Somber Cavern In Unreal Engine

In this article we’re joined by Carlos Perfume as he covers his journey creating Somber Cavern. Discover what inspired the piece, how Carlos formed his composition, utilized Substance, build custom shaders and most importantly… how iteration is key!

Intro

Hello, My name is Carlos Perfume-Garcia and I am a recent graduate from Ringling College of Art and Design. I am now a Surface Artist working for 343 industries. I was born in Puerto Rico but raised all around the US. Ever since I was younger, playing video games and drawing were a huge part of my childhood. This eventually led me to Ringling, which is where I first got into 3D art. After choosing game art as my major, I found that environment art and 3D art was the best fit for me. This interest combined with my unyielding determination allowed me to create many personal projects during my school years. One of them being Somber Cavern. Which I will now go into detail and explain my journey and process.

Composition

When creating this environment I had a couple things in mind. Making the environment readable was on the top of that list as well as trying to create a balanced composition. Making the environment look good from a top down view helped me create a space that looks playable and flows. I made sure to consistently check my rule of thirds and golden ratio to make sure my composition worked. Usually I ended up moving things like a slight inch or two so that it would match it perfectly or if it helped me create some purposeful imbalance. From the beginning I decided to keep my main focus on one specific camera shot and I never really changed that. This helped me concentrate all my energy into set dressing and worldbuilding. I also was able to set up a lot of dynamic shapes that assisted the composition since the focal point never really changed.

I only emphasize this because I had not started with any specific concept art so I tried to make sure to keep it cohesive and structured from the beginning. Usually for a project of this scale it's better to draw out what you want your scene to look like; but because of the strict time frame I set for myself, I decided to look past that and gather as much reference as possible to help me visualize the scene.

This is a picture showing what the environment looks like when I simplify the shapes to an extreme level. You are instantly able to see why my focal point is strong, just through the simplified shapes of the environment.

With that in mind I decided the best approach for me would be to split up the composition between the ground level, the midground and the background. I also incorporate minor foreground elements such as the chains which helped pop the composition forward. Another big part of the entire composition was the placement of the rocks and ice. I used them to create a vignette around the focal point, but I also made it so that they created arrows which pointed towards the focal point as well. Shadow shapes are just as important as all other shapes.

Colour, Light and Mood

For the mood and lighting of the piece, I set a big goal to get that cold feeling people tend to get from icy biomes. Because of that I decided to exaggerate the blues in the scene and add a couple of purples and slight greens to sell that cold feeling.

Once I had that in place I added a complimentary colour to the mix to give it a slight warm feeling. Which later I decided to amplify to give the environment a melancholic mood. Using fernels and masks I created a simple god ray that became very beneficial to giving it that natural sunlight look. This gave my composition more interest and added more unique shadow shapes that broke up the continuity of the space.

Story and Style

The story developed as I made the environment. I started off with a very loose story about a cult that worshipped a god and made sacrifices everyday in a cave. As I progressed through the scene I needed to specify for myself where the people came from, why they worshipped this god and why they came to a cave to worship him. I drew inspiration from Tibetan mythology as well as Tibetan culture. Living in the mountains was part of that culture and with that in mind I began to construct the cave. Some other inspirations were the coin texture.

From the beginning of the project I knew two things; first, I wanted my main inspiration to be Diablo and that the second would be God of War. I made saure to gather a ton of reference from both. I also wanted to combine those two with my own style that I had been developing for my Thesis project Duality; which was another project that I worked on in a team of three.

In Duality and Somber cavern I made sure to incorporate a semi realistic style; where I exaggerate shapes but use more realistic and naturalistic texture work.

I really wanted the cave to have a specific natural look with certain areas of specific stylization. That is how I approach most of my projects. I am very fond of stylized pieces but I always make sure to find that middle ground with realism because it is important to me to create a connection between what I am making and the real world. I love the balancing act between the big, medium and small shapes in anything. I tend to look at art really graphically and holistically so that gives me an advantage in the early stages of production. Looking back to my main inspirations such as Zelda, God of War, Darksiders and Sly Cooper, it's easy to see how I draw from these in my art in very large quantities.

Substance Alchemist and Designer

Substance Alchemist and Designer are two of my favourite programs. They are both useful in different ways but both work together to achieve a similar goal. For my scene I used Designer specifically to block in the textures of my bigger shapes. Creating procedural materials is essential to any environment you may be creating. Meanwhile Substance Alchemist is more useful for procedurally combining materials and mixing them together. The benefits for both these programs is that they offer the most intuitive creation of procedural textures. Designer works of a node-based system which makes the possibilities for diverse material creation endless. It’s also why it is my favourite program and seen as the industry standard currently. When using something like substance in the scene it always helps to visualize what textures you could possibly use in your scene. Substance is amazing at covering large areas with procedural textures which helps with scope. For example, in Somber cavern I made all my procedural textures using Substance and that covered at least 65-75% of the screen space. The ice, snow, frozen lake and coins are all the textures that I made on Substance Designer.

