A cinematic of a serene Tibetan mountain trail peaking out over clouds in a valley surrounded by mountains.

Programs used: UE4, Maya 2016, Photoshop, Zbrush, Headus UV Layout, and Speedtree.

Cinematic & Final shots of the scene

breakdown

Art Direction

I wanted the scene to use soft earthy tones. So I used a cool sky and shadows to contrast the warm more natural tones in the environment. I wanted top incorporate a more illustrated feeling to the props in the environment so I used simpler shape language and focused more on texture and shader work in the engine. I drew direct competitive inspiration from the games Firewatch and The Long Dark.

Concept Phase

Initially I sketched out a mood that I wanted to capture. I drew out my idea for the general shape language of the scene as well as blocking out the color for atmosphere. The scale was conceptualized in the color sketch but throughout the following blockout sketches I decided I needed more variety in height and that I would need more space. Also in these following concepts I laid out the general assets that I would need to model to create the scene.

Process

After I created a solid base for the scene through my concepts I moved to low poly base models and the sky shader.
Once base models were modeled and UVed I moved texturing/material creation, detailing the hero asset and blocking out the scene. (I blocked out the scene with BSP's and then terrain painted to match the shapes as close/naturally as possible. I left some BSP's that would be replaced with rocks later.)
When that was finished I fleshed out the props I went and and set dressed and populated the scene.
Afterward I polished the scene with light set dressing and post processing effects.
Lastly I set up my cinematic for the scene in the matinee with eight cameras and recorded.

General Information

28 meshes were used in the scene
4 of which were assets created in Speedtree for unreal
WInd on prayer flags simulated through world offset in material
3 mountain shapes painted and placed on curved bilboards
2 Lights used in the scene; One directional light source, and one point light on the bag

Hero Asset Backpack Stats

Model roughed in Maya 2016 => Highpoly in Zbrush => Baked down to a normal map for the Lowpoly originally created.
35,078 Tris
17,306 Verts

Stylized Backpack by Trace Gordon on Sketchfab

Main Modular Rock Stats

Base meshes made in Maya => Lowpoly sculpted in Zbrush
Largest Rock; 2150 Tris, 1543 Verts
Large Rock; 2552 Tris, 1602 Verts
Medium Rock; 1290 Tris, 828 Verts
Small Rock; 808 Tris, 1604 Verts
Smallest Rock; 412 Tris, 1234 Verts

Wind Simulation in material blueprint

I UVed the prayer flags seperately and had the flags use the same UV space every 5 flags (the fifth flag uses a seperate material)
The flag chains are UVed so the ends can have a gradient to gradually slow them towards the end.
There are 2 base wind sine movements with parameters that move the entire flag chain. (variation is controlled through instances)
Additionally to that the flags themselves are have their own wind systems with parameters are added on top of the base movement.