Been having fun slowly knocking out assets here and there to help fill the scene up! Most updates this time around are focused on the kitchen with a few pots and utensils and sink being fleshed out.

In addition to the kitchen assets, I did some sculpting work to add some wrinkles and normal information to the couch and chairs as well as giving them rough textures to start getting a sense of the colors I want to use in the space.

Finally, I wanted to have fun doing something a bit different that I havent tackled before and thought itd be fun to do some fun 50s book parodies to fill out my scene and provide some easter eggs to make myself laugh 😁 This included taking the same book model and copying it 9 times and then filling up a single texture sheet with the 9 unique book covers while stacking the side UV shells and having the page edge texture be shared by all models. I then took to Photoshop to start doodling out the book cover while referencing the original books I wanted to parody, even down to putting myself as the author on the back of one book! A silly little addition but it was a very fun on.

Still having a lot of fun with this environment! Check back for updates soon :)

Cheers!

Bray

A couple days ago I stumbled across a couple assets I made that I intended to turn into a sort of vignette story but had sadly forgotten about that project. I decided to take the couple assets I had and turn it into a larger scene in Unreal to test lighting the majority of an interior with indirect lighting from a directional light through a window.

What I have found is that Lumen GI is amazing at adding depth and richness to the light and shadow of an environment, but because it seems to be tied to screen space in some way, if you rely solely on indirect lighting, your scene will be noisy AND sometimes dips into darkness if Unreal stops calculating bounce lighting from an off-screen surface. It's been a great way to learn a new workflow utilizing UE5's new tools and learning both their strengths and weaknesses.

A specific challenge I am hoping to tackle in this scene is storytelling and providing a solid sense of scale. Already I've had trouble nailing down the size of interiors from the 50s and have had to rescale parts of my scene once or twice to make it feel right.

Saturday Morning Cartoons with Adam West's Batman

This is my favorite focal point so far. There is much more I can still add to the scene with more pictures on the wall, pillows for the couch, maybe some magezines (etc) but I think it has a solid foundation so far!

Lil Brekky Bar

Excited to stock this pantry full of old cans and boxes :D Also gonna need a coffee spill decal or two for that counter! ;)

AROUND THE PERIMETER: A BARRIER, CREATE.

IIIIIIIT'S ALIIIIIIVE!!

Hey there and welcome to update #2 for our Desert Research Station!

I once again want to plug that I've been working on a majority of this environment over on Twitch. Come say hi and see things progressing!

Since the last update, I think the composition and the way forward have become so much clearer! We also have foliage which adds a lot of depth and sense of scale to the scene.

Where we were just throwing things at the wall to see what stuck before, NOW is the time to take all that leftover gunk plastered to the wall and begin crafting it into our final pièce de résistance! Maybe not the most appealing of images but that's not gonna stop our way forward ;)

I believe that a big part of an exciting environment is to have multiple points of interest that all cohesively fit together to tell a story. It's definitely fantastic to have your establishing shots that are compositionally sound, as pictured above, but beyond that it's important to zoom in and give your scene vitality by setting up slice-of-life dioramas around the scene that peel back the layers and give it purpose and history.

Here are some of such dioramas I've started to cultivate!

POWER GRID

I've added an array of solar panels and accompanying power lines that start to create a self-contained power grid for the electrical needs of the entire outpost. I can add more panels later and I also wanted to play with potential wind turbine designs that could add some movement to the otherwise static scene (except for some subtle wind in the foliage.) The use of power lines to carry electricity around will allow me to add lots of fine detail to the scene with lots of cables strewn about and different circuit boxes and detail bits on the powerline poles. Cables and pipes are a quick way to add some complexity and depth to a pretty flat and boxy base!

MOTOR POOL / MECHANIC GARAGE

I want to create a motor pool that will be available for storing and fixing up vehicles (the current blockout model for the vehicle is rough, I know. That will be updated in time!) Eventually the garage door pictured here will be swung open and I can start fleshing out a small interior scene with tools, jerry cans and mechanical parts.