Learning Substance

When starting to learn something new, in this case Substance Designer, I'd suggest doing a lot of research. Learn the nodes. Every node offers something different and the methods for their usage are plenty. Watch tutorials. Extract information from the pros and even from people who are still learning. Surround yourself around people who are doing the same thing and trying to walk the same path as you. Remember that it will take time but if you are really dedicated you will be able to learn and even invent new techniques for others to use. Eventually people will learn from you. One important thing to remember that is often overlooked is having an organized graph. Even when I began, it didn't occur to me to organize but later on it caused me a great deal of difficulty.

I personally think that when learning new things you should always try to experiment as much as possible. Finding a balance between experimenting and learning from tutorials is the best way to learn. At the end of it all it'll be worth it.

Iteration is Key

I'm sure you've been told this plenty of times, but let me reiterate that iteration is key to building a successful piece of art. It's also beautiful to see the process images unfold after you're done with a project. Seeing the process is almost like peering into an artist's thoughts and decision making. I decided to make a GIF for Somber Cavern because of this reason. I also was inspired by many others who have done it before.

From the basic blockout to somewhere in the middle of production I made many definitive choices. I decided to shift the colour and mood to something for a more blue-green feeling. I added the skull which brought the composition together, changed the camera for the focal point to be lower so it was more in the rule of thirds and also did a lighting change. I deleted all the lights and decided to redo everything including the post process. This helped me get a better feeling of the environment overall.

Asset List and Creation

When researching I found that there were specific props and models that I needed to make for the cavern to feel correct. Making an asset list is one of the best ways I found to control the scope of the environment. It also helps to organize the mind on what you want to fill your space with. Filling out the space with few amounts of assets is something that must be planned. During blockout knowing what each block and greybox element will translate too is essential.

Making variations of the same asset when modelling and sculpting is also very important. This allows for a lot of variety when set dressing your scene which will make your scene more natural. Make sure that when you're making assets you're not adding on mid-development. It is crucial to follow through with your asset list and not add or detract to much unless extremely necessary. You never want to be caught in the never ending loop of scope.

Custom Shader

For Somber Cavern I created an Ice material which was very parameterized and customizable. It was one of the most important textures to get correct in my environment. Since it fills in a lot of the corners and sells the idea of the ice cavern.

The ice operated mainly on masks, bump offsets and fresnels all fused and added together in an intricate way to create that reflectivity you normally see in the ice. I also added parameters for tiny cracks and bumps with different normals combined together. I had parameters for almost everything from controlling the XY tiling, noise intensity and rockheight to the emissive intensity and clarity of the ice itself.

Inspiration and Feedback

When creating a piece I try to find inspiration in anything and everything. I feel like with most artists that's the case. Movies, books, music, video games, and especially real life, are all things that I rely on to gain inspiration. My main inspiration comes from video games. I grew up with them and they shaped what is now my passion and job. The biggest video games that I seem to use consistently would have to be Legend of Zelda, God of War, Darksiders, Devil May Cry, Metroid and Shadow of the Colossus. Those games are all very near and dear to my heart so much to the point where I've researched their lore and have gotten really invested with the deep story itself. I feel as if those inspire not only my art but my soul.

Balancing that with real life events and moments is definitely a must for me. The beauty of real life is necessary for me to reflect on my art. Sometimes it's easy to forget and get lost online, finding many different things to escape to. We take the real world for granted sometimes but there's so much to take from the world around us to use in our art, it's amazing.

Seeking feedback is just as important as making the art itself. Sometimes it even plays a bigger role in any art piece's journey. Feedback allows us to gain a different perspective on a piece that you could've been overthinking, overworking, underworking and more. It lets us hear the thoughts that you may have been having but were blocked by your own ego. It is essential to the process in creating a piece that's bigger than yourself. I like to seek feedback from teachers, co-workers, friends, industry veterans and anyone online who I can contact. Having connections and keeping them is very important in this industry.

Additional Tips

If anything has helped me is that I have always believed in myself. I have always aimed high and have been very ambitious. I would say ambition can be like a double-edged sword and will not always take me where I want to go. But at the end of the day I'd say that aiming high has always done more good than bad. So my advice, I guess it would be to never doubt yourself, keep yourself grounded and always reach for the stars.

Also make sure to take the time to learn the fundamentals.

Future Projects

Lookout for my future materials I will be uploading on Artstation. I'm also currently in the process of making a new environment so also be on the lookout for that. I don't want to spoil it but it's a very cool psychological horror project. I also started to sell some material breakdowns on Gumroad if you want to check that out. Soon I will also start posting tutorials so I can explain my process better and help others with tips and tricks.

Outro

Thank you for joining me and reading my article. I hope you were able to learn something new or at least extract something that will help you in your artistic journey. I know that writing this article certainly helped me discover deeper things in my art that I never fully thought about. I'm glad I was able to participate in an experience like this. Thank you all and I hope this helps you in your individual artistic journey.