Feudal Japan UE4 Environment Tutorial Postmortem | ArtStation Challenge EP.7

My scene managed to snag 2nd place! In this video I do a postmortem and examine what when right and what I would improve on in future, for a deeper look at environment art production.
Link to Lincolns moss/ultimate prop shader. discount code "Polygon" to save 25%! • UE4 Environment Prop M...
Follow Me on Artstation for more: www.artstation.com/pixelmasher
The Best video card for Gamedev: amzn.to/45Ev6Cu
The Best Budget Video Card for Gamedev: amzn.to/45Lxck0
Backup your work! SSD I use: amzn.to/45s0y7m
The Mouse I use every day: amzn.to/3qRN4Td
The Laptop I use for remote Gamedev work: amzn.to/3Ed07li
The Camera I use to film my videos: amzn.to/3Pf0bHL
I really appreciate everyone who has subscribed and left comments! have a question about the game industry or art? let me know below
Follow polygon academy on Instagram, Facebook, and Artstation for more!
About me: I am an environment/level artist who has been working in the game industry for 10+ years at studios such as Ubisoft, EA, Relic, Capcom and United Front. I have worked on games like FarCry 4, Watch Dogs 2, Splinter Cell, Sleeping Dogs and Spacemarine.
Category

[@antoinemoineau35]

Man we're missing you ! You are a big inspiration and reference when I'm working ! Come back :D

[@PolygonAcademy]

Thanks for the support :) hope to get back in the video groove soon! Been busy with my role on godfall for the ps5 launch!

[@yanrow1812]

Thanks you for this experience! Cool

[@michaelsulesky7221]

ayyyy so glad to see you're back!!!

[@PolygonAcademy]

hell yea, back at it :D

[@charmanduhr]

Love these videos

[@PolygonAcademy]

charmanduhr thanks! Appreciate you watching and the feedback :)

[@ahmedyahia2129]

great work as always

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks! appreciate you taking the time to watch and comment!

[@cooperm211]

Yea this is really helpful for a lot of us - thank you for taking the time!!!

[@PolygonAcademy]

cheers! glad you enjoyed the videos!

[@dandymcgee]

Such a great series!

[@christopherwallace5740]

Looks amazing! Thank you so much, I found some really useful tips just by watching these videos. You sir earn a sub.

[@xroman_]

Thank you Tim! Can't wait for new juicy content :)

[@PolygonAcademy]

Cheers!

[@forestpump3]

Fantastic Video again Tim. Thanks for sharing !

[@PolygonAcademy]

PatrickZ thanks for watching :)

[@The_KrOOb]

This is my favourite channel to learn, inspire with your amazing work and explanation :) Thank you !

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks! that really means a lot to me :)

[@Zonda441]

I just found your channel with this series, and it's so amazing!! Thanks for sharing your process and your thoughts while making it. Definitely gonna be trying the current Artstation challenge!

[@PolygonAcademy]

awesome! happy you are enjoying the channel. go crush that art station challenge!

[@timofeyrenski2775]

Can't wait for the next tutorial, man!

[@Dj3ndo]

Love the video's. They're extremely helpful and i'm actually making my own project now and taking your project as a big inspiration and wanting to implement as much as you are teaching in that project!

[@PolygonAcademy]

awesome! glad the videos were useful to you :)

[@arthurtasquin4426]

Didn't even begin the video , I know i'll like it🤗

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks! appreciate the love :D

[@Yo0te]

Great work Tim, postmortems are so great for really make clear what was learn doing a piece.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Jacob Claussen yea a lot of the time looking back you can really see your improvement over time and identify weaknesses :)

[@MarkyGramone]

Awesome work man. I've definitely learned a lot from this series! I'm currently diving into creating a ue4 environment for the first time and this is an excellent workflow breakdown

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks for the feedback, I am glad to hear you enjoyed the series!

[@EDISmusic000]

Amazing video. Thank you

[@PolygonAcademy]

[3D ART]KLUST3R cheers, stay tuned for more soon :)

[@JavierHernandez-xo5nb]

Nice Postmorten... Looking forward for more.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Javier Hernández thanks :)

[@atkaygee]

Such a dope video series. It’s been really useful and inspiring to follow along with your progress and it’s been brilliant to see you become more confident with each video. Top stuff Tim, keep the ball rolling 👌🏼

[@PolygonAcademy]

Kieran Goodson haha thanks dude! Appreciate the support 💪

[@adrienlemoine96]

Thank you so much for all your content, it really helped a lot, and it brings some highlights on things that I was struggling with ! I really enjoyed discover your work and I can't wait to see more ! :) Thanks !

