Project Outline

I intend to learn how to create a realistic atmosphere/ scene within Unreal Engine 4, using landscape building, materials, importing assets, lighting, and post-processing, etc.

Strengths

I am in the position to undertake this project, as I have developed knowledge that enables me to use the required software and create realistic scenes through this, using Quixel and Epic Games to guide and support my process with their use of assets and tools.

There are many strengths I have found with this project, such as the endless possibilities and customization. Due to the resources I have for this, there are many different potential outputs I could create, giving me creative freedom and control of customization and variety.

Another strength I have found is the feeling of accomplishment and visual final output, where you can see the process and improvement of skill and creativity, the more you practice, which is very rewarding and maintains motivation and determination to experiment more.

One strength of using Unreal Engine 4, is that I can create a realistic environment in realtime, meaning that I can visualize the finished result in realtime. This means that I am able to make quick and convenient changes that will positively impact the rendered output. By being able to see what could be improved and manipulate the scene there and then, without having to spend a lot of time rendering it out, then having to go back into the engine to make changes.

As I am using the Epic Games Unreal Engine, this means that I have unlimited access to Quixel products. There are many strengths in Quixel’s tools/ services. The Megascans library is packed with useful, realistic, and HD assets, whether it’s textures, 3D meshes, decals, or materials. Quixel Bridge allows creators to download assets, export and organize everything so that the process of using their products/ assets is easier and more convenient. Quixel Mixer is a powerful tool as it allows creatives to customize assets, including meshes, decals, textures, etc. This means that I can create custom terrains and merge multiple assets together to create something unique for projects, resulting in diversity and unique designs.

Weaknesses

The Unreal game engine is so broad and a large software that I could never learn everything, in such a small amount of time. Therefore, I need to focus on smaller areas of potential outputs and slowly build up my knowledge of the software and what I can create.

The software is also very demanding on performance, meaning I would need a good laptop with a dedicated graphics card and high RAM storage, a gaming laptop, or a powerful desktop PC.

One weakness is because the engine is so large and constantly being updated, it requires projects to be updated so that they can be used with the current version of the engine. This may mean that older projects may need to make some changes in order to work with all the updates.

Opportunities

I decided to work on this project, due to the eye-catching results, creating something which looks so realistic. Bringing my creativity to life using powerful tools and assets. Whilst researching this software, the main thing that caught my eye was the artistic potential. There is so much I can accomplish with just one game engine. This was something that I had never looked into previously, and now I have explored the process and experimented, I have grown attached and could not imagine exploring the potential the Unreal engine has.

As the Unreal Engine is so large, it means that I can always learn something new and develop my skills, meaning that there is always potential to improve and broaden my projects, for example combining skills from building architecture with landscape building, to create a unique scene. I could even learn to incorporate animation with Unreal and add more life and animation to my projects.

This project will also help to achieve alignments to a potential career trajectory, such as Game Design, Animation, VFX, Virtual Reality and Production, Architecture design, and much more. Therefore, there is plenty of positives with experimenting with this skill/ project.

This Industry is also a successful industry to get into, as there are always new updates, new methods, and potentials. The industry is always growing and expanding with modern technology.

More creatives will use the Quixel and Epic Games services, so they will have more project spotlights/ talented artists using their services, so they are more likely to improve the quality/ quantity of their services and provide updates to keep their customers engaged and constantly create new assets. This will have a positive impact on creatives like me, who need assets to create projects, as well as creating a huge potential and endless possibilities for professional and industry level projects.

Threats

One risk of this project is focusing on one area, and narrowing my journey to solely focusing on building a landscape, as the engine is so big and works for many different areas, it would be a threat to just focus on one, and not look into it further, as it would be reducing knowledge in the software/ industry which will make you less employable.

It is heavily relying on modern technology, which is very risky due to technical issues or internet/ performance issues, etc.

One threat is that I would have to ensure I kept up to date with the software, as it is constantly being upgraded and changed, meaning that you can easily get left behind. So it is extremely important to stay updated with modern technology so I can continue to explore your potential as a creator.

Although, trying to stay up to date with everything is impossible due to not enough time. So that is the threat of working with such a broad software/ area. There is so much I can learn, that it can be overwhelming and could prevent me from focusing on one section in detail, so balance is key.

As I am only using free assets and the Quixel suite, one threat may be that due to popularity and the high-level customers and creators using Megascans and Quixel, it may mean that they start to charge Unreal creators for use of their assets/ tools, due to the high demand and large productions using their free services. This could negatively affect student artists or beginners who can’t afford/ don’t want to pay a lot of money, such as myself.