[UE4] Environment: Enchanted Forest

jan_mentzel · Nov 2016

Hey, over the last month or so i was working on an organic ue4 environment to push myself to learn some new techniques. I learned a lot of new stuff (tessellated materials, Color look up table, creating atmosphere with different fogs, environment sculpting, procedural texturing, vegetation).
I tried to push myself to my limits so i would really appreciate some feedback.

Here is the art station with a fly through video:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/QNnqL

Final Still:

Lighting:

Image: https://cdnb1.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/878/333/large/jan-mentzel-lighting.jpg?1478169105

Dorian_Harker · Nov 2016

Awesome stuff!
From what you could improve - these stone butresses look a little weird to me. With that kind of texture, they would fall apart.

Larger stones are usually used for this, something like this:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Arch_voussoirs.svg/400px-Arch_voussoirs.svg.png
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/524caae9e4b09f24d1064139/t/5264c4f4e4b0469f698b299e/1432004895534/IMG_3916.JPG?format=1000w
The texture looks like it's made for a wall (and bricks are curved). Pretty small detail, everything else is badass as for me. Love the god rays.
From philosophical standpoint, I feel like your scale is almost microscopic here. It's not very practical if we're talking about games/movies. These assets you created here can be easily used for much larger space.

jan_mentzel · Nov 2016

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, those two made me struggle a lot. I started from this reference, but i didn't like the very sharp design so i tried to round them off a bit more. I didn't like the mix of small unorganized pieces with a super sharp edge. I think even the reference looks like it should not exist like that

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/7x/3moulza0f8bc.jpg

hmm_rock · Nov 2016

Very lovely! Great colors and mood. I'd be interested to see the large tree on the left in more detail. I'm guessing its tessellated? The water shader looks a little matte/textured. I would expect still shallow puddles to be glossier.

Saaamoth · Nov 2016

This is very cool, is the mud/ground material procedural?

jan_mentzel · Nov 2016

Yeah the puddles are a bit of an issue. I did them with layer painting on the landscape and i always had some bleed.I have to look into proper setup of a puddle shader that controls the bleed.

jan_mentzel · Nov 2016

Saaamoth said:

This is very cool, is the mud/ground material procedural?

No, i just started using substance designer and that is a bit beyond my capabilities (yet).
Its a tiling material created in megascan studio, mixed from several ground, leaf, mud and water materials.

Saaamoth · Nov 2016

Okay thanks

jan_mentzel · Nov 2016

Hey i worked on my puddles as it was one of the major critique points. They look more realistic now but a little less moody.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/n8/twqrrmzeys2x.jpg

stilobique · Nov 2016

Awesome ! Your lighting are really good, it's a static lighting ? Try to add a simple vertex animation to your foliage.

jan_mentzel · Nov 2016

stilobique said:

Awesome ! Your lighting are really good, it's a static lighting ? Try to add a simple vertex animation to your foliage.

No its all dynamic. I have it on some ferns, but on the grass it was creating a bit to much noise in my opinion.

hmm_rock · Nov 2016

jan_mentzel said:

Hey i worked on my puddles as it was one of the major critique points. They look more realistic now but a little less moody.

I agree you lose a bit of the mood, the bloom has a nice dreamy effect. It's up to you which to go with, it's still a strong piece with the more realistic water. Maybe you can find a happy medium between the two. Or maybe push the dust mote particles or god rays a bit further to make up for it.

Michael Rosa · Nov 2016

This is awesome stuff @jan_mentzel

I'm wondering if the area with the steps has a ceiling? If it does, then I think the lighting so be darker in there and you can transition your light for a mood. Create and area of focus with a bit of mystery.

jan_mentzel · Nov 2016

Michael Rosa said:

This is awesome stuff @jan_mentzel

I'm wondering if the area with the steps has a ceiling? If it does, then I think the lighting so be darker in there and you can transition your light for a mood. Create and area of focus with a bit of mystery.

There is a very short ceiling. In the video you can see that there is another environment behind it.

Sharur · Nov 2016

Very nice work. Love the colors and the mood.
I would work a little bit more on those columns. They are way too round.

Tomiajayi · Nov 2016

jan_mentzel said:

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, those two made me struggle a lot. I started from this reference, but i didn't like the very sharp design so i tried to round them off a bit more. I didn't like the mix of small unorganized pieces with a super sharp edge. I think even the reference looks like it should not exist like that

Yep. everyone would think you just modeled it that way because you can't make proper bevels, haha.
Silly real life

Nicorepe · Nov 2016

Really cool lighting man, good work.

Acrlixe · Nov 2016

This looks really cool, some one can correct me if I am wrong, I find the god rays look kind of off, wouldn't you only get an effect like that if you were looking towards the sun, the shadows suggest its behind the camera. Just something I noticed really good mood though!

[UE4] Environment: Enchanted Forest

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