Assignment Brief:

For this assignment your task is to create an environment based on one of the four main themes listed below that also incorporates one of the sub-themes beneath them. The production of the environment needs to be recorded and logged in a development log on your WordPress site.

Programme Competencies Assessed:

• PC4 – PROJECT MANAGEMENT – Amend and implement a given plan to develop basic concepts to outcomes while managing time, resources, workload, deadlines and adapting to change.
• PC5 – SOFTWARE PROFICIENCY – Explore available tools, technologies and techniques in order to solve creative problems and demonstrate basic technical proficiency with specialism-specific software skills relevant to the task (with guidance).
• PC8 – REFLECTION – Reflect and evaluate on performance in order to inform personal development and continued learning of new skills

Main Themes:

• Horror
• Science Fiction
• Fantasy
• Historical

Sub-themes: 

• Alien
• Corruption
• Utopia
• Dystopia
• Celebration
• Decay
• Family
• Beauty

Production piece expectations

These guidelines are what we expect to see as a minimum within your environmental submissions:

• A small to medium environment that demonstrates a building and its surrounding area. This could be a house and its garden. A church and a graveyard. A moon base and small excavation site. A spaceship and landing area. A sailing ship and jetty. The choice is up to you.
• The central asset you create in asset design must be placed in your environment in a way that assists the environmental storytelling of your environment. The asset itself will not be graded within Environment Design.
• You must fully furnish your environment with either created or found assets. 
• The environment should be fully lit, and this should help enhance the mood of the finished piece.
• You are not being marked on the assets in your environment, but the layout, presentation and attention to detail in the finished piece.
• You are also being marked on the content of your blog posts for your portfolio, so it is imperative that you update these every week.

Additional content

For those who seek higher marks, you might look to include environmentally relevant:

• HDRI Backdrop
• Decals
• Particle effects

Ideas & Reference Images

For this assignment, I decided that I wanted to be able to tie in the asset as one of the focal points of this environment. This means my ideas would be roughly similar. I am creating a piece with the themes of Historical & family, and the setting will be a blacksmiths forge, alongside a house and some surrounding wilderness (trees, foliage etc.).

I want to capture not just the environment, but a story with the piece aswell. After working in a workshop environment myself I was always told ‘the messier your workspace, the more productive you are being’. This is a philosophy I will be conveying into this piece with items scattered all over the place, and possibly a framed family heirloom if I find anything suitable.

Lighting is going to really compliment this piece nicely. With a blacksmith having a forge, having a not-so-subtle orange hue around that area will serve to show how high temperature that working environment is. A dynamic lighting will be necessary as in those times there were no extremely tall buildings to block the direct sunlight (unless it was situated on castle grounds then it is possible, but that is not the direction I am going for).

The main era of this piece will be set in a medieval era, granted it is not very specific, but the dawn of this era would lead to such a large growth in manufacturing capabilities I find it to be one of the most important periods of time. I will be taking inspiration from both existing video games and pictures of modern blacksmith forges, comparing the differences between them and bringing the piece to life In a way I think would compliment both equally.

Here are some images I used as references to generate Ideas for this piece.

These reference images help reinforce my ideas in certain major ways. In terms of lighting, creating a roof over the working area will be a great way of showing just how intuitive the blacksmith is in terms of keeping himself out of the sunlight while working. Whether this is made out of wood or a cloth material will have to be based around on his wealth, unless it was hand made which I could show in the finished production.

The amount of tools at his disposal will be based on that same concept. If he is a wealthier blacksmith he will have more tools to work with, maybe an extra workbench or two, should he wished to have employed an assistant. However, given the nature of this piece being about family, the one workstation should prove to compliment that nicely.

Creation of the Environment

I started this piece by creating a basic first person level without any prior structure. This would give me freedom to experiment with assets and create the piece in a way I could make it exactly as I envision it.

I proceeded to open up the quixel bridge through the window tab, and browse for common blacksmith assets to start experimenting with my project. I have found multiple tools in one search that look like good additions to it, however with my asset assignment being imported which is an anvil, it seems better choice to leave those to one side and focus on the crafting tools.

Before inserting any assets, I looked for a surface that I would use to create the environment ground. I chose this wild grass as it seems short enough that it could pass as an overgrown walk/pathway, and with added foliage just looks like unkept grass so it gives a nice blend. From here it gave me the option to experiment with assets freely and find key things I wanted to add.

I took a few minutes to have a look through the medieval assets collection to see what I could use for my piece and found a few key parts I have decided to use. One stand out piece is the well you can see in the images above and more closely below.

This well is a beautiful shape as to what I was envisioning for a forge, and since there are no other assets for a forge on Quixel Bridge, I have decided to turn it into one myself. I will take burned wooden assets like logs and twigs to create a small uneven layer around the top of the well. I will not fill it completely, as it will use more assets meaning it will use more processing power, and as it is not seen it

I decided to speed up the process by making a cylinder and put it inside the well and texturing it with a ash covered coal. With the white ash, even without the possibility of lighting, it would show that the forge is incredibly hot, and has seen a lot of use due the coal being as hit as it is. I did still layer burned logs out of the top, just to create a dynamic feeling to it and keep it unique.

