For this post, I have found an article on 80 Level which I think will be beneficial for me in exploring the process of creating a scene in the Unreal game engine.

Mountain House: Organic Environment Production for Beginners, by Samuel Metivier

What it is? What did he do and why?

The source features an article explaining the process and breakdown of the Mountain House project by Samuel Metivier, interviewed by Arti Sergeev. Samuel creates a scene, featuring a damaged/ abandoned house in an outdoor environment using Unreal Engine 4 and shares the process he goes through to create it, as it can be a potential learning resource for beginners, who want to understand the process. Resulting in more people experimenting with the process themselves, and creating more content.

What exactly will you learn from it?

From this article, I can understand the thought process/ planning required for this particular project. Such as finding references, understanding composition, how he created his assets for the project in 3ds Max and cutting up each element separately in a low-res/ polygon count. Using mega scams to apply materials to the assets. He also showed before and after imagery so I could see the progress visually, as well as explaining it through text. He showed how the organization of your workspace is beneficial in understanding and accurately working on the project, as it keeps everything clean and prevents any confusion, as it is such a complex project/ area. I can understand the process for texturing using external software such as 3ds Max, Substance Painter to Unreal. As well as the lighting effects and the difference between unlit and lit scenes, and which lights create certain results which makes the scene more realistic. I can see the result of ambient occlusion/ post-processing and how it adds a lot to a scene.

How it will help you with your intent and desired output?

My intent is to create an environment/scene within Unreal. Therefore, being able to understand the thought process behind this, is very beneficial as I am able to have a better approach. It also helps me have a professional and more experienced outlook on creating a project like this so that my output will be of higher quality, and appear more advanced/ experienced.

What does it do well?

Tutorial videos are good at visually explaining the process, as it is happening, but sometimes does not explain the thought and planning behind it. Whereas this article gives a more personal insight into the process. He also uses imagery which supports what he explaining, so that it gives more understanding. The project itself is very appealing and looks very realistic which catches attention, showing he is skilled in this area, which creates more trust in the article. The article itself is not rammed with information, which is overwhelming. He has only included the most important areas.

Where it falls short?

Even though it does explain the process, you do already need some basic knowledge of Unreal Engine, and the process of creating a scene. As he does not explain everything in major detail, you would not be able to recreate this scene without a detailed video/ tutorial guiding you, as it is just not enough guided content.

Which specifics can I take into a production project and how?

The information about the lighting setup/ fog and ambient occlusion can be used for my own production project as it gives me an insight into how the settings work and how to create realistic lighting set up for a scene.

How it measures up against industry use of the tool/skill?

The artist for the article had worked on project by a French studio AXC GAMES on the title ANAREA Battle Royale. Showing he has professional experience which has helped develop his skill and knowledge in the area, as well as doing it as a hobby. He undertakes a very professional approach and provides evidence and documents the process, which is important in presenting work he has made. Therefore, taking this aspect from the article will add to my level of professionalism which is useful for the industry.

I will continue to research different case studies/ project break-downs, so that I can have a better understanding of the process…