Scene Production: First Steps

An early decision was not to include humans in my scene. Because of this, I utilized lighting and contrast to place more emphasis on the cross than on the man who kneels at it in the painting.

Despite implementing real-world reference and flourishes of my own, I made sure to maintain the original feel of the piece by referencing it’s color schemes, over that of the Colosseum as it exists today. Today, the walls of the Colosseum less saturated and more broken down. The atmospheric perspective present in the painting was also something I made sure to preserve in my environment.

Moving forward, I made choices regarding color and lighting independent from the reference, such as the colors seen in the foliage and sky. This eventually led to the creation of the night scene as well!

I started with a blockout of the scene, then did some early lighting implementation. In addition to working on the props and pieces, I made the floor material and wall materials in Substance Designer. Using these materials authored in Designer, I created vertex blending materials in UE4.

Textures

The textures were all created using Substance Designer and Substance Painter. The meatiest materials are the walls and the ground, and the smaller props use variations of generic tiling master materials. A few things required 0 to 1 textures, such as the two carved stones, candle, and stone table.

Props Production