I just concluded my Environment Art for Games course at CGMA. During the course I gained an introduction to ZBrush sculpting, baking high to low poly workflow, asset gym workflow, Unreal shader organization, and baking cards for vegetation. When choosing the concept I wanted to challenge myself, so I selected one that was larger and had organic props such as rocks, trees, bushes, etc. since I had little experience working with nature. I liked the concept since it reminded me of the world of Pandora from Avatar and Sumeru from Genshin Impact.

Blockout

The blockout was pretty straightforward, just blocking in the large shapes and getting an overall look at the silhouette/composition. I made the blockout by eye, though I used a 6ft human model for scale reference.

Asset Gym

I was introduced to the asset gym workflow for the first time, breaking down the scene into individual parts. While modularity wasn't a focus, I realized that this approach would be essential to any larger studio production as asset reuse would be likely due to project scale. I started off with a markup of the concept, deciding what parts would have a modkit workflow, a tileable texture, etc., and adjusted my approach as I started creating the modkit.

Modeling/Sculpting

I used ZBrush for the first time and learned how to use decimation for the low poly before baking the high poly down in Substance Painter.

The giant tree was a big of a challenge to achieve a natural look while maintaining the shape/silhouette I wanted. I referenced elm trees for this sculpt.

Texturing

I visited Substance Designer for the first time, making basic textures from scratch including a stained glass, wood plank, and tree bark texture.

Foliage

For vegetation, I learned a modular workflow to creating branches, flowers, grass clumps, etc. by modeling a simple component (e.g. a leaf, flower petal, grass blade) and populating a flat space. I then baked the models onto a flat card in Substance Painter before bringing it back to Blender and optimizing the geometry for transparency, followed by duplicating and arranging the cards as I saw fit to achieve the 3d effect.

Lighting, Mood, and Effects

After bringing everything into Unreal, I started adjusting the lighting and effects. I opted to stick primarily with basic things such as the ExponentialHeightFog, Skylight, Directional Light, and BP_Skysphere. At my instructor's suggestion, I created a nighttime variation of my scene to get more interesting lighting scenarios. I went in and light painted with spotlights and pointlights to brighten certain areas that were too dark with the default lighting. The nighttime scene was fun to light paint since its effects were much more noticeable.

I added in a simple smoke using a NiagaraEmitter as well as a waterfall using several water NiagaraEmitters. To give the scene more dynamic movement, I reimported the banners, curtains, and lampstand banners as Skeletal Meshes which I then converted to basic cloth simulations so they would flow in the wind. I used a SimpleGrassWind for the grass, flowers, and tree branches to complement this as well.

Camera Angles/Rendering

At first, I set up my camera angles to captured as much of the scene as possible, including close up shots. However, after feedback from my instructor, I opted to have broader shots that captured the dynamic elements (waterfall, chimney smoke, banner waving). This also applied to the renders, in which I made a simple pan and zoom across the overall structure, as well as a short pan around the side for variety.

Takeaways

Overall, I am very satisfied with my progress and learning experience for the course. I added several new workflows to my knowledge base, learned how to make detailed vegetation while keeping it performance-optimized, learned how to use light painting to my advantage to enhance the composition and focus on my strongest elements. I tackled organic geometry while learning new methods in ZBrush, and became exposed to the strengths and versatility of texture creation in Substance Designer.

Many thanks to Peyton Varney for teaching the course and providing feedback!