I always begin my scenes by walking around in the space I am about to create in. I consider things like ‘What do I want the player to see?’, ‘Is this meant to feel open or close?’, ‘What story am I telling here?’. I then start editing the landscape. Unreal Engine 4’s landscape tools are essential to the process. I always try to avoid flat looking spaces as they make the landscape look unnatural so first thing I will do is to apply some erosion and build up some areas so there is variety and a kind of an organic ruggedness to the environment. Next I consider things like more ambient objects, tree stumps, rocks, etc. ‘Where would water collect?’, ‘How much light gets in here?’, ‘How thick should the grass be?’, things like that. Once I’ve made those decisions I place water plains where needed, add any foliage required to the Foliage tool and start painting the foliage for the scene’s floor. I usually let the tool paint some trees too just to get a feel for things but normally I’ll remove them and hand place them later.

After that it’s just iteration. I walk around, I see how it feels, if anything looks good I’ll preserve it and if it doesn’t I’ll erase it. Most of the time it simply comes down to keeping what ultimately pleases the eye.

Creating Small Scene

I always begin my scenes by walking around in the space I am about to create in. I consider things like ‘What do I want the player to see?’, ‘Is this meant to feel open or close?’, ‘What story am I telling here?’. I then start editing the landscape.