ROMADUNE FORTRESS

I took a course titled "Large Game Environment Creation By Fast Track Tutorials (Time Duration - 3 Weeks)" where the instructor, Emiel Sleegers, guided me through the process of creating this game-ready environment. In this first step I marked the pieces that I want to create the environment. 

(Reference Image By Luis Medina - https://lumedinart.artstation.com/projects/NxoPzP)

In the next step, I modeled the pieces that I marked in the previous step in Maya and exported them to Unreal Engine 5. I created the blockout of this environment by using the Unreal mannequin as a height reference. 

After this second step, instructor Emiel Sleegers taught us how to sculpt details on the blockout models using ZBrush and make them look even better, as you can see in the image above. He also demonstrated the technique of baking high-poly details onto a low-poly model using Marmoset Toolbag. 

For material creation, the instructor guided us through the process of creating materials in Substance Designer. The process is quite tricky, but the instructions were in a very understandable manner. I learned about each and every used in the workflow in order to create the materials required . Later, the instructor exported the materials with their parameters exposed, such as Roughness, Tiling, Color, etc., to Bitmaps textures. 

For setting up materials in Unreal Engine 5, I created a master material with various parameters exposed to tweak values for different properties such as Base Normal Strength, Base Color darkness, Dirt Amount, Dirt Roughness, and so on. Later, I created material instances to expedite the workflow. 

For the final phase following the setup of materials for all assets, the instructor guided me through the process of setting up lighting to align with the concept art. Subsequently, to enhance realism within the environment, I incorporated a "post-processing volume" to achieve the desired visual aesthetics. As a finishing touch, I integrated various Megascans assets, including different types of rocks, and introduced fog cards into the scene to evoke a dusty atmosphere in the desert setting.