Other stuff like the water caustics are just simply done with some panning caustic maps in the base color channel.

The waterfall is just done by GPU particles which uses scene depth collision. Nothing to fancy if you know a thing or two about particles. GPU particles simply means, lot’s and lot’s of particles for a low cost. But they are screen space, and not exactly “in” the scene, which means less “correct” placement and rendering. (At least that’s what I think, correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not exactly a game engine engineer).

Production Process

I started off from a photobashed concept I made in 10 minutes or so. I usually start from there and block out the scene. While I’m blocking out I wonder if I “feel” the scene – if it makes sense in my head and will make a nice final shot. Sometimes I completely change the concept up to 3 times and reuse some assets from the “failed” attempt. This time I got it right the first try.

Then I just start cranking out assets. Rock after rock after crashed piece of spaceship. I usually create assets in a way that they still work when scaled or rotated and reused in the scene. I do this by making sure they have no character. I know it sounds by counterinuitive, but remember that you’re building a scene, not an asset. The scene needs character, and that’s defined by more than just the props. It’s also defined by lighting, sound, post process effects, etc.