Making a Plague Tale-Inspired Environment With Unreal Engine 5

3D Environment Artist Vivek Kumar Thakur has shared a short breakdown explaining how the Plague Tale-inspired scene was made using Maya, Substance 3D Painter, ZBrush, and Unreal Engine 5.

Introduction

Hey guys, I am Vivek Kumar Thakur, an Environment Artist hailing from Ranchi, India. I am currently 23 years old and have been working in this industry for approximately 2 years. My journey began at Amazon, where I gained valuable knowledge and experience in different team disciplines required for creating assets. During my time there, I had the opportunity to work on various projects and pipelines, where I was responsible for managing the quality of highly detailed assets. Additionally, I ensured that the scale and ratio for the asset creation were accurately matched.

Subsequently, I moved on to work as a Mid-Level Environment Artist at Technicolor Games, where I was fortunate to work on some exciting unannounced projects.

The Plague Tale-Inspired Environment

The project began after playing Plague Tale Innocence, I was inspired by the game's overall mood, tone, and storytelling, which were simply amazing! As a result, I attempted to recreate the game's mood and vibe in my own scene.

To achieve this, I started by collecting some screenshots from the game and then created a blockout of the house. Once the blockout was complete, I imported it into Unreal Engine and began working on the landscape, focusing on making the path more immersive.

This was my first time working in UE5 with Lumen, and I wanted to explore some of the new features. As for the wooden floor, windows, gate, and edge bricks, I modeled them using Maya and textured them in Substance 3D Painter.

Similarly, I created a basic shape for the boat and then added details using ZBrush before texturing it in Substance 3D Painter. To add depth to the scene and pique players' curiosity to explore the area, I constructed a large bridge at the back. Additionally, I took advantage of the modeling tools available in UE5, which greatly accelerated my workflow.

I started with the basic blockout of the house first, mostly wanting to get the proper silhouette and scale of the building. I created the Animated Local Volumetric Fog with the help of an awesome tutorial by Michael.G Art:

Lighting is the main key to setting the mood of the scene. For that, I choose the evening time to get that nice orange tone with a bit of blue light from the sky.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I want to thank my very close friends Sarvesh Shashank Srivastav and Dinesh Sirvi for providing their valuable feedback.

The advice I'd like to share with aspiring Environments Artists is to stay consistent and have proper planning before starting any project. Having a plan is the best timesaving strategy.

Making a Plague Tale-Inspired Environment With Unreal Engine 5

Introduction

The Plague Tale-Inspired Environment

Conclusion

Vivek Kumar Thakur, 3D Environment Artist

Interview conducted by Theodore McKenzie

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