Yangchuan Xiao-Environment Art

Narrowboat

It's my first environment art work, and I have never used Maya, Substance Painter, or Unreal Engine before.Learning new things is fun for me, but it's stressful and I have to spend all my daylight hours studying.It took me 8 weeks to finish it.

This interior scene is based on actual photographs taken by an unknown artist.I was attracted to the different wood textures in this cabin.

When I made my first project, I wasn't familiar with the high-to-low polygon baking workflow. Therefore, the assets in my scene were all completed using the subdivision modeling workflow.

At a later stage of the project, I found that the lighting in the photo wasn't eye-catching enough, so I added some interesting reflections and light sources.

During the adjustment process, I found that some of the assets I made did not fit very well in the scene, so I replaced them with Quixel Bridge models.

Thanks to my buddies Xiaoyue Zhang and Kris Yu for the feedback and support they provided me on this project, without them I wouldn't have been able to complete it well.

France Village

The idea for this game environment was inspired by the captivating beauty of Collonges-La-Rouge, which is renowned as one of the most stunning villages in France. Its distinct architectural shapes and the intricate arrangement of bricks ignited my creative imagination, and I set out to digitally recreate its essence. It took me 7 weeks to finish it.

The biggest difficulty with this project was creating the materials using Substance Designer, which I had never used before, which was definitely a challenge for me.Therefore, I devoted almost all my time to creating materials.

The above is my breakdown, creating 3 sets of 2k resolution tilling textures. And the renderings were rendered in Marmoset Toolbag.

The above are different channel diagrams of BNW, Basecolor, Detail Lighting and Roughness.Due to my limited abilities, there are some complex material changes that I cannot create in substance designer. So I used photoshop and recreated a set of tilling textures based on real photos.

I tried to create as many reusable assets as possible during the production of this project. And, I also tried to use speed tree to make a tree. But to be honest, the speed tree is difficult to control, and I can hardly create a tree  that I am satisfied with. I didn't have much time, so I used quixel bridge assets for some assets such as street lights, rattan, and plants.

Despite this, I learned a lot during this project. I am very grateful to my bro Coraline Lyu for her help and feedback. She always encouraged me and I was able to complete it.

Fantasy Relics

My practice in this project focused on sculpting using Zbrush. And speed tree practice.It took me 8 weeks to complete it. I am very grateful to my friends David Zhu and Xiaoyue Zhang for their help during the production.

The atmosphere and fantastic architectural structures in this concept art attracted me.Creating this magical scene was an incredible journey, and I'm grateful for the talented concept artist,Sebastian Luca.

For all the building structures, I used a high to low polygon baking workflow.

In addition, I also used UE's material system to create a mask with a moss material.

different channel

This is the process of promoting the project. I made the main building structure，tree and some assets. The rest are from Megascan.

Asset shot

Conclusion

It took me half a year to complete the above three projects. It was an incredible journey. While they weren't perfect, they were representative of what I was capable of at that time. I will work hard to learn CG related knowledge and make better works in the future. Thanks again to all my friends and family who helped me along with the project. I hope you enjoy it.Cheers！