The Colossal Axe Mountain
I am happy to share this little project I made based on the amazing concept art by Hue Teo “The Great Axe”.
I wanted to create a more stylized render this time and make the environment feel alive.
The challenge for this landscape was:
1) Use Zbrush and SpeedTree for the modeling.
2) Maya just for retopology, UV unwrapping and simple blocking.
3) Substance Painter and custom materials within Unreal for texturing (Water, clouds, foliage, trees and a custom Cel-shader for an extra punch in the styly. Also all materials have a fresnel that gives a very subtle cartoony effect).
4) Use of Niagara particles for an extra magical feeling.
Results: Very happy that I forced myself to do this type of project the way I did it, because it has helped me get way more comfortable using Zbrush and using Unreal again has helped me understand how the engine works even more.
Software used: Zbrush, Maya, Substance Painter, SpeedTree & Unreal Engine 5.1
Sound Effects by https://lnkd.in/gcF5e8Nd
The water material was created with Distance Fields for the ripples. The tiles and caustics were generated with a normal map with a simple panner. For the highlights I used a fresnel.
For the wind I used a simple grass wind with different forces applied.
The cloud material was done with a fresnel node effect and gave it motion with a normal map.
Original Art by Hue Teo