Steampunk Loft

In this scene I focus on recreating a steampunk scene. What really helped me make the scene stand out was the volumetric fog, lighting and tessellation. I had to go into the unreal engine code and modify the tessellation base multipliers to create a more pronounced effect. Then I used a volumetric fog and once I applied the lighting it interacted in a very effectively.

Scene Breakdown

The following is the mood boards used to help me decide the color palette I was to use in the scene and the type of assets I was to create. There is a lot of metallic brass colors with rustic surface in many of the materials

Mood board 1

I wanted to create an open space with a busy background. I took many of repeating patterns in the scenes for modulations like the pipes, cogs, rivets, panels and arches.

Mood board 2

I created a few frames in Maya to create a narrative within my scene.

Modules

I tested the composition by importing my meshes into UE4 and creating a block out model. I played with the arrangement, placing them around the map until I got this.

Composition Shot 1

Composition Shot 2

Texturing

I textured the environment to get a feel for the harmony and unity of the scenne

Textured Environment Shot 1

Textured Environment Shot 2

Textured Environment Shot 3

When I imported my high level hero asset I realized that the vault was hiding it, and it could not be appreciated. The hero asset being the main focal point of the scene I had a problem and a decision to make.

Hero asset Import Shots

So I took away the vault and kept the vault door

Fixing Focal Point

Main Asset

My hero asset is inspired by old shotgun rifles and steam engines

Hero Asset Model

I used brass, silver, copper, iron, and mahogany colors to dress it.

Hero Asset with color maps

Then wear and tear textures were applied to give it a more realistic effect.

Hero Asset With Textures

Lighting

I played with the lighting, using preview mode to build it and get a feel of the atmosphere. I played with the light colors to set the mood.

Lighting Shots

After seeing these, I added blue and red color to the lights so that I could transition between a cold desolate mood to a warm and hopeful mood.

Scene Shots with mood lighting

Modifying the engine code

My textures where really not popping enough. After tweaking the parameter values I found that the engines multipliers for tessellation was too low. I modified the UE4 code by doing the following:

1. Open the Epic_Games\UE_4.X\Engine\Shaders\PNtriangles.usf in a text editor.

2. Using Ctrl+H Find and change:

[maxtessfactor(15)]

[maxtessfactor(50)]

3. Find and change:

CompositeTessellationFactors = clamp( CompositeTessellation Factors, 1, 15 );

CompositeTessellationFactors = clamp( CompositeTessellation Factors, 1, 50 );

Note: You can do the same for flat tessellation by finding and modifying the same code in the FlatTessellation.usf file in the same folder.

Here you can appreciate the effect this does. The directional light is interacting with the top of the bricks via tessellation.

Lighting + Modified Tessellation

I added a height fog to help visualize the light mood. These are the settings I used in it.

Fog Settings

This was the result with preview lighting built. The final result looks better in the video at the top of this page because I built the lighting using production quality.

Final Scene with preview lighting build