Sacred Tree II
Original Concept Art by ianxue
Breakdown
In this project, I challenged myself to assemble a full environment in Unreal Engine 5 for the first time. I wanted to light and render an establishing shot of this "Sacred Tree II" concept art by ianxue, feeling drawn to the calm, almost abandoned village in the middle of a forest. I took this opportunity to try tools that I haven't had the chance to use before- such as the foliage and lighting tools in UE5, as well as figuring out how to get the water material for the river in the foreground.
The first order of business is the most important, and it was to block in the environment- paying attention to where the houses sit on the hills and where the trees rest within the forest. This was done in Maya using simple, low-poly geometry as placeholders that would later be replaced with the appropriate models after being brought into UE5.
The first order of business is the most important, and it was to block in the environment- paying attention to where the houses sit on the hills and where the trees rest within the forest. This was done in Maya using simple, low-poly geometry as placeholders that would later be replaced with the appropriate models after being brought into UE5.
Next up was creating the buildings. I 3D modeled 6 different village structures that would allow me to mix and match later when assembling the environment. I modeled them in Maya, then brought them into Substance Painter for texturing. After that, I imported the models and textures into UE5 and created an individual material for each building, specifically assigning the appropriate textures to each one.
I then gathered trees and rocks from Fab (Megascans) that would suit the environment and installed EasyFog into my UE5. Since this is a realistic style, I found that megascans were helpful in speeding up the process when putting together the environment. EasyFog played a big part on top of the volumetric fog in UE5, because I was able to manually place fog cards where I felt were needed- for example: separating rocks, the trees in the background, and the waterfall on the right.
As for the grass, I used the foliage tool in UE5 to scatter greenery around the ground, making it feel more like a forest. Smaller bushes and trees were scattered around the area as well, giving variation and a more natural feel.
As for the grass, I used the foliage tool in UE5 to scatter greenery around the ground, making it feel more like a forest. Smaller bushes and trees were scattered around the area as well, giving variation and a more natural feel.
Throughout making this environment, I learned about using the foliage tool, being able to import your own assets and painting them onto the environment is a really useful and I can see it being used in so many ways. I also learned about setting up lighting using Lumen and creating a water material! I'm glad I was able to use this as a chance to learn and create something that I enjoy.