The Stylized Wilderness

In this article we’re joined by Math as he breaks down his atmospheric highlands environment created in UE5 and inspired by a camping trip to Sweden. Learn how Math used composition, lighting and subtle animations to craft a scene that’s full of life and character.

Intro

Hi! I’m Math Roodhuizen! I’ve always had a love for games and would get totally absorbed in them when playing. Growing up, I also really liked to draw. I remember quite clearly when I realized I wanted to make games. I was really hooked on Guild Wars 2 around the time when it came out. I remember looking at their beautiful loading screens, and thinking; ‘someone has to make this, that’s a really cool job’. I started to google and realized there are so many different creative professions within the game industry, which for whatever reason I never really realized. I bought a basic Wacom tablet and started to learn Photoshop. I enrolled in a 4 year game art study and I slowly fell in love with 3D, and environments in particular. From here I started to get interested in shaders, vfx and the more technical side of game art.

Composition

With this project I wanted to emphasize the composition and general mood, not focusing too much on the quality of the individual assets. I didn’t want to make it too complicated; pick a clear focal point from the start to build the environment around. In this case, the main focal point is the waterfall in the distance.

One of the main things I did to guide the viewers eye to the focal point, is using directionality / leading lines. For example, if you look at the elements that have a clear directionality to them, most of them are pointing towards the waterfall. In this case the rocks and the river. I purposefully created the rocks with a strong direction in them for this reason. The flock of birds, for example, are flying in a V formation which is pointing towards the focal point.

I also framed the composition using the elements in the foreground. The rocks and trees close to the camera are placed in shadow, making them darker. The fog helps to make the elements that are further away lighter, which creates a clearer separation between the foreground and background and also helps to increase the sense of depth, making the environment feel bigger. In the image below, you can see a bit more clearly how I used values to create depth.

Besides contrast in values, I also used contrast in colour to aid my composition. In my case the colder rocks surround the focal point which has a warmer tone. This area of contrast also helps to emphasize it more. In the image below I boosted the saturation to demonstrate this more clearly.

Finally, I added some elements that you couldn’t add in more traditional art or static images but is a very strong tool in games: movement! In my video the waterfall is moving. Moving elements in a static surrounding will attract the viewer to that area. Besides this, I let all movement revolve around the focal point; the wind is roughly coming from that direction, the clouds are moving away from the focal point and the birds are flying towards it. The moose looks up, looking at the centre of the composition. Just keep in mind that too much movement in the wrong place can also work against your composition.

Lighting

A lot of the mood and lighting was inspired by a recent trip to Sweden. We hiked through the Swedish highlands and were looking for a place to set up our tents while the sun was taking forever to set. The pictures I took didn't do the lighting justice so I decided to go more by memory and instead of trying to recreate it visually, I tried to recreate the general feel and atmosphere. 

The thing that really struck me was the vastness of the place. Dotted through the landscape were a few trees, constantly at the mercy of the strong winds. The trees had only little green on them and even though they were not that tall, looked as if they were hundreds of years old. It was clear that cold weather mostly dominates this place. However, there was a surprising amount of colour if you looked closer. Coloured mosses with orange, white and yellow tones, green grasses and purple orange leaves from the blueberry bushes and a constant buzz of insects. It was clear that summer doesn’t last long here and being there felt quite special.

To get the sense of a long Scandinavian summer evening, I had the main directional light come in at a very low angle. The source is blocked out by one of the rocks in the distance, placing the camera itself in shadow, along with the foreground elements on the right. Casting the foreground in shadow can also help increase the sense of depth as mentioned before. The lighter patch of grass feels inviting and almost draws you in.

An important element that helped with the look is the ‘Sky Atmosphere’ actor. This actor can simulate the way the sky absorbs and scatters light, and creates a red or orange glow when the sun is low on the horizon just like the real world. This gave the area where the light was coming from the strong warm glow that you see in the final image. There’s a lot of variables you can tweak to change the look, and I took some artistic liberties to make the sky a bit more intense and stylized. As you can see below this actor has a huge impact and it even tints the colour of the directional light. You don’t have to use this actor to achieve a similar visual style, but I found it useful to be able to quickly iterate on the look and feel.

