Discovery of Elysian

Additional References

Here are more references that I will be using for the foliage aspect of the environment. (Above)

I have added the following references so that my environment can have more of a story. That story being that it is an alien farmland, similar to the farms back in the ancient times of Earth. (Below)

I decided to make it "night time" rather than have a sun luminating the scene. So I adjusted settings in the SkySphereBlueprint and Skylight, and pointed the directional light else where, so that the scene would be darker. Adding the Exponential Height Fog made a huge difference, as well as making the water emissive. The rocks were too pointy and looked like they were made of limited geo, so I used the Hydro Erosion tool to smooth them out a bit.

I created custom textures from Quixel Mixer by combining a few surfaces and adjusting the colors. Then, I exported them to Unreal Engine. At first, I made a WorldAligned Blend material but it didn't come out so great. So, I created a Landscape Layer Blend material from scratch. It was much easier to apply, as I could just paint the textures anywhere I wanted on the landscape. I managed to make parameters so that I could adjust aspects of the two different textures such as the tint, brightness, intensity, etc. I made sure to make a material instance so I could be able to adjust the parameters.

Creating an original environment from out of this world takes a ton of imagination and thinking. My ideal extraterrestrial world would mainly be rock formations with glow in the dark features such as foliage, water, minerals, and possibly creatures. Now, where to begin?

References

First, we start off with the base landscape. This will contain the land structure with the rocks.

Next, is the foliage and minerals that my work will be based off of. Not only do I see assets in these references but the color scheme as well.

Progress

March 25th, 2021 

I have started sculpting my landscape in Unreal Engine 4. I wanted to have a rough, noisy, terrain with sharp rocks. Afterwards, I have added a plane with a water material on it with parameters so I can easily adjust the appearance as I continue my work.

I will update this entry as I continue to work on it for the duration of this contest.