I added a bellows to the well as this would be a vital tool for the forge to be able to heat up enough to work with metal as a blacksmith would. I noticed a good part of the well which looked like a place where the stones were structured inwards, which looked like a perfect spot for then nozzle to be situated without it clipping into it at first glance.

I then started creating the foundation of the house I envisioned. A longer house with a spacey outdoor workshop, to show that the blacksmith can focus on both his work and being the protector of his family both at the same time.

As a first major progress update, I’m extremely happy with how the house coming along. It has an extremely medieval feeling to it, with a lot of dirt and defacing of the walls, and multiple windows allowing what would be great lighting inside. With the window assets being shut, I have decided that this piece will be a night piece, and the lighting will reflect that later in development.

I have made progress on the outside workshop, adding some scatter assets as a bit of background however not randomly placed. Also a close by workbench to the forge, however the anvil will be placed further towards the other side, as to not clutter all of the workspace unnecessarily.

For the roof of the house, I wanted to use assets that were more worn down than clean, to leave the house exposed to the elements. I used a large triangular wall piece at either end, and filled the gaps between with dirty wall pieces. Granted, because the wall pieces are all the same the roof is a clear copy & paste however it would look too out of place trying to make it any other way. I used these same walls across both sides and filled out any gaps with the scale tool.

Upon attempting to import my anvil asset into unreal, it was showing only as a white surface without textures. I decided I was going to have to experiment on how to come up with a fix.

After some experimenting, I found out that I could edit the individual surfaces to incorporate my textures from substance painter with a simple drag & drop. After doing so, I was ready to apply these surfaces to the individual meshes and get the anvil imported into unreal.

I positioned the anvil here temporarily as it compliments well for two reasons. One, is that with the orange glow on my asset design assignment, the work that this anvil comes from, is situated at the corner which is close to the forge; that way the lighting is complimentary in both pieces of work. And lastly, the hammer placement on the asset itself is very convenient. With the smith having to move his work from forge to anvil, it is within distance of minimal steps, and the hammer is not placed on the anvil face. Meaning he would not have to stop working to take it off before hand. This nicely ties into the story that my blacksmith is a busy but practical character, and that his work mindset is strong.

Using the foliage tool, I was able to add in the grass to the immediate and surround areas. I attempted to keep the areas around the workshop and the the house itself more low cut and kept, then the outside areas more weeded & overgrown. The blacksmith is a man who cares for his land and its appearance, therefore is willing to work to create a nice and homely environment for his family.

After adding foliage, I went and added lots more scatter pieces, such as the outdoor workshop, a campfire around the back of the house and a grave.

The workshop looks as I had hoped. A great amount of life in its surroundings, with the inclusion of having a dinner plate set to the table with two stools, as if the smith was expecting company. The addition of the log pile and woodcutter’s axe seemed a necessity given his line of work. It adds to the story in that the smith is also a seasoned wood gatherer, and would need to be if he were to maintain the fuel for his forge & family.

The campfire & log benches also greatly adds to the story, and fills out that back area of the house. I did not know fully what to fill that area with, as anything workshop related would seem impractical to work with at hand. I decided on an outdoor campfire area as another communal area, where he could rest on a summers night with his family outside, whilst cooking a meal.

I also added a gravestone a few steps away from the house. Now when most people think of family they only think of the positive sides, because they are the happiest times of a persons life. But when disaster strikes there is no worse feeling. I decided to go with this as it a great contrast to the positive theme of family. The blacksmith has experienced a loss, not one he ever wishes to forget as it is so close to his home, and is doing everything in his power to make them proud. Whether it be a son, daughter, brother or wife. His ‘second stool’ holder perhaps.

Final Renders & Beauty Shots

Personal Reflection – What went well?

I am very happy with how I have presented the limited story available for this piece. I understood going into making this asset and environment that there was not going to be much flexibility with the story that is possible, due to the limiting factors of having my asset so simple and realistic. However, I feel with the way I have positioned assets & really thought about the way things would blend together I feel I have done what I can to really give the blacksmith a sense of character even though he does not make an appearance personally. I am also incredibly happy at the makeshift forge I made for this piece. As there were no forge options readily available, and for time constraint reasons I could not make one personally, I used a well that I filled with a cylinder shape and layered a ashy coal material over. I do really like how it turned out, especially after adding a few burned logs on the top to make the cylinder face more 3D.
With this being my first time properly using Unreal Engine, I am also incredibly happy at how fast I grasped the core concepts. I am very proud of this piece as a submission and hope you are as well.

Personal Reflection – What can I improve next time?

My time management for this piece really does need addressing. After normally leaving work until semi close to deadlines anyway to keep my mind from wandering whilst actually doing the work, I never leave myself room for time to account for technical errors which is what happened with this assignment. My laptop that held the data for this assignment and my 3D assignment broke and is still currently awaiting repair, and after having an extension deadline declined I have had to be a lot quicker than normal with this work. So come the next assignment I will be allowing more time for technical error as well as personal error. It is because of this fact I have also not been able to experiment more with lighting and sound effects as I would really have liked to incorporate a glow & sound on the campfire and forge, but alas I am still proud of the piece none the less.