3D STYLISED ENVIRONMENT DESIGNS | Unreal Engine 5

ABOUT MY PROJECT.

This project is a two-parter project where I had about 4 months to create something. It was a final year project where we were able to create whatever we wanted and apply what we had learnt during our studies in school. Under the guidance of Mr Jacques Fréty as my mentor, I was able to bring my project to life.

Throughout the project, I faced multiple challenges where I had to learn some stuff that I had not learnt in school. Things such as learning Unreal Engine 5 proved to be a challenge for me because it was the first time I had used Unreal Engine 5 so I had to learn the software on my own while also continuing on doing my project. However, I managed to pull through as I had some help understanding the software from lecturers and students from school. Another challenge that I faced was creating a stylised environment. Keeping the environment look consistent throughout was quite challenging as I had to constantly refer to my other assets to see if it looks cohesive.

In the end I have learnt many things through this project and I hope to apply them in future projects.

The software that I used are Unreal Engine 5, Autodesk Maya, Substance Painter, Substance Designer, Photoshop, After Effects, Blender and Tree It.

3D ENVIRONMENT DESIGN #01 | "OVERWORLD".

For this project, I decided to create an environment that is vast and open. Since it was my first time using Unreal Engine, I had to give myself an easier environment to work with in order for me to understand the fundamentals of the software and apply them in the second part of the project.

In this environment, I wanted to show that the place was ruled by a ruthless civilisation that had eradicated the dragon species. Dragon bones are scattered all around the environment to show that a large species had once lived here. I also wanted to show that the civilisation that had once lived here is now gone through its overgrown and abandoned buildings and statues.

Due to time constraints, there were some ideas that I had to do away with as I would have not been able to complete them in time. This can be seen in the original value sketches that I had done for this environment.

Although this project was challenging for me to do, I had a lot of fun creating the different assets and sculpting them. I also understood the basics of Unreal Engine and managed to do as much as I could with the software.

VALUE SKETCHES.

I created multiple value sketches for the first environment. In the end, I chose this value sketch as it something that I could create within the time that I was given for this project.

SELECTED SKETCH.

ASSET CREATION & EXPERIMENTATION.

PROGRESS.

Throughout the project, I was given quite a lot of feedback from my mentor and friends. These feedback helped me to understand where I was lacking and I focused on them to improve the look of the environment.

FINAL OUTCOME.

3D ENVIRONMENT DESIGN #02 | "TREE OF LIFE".

For this half of the project, I had a little more confidence in myself in creating a larger and more challenging environment than before. With all the things that I had learnt in the first half of the project, I applied them to this project with greater strength and confidence. Additionally, there were some new things that I had learnt here such as animated textures and effects.

The environment for this project was to capture the magnificence and beauty of the tree in the middle of an open cavern. Nicknamed the "Tree of Life", it is supposed to look like a tree that is filled with life and beauty.

VALUE SKETCHES.

For this half of the project, I opted for a simpler route whereby I created only one environment to focus on due to time constraints as I only had about a month and a half to complete this environment.

ASSET CREATION & EXPERIMENTATION.

Added a character to provide a scale of the environment.

PROGRESS.

FINAL OUTCOME.