UE4 Fantasy enviroment - feedback needed
Hello everyone! I'm trying to create environment from 23rd noob challenge concept thread. I need a feedback, because whatever I do, it's getting worse and worse. I'm stuck. Scene is modeled in Maya and completed in UE4. Scene is in big BSP box for better control of shadows and lighting. Thanks for feedback.
Concept:
My images:
Concept:
My images:
Replies
If you are stuck, go back and study the concept, then make a list of everything you see and write an asset list. Don't know if you have any other concepts, but those could help with details as well. (http://goo.gl/EC2pwS)
I'm noticing that the foliage detail will be key in this piece. Most of the foreground detail is vines, mushrooms, multi-colored plants, and such. It also seems to cover everything else (roof, house, trees, etc). It would be a necessary layer of detail for everything if you could make 5-10 nice (small) foliage assets and repeat them with instanced materials.
I think you have the right idea with lighting. I would suggest making one nice canopy mesh/alpa. Honestly one canopy and your existing tree meshes will be enough. Just duplicate and scale them, or deform them to create the forest around the house. dozens of trees and a thick tealish heightfog volume will give you the effect in the concept. I would eventually get rid of the container or expand it, and position the canopy meshes to create the circular lighting in the focal.
Vegetation brakdown (WIP):
Moss shader:
I did some mushrooms for the scene. I'll use the color changing shader I was talking before. I'm using alpha channel for color mask. I don't have the shader yet, so I faked desired effect in Blender.
Effect:
UE shot:
Edit:
I uploaded it on Sketchfab:
[SKETCHFAB]99e2b2d25b044affa621aacdf73da1db[/SKETCHFAB]
I added an plant to my scene. I'm not happy with the result, so I'll work on it more. I also deleted BSP box and adjusted fog. Terrain resolution is now increased. I played with the camera angle, so now it look better.
Terrain: Don't know where you are with the terrain shape, but I would 'shape' the terrain a bit more. It suffers from being too flat in the moment (in the foreground specifically). Try pulling up the terrain where the trees sit (forming an upward cone around the base of the trees). Also, I see a bit of a dip in the middle between the trees. You could dramatize it a bit for better framing/foreground composition. (it is fantasy after all). I outlined some shapes below:
Look into using the foliage tool to 'paint' your foliage/rock models around the terrain/scene when the time comes.
Also, giving your terrain materials a full suite of height/bump/reflectance maps will add depth to the floor as well.
I'm back with new update. I modified the terrain slightly. I also added new flower. I'm able to change it's color. It's black in viewport, but when I switch to game mode it has defined color because of blueprint I used. I tried to sculpt some stone, but it looked more like crystal.
Flower:
Check out this resource for sculpting rocks:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/EnvironmentSculpting#Rock_and_Stone
There are some useful rock generation scripts for Maya/Max that might help you
Can't wait to see the final result
You could experiment by downloading a 'wet oils' style brushes for photoshop (like this one) and paint a set of ground textures to get a look close to the concept (painterly)
[ame]
(don't forget part 2..)
It's long, but worth every minute!
Edit: Oh, I forget my new stone try. I created procedural stone shape and then sculpted it. I used morph target to get back to original shape.