The final Environment, The Quiet Clearing.

https://youtu.be/uZBNsd4At9Y – Link to Video.

Beauty shots

Reflection

I was very happy with how this environment turned out as it was my first time attempting something like this and I went into it with a clear vision of what I had in mind and was able to put that into Unreal.

I particularly feel I did well with the house as I liked using the foliage brush since it made the decaying element of my environment pop, I liked that it added a lot of shadow and mystery to the whole piece.

One thing I would do more of if I had to improve this would be to make the terrain a bit rougher as its something I wasn’t too happy with when making it but I didn’t want to focus too much on it due to time constraints so I just used the camera angles to my advantage and put the focus more on the building and centerpiece.

If I had chosen another theme, for example, the sci-fi theme I was originally wanting to do I feel that I would have used a lot of lighting aspects that I used with this environment as sci-fi and horror go hand in hand, but I would have made it a lot different and brought in more modern assets.

Asset list

HDRI Backdrop:

Zaal, G. (2020) Dikhololo Night Hdri • poly haven, Poly Haven. Available at: https://polyhaven.com/a/dikhololo_night (Accessed: 29 July 2023).

House: Assets from Quixel Bridge using an assortment of assets from Dekogon Studios

Dekogon Studios (2022) Old west vol. 6 – town and industrial in props – UE marketplace, Unreal Engine. Available at: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/old-west-vol-6-town-and-industrial (Accessed: 29 July 2023). 

Dekogon Studios (2022) Old west – vol 5 – town props in props – UE marketplace, Unreal Engine. Available at: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/item/614097b701354f87a37c0778487eec56 (Accessed: 29 July 2023).

Trees:

Project Nature (2020) Temperate vegetation: Spruce Forest in props – UE marketplace, Unreal Engine. Available at: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/item/d68b8eae94a648a68659d1204b8934a8 (Accessed: 29 July 2023). 

Quixel Megascans (2020) Megascans – pine essentials in Megascans – UE Marketplace, Unreal Engine. Available at: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/item/1ef0448674e14332915f196303fda49a (Accessed: 29 July 2023). 

Foliage: 3D plant assets from Quixel Bridge

Props: lots of props from Quixel bridge but used:

Marshall, W. (2015) Arch vis polish pack #2 in Architectural Visualization – UE Marketplace, Unreal Engine. Available at: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/arch-vis-polish-pack-01 (Accessed: 29 July 2023).

Music:

Fazzeri, G. (2022) Inside serial killer’s cove – thriller horror music – loopable – pixabay. Available at: https://pixabay.com/music/horror-scene-inside-serial-killerx27s-cove-thriller-horror-music-loopable-15384/ (Accessed: 30 July 2023).