The Assets Approach

When I’m setting up my scenes in UE4 (or any engine I’m using to build levels), one of the first things I do is set up and lock my main camera angles in order to figure out my desired composition and framing. I would hand place the foreground, mid and distant vegetation, rocks or clutter within the frame that serve as my primary elements. These are the elements I’m figuring will drive the player(viewer)’s eye throughout the scene.

For this part, I’m trying to focus on having a good amount of rhythm for the different elements. To drive the viewer, I’m using a mix of scale, shape language, color, and clustering of the elements to help the eye either rest or move around the scene. I would look at this part almost like an animation block-in. I’m trying to put in the main elements to serve my shots, and trying to find an effective balance to help the eye move around in a pleasant way. Everything in-between the main elements I’m using as either filler, or boundary edges, and for that specifically, I gathered and studied reference to find the recipe for the forest, grassland, and meadow that would also help ground some of the artistic decisions I made with my framing. Trying to pay attention to how far apart the trees usually grow, how many saplings or plants are usually in the immediate vicinity, so on and so forth.

When set-dressing certain spots I’m trying to think about clustering the elements based on how they would naturally fall and gather. Rocks would usually slide down slopes, and small pebbles and twigs that get blown about would collect around them. That would usually cause the grass around that to clear and certain plants/weeds would then sprout. With every element I add, I ask myself how that would impact things around it, and I try to make sure it feels as physical as possible. Some of that is pulling from my existing tricks with regards to set dressing, while consciously trying to pay attention to what I’m doing and cross-checking my references.

Lighting

One of the things that helped tie everything together was having neutral data to work with from the beginning. This is one of the most important parts, especially if you are working with photogrammetry. When I went out to capture the different elements, I tried to get as much of it as I could on the same trip. Since most of it was from the same area, it would naturally help the different assets ‘connect’ better. Once I began to process the data, I would run all the photos through LightRoom to build a color profile that I would apply to the full set of images. This ensures that my white balance and colors are as neutral and consistent as possible across the sets of data.

For the lighting, this is largely an iterative process. First off, as with everything, I gather some images of the type of lighting setup I’d like to go for. I try and study these to see what the relationship is between the atmospheric effects I’m seeing. How far or high the fog goes, how bright the hotspots are and how dark the shadows get. What the interaction between all the vegetation is.

My first actionable step when I initially set up my camera angles during my blockout phase, is to proceed and get the first pass of my lighting intentions in there. What I’m trying to do in this phase is to capture a feeling or mood. I want to make sure that the lighting supports my composition, so I make sure the light and dark areas help to support my focal points. I start to set up my sun position/angle, intensity, and color, but I don’t take anything too far or tweak any of the finer details. I prefer to save that for later, during a more final refinement pass. Every time I update any of the assets, be it models or textures, I further refine and balance the lighting. I am constantly making subtle tweaks as I go, pushing the hues from the lights and shadows a bit based on how the materials are starting to fit together.

I also have begun using this little ‘Pixel Depth Offset’ network, thanks to Wiktor Ohman, and his awesome World of Warcraft Homage in UE4 project. It’s subtle, but it really helps to connect all the elements better, and I ended up using it on almost everything in the scene. (See image below for node network and example) When I feel like things are starting to click, I start to have some fun with the post FX. For me, leaving this part until the end really helps to serve a couple of purposes. For one, if you can make your scene feel good with as simple a lighting setup as possible, the post will really help to elevate the quality and get you that final bit of polish. It also serves as a home stretch of sorts for me. Once I hit this part of the project, I know that I’m almost finished, and it gives me that little mental boost I need to close everything out.