Daniel Mortensen - Rookies 2024

Forgotten Forest environment

Inspired by games like sons of the forest, i wanted to create an open world environment of a big overgrown forest with ruines from a a lost civilization

For my project my main focus was on learning and getting better at creating foliage, trying out workflows and techniques, as well as to create a world that feels like it has alot of life and story. 

All assets are made by me, with the texturemaps for the foliage downloaded from Quixel Bridge (megascans)

I made sure to make the environment in a way so that you as the player can walk around and explore. And to show that i created this quick found footage type cinematic

Assets/ modelling in Maya and sculpted in Zbrush, textures created in Substance Painter, decals/ atlas in photoshop, ground materials in Substance designer, foliage in Maya and Speedtree and the enviornment is set up and rendered in Unreal Engine.

To add more detail and life to the scene, while helping to hide some flaws in the texture maps for some assets i created decails for mud and moss that i scattered around the scene, as well as some lights with the same maps to help show of some models and again add more life to the scene.

Research and references

Making of the scene

Abandoned dentist-office 

The idea behind the diorama is that i wanted to make a horror scene look visually nice and comfy while still having an uneasy aura to it.

I spent a lot of time focusing on the lighting and colours of the scene trying to get a look that feels right, and same with the models with rounded edges and "clean" textures

Research and references

Achieving a good diorama requires good lighting. Color choices must work with the chosen style while helping set the desired mood. 

The making of the diorama

Summary

All in all i am happy with my projects, there is things that could be better, and changes/ fixes that can be made to improve both projects. Both projects are from my time studying my last year at University of South Wales, and i am now finally stepping into the industry where i will keep improving and building on to my portfolio.

Thank you so much for taking your time to look at my projects :)