Windmill

Stylized Environment in Unreal Engine.

This is my final project for school where we had a total of 7 weeks to research, test, produce and write a blog post about a specific subject. I wanted to explore how texturing is used efficiently when it comes to creating environments for games. Efficiency regarding performance as well as production. I also wanted to become more versed in Unreal Engine.

When I started this project I had been doing 3D for 10 months. Everything in the scene is created by me, from scratch. The concept is made by Blake Wood.

Prep work

I wanted the scene to have a Ghibli and Zelda like feel so I browsed Artstation for concepts.

I found a concept where I felt I could utilize all the different texturing techniques, then I colored in areas where the different texturing techniques would be used.

This was a great way of making it seem not too overwhelming and getting some early structure as to where to start.

Textures

When the prep work was done I started reading and watching a bunch of tutorials about Substance Designer. Then I jumped straight in and started to experiment with the first iterations. The texturing process was a back and forth between Substance Designer and Unreal to ensure the desired looks.

Tiling Textures

Made in Substance Designer

Trim Sheets

Made in Substance Designer.

Foliage Atlas

Sculpted in Zbrush, then baked and textured in Substance Designer. I added some extra details in Photoshop to get a more painterly look.

Modular kits

After the block out in Unreal was done, I started modeling the pieces. I used a modular approach when creating the pieces to give them more reusability.

Extra

The texturing on the windmill is made with texture blending in Unreal. I made a setup that utilizes the height map. Then added a Blueprint with a RotatingMovement component for the blades. And a final touch was to give the fabric cloth simulation to give an even more windy impression.

To make the scene come alive I learned some basic vfx (falling leaves, smoke, wind streams), made a custom skybox, fog cards, wind shaders, clouds and birds.

Thanks for watching!

This was the first time I got the opportunity to explore the whole spectrum of what I enjoy most when it comes to creating game art. The different techniques were real game changers when it came to speeding up production time and maximizing performance. Now I have a clearer understanding as to how, when and where one could utilize the techniques explored.

The biggest gains were getting into Substance Designer and working in Unreal Engine, such cool tools for creating environments. 

It was a challenging task to create everything in 7 weeks, including rendering and writing, but I feel that every moment of it was valuable.