High Moon

This will be my final entry for the competition.

The music is by:
The Epic 2 by Rafael Krux
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5384-the-epic-2-
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Music promoted on https://www.chosic.com

I have made a localised dust and small rock effect that will blow past the camera for a sandstorm part of my sequence. Combined with increasing the exponential height fog density to give a larger scale feel of a sandstorm, it starts to look more intense.

I tried using a post process material effect too by blending the screen colour with a colour based on distance and panning a volume texture through it so it was dynamic. If I am to use it, it will need more tweaking to take the light direction into account.

I have added 3 moons for the sky and a planetary ring to appear more alien and otherworldly. I have always liked the image of very close or large celestial bodies in the sky that I have seen in games and movies previously.

I also added a cave in one of the mountains that will have an eternal fire in it inspired by the local eternal fire in my region. My aim is to create an alien world by taking natural wonders from earth itself as they can so often seem surreal.

To add more breadth to my world I also added simple extensions anywhere that you can see over the edge of my main landscape. On one side sand dunes and on another rocky ground.

I populated the landscape with more grass, branches, cacti, and rocks. I also added a path that tracks through the landscape

I added a landscape material using textures from megascans as well as populate that material with some grass assets. Next steps will be making it more alien with a different atmosphere and celestial bodies.

Using Gaea from Quadspinner I generated a heightmap and brought it into unreal. I set up some basic lighting and atmosphere actors to block out my scene.

I have also started to block out an alien saloon for my world.

This is heavily influenced by westerns.