Arcadia IV
The Arcadia IV environment leans heavily into the aesthetic and design styles from the original Halo trilogy. This environment was an exercise in how simple geometry, given the right size, can really influence the composition of a scene and that more detail and complex modelling is not always the answer for an effective environment...
Lah Mu
Upon reading 'The Artwork of Rogue One'; the concept art of Lah' Mu created by Brett Northcut stood out as a truly beautiful environment. My interpretation of this concept piece was created upon the release of Unreal Engine 5. Wanting to get a better understanding of the capabilities of the engine - what better way to test than a densely packed farm...
Brett Northcut's original concept
Sunset summit
The piece is most heavily influenced by landscape photography experiences.
A lot of inspiration when creating this environment was taken from New Zealand's southern island which is home to sweeping mountains, lush forests and lakes.
The aim for this environment was to practise photography techniques such as composition, lighting and the golden ratio. There are only 3 key elements to this scene, that being the foliage, mountains and atmosphere. If all three work in harmony, then a photorealistic image will be produced.
Corva II
Corva II was an environment created after reading "Halo - The Art of Building Worlds", hence it leaning so heavily into the art style of the Halo franchise. A number of new techniques were used for this scene, including extensive painting in Photoshop, and a node system to generate the storm clouds in Terragen 4.
Lakeside mountain
Another image influenced heavily by landscape photography, and more particularly, Snowdonia National Park.
Getting the right water texture for a scene such as this can really make or break the photorealism aspect. The right amount of balancing values and texture maps can yield excellent results...
Desert peak
Another piece with a very striking composition made up of only a handful of elements. This environment was made with inspiration from mountains found in South America. The mountains often have jagged and eroded peaks in the deserts and on some occasions, sit just above a low lying fog layer....
Corva Caverns
An environment developed to expand on the 'Corva II' piece. I developed a short narrative between pieces to suggest a wider story for these places. This scene was developed almost entirely within Unreal Engine 4 and progressed my technical understanding of the Engine immensely.