Another element that ties into lighting quite a bit is the set up of the fog. At first, I used a height fog actor with volumetrics enabled. This definitely gave the atmosphere a fuller look, but at the same time a more realistic one. A lot of the fog took on a warmer tone, as you would expect with a warm lightsource. There are definitely some knobs you can turn to tweak the look, but I had a hard time to get the look and feel that I wanted. In the end, I went with a more basic height fog without volumetrics enabled. Partly thanks to the sky atmosphere actor the air still feels very atmospheric and dense, and I was able to achieve a more stylized look with the height fog. I gave it a colder tone to contrast with the warmer light.

Clouds

I started by sculpting the clouds in ZBrush. I made longer in one axis so that I could again use them to guide the viewer to the focal point. I decimated the mesh in ZBrush, and used Maya to do some final clean-up and create the UV’s. At first, I baked an AO and normal map, but I didn’t end up using them.

I played with a few different things like making the clouds emissive, fully opaque or transparent clouds. In the end, I went with opaque clouds but with subsurface scattering to give them a volumetric feel. I’m using a fresnel in the emissive to make the edges brighter. This gives the impression as if the clouds let through more light around the edges (where the light wouldn’t be fully absorbed by the cloud itself) compared to the centre.

The shader set-up itself isn’t very complex, but it does require some manual tweaking in different lighting set-ups which isn’t ideal, and it might not work as well in other environments that have completely different lighting.

Emphasizing The Feeling Of Depth

As I alluded to earlier, I used several techniques to increase the feeling of depth in this scene. Placing some of the foreground elements in shadow to make them appear darker, and the fog that makes things further away lighter help with this. A fairly wide field of view on the camera also give the environment a more spacious feel.

Besides the ‘normal’ fog, I hand-placed some fog cards in the scene. These are flat meshes with a fog material on them. By placing them behind objects that ‘stick out’ like the trees and some of the rocks in the landscape you both make their silhouette more readable, and create a layered effect which again helps give a feeling of depth.

In the short video that I created, I used the ‘dolly zoom’ effect. Originating in film, this is when the camera moves forwards or backwards while at the same time adjusting the field of view. In film you’ll often see this used to convey a moment of realisation or when someone looks down from a high place. In my case, I use this effect more slowly. If you speed it up, it’s a lot more noticeable. I wanted to achieve the feeling of ‘stepping out into the open’ and the environment opening up in front you. This effect helps create more depth. At the same time the camera pans towards the focal point, again emphasizing it.

Using Old Projects To Create An Asset Library

I wanted to speed up my own iterative process and don’t get stuck too long on certain aspects of the environment. For instance, if you only want to see how some grass would look if placed on the rocks it can get you out of the flow if you have to open Maya, create the meshes for it, create the texture masks and set up the material in Unreal. Instead, I grabbed some existing grass from an older project, tweaked the texture a bit and placed them around the scene. That way it can be easier to stay within this creative flow without too many distractions. In some cases I went back later and updated the assets to fit the scene better, replaced them with new assets or just left them as is. Once the environment is 80% of the way there it’s easier to spot which assets need some additional attention and which assets work fine as is, saving you time as well. 

Another example of reuse is the texturing of the rocks. The rocks were specifically sculpted for this project, but I used a smart material I created in Substance Painter for previous rocks, giving me a quick base to start from. In other cases like the terrain textures I reused textures from an older project. I had the intention of updating them later, but when the environment was close to finished it didn’t look out of place and I kept it as is. They are outdated and I would be able to create better textures today, but in the grand scheme it really doesn’t matter. This is also why I want to avoid spending a lot of time on things like this early on. It’s often better to throw in WIP or placeholder textures and slowly finetune and increase the quality across the environment simultaneously. This way you avoid spending time on things that don’t really add to the overall picture. Having your own asset library can seriously help with this, but there’s also no shame in using downloaded content in your process.

