3d

This is a great start so far. As Peter suggested, I highly recommend you to revisit the blockout stage mainly when it comes to scale. It's the first thing I noticed when looking at your images.

The characters feel a bit big for the alley or it feels cramped. Feel free to change the layout a bit of course as you don't have to stick 100% to the concept. 
Scale is the most important because no matter how beautiful your texturing & lighting will be, it will just feel off a bit. Some slight adjustments that were pointed out can already make a difference. 

Keep at it, looking forward to the updates!

ThisisVictoriaZ

@Peyd3d Thank you! I appreciate your feedback, and I will absolutely revisit my block out.

I'm not sure if, in the blockout stage, its better to have a already defined "kit" to build with or to have more freedom and worry about the "kit" after. In this project I tried creating cubes that are 1M, 2M, and 4M wide for the walls, as I thought it would help me later on. I ended up feeling kind of stuck and scaling some of these shapes to fit my needs, but that kind of defeats the purpose of creating them in the first place. I might go back and create the correct composition with the correct scale first, and then worry more about modifying what i have to make a kit that fits this environment after.

Peyd3d

Yes that is the best approach I'd say. Blockout is very important and you shouldn't feel limited too much by a kit. 
Once you've nailed the blockout and the proportions, you can then still proceed with thinking about how to make a kit for this (if you even need one). 

PeterGatchev

ThisisVictoriaZ said:

@PeterGatchev Thank you for the sketch thats actually super helpful! I actually didnt notice there was a second set of stairs there haha ill add those details next time I work on this!

You are welcome

PeterGatchev

Peyd3d said:

Yes that is the best approach I'd say. Blockout is very important and you shouldn't feel limited too much by a kit. 
Once you've nailed the blockout and the proportions, you can then still proceed with thinking about how to make a kit for this (if you even need one). 

I agree with that. Modularity can done in some makey ways so dont limit yourself with the blockout. Explore how the do it in other games.

ThisisVictoriaZ

Progress! I spent some time studying other environments, I especially liked the ones from Plague Tale Requiem. I made a bunch of changes to the block out and the lighting which im feeling much better about. Also I changed the water material and added some lilly pads

Ashervisalis

Looking forward to this

ThisisVictoriaZ

textured the wall and ground trims, and remade the lower part of the cobble wall, plus messing around with the arch in the background

Eric Chadwick

One thing that catches my eye is all the stonework seems to be quarried from different places.

But I'm remembering a visit to Orvieto, and how nearly all the stonework was quarried locally, so it gave the town a very cohesive look.

The original concept has a similar vibe for the stonework, it feels like it's all in the same stone family.

ThisisVictoriaZ

@Eric Chadwick wow that is awesome reference! Thanks for sharing that   and yes that does make a lot of sense now that I think about it, they would probably get all of the stone in one place and build using that. I've never really made stone medieval/fantasy buildings before so this is a bit of a learning curve. 
Is this the sort of thing that can be done mostly in the base color? Or do you think I would I need to adjust the normal maps as well?

Eric Chadwick

I think this is mostly a base color thing, in terms of PBR thinking. 

Note that their streets are made with a different stone, looked to me like the same street cobble they're using in Rome, Sampietrini, so that may be an Italy-wide choice for some municipalities. Anyhow, likely a more modern thing. 

Kind of an aside, but Pompeii displays a neat innovation for ancient street paving, these stepping stones at crossroads.

ThisisVictoriaZ

Went through each stone material and adjusted them to feel more harmonious with each other, adding a slight warmth and color variation. And I added the foliage  

ThisisVictoriaZ

Started replacing grey box models with real and textures assets! Feeling super happy with how this is looking now with all of the adjustments I made before

ThisisVictoriaZ

More progress! I replaced the background grey box with real meshes, I plan on having a camera angle where you can see farther back, and I did some more modelling too

Vastra

Looking really good overall, the lighting and mood are working great, especially the sunlight coming through the beams and vines. 

One small thing that stood out to me: the step in the foreground feels a bit too smooth/curved compared to the rest of the stonework. It might just be me, but since the scene leans more toward that structured, carved Númenor style, maybe sharpening that edge or giving it a slightly more cut-stone feel could help it blend better.

Really strong progress!

ThisisVictoriaZ

@Vastra Thank you, and I really appreciate your feedback! Ill look into how I can adjust my mesh to get a more realistic stone feeling to the steps, might be that I need to sculpt them a little in zbrush 

ThisisVictoriaZ

Props and doors!

ThisisVictoriaZ

Having fun now  replaced all the grey box, have a couple more things to model and then ill move on to adding some decals on the walls and ground

ThisisVictoriaZ

Making more progress! Started adding decals to the different areas and working on some buildings for the far background, loving how this is looking so far

Eric Chadwick

This is great, love seeing the progress on this!

One thing I think could help is to do a bit of color grading, to recapture some of that softness from the concept... reduce the mid tone saturation, and pull up the black point. Here's a quickie animated GIF

ThisisVictoriaZ

@Eric Chadwick Thank you! Im having alot of fun messing with this, especially at this stage where everything is really coming together visually. Also yes that gif is super helpful! Ill mess around with how I can get a similar effect with my post processing next time I work on this! 

ThisisVictoriaZ

Calling this one done!! Check it out https://www.artstation.com/artwork/kNA2z2

Thank you to everyone who has commented and encouraged me, you guys are the best