Reimagined Sereinty Farm Fable 2 Environment | Chelsea Ware

Reimagined | Serenity Farm Fable 2

For one of my third year classes, we were tasked with remaking a game from the xbox-xbox 360 era (2002-2010). I chose to do Serenity Farm from Fable 2. The goal was to recreate the environment with standard  industry techniques. I wanted to add some realism while still using similar stylized shape design which gave fable 2 its charm.

Breakdown

I started out by sculpting the rough details of the landscape in Unreal Engine 5. In Maya I also quickly modeled some of the simpler assets, like the arch way and fences. While only focusing on a rough block out for the more complex models like windmill and house.

Using a few Quixel Megascan materials, I set up a landscape material that would enable me to paint the landscape materials directly onto the landscape which made the whole process a lot easier. I also made sure to include two different parameters for material tiling depending on whether the camera was close to the material or far away.

I used the different tiling options for the material to make sure that close up the material looked to scale, however I'd set the tiling of the material really big the further away the material was to the camera. That way the details wouldn't be lost the further away the camera was. This was especially helpful for the cliffs as having the material scaled up so much at a distance helped add a lot of visual interest to them.

Because most of my environment was textured by wood, I decided to create a wooden trim sheet. I blocked out all the rough trim sizes in Maya then exported it into Zbrush where I sculpted in the wood grain. I also decided to include a trim of metal down the bottom as well. Once the sculpting was done I imported it into Substance Painter and baked it onto a blank plane. When setting up the materials in Maya I made sure to give the individual trims different material colours, that way I could bake out an ID map for the trims, which made texturing the material a lot easier.

Once I had the textures I then set up the material in Unreal Engine using a master material I had made for previous projects. I also rendered out the still and turntable above in Marmoset Toolbag. With the trim sheet I was able to texture about 75% of my scene. For my other materials I textured the assets in Substance Painter. I then plug the textures into the same master material mentioned above.

I created the portal through the use of Niagara Particle Systems. I started off with a fountain emitter and I changed the spawn shape to a cylinder. To get the look of the vortex, I used a Drag and a couple of vortex and curl noise forces to manipulate the particles to twist into the middle of the portal. I used a gradient to control the colours. I also played around with the lighting of the portal as at first it was very bright, changing the scale alpha helped reduce the brightness.

Once I had all the models and textures finished, it was just a matter of replacing the old blockout assets with the finalized ones. Furthermore because I had a bit of extra time on my hands before this project was due I did a night time lighting set up to go with the day time one I had already done.

Overall this project was super fun to work on, I wanted to add my own style to this environment while also keeping some of that classic Fable charm that makes it such a beloved game.

Megascan and Adobe Assets were used throughout this project. Would like to credit user FourthGreen on Sketchfab for the animated chicken

Chicken Rig

Chicken Rig Licencing

Would also like to thank Lionhead studios for bringing the game Fable 2 to life

Honours Project | Trim Sheets

Breakdown

One of the first things I did when starting this project was create a trim sheet. I knew the trim sheet was going to dictate how I modeled some of my assets so it made sense to create them first.

I used Substance Designer to create the height map and ambient occlusion of my material. Once I was happy with them I then took it into Substance Painter to fine tune the rest of my material.

The first one I made was a stone trim with some gold detailing. Originally the stone was meant to be marble however I soon realized making a marble trim sheet was not practical, because once I'd start to cut up the UVs on my models you would see the seams as the marble vines wouldn't line up.

The next trim I created was a gold detailing one. This trim is to be used alongside the stone trim to further help break up the stone however as I planned on creating a few gyroscopes/armillary spheres this trim sheet is also super useful in texturing them as well.

As these trim sheets were going to be used in Unreal Engine 5.1, throughout the creating process I made sure to jump between the texturing software and Unreal Engine. That way I got the desired look in UE5 and not off of the viewport in Designer/Painter. I also rendered out the materials in Marmoset Toolbag.

In Unreal Engine I also made a separate level which will act as a lookdev scene. It has the same hdri lighting setup as my viewport in Substance Designer/Painter and Marmoset Toolbag so the lighting is consistent across the programs. This lookdev scene will help make sure that all my materials and models look consistent once they're in Unreal Engine.

Pictured above is a process view containing renders from marmoset (the left) and Unreal Engine (the right), showing the difference of the materials with the same lighting setup.

Honours Project | Hero Asset The World Tree

For my Honours project I'm researching environmental storytelling and decided to create an environment that would be a place of healing and worship so that I can apply what I'll learn from my research. I decided on creating a World Tree which would be the life source for my world, playing a crucial part in the inhabitants' culture and way of life.

With this tree being the most important part of my environment I chose to create it first, as I knew it would be a driving force behind the rest of my environment.

Credits

Music - Vindsvept - Distant

Link to Licencing

Breakdown

The first thing I did when I started creating my tree was model up the base that the tree will be featured in. It'll be in the center surrounded by water, transferring its magical properties to the water which the inhabitants will use for healing. I also included a pensive which the inhabitants will be able to use to worship and make offerings to the tree.

The tree base was textured using the two trim sheets pictured above.

For the tree, I created a rough blockout of the tree using SpeedTree and textured the leaves. I knew I wanted this tree to look like it was from another world so I changed the colouring of the leaves to a purplish colour. I also gave each section of the tree; leaves, branches and trunk a different material. That way when I took it into Maya I could select the sections of the tree that had a particular material and create sub-tools ready for when I imported it into Zbrush

Once the tree was in Zbrush I focused on creating interesting groves and silhouettes on the trunk. I took a lot of inspiration from crooked, spiraled trees which is a naturally occurring thing and from the trees in the Forest of Dean, England. I only sculpted the trunk as I knew it wouldn't be practical to sculpt the details onto the tiny branches, hence why I split them up into different sub-tools. I also didn't worry too much about sculpting in smaller details, as I planned on using my texture and detail normal map to drive a lot of the smaller details.

Because this tree is so big I knew texel density was going to be a problem, luckily I was able to use the world align texture node in unreal which projects the texture into world space. So the texture will always be in the same spot regardless of where the asset is in the level. It also means that once the tiling has been set, the asset can be scaled either up or down and it'll still keep the same texture resolution. Because I used this method I also didn't really need to worry about my uvs for the tree as well.

Below is a video showcasing the difference in using the world align texture node and just standard tiling on uvs

In my master material for the tree, I made sure I had the option to use a detail normal map and macro normal map to help add tiny details to the tree. I also included a ZUp section in my material which allowed me to very easily place moss on the tree.

ZUp materials are super useful for creating a layer of snow on moss on an asset. As the function looks at what faces are facing up and applies the material of choice (in my case, moss) to those faces. Which saves the time of me having to paint the material directly onto the asset through something like vertex paint.

Once I was happy with the materials for the tree, I then downloaded a bunch of megascan plants/decals  and placed them around and on the tree. This tree is meant to represent life in my environment so I really wanted to push that theme through the use of these plants.

Using the Niagara Particle System I also created a very basic fireflies effect that surrounds the tree. The magical orbs are just a basic sphere with an animated material on it. As these orbs are magical I also animated them in maya to give the impression that they were floating.

Overall I'm super happy with how my World Tree came out and look forward to being able to show the rest of my Honours project once it is finished.

Thank you for taking the time      to look at my entry!