Subtle Grass Movement

For the grass, I set up a basic foliage shader with a few small extras. Using the ‘SimpleGrassWind’ material function that is included in Unreal, I added some basic movement. By multiplying a vertical gradient over the grass UV’s I ensure only the top of the grass moves in the wind, and the bottom stays grounded.

The geese that fly over are animated with a shader. Generally, for a simple background element like this it’s not worth it rigging and animating it both for effort but also performance impact. In this case I created a simple low poly model for the geese, and animating them in the shader using a sine wave. I using the vertex colour data that I painted in Maya to mask out certain areas of the bird. For example, the tips of the wings need to move more compared to the base, the body only has to move along a little bit and I wanted the head to remain static.

Then I used the ‘instanced static mesh’ component in a blueprint to instance multiple of these meshes. Because I use the ‘per instance random’ node to offset the sine wave in the shader, every goose now flaps its wings at a different point in time. If I wouldn’t have done this, all geese would have flapped their wings in sync.

They look very simplistic up close, but work well as background elements. Doing it this way with instanced meshes and shader animation is a very efficiënt way of doing it performance wise.

In the composition, the V formation of geese fly towards the focal point emphasizing it more.

Additionally, the moose is also animated. In the video, you can hear the geese flying overhead. The moose looks up and its head follows the geese towards the focal point. This one is rigged and animated.

Finally, the waterfall is moving as well. The immediate surroundings of the waterfall are static, making it pop a bit more. The wind that moves through the grass and the clouds move away from it as well: everything revolves around the focal point. On top of that the slow camera movement and the dolly zoom effect help make sure the scene does not feel static. Everything is controlled via a sequence.

Movement can also work against you however and draw attention from the viewer where you don’t want it. In my case, the moose is quite dark and it’s movement is a bit larger than some of the other elements in the scene. For a while I wasn’t sure if it was working against me by drawing too much attention. In the end I decided it worked well, but it’s good to be mindful of the impact movement has to the visuals you create. Generally, I try to add movement where I can to avoid the environment feeling static, but keep these movements subtle to not introduce too much visual noise.

Iteration

This is the very first screenshot I took of the project. As you can see, the general layout has stayed the same throughout the project.

I knew that the rocks would play a very important role in the composition, so I wanted to add them next. I soon realized everything felt very basic and quite static, so I added a bit of tilt to the camera to create a more dynamic feel. I also created more height difference in the terrain to add visual interest.

I wanted to get some colour in, and grabbed some terrain textures I created in a previous project to block out some basic colours. I also added the river since I knew it would be important in the composition.

After this I started to try out some different lighting setups. Getting the lighting to look right is essential to getting the mood across that I wanted. I also added some foreground elements, which really help balance the composition a lot more and add some more depth to the image.

I increased the height of the foreground elements to frame the composition more, and adjusted the lighting to have a bit more contrast. By adding different types of foliage I also break up the big green chunks, creating more visual interest. My goal was to make it feel colourful, but not lush. The fog here is volumetric. The increased contrast in light and dark also helps separate the foreground from the background more.

I changed my fog to a non-volumetric one, which helped me to achieve the look that I was going for. I also added the clouds, geese, moose and a pathway that leads into the main part of the environment. I also balanced the colours by tweaking the lighting and some light post processing inside Unreal. I also added some finishing touches like the fog cards and some smaller rocks for added detail and visual interest.

Where are you still looking to grow as an artist? What new techniques or topics interest you?

I still have so much that I need or want to learn when it comes to game art that it can be both daunting and exciting. I’ve recently started to play around with Houdini and there is so much there that you could fill an entire career around it. Generally, over the years, my interest in the technical side of game art has grown. I’ve had a blast creating shaders and effects both at work and on personal projects. In the end though, for me it has to have a tangible and visual impact to really interest me. I only really want to learn the more technical things so I can create game art that looks better and when it gets too abstract it interests me less.

