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    World Creation

    Lesson 2 in Unreal Environments

    Lesson Information

    In this lesson, you will build a new level in Unreal Engine. Utilizing various sculpting, set dressing and lighting techniques, your level will progress from a completely flat plane to a beautifully laid out vista. 

    Homework
    Lay the Groundwork

    Create a new level, with its own skydome and lighting. This will be the basis of your level going forward.

    Moving Mountains

    Duplicate the basic level you created earlier, and create a few different versions. In each, try experimenting with the various sculpting tools to create land formations. Pay attention to your landmasses, and make sure they aren't becoming unrealistic. When in doubt, consult your references.

    The Joy of Painting

    Paint some of the various environment layers into your scene. You can also try adding roads or water for an extra challenge. Don't worry too much about polishing or adding props to your scene. Now is the time for experimenting. 

    Make It Pretty

    Choose your favorite of the landscapes you created in earlier exercises, save a backup copy, and then dress the scene with props so it looks good from a single camera angle. 

    Full Immersion

    Add set dressing to your scene in all directions. Make sure to enter first-person mode and walk around your scene. Seeing things from human scale might expose new problems.

    Share Your Work

    Upload an image of your environment using the 'Upload Homework' button above, so your instructor and fellow students can see your progress!

    235 Comments

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    Greg White

    Which brushify pack are we supposed to buy if we want to follow along? Example: to load the MI_landscape material? Is that in all brushify packs? The workflow being proposed looks interesting and valid but the course should have been called "How to use Brushify in Unreal".

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    Johannes Steidele

    It's still useful yeah, but indeed it urges you to become a loyal Brushify customer, which is a bit annoying. No idea what Mr. Johnson is on about. The description pasted here makes no mention of "this is a brushify course". The Assets included are appreciated but there are a lot of complaints in the comments for a good reason. Tutorials, especially paid ones, should strive for a more open flow of learning and the instructor should know that, too. I've heard "Brushify" more often than "environment", "unreal" and many other keywords now. It's annoying for sure.

    Mark Johnson

    Seriously? Let me just remind you what the description of the course was:
    Create beautiful, lifelike worlds in Unreal Engine 4 under the guidance of Joe Garth, one of the industry's top realtime artists. Having worked on projects such as Quixel's Rebirth and Crysis, Joe will teach you everything you need to know to get started with environments in Unreal.
    What Joe covers is an enormous amount of learning to do with Unreal Engine. He does show you how to use the engine and what makes it work so well. Yes it is Brushify heavy but that is because the assets are extremely useful for Environment Creation, which is literally what the course is called and what is in the description. So maybe you should read the description before buying and then complaining its not what you thought it is.

    Mario Ramirez Galan

    Hello everyone,
    Is it possible to change the brush shape to create elevations with a squared shape?
    One more question, when I am sculpting and smoothing the terrain I could see a bunch of rocks floating. I think it is because I am modifying the surface but is it possible to fix that?
    Thanks in advance,

    View 2 replies

    Django

    Yes. Same problem here.Actually it happens randomly and it's not one lecture in particular.That's my experience since I bought the course two weeks ago.First I thought that it happened because of the browser I am using but I tried different browsers and they all give the same error.So it's good to hear that I am not the only one.

    Denis

    Starter level is missing + i can't get rid of the shadows (i do exactly same steps but when i move down with my camera the whole world is just a shadow...) you have "cast shadows" on and you don't have this black screen... When i turn it off shadows are gone (i see the world) but it look terrible... what am i missing?

    View 5 replies

    Andy Stokes

    I would love to hear if there is a fix for this in 4.25. I've managed to navigate myself around and find things which may be in slightly different since 4.20 and still follow along, but this huge shadow is really annoying. I'll also second the fact starter level missing + The Road pebbles which I'm following atm

    Dmytro Lisin

    I had the same issue with a shadow in UE 4.25.1 but then I switched to 4.20.3 (noticed this version in the previous video) and there was no this shadow. I suggest you try previous versions. But I'm still wondering is there any way to fix this issue in UE 4.25.1...

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