Brief
As part of the term 1 VFX fundamental course, we are instructed to construct an environment scene in UE5. The theme is cabin in the woods. The process for this assignment would be:
- Look for references
- Block out the scene
- Add materials and look dev
- Import models
- Scatter vegetation(tress and plants)
- Setting cinematic cameras
- Additional elements
- Render image sequences
References
I went online to look for some references to give context what a cabin in the woods would look like. I plan to add an additional element of water in my scene. I imagine my cabin would be positioned beside a body of water such as a lake.
Blocking
I moved on to blocking out my scene. The concept would be to have mountains/hills as the background. The cabin itself would be by a pond and surrounded by trees. The big cubes represent the mountain, the cylinders are trees( the quantity is TBD). The white plane is the pond/lake and the small box will be the cabin.
Look Dev/Materials
I tested the animated water surface material. For the lake surface, it would be darker and slightly green beside on references.
Importing 3D assets
Next would be importing the 3d models of the cabin together with the textures.
Vegetation
Afterwards, I proceed with the scattering of trees. Both the water plants and trees are hand painted in the scene using foilages in UE5.
Adding Camera
After completing the scene, the next step would be to frame my camera angles. I tested some angles which I find aesthetically pleasing.
Additional Elements
Lastly, I added two additional 2 elements in my scene to make it more interesting.
Final Result
Reflection
Overall, this is a short and fun project to do. Quixel bridge definitely made the whole process a lot faster as very little modelling is needed for this project. UE5’s real time render is really fast and realistic(ish). The most challenging part would working with the shadows and the lighting. I wasn’t pleased with the initial render and had to color correct in the post using Nuke.