I went into this project with a very basic idea, which was to create a stylised environment. The purpose was to show my artistic visualisation, my working process and the development of my ideas. I feel the project was a surprising success, not just from how the project turned out but my level of understanding as an artist, this goes for all the tools I have used along the way, but I have improved the most in substance painter and most importantly Unreal Engine. From the speed I can now create a complete level, to the more advanced features, from splines to timelines and environment settings to audio control. My advancement in UE4 knowledge has been my single greatest achievement of this project.
My tasks during this whole project covered everything I have done in my time at university, all the way from concepting to whiteboxing to modelling and texturing, and then fully implementing all the assets in a unique way in Unreal Engine.
My greatest fear during the whole project was taking on a environment that was just too big to handle by myself and this was becoming a reality until I made the decision to scale it all down. This was one of the best decisions I made during the whole project life cycle as it meant that I wasn't spreading myself too thin which would end up in a large, unfinished level with poor quality assets.
I had a few problems along the way, some of which took hours, some days to solve, but I never seriously compromised on my idea and I am very happy with the finished product.
Obviously, like any project, it is never perfect and there is a lot of improvements that can be made. I’d start with more foliage variations, more species of tree and more types of grass to give a more deserted feel. I would also go back and revisit some of the textures and models that are placed in the level, most importantly, the modular assets as I feel that I could've spent more time perfecting the textures and the models. I also feel like a lot of the stalls are missing some finer details that could really make an impact to the overall level.
There are also minor details that I would have liked to include in the level but didn't have time to implement. This includes adding more assets that a key pieces to giving the player a better idea about the time period and place that the scene is set in. As a further improvement, I would add rain and puddles as I feel this would really add to the slightly sinister atmosphere I have created.
If I would do this project again, I would've scaled the project down drastically, maybe even creating little dioramas instead so that I could've spent more time creating really impressive textures and models that look really high detail whist keeping the style. I’d also have liked to have cut down a little more on the concepting phase as I feel like it cost me a lot of time.
In conclusion, this project has had a lot of ups and downs but the final piece has been a success, but for future projects, I’d have really liked to have spent some more time in Zbrush as I feel like I haven’t spent nearly as much time as I’d have liked using it.
