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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!

    225 Comments

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    Rui Wang

    Hey Joe, thank you very much for the tutorials, they are awesome. I have a question in this episode. I used my own HDRI Backdrop as the sky dome, and I put my light source under it. When I rotated the HDRI Backdrop sphere, the light source did follow the sphere, but not in sync accurately as yours in the tutorial. Did I miss anything about that? Thank you.

    Matteo Palazzotti

    Grazie Michele, poi ho deciso di partire da un landscape vuoto, per poi seguire passo passo le lezioni, non ho riscontrato particolari problemi, e' tutto spiegato in maniera chiara, era solo per avere un setup di illuminazione neutro da usare come base di partenza.
    Di nouvo grazie
    Thanks Michele, then I decided to start from an empty landscape, and then follow the lessons step by step, I did not encounter any particular problems, everything is explained clearly, it was just to have a neutral lighting setup to use as a starting point .

    Vojtech Lacina

    I'm in the second chapter world creating and I think this course is good, but also I'm dissapointed some of the assets you are showing is missing here. I believe you removed it on the second archive repack, but I dont understand why. We paid for something we cant even test like the tutor is presenting.

    Jason Smart

    Has anyone tried importing their own geo and using the landscape auto material? I'm wanting to import some landscape geo I made in Houdini as an alembic. It imports fine but I can't figure out how to get the Brushify brushes working with it.

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    Jason Smart

    Thanks for the tip, Joe Ulibarri! I feel like it's a little limiting only using the landscape material and the brushify alpha brushes. I really like them, but I'd love the flexibility of terrain creation in Houdini in conjunction with Brushify.

    Joe Ulibarri

    Not 100% sure but I think you need to get a heightmap from your Houdini mesh and use that to make a landscape in Unreal in order to use Brushify on it. I don't think Brushify will work on an imported mesh.

    Hugo Platek

    This course is amazing and really helpful. But I am a little stuck cause I can't find how to add the modes tool. I don't know if I delete it or did something wrong. Weirdly, I tried clicking on the nodes but I can't add only one mode, and it's not looking like in the video.

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