For this project, I wanted to produce a realistic, virtual desert environment scene with towering natural rocks. The scene is a collection of assets I made using ZBrush and Maya, as well as 3D assets from Quixel Megascnas free library. The final product is a short video render using raytracing. Along with composition, I also designed the camera movements, lighting, and environment atmosphere in order to capture the transition from a scorching summer day to a still desert night.
A Peek At The Process
The first step of this project was to create thumbnail sketches to determine the composition of the scene.
Composition Phase
I made giant, desert rock assets using Maya and Zbrush and textured the models in Adobe Substance Painter.
Hero Element Phase
Using a system of nodes in World Machine, I procedurally generated my desert terrain. I created five maps to mask different ground textures onto the terrain.
Terrain Generation Phase
Using Unreal Engine 4.0, I integrated my assets along with desert assets found on Megascans to develop my desert environment.
Development Phase
This is a snapshot of how I generated the desert terrain using World Machine. Each color on in the preview represent a different texture map in Unreal Engine.