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks for the feedback, I love seeing comments like this :D

[@timostoks]

Congrats on second place man! Well deserved 💪

[@PolygonAcademy]

Timo stoks thanks :) there was a TON of badass competitors in that challenge

[@danielperes4542]

Great work man and congrats for the second place by the way! I also participated in the challenge and your videos actually helped me a ton in some aspects of my own project and future projects to come. After the challenge I wasn't really happy with my end result so I decided to take a little bit more time in the scene to make it a little bit more appealing and be worth of going into my folio, something I heard you say before, that it probably is worth to spend that extra 20% on that project than just move into the next one and leave that one as it is! You inspre me a lot to keep creating awesome art and constantly push my skills forward, and I have been actively working on portfolio pieces whenever I have free time to do so! I have been following you for a while now and I am eagerly waiting for more content, keep it up! :D

[@PolygonAcademy]

awesome, yea put in that extra polish on that project and it will turn out amazing i bet :)

[@jasonvoor9257]

Those videos are so inspiring.... I got a scene I want to do, and I've been putting it on the backburner for more than a year now. You know, always finding excuses to do something else but this. It's just the thought of doing all the assets, UVs and textures is freezing me in place because I know for a fact, nothing's gonna work as tutorials are teaching. I've tried it several times before and always, always failed. My scenes turn out mediocre at best. At some point, I actually started being very frustrated by UE4 in general and just not enjoying doing any of that anymore... But following your channel and this very well put together scene, it feels like you can rekindle my love for UE4 and finally give me that initial push I desperately need. Keep doing what you are doing, Tim. It means a lot to us!

[@scortanuramon]

Keep the videos coming, very useful information. I was in the competition and I've learned a lot about managing my time and how to structure my workflow better.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Scortanu Ramon oh yea for sure, managing your time properly is sooo important to getting shit done!

[@zeddgamedesigner]

man only if i got this video before my started i would been soo much better, wasted 2 years , from last year i started to do some work, now there is lof of this to learn but no times....thank you by the way you helped a lot, and i love this community who share all the knowledge .....best decision i very took is to join game dev....

[@rancheraosborne]

For future videos if you can, I would like to see more things like speedsculpts, wireframes, uv layouts, texture process... even if it is just in the background while you are talking about something else. As a student I think I learn a lot from those kind of stuff that is not that easy to see around.

[@PolygonAcademy]

ranchera cool, yea i am thinking of having b-roll footage over some rants or something hahah.

[@Chris-jo1zr]

Shader complexity also, that’d be smart.

[@chexmix0101]

this is awesome don't think Ive seen other artist do a breakdown also nice to see your still human and by making mistakes!

[@PolygonAcademy]

chexmix0101 ohhhh i make tons of mistakes haha you should see the bloopers of these videos where i trip over my own words 50x hahaha

[@PropheticGamesProductions]

Really good, thanks for your sharing.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Chrys Gaman no problem, thanks for watching :)

[@GambitWolves]

Great demo Sir Tim!

[@PolygonAcademy]

Thanks edison :)

[@ogarga666]

thx so much, that's really helpful!

[@PolygonAcademy]

cheers! happy to hear that :)

[@SuperDeano1000]

Man, so cool. When I tell myself "I can't", your videos tell me "I can!". Thanks.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Dean Stevens no problem bud, glad they help you stay on track!

[@shukarparkin]

i really like your method of sculpting wood. gonna definitely use that method. thanks for doing these videos. theyre extremely appreciated. also gonna check out your buddy's shader. It seems really powerful.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Shukar Parkin cheers! Yea i dont know what i would do without that shader, we use it every day at work too haha

[@Mike-hp7lv]

first off, i felt you on a spiritual level about the 1 artwork with 10 followers, but the information you put in this video is amazing, you have answered a few personal questions I have had for a while. I ran into some personal issues when attempting to get started in building my portfolio, including my comp completely crapping out, but seeing your series is an inspiration for me to get the ball rolling again. Hope to see another video or series soon!

[@PolygonAcademy]

The Starting Artist cheers! Yea get rollin on that portfolio :) new stuff coming soon 👍

[@HenriqueFinatto]

Hi Tim! I need to thank you for the videos, they made me very motivated (as well as all the things I learned from them, of course). I'm really thinking about taking part in my first challenge now. Thanks! =D

[@PolygonAcademy]

Henrique Finatto do it! You wont regret it :) thanks for tuning in!

[@MZONE3D]

I think your scene is very good. Other than the foliage, the other main thing that sticks out is that it's a very dry environment for saying your in a forest. It would have really helped the scene if there was some water here and there on the ground and tiles etc. I think Some simple wet leaky decals would have helped too.

[@PolygonAcademy]

MZONE3D yea good point! Those woulda helped a lot

[@CommandCentreWargaming]

Finally someone on youtube that knows their stuff. Been working in Games for just under 10 years in Industry and Edu. Tim these videos are the best I have seen related to game environment art. They are now mandatory viewing for all my students and I will be watching every one. Work smarter not harder is the go. Thanks heaps mate keep up the epic work and thanks for sharing your knowledge. So much what you have said in your videos is CRITICAL to the Game Art practice that is sometimes over looked.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Command Centre Wargaming thanks so much for the awesome feedback! I love hearing when other industry pros enjoy the vids and find what im doing useful. Cheers!

[@CommandCentreWargaming]

@@PolygonAcademy ​ Polygon Academy It is. Im from Australia and the games Industry here is a little behind, I have been trying to explain allot of what you are saying in these vids for YEARS here. Now I have the PROOF! Thanks Tim cant wait for the next video!