I’ve recently been experimenting with using Blender for concepting which I really enjoy and when I get the opportunity I always really enjoy helping conceptualize and visualize ideas. I don’t strive to rival the dedicated concept artists out there, but I think it's a very valuable (and fun!) skill to have, allowing you to work more independently and make yourself useful at various stages of development.

Besides game art, in the past I’ve enjoyed more traditional art as well like drawing, painting and even screen-printing. These are definitely areas that I’m less proficient in but enjoy nonetheless, and I hope to find the time to continue to grow in these areas as well. In the end though, I only have so much time on my hands.

I enjoy environment art in particular because of its variety: it combines things like composition, asset creation, (environmental) vfx and requires a lot of cooperation between different disciplines.

Inspiration

Like many others I find inspiration on websites like this one and other websites like Artstation. I try to find inspiration outside of games as well. Looking at Artstation too much can sometimes make me feel pressured when I see all this great art. At the same time, a lot of other artists that post on Artstation, also get inspiration from Artstation! You’ll often see these waves of certain styles ripple through the Artstation feed from cross-pollinated inspiration. This is great of course, but going out into nature for example or visiting a museum can help me generate new ideas. No idea is truly original, but some stand out more than others. Every time I do something like this I’m reminded that I should really do it more often. Especially at this time, it can be all too easy to look for inspiration online. The internet is definitely a great tool that you should use, but shaking it up every now and then is a great way to break a mental stalemate when you are stuck or out of ideas. As mentioned before, my trip to Sweden was the main inspiration for this project. I simply would not have ended up with the same result if I had just looked at pictures and videos, as the main inspiration was the mood/feeling that I had while being there. However, I understand not everyone has the luxury to go to another country for a couple of weeks. A visit to a museum, watching a movie on the big screen or a hike through nature close to you are all things you can do to get inspired.

Feedback

It’s important to have a source of reliable feedback, ideally from people that both give honest feedback and are knowledgeable on the area you are looking for feedback for. I have a few friends and colleagues that I will approach personally and ask for their thoughts and advice. I’m personally not a huge fan of asking for feedback on social media. It’s a lot more all over the place and it can be harder to get quality feedback there. You might have better luck in dedicated groups or Discord channels for example. At the same time, I think it’s important to consider feedback from all levels of experience. Someone less experienced than you can often have valuable insights, or might know of techniques you haven’t heard about yet. Just keep in mind that (for personal work) you don’t have to address all feedback - simply see it as a way to gather inspiration for potential improvements. Listen to what they have to say and evaluate if you agree. Is the feedback relevant to what you are trying to achieve? For example, my project was mainly about the general composition and mood and not the quality of the individual assets. Feedback that goes into the technical quality of the assets would be less relevant in the case of this project. Just absorb all feedback and consider what is relevant to you.

Additional Advice

When making game art is your job or you are studying to become a professional game artist, it can be hard to find the motivation to work on personal projects on the side. I had prolonged periods of time when I didn’t work on any personal projects and I had personal projects that dragged out for months.

With this project, my main goal was to create something that interests me personally and enjoy myself while doing it. I allowed myself to be a lot more loose in my process and the goal changed from ‘create something good’ to ‘just have fun’. I had a lot more positive responses on this project compared to some previous things I made that I spent a lot more time on. If you are ever feeling demotivated, allow yourself to enjoy other things for a while. Try to remember what it was that got you into game art, and try to incorporate this enthusiasm in your workflow. If you focus on creating things that you enjoy and interest you things will go more easily.

What can we be on the lookout for from you in the future?

I want to continue to create game environments but also keep on exploring other aspects of game art like VFX and tech art and continue to improve my conceptual skills as well. I’m hoping to do smaller projects to explore things that interest me, and use those to inspire and inform more extensive projects. I’ve been considering doing more blog posts as well, since I noticed I really enjoy sharing the things I learned like I’m doing here now.

Outro

I did my best to give useful insights into my process and thought process and I really hope you have found it useful. If you have questions or are interested in certain aspects of this project that I might not have fully covered, you are welcome to send me a message on Artstation or Instagram. Thanks a lot for reading!

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