COURTYARD

I want the 'courtyard' of the outpost to be reserved as a sort of unofficial loading dock. I haven't yet fleshed out some parts of the story like how resources/materials are arriving at this base or how many people are working/being stationed here but I am toying with the idea of making a main thoroughfare that passes by the base that a hypothetical truck could haul in supplies by. Maybe there is also some kind of crane vehicle that can move bigger shipping containers around the loading bay?

Eventually I will need to create some foundation for this station because I imagine it would not be realistic for this much weight to just be sitting atop some loose sand.. Some big slabs of concrete would allow for some cool details including wear/tear and cracks, extra grass/foliage growing in those cracks to give some age to this outpost and show that maybe its been here a while and decals that be used to denote loading bays and other important information.

HYDROPONICS DOME

I'm super excited about this particular part of the scene because it will be a chance to add some really rich, green colors that are otherwise mostly absent in our arid desert scene! The idea here is that the dome acts as a greenhouse that allows the scientists to cultivate plants and crops for food, and to generate and collect oxygen and store it in O2 tanks for breathing. This idea came when the scene was meant to be more alien, other-worldly and remote. I was operating under the story that there wouldn't be a breathable atmosphere but It's possible the landscape now feels too familiar to a sort of Colorado/Arizona which might not sell that impression in the way I want it to. Work in progress :)

This part of the scene in particular will also be extra challenging for me and a huge chance to level up my foliage skills so Im very excited!

NEXT STEPS!

Now that the composition is starting to come along nicely, it will be time to start messing with the nitty gritty details like doing secondary and tertiary passes on models, FINALLY start slapping some materials on them (including creating a POM decal material and trim sheet to add some extra depth and detail to the flatter areas) adding particle effects like dust clouds to give the scene movement and adding some REAL skysphere elements to replace our current, shoddy stand-ins! There is a lot to be done, still and the only way forward is to take it one step at a time!

Thanks for sticking with me :)
-Bray

Twitch.tv/braybeard for livestream project sessions

Space is the place to get a little gritty!

Hey all! Over the last two weeks, I've started to tackle a new UE4 environment project while streaming most of it on Twitch!

This station needs a name eventually but that will come with time :) Currently just messing with some word vomit to find something I like. Solanoct Station (night sun), Fort Volos (Slavic god of earth, waters and the underworld).

Here are the latest renders as of 3/15/2021 where I just recently did a big overhaul of the lighting, included some volumetric fog and assembled more meshes to fill the space up!

Main wide-angle composition

Alternate Angle #1

Alternate Angle #2

The point of this environment for me is to finally apply all the hypothetical UE4 and shader knowledge I've acquired here and there through online tutorials and bits of work on other projects. I am having a lot of fun developing the concept as I go and messing with composition and lighting heavily to get the tone I am going for!

I didn't jump into this project with one cohesive concept to work from but rather an assembled mood/vision board of concepts, colors, styles and environments I wanted to toy with.

Concept Board

Here are a few miscellaneous screenshots from the first couple weeks of development. Let's see how far we can take this environment!

Hey all! Just wanted to post with an update on something new I've started recently. I don't really have any stylized or organic pieces on my ArtStation and wanted to tackle both in a new project!

These are the concepts I am working from, created by concept artist Anna Vinokurova

Here is what I have so far:

Hey friends! I wanted to share a look at my current project environment I am creating in UE4. The goal of this Western environment is to have 5 or 6 solid compositions throughout the environment that tell a story. The main focal point of the scene will be a train that has been derailed in an attempt at a jailbreak after it crashes into the local jail.

The environment is meant to be a small lumber mill outpost somewhere in Montana, set some time around the end of the 1800s.

(Water shader is basically just a reflective plane atm, want to experiment with depth and translucency later)

My biggest focus for this environment will be on storytelling. I am hoping to improve a lot of my workflow in UE4 with this project including material creation, foliage and environment lighting.