WIP Environment Scene – Feedback Needed (Lighting / Foliage / Composition)

rafiii

Hello everyone,

This is my first completed environment scene in Unreal Engine, and I’m looking for honest and detailed feedback to understand what I should improve going forward.

I’m still early in learning environment art, so I would really appreciate critique that focuses on fundamentals like lighting, composition, and scene readability rather than advanced polish.

I used a concept as the main guide for the composition and layout.

Any critique is highly appreciated—especially technical breakdowns rather than general impressions.

Eric Chadwick

Kudos for getting it to this stage, I like the composition as it is. I think the lighting could use some more work. Overall your scene is very dark, and some of the trees are almost clipping to black.

Here's a hint... you can do post-processing very easily in Unreal to boost colors and even do some tinting. This is just Levels, but you could also boost the warmth of the scene. It think it would be a great exercise for you to tweak your lighting to match the levels and overall image tone of the concept art.

Noren

Looking promising.
Note how in the concept, the bright yellow leaves at the top merge with the light background to open up the frame (could perhaps be argued if they are necessary at all).
In your version, they are on a dark background and the brightest thing in the picture, drawing the attention away from your subject. 

rafiii

Noren said:

Looking promising.
Note how in the concept, the bright yellow leaves at the top merge with the light background to open up the frame (could perhaps be argued if they are necessary at all).
In your version, they are on a dark background and the brightest thing in the picture, drawing the attention away from your subject. 

Thanks, that’s really helpful. As a beginner, I’m trying to understand value hierarchy better—when something in the background becomes too visually dominant like this, should I mainly tone it down, or is it better practice to strengthen the focal point first?

rafiii

Eric Chadwick said:

Kudos for getting it to this stage, I like the composition as it is. I think the lighting could use some more work. Overall your scene is very dark, and some of the trees are almost clipping to black.

Here's a hint... you can do post-processing very easily in Unreal to boost colors and even do some tinting. This is just Levels, but you could also boost the warmth of the scene. It think it would be a great exercise for you to tweak your lighting to match the levels and overall image tone of the concept art.

Thanks for taking the time to look at it. I'll work on the lighting and post-processing. If you don't mind, could you point out a few specific areas that stand out the most when compared to the concept? That would help me prioritize what to fix first.

Noren

Both, I guess. 
But specifally in this case, the gate itself does seem to have about the right values, while the background doesn't. 
In the concept, the gate is a dark silhouette against the lighter background filled with yellow fog / volume light, and the darker background and colder, but especially weaker fog in your case causes the opposite effect for both the gate and the leaves (it hides the sillhouette of the gate and emphasizes the silhouette of the leaves). Also, it almost seems like you have lit the leaves in the front separately.

While the effect from the concept will slightly shift while you walk through the scene, the pattern should repeat itself. The leaves form an equally bright canopy over the path/stairs and are lit throughout. That might require some (fake if necessary) translucency.
They and the fog (which you maybe have to set locally, but it might also just about work) block out the dark conifers in the central background.

The sun seems ot shine towards us from a top right direction.

Of course, you don't have to copy the lighting in the concept, but at the very least you'll have to decide what to do with the leaves.