Cecil Powell shows how a coupe of elegant assets can make a simple space look like a castle.
Cecil Powell gave a breakdown of his amazing elegant environment, which features a number of awesome virtual assets. This is a simple environment, but the meshes and decor create a very nice atmosphere and fill the scene nicely. Here’s how Cecil did it.
DiningRoom1
Introduction
I am originally from Canada but also spent a great deal of time in Jamaica as a child and now reside in Central Florida. I have been in the industry for about 2 years now as a Lighting/ Environment Artist on Killer Instinct Season 3 (Iron Galaxy Studios) and Madden 16 (EA Tiburon). I attended Ringling School of Art and Design for an BFA in Illustration and University of Central Florida (FIEA) for a MS in Game Design.
Elegance
When I decided to take on this project, I was in the middle of binge watching “Outlander” on Starz. I was intrigued with how they visualized the 18th Century, thus I was inspired to do this particular piece. I wanted to recreate the somber mood with realistic lighting and composition within the UE4 engine and as modular as possible. I wanted to create a point of interest which is why I went with a marble fireplace at the end of the room and the table leading your eye. But most of all I wanted to establish a mood to evoke emotion. When planning the interior, I first did my reference research which I believe is one of the most important steps for any artist to do. No one knows what everything looks like in their heads after all (well, maybe Bob Ross). I then started blocking out the scene in Maya as I find this is the easiest way for me to visualize big shapes and make quick edits for scale and placement. This is also when I figure out which asset I can make modular as to save quality time in the long run. I had a vague idea of the composition I wanted, but decided to refine it within UE4. I tried not to clutter the scene with objects and just keep it simple with assets that support the lighting.
Assets
As for asset creation, I tried to make as many pieces modular as possible. I have a total of 23 assets and I tend to use different techniques according to what I am creating. For instance, the table is a predominantly hard-surface, so I choose to build it out in Maya and create UVs then sent it over to Substance Painter for fine detailing. I absolutely love Substance this is where I do most of my texturing. I also use Xnormal just because it gives me good control on getting an AO and Cavity Map which I use to enhance the color map within Photoshop. For more organic assets, like the curtains I hit a little speed bump. First I tried creating a basic shape in Maya, exported to Zbrush where I dynameshed and started bringing out the folds. After a few hours of trying different techniques it just wasn’t reaching the quality level I wanted. So I decided to go back to the drawing board. After stepping away for about a day or so I came back with fresh eyes and is when I discovered Marvelous Designer. I have never used this program before but figured now is a good a time as any to try. I found their site and with the free trial I was able to watch a couple tutorials. Marvelous Designer was fairly easy to use with fantastic results. I was able to create a mesh with the folds I wanted. But it came out pretty high res, so I imported into Zbrush and Zremeshed to a manageable poly count. Then I cleaned up in Maya and sent it to Substance Painter for detailing (problem solved).
plate
texture_R
table
pictures_texture
picture_frame
Lighting
Finally we are on my favorite part, the lighting. To me this is the dessert after dinner, the place where it all comes together. I knew I wanted the lighting to be really soft and inviting. So I started with the directional light by placing it so it casts light across the table giving almost a stair-step effect towards the fireplace, which also breaks up the wall and floor to the left of the interior. I increased the light angle to soften the edges of the shadows ever so slightly and increased the luminescence because the sunlight is the brightest light in the scene. Now on to the ambient light or GI. I simply placed spotlights facing in on each window with a wide outer cone angle and set to static as to flood the room with ambient light from the windows. This also creates soft shadows from the chair backs draping across the scene. I then moved on to placing point lights on the wall lamps as to frame the fireplace and another off screen to the left to give a little fill light. Once those were placed I then created emissive planes and put them just outside the windows to give the impression that it’s bright outside. After the lights were placed I dropped in some exponential height fog to help give a little depth to the scene. I added a slight blue tint to the fog as to give some contrast to the warm sunlight and wall lamps. The last step was to add the post process volume, this is pretty much my best friend. This is where I add color grading, bloom, SSAO, DoF, screen space reflections and a slight grain. I also set the auto exposure min = 0.5 max = 1.0 .