The vision for this project was a peaceful lake environment. There’s a spiritual element to the environment with the giant goddess statue, the altars and signs of worship scattered around.
Breakdown of the scene
Interior scene
first moodboard
first rough blockout, establish how the player traverses the level
adjust composition and leading lines
greybox
adjust composition so focal point is immediately visible
first assets going in
tileable ground materials, custom skybox, water shader
adjusting light values and assets
getting closer to the initial mood of the concept
Exterior scene
got rid of custom skybox, replaced with unreal's clouds and lighting system
initial landscape: combined real life height textures from Scotland from tangram with the landmass blueprint brushed to get this result
overdraws and greybox
separated the levels and set up levelstreaming for optimisation
filling in some of the blanks
made a landscape material that blends 3 materials based on the slope
adjusted cloud, colour grading and assets to get closed to the mood i'm going for
made water shader more readable, and have the waves affect not only the refraction but also the normal map
adding some trees
added rubble to indicate where the player can go
overdraws pt.1
overdraws pt.2
overdraws pt.3
overdraws pt.4
overhauled clouds, lighting, composition, colour grading in order to get closer to the concept
separated the post process volumes for added readability
added extra layer to vertex painting material to be able to paint in puddles
added camera blocking volumes to aid transitions and rubble and scree assets to insinuate the degradation of the environment
adjusted composition
added fog to enhance the transition between water and forest
added life to the scene: birds, movement to the ferns, moving underwater plants, warping fog cards and extra sound integration
Overhaul interior scene
initial scene
adjusted asset use and leading lines
adjusted colour grading and readability
background of interior scene
adjusted transition between water and land
added more levelblocks to interact with the game animation sample, which spiralled into adding a new way to get to the lake
player paths
added statue for worship
the scene needed a focal point, so a giant statue made sense
experiments, settled on a standing statue
finished statue