WIP - Desert Communication Relay – Environment Scene

Vastra

Hey everyone, starting a new environment project and wanted to share the process. 

The scene will be a small-scale desert communication relay setup, focused on a contained area (~25x25m) with a strong focal point and clear composition.

For this project, I’m focusing on improving a few key areas:

• Stone sculpting and organic forms
• High to low poly workflow and baking
• LOD creation and performance-aware asset design
  
  

The environment is inspired by Utah desert and canyon landscapes. The setup will remain minimal and functional, avoiding large structures or heavy narrative elements to keep the focus on asset quality and composition.

Lighting will be simple and controlled, using a clear daytime setup with calm conditions to maintain a focused scope.

Planned assets include:

• Communication dish / antenna (hero asset)
• Power unit / generator
• Supporting elements such as cables and control units
• Sculpted rock formations and a plateau-based terrain

I’ll be starting with blockout and layout, then moving into asset creation and sculpting.

Here are my current references on my PureRef board, along with an initial AI-assisted concept sketch.

Feedback and any ideas are very welcome! 

sarayel

Desert and Hard surface. My favourite subjects. Refs for generator shows standart modern thing while concept is more Scifi. Which direction you are planing to go?

Vastra

Good point, early on I was considering a more stylized / slightly sci-fi (Martian) direction.
But I’ve since shifted toward a grounded, real-world approach, leaning into a Utah canyon environment.

The goal now is to keep the assets believable and based on real equipment, and focus more on composition and atmosphere.

An updated board with more references, as well as some more concept sketches.

Vastra

Short update:

Currently working on some hard surface sculpting, focusing on rocks and rock formations for this environment.

Here are a couple of the pieces so far. I’ve been aiming for shapes that feel structured and work well within the scene.

Feedback is always appreciated, especially on shape language and readability. 

Vastra

Sculpting update:

Been refining these rock sculpts and focusing on making them feel like they belong to the same environment.

Lately I’ve been thinking more in terms of layering and silhouette, pushing bigger shapes, reducing noise, and making sure each piece still feels like part of the same rock family.

Working from real-world reference really helps with this. It’s pretty obvious when something feels “off”, so the goal has been to make these feel more grounded and believable.

Still more to push, but happy with the progress so far. These are my four primary rock assets:

Eric Chadwick

I like the variations, but the mid-level shapes are looking all a bit blobby, compared to your refs.


I think you could be better served by using lower-poly meshes, with tiled textures and multi-texture blending. I'm reminded of Anthony Vaccaro's work on Uncharted 3, for example.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rZAvJ


See also this informative info from The Last Of Us
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Terrain_in_The_Last_Of_Us

Vastra

Thanks for the feedback and the great references, really appreciate it. @Eric Chadwick 

You’re right about the mid-level shapes feeling a bit blobby, I went back in and focused on cleaning up the forms, defining planes more clearly, and adding sharper breaks between layers. Also pushed the silhouettes a bit more and tried to reduce some of the noise.

New screenshots, from Blender:

I also found some really helpful ArtStation references that reinforced the layered sandstone look I’m aiming for.

Still room to improve, but this pass feels more structured and closer to the direction I want.

Appreciate the feedback!

Vastra

Here’s another update for this week. 

I’ve spent some time iterating on the rocks, with the goal of making them feel like they belong to the same environment. I focused on keeping a consistent shape language and making them read as if they were formed from the same type of rock, inspired by my reference. The idea was to have them feel like fractured slabs that naturally fit together.

At this stage, no materials have been applied yet, but the sculpting and modeling phase is now complete.

I've also been working on the main hard surface assets for the scene. The generator, the VSAT satellite dish, and a cable connection point for heavy industrial cables.

I’ve started bringing assets into Unreal. For baking, I focused on the primary hero assets (the generator and VSAT dish), while the rocks were optimized into low poly versions and integrated directly into the scene.

So far everything is coming together well. Next step will be moving into the material phase, while continuing to refine the terrain and landscape work in Unreal.

Some screenshots:

And here is a tiny sneak peek from Unreal. Just moving the assets in there. The cube is the default size cube, 1x1, for reference.

Vastra

Another update.

