Evaluation

I am very happy with the finished result of my project, I pushed myself to learn new techniques which worked well and fit into the theme of the project.

However, in the future, I want to improve my foliage by using methods like splines which help make foliage look a lot more natural. They are also used to make foliage have more variation which would have helped a lot in this project.

I also would have taken more renders of the early parts of my project to improve my documentation of the process, especially for competitions like the Rookies as it is very helpful to have a clear workflow.

Additionally, I want optimise my use of materials more in the future through the use of master materials and using trim sheets, as using them in this project has been extremely helpful.

I have been inspired by other artists a lot during this project, especially through 80 Level articles, ArtStation and Instagram. I found that researching the techniques that other artists use is very interesting and gave me more ideas for my own project.

Games like Diablo with detailed environments have also been a strong area of interest for me. For example Red Dead Redemption, Sea Of Thieves and Elden Ring. Playing these games while being taught the techniques allowed me to see how the methods I was learning were being implemented in industry, and where I can use them in my own work.

My Drawing for Games sessions have been especially helpful in working towards my final rendering and lighting compositions. They taught me techniques like rim lighting and gave me inspiration for how effects, like fog, could create visually appealing final renders.

Overall, I think that this was a successful first Unreal Project and has given me a strong base of knowledge to improve on in the future.