Fantasy Environment - 12 Years Later
In 2013:
While I was studying, I was tasked to create 3 environment shots in Maya. The brief gave me full creative freedom over the style, camera angles, colours, and theme. At the time, Dishonored (2012) had just been released, showcasing the amazing Fachwerk Victorian/Bavarian houses and stunning textures. The Fable game artbooks were in my library, and I was about to take a trip to Bavaria, which made me even more enthralled with the idea of creating something fantastical and medieval.
So after work hours, I managed to finish with these three environment shots.
The first three weeks were all about concept art, where I really had to refine my ideas and layouts. Since I’m a big fan of stylized art, I decided to go for hand-painted textures, taking inspiration from the likes of Riot, Blizzard and Fable.
In 2022:
I went through my old work and decided to do a small breakdown of the things that didn’t make sense or I just didn’t like either due to time constraints or lack of skill.
Some notes:
I like the forest in the background.
If the pub is important bring it closer. Or is the forge more important?
The fountain was the focus but is lost in the scene (does it need to be the focus of the scene?) - no. The Statue at the back is the aim.
Why are there so many barrels?
Keep the greenery - I can do better. And I don't need to use the alpha maps, and I can make the polygons way higher now.
Aiming for more greenery than the last time. Overgrown, but lived in.
I had some questions to answer:
My answers were:
Is this a fun/happy scene?
Is it a scary scene?
Are these buildings old?
Are they well maintained?
Are these Fachwerkhaus constructions? or are they just similar?
Why is there no-one in the village?
Did something go terribly wrong?
Is it abandoned?
Is the town empty because of a celebration?
Are there decorations for this celebration?
Is it empty? or are people hiding?
Is it a ghost town?
Why are there so many barrels?
Are the lights actually on?
I was aiming for cozy, but not abandoned.
I don’t have people to fill the scene so it is a little tougher to make it look lively.
I wanted to make it a standard evening on a pleasant night with everyone inside and enjoying a drink after a hard days work.
The buildings and streets are old. I think it’s tough to maintain them fully so there should definitely be some wear and tear present as well as ivy, vines or some type of climber that attaches to the houses.
A few barrels here and there, with buckets, baskets etc are very useful and crucial but I can’t clutter the scene with them. I’ll need rubbish, crates, barrels, clothes and other brick-a-brack to fill the spaces up. Ideally, it will be mostly plants now instead.
The Present (2025):
So what do I want to achieve?
Keep this within the bounds of a real-time engine - UE 5.5
Improve the composition of at least one shot.
Don’t make the inside of the Inn
Keep the vague layout and theme but upgrade it to a large screen space.
Explore the environment story a bit more.
Less barrels everywhere and give more reason for things.
Use the PBR pipeline but keep the stylised look. A bit like Dishonored.
Focus on Primary and Secondary details but lose the Tertiary Details.
Use current knowledge, skills and expectations along with some new skills in programs I don’t get to use much in my day to day.
Try to make everything myself
Use procedural textures and models to speed things up.
To set up tools or get tools for my future use (Geometry nodes in Blender, Blueprints in UE 5.5 & Substance Designer nodes)
See how far I get within 6 weeks - completed or not
The New Layout:
I’ve come back to the drawing and I have reworked the original layout using things I wrote in 2022 and real world places to get inspiration for the newer layout.
The rework is in the middle of the image. The original layout is in the top left, and surrounding it are inspiring images or real world locations and fable 2 sketches.
Breaking down the layout
South:
The brick gate will be lighted and large wooden gates will be closed. Past this area will be blocked from exploration.
North:
Meeting at the north elbow of the main road, a closed metal overgrown gate leads to dirt road/path leads from the central area toward the north of the map, winding through greenery and trees. This area will be blocked from exploration.
The path ends at a statue, which is prominently marked in a small circular area.
A pond is located to the northeast, bordered by trees and open land. It is accessible only via the clock tower archway. This area will be blocked from exploration.
East:
The road continues eastward with houses and shops lining the space.
A large gate runs over the road just like the south gate (a duplicate). Past this area will be blocked from exploration.
West:
Meeting at the west elbow of the main road, a large bricked or stone fence will have a closed wooden gate. It is implied that a lord lives there. This area will be blocked from exploration.
Central Area:
The cobbled road is an elbow that goes from south to east.
In the centre will be a fountain that is fenced with greenery slightly overgrowing the space.
Surrounding the area are various shops, houses, and an inn. The lines on the rectangular objects show the spine of the roof indicating direction.
The circular area around the fountain will be stepped (2 steps); Giving space to have temporary tents circle around it and still give space to walk (environment story telling could have dirt or dust in squares to show things have moved).
The Inn:
The Inn will have a herringbone brick - different to the standard cobblestone of the main road.
It will be behind the fountain but more lit to draw the eye. The fountain will leave negative space.
Aiming for a nice garden, over grown roof, yellow lights, warm atmosphere.
Beside it is a clock tower.
General Notes:
Fences will be made of metal, wood or brick.
All will have plants growing over or on it in some way
Items will be duplicated in every way that is possible - using splines or geometry nodes to help create items with a procedural randomness.
Also using Virtual Textures, Nanite Tessellation and Landscape painting (and meshes).