I’ve now moved into the material phase and started working on a first pass in Substance Painter, using my low poly rock assets.

Right now I’m focusing on establishing a solid base, studying reference closely to get a more believable balance between exposed rock, wear, and surface variation.

This is still an early pass, so I’m mainly trying to get the overall read working before pushing further detail. The goal is a sandstone canyon cliff.

I would really appreciate another set of eyes on this, especially in terms of material definition and readability. 

And here are the references I'm using:

Eric Chadwick

Good start. But you need to get those horizontal striations in there. Right now your rock textures just read as semi-random noise, rather than the geological structure of sedimentary layering as seen in your references. It's actually a really cool process, how these types of rocks formed over time! https://www.nps.gov/piro/learn/nature/geologicformations.htm

Eric Chadwick

Also, if you're baking a normal map from those high-resolution sculpts, then it would make sense for you to sculpt the striations into those. 

Another reason to consider using tiled textures, instead of sculpting unique whole-rock normal maps.

What's the current texture resolution you're using for each rock?

Vastra

Thanks, I really appreciate the detailed feedback!  @Eric Chadwick

You're absolutely right about the striations, that’s something I’ve been working on improving. My initial pass relied too much on surface noise, so now I’m focusing on introducing broader, more directional layering to better match sedimentary formation.

I did try sculpting the striations into the high poly, but found it a bit tricky to control cleanly, so I’m currently experimenting with building them up in Substance using layered masks and height/roughness variation. I might revisit sculpting once I refine the look.

As for tiling, I’m sticking with unique bakes for now since it’s a small set of hero rocks, but I can definitely see the value in a tiling workflow for larger environments.

Currently working at 2K per asset, but I’ve been testing 4K for the more prominent rocks to hold up at closer distances.

Thanks again, super helpful feedback. 

Eric Chadwick

Sure thing! Make sure to get those rocks mashed into your terrain sooner, rather than later. Quick paintover...



Blockout is super important for figuring out what kind of rocks you actually need, and which you don't, plus any different kinds of rock assets you wish you had!

Vastra

Hi everyone, here's a brief lighting update. 

Been spending quite a bit of time tweaking the lighting lately, mainly adjusting the sun angle and experimenting with different moods for the canyon environment.

It’s interesting how much the entire scene changes just from relatively small adjustments. Some setups looked good initially, but once I sat with them for a while they either felt too flat, too warm, or the focal points started getting lost.

Right now I’m aiming for a harsher desert light while still keeping the VSAT dish and generator setup visually grounded within the environment.

I’ve also begun applying materials as an early pass, but nothing is final yet and I’m still iterating quite a bit.

Still iterating, but I think it’s moving in a stronger direction now. The scene is the same in all three images, but the sun angle (or sun elevation) changes between them.

Vastra

Another update for this week 

All images below are directly from Unreal Engine.

Over the last couple of days I’ve been focusing heavily on refining details throughout the environment, especially terrain variation, material breakup, and overall cohesion. I’ve also been adjusting the horizon and surrounding landscape to help the environment feel more grounded and believable from wider viewing angles.

Most of the recent work has been centered around the rocks, mesas, and terrain surfaces. I spent quite a bit of time iterating on the rock formations to make them feel like they belong to the same geological environment.

I’ve also continued refining the hard surface assets, mainly the generator and VSAT dish, and working on how they sit within the landscape.

Another thing I’ve been experimenting with is the landscape painting setup. Right now I have four primary terrain layers/materials that I’m testing and blending together to help break up repetition and add more natural variation across the ground surfaces.

These four all look quite similar, with the exception of nr 2 and 3. Number 3 is one I've been experimenting placing under the more distant rock formations.

I’ve included a few close-up shots as well, particularly of the terrain and decals, since a lot of the recent work has been focused on smaller surface details and material transitions.

Still a lot of iteration happening, but things are gradually starting to come together.

There is still plenty left to refine, but the current focus is mainly:

• Refining materials and surface breakup
• Lighting adjustments (sun angle/intensity)
• Landscape painting and terrain variation
• Storytelling and micro details
• Dirt buildup and decal work
• Horizon line and surrounding landscape cleanup
• Atmospheric depth and scene cohesion
  
  Any feedback is always welcome and appreciated.