WIP - Desert Communication Relay – Environment Scene
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! 
Replies
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.
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.
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:
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
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!