[@minase246]

I like how it says 死神(shinigami- God of death) on the tori gates. That's a nice touch. Really well done scene. Congratulations!!

[@PolygonAcademy]

good catch! :D

[@PedroMarinM]

I think the biggest advice of the whole series (for me personally) was when you said that a lot of students appear on you radar , I have missed a lot of contest because I'm still learning, but I didn't though that even if I don't win people are going to start noticing me , great advice!

[@stickfigure42]

One thing I always wonder when watching things like this series is how much time went into different parts. Even though I know generally that they all take a long time, I still find myself getting discouraged too quickly, so having an idea of how long it takes experienced artists to finish things helps me keep at it. So knowing the times are useful for helping me get my personal mental *minimums* adjusted to more reasonable places. Thanks a lot for making for this series, your emphasis on giving general principles for how to approach things has given me a lot of great ideas as I'm getting back into doing art.

[@PolygonAcademy]

When you are learning, dont worry about trying to beat the clock, focus 100% on getting things to look awesome. Trying to get fast/things done within a time limit almost always leads to student work looking rushed and unfinished. Speed comes with time, years and thousands of hours of putting in the work and learning from each completed project. This whole scene took about 3 months of 4-10 hours a night, 3-4 days a week, plus a night any time i was filming and editing a video. When you are developing your skills, the only thing you should be looking at from more experienced artists is the visual quality gap and how to close that, speed will come. I would never imagine getting up to some highpoly modeling god level of speed like tor frick in anything under 2-3 years of consistently doing highpoly work, even with my 12 years industry working etc. It just hasnt been my focus and would take a long time to develop the skills to get that fast. I could however put in as much time as i needed to get similar end results with a lot of blood sweat and tears/revisions etc. The journey is long, so try and focus on visual results and enjoying the process of making art, learning from mistakes etc. Do that and one day you will look up and realize you are 10x faster than you used to be :) hope this helps with a mental reframe/motivation!

[@stickfigure42]

@@PolygonAcademy It's not even about going for speed yet! It's more that my natural inclination is to get a little bit discouraged after a few hours working on a model and it not looking good yet. Having reminders that each part takes professionals longer than that too is helpful for knowing that I just need more patience while I'm practicing.

[@PolygonAcademy]

@@stickfigure42 yea the patience part of it is huge. Most stuff doesnt start to look good until atleast 20-30 hours in for assets or scenes. everything looks bad at first when you are blocking it out or getting the rough model in place. you just have to push yourself to keep going till the end. I wrote an article about motivation that might be helpful: www.polygon-academy.com/tips-for-artists-struggling-with-motivation/

[@Fisher_007]

Great tutorial series! You have a natural talent for being in front of the camera, which is not that common when it comes to advanced tutorials in this topic, so keep up the good work. Can't wait for the next part!

[@PolygonAcademy]

Fisher007 thanks! I am actually pretty introverted most of the time so jt was a real struggle at first, i just had to put the goal of building a channel ahead of my own discomfort hahha. Its less awkward now, but sitting there babbling away to a camera is still kinda strange 😂

[@Fisher_007]

@@PolygonAcademy Ohh wow, that's an even bigger thing than, haha! Good job! :D

[@ArtofLincolnHughes]

Nice!!! Good stuff as usual man :)

[@PolygonAcademy]

cheers - anyone reading....this is the art gangster who made that moss shader go sub to his channel!! >>>

[@The_KrOOb]

Subscribed :D

[@ArtofLincolnHughes]

Polygon Academy happy to be labelled “art gangster” lol thanks bud

[@andrewlundiii1387]

Your super positive approach is really refreshing and energizing. You definitely have a a 'pick me up and get going' motivational speech thing going on ;) It's great, definitely keep putting out content. Your subscribers are going to explode. Cheers, mate!

[@PolygonAcademy]

Andrew Lund III thanks andrew that means a lot to me :)

[@andrewlundiii1387]

@@PolygonAcademy You're quite welcome. I know (or can speculate) how much time and effort you're putting into this, and the end result is really quite wonderful :)

[@doctorarielchaos2694]

Duuuuuuude its been a while, got my first job in the industry (thx to u so much for the advices, they helpd alot) and ur video arrived just in time to full me with positivity and wisdom >ton ideas for content -- YAAAAY -im did not participate in the challenge because i'm not an artist, dont know how to cheate probs. I feel more like a level designer, but right now working as a decorator for levels. and that book about discipline u recommended changed my life in one week Thnaks alot again for evrything u done to the comunity and to me in particulr, i wish i could shake ur StRONG hand with my not yet strong hand SOMEDAY BYE1

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks so much! I love seeing feedback of how my content helped someone :) yea that book is kick ass! I gotta re-read it again soon!

[@theTG1995]

the 3D community is too lucky for this. awesome videos and tutorials!!

[@PolygonAcademy]

theTG1995 cheers! Happy to give back to the cg community after all it has given me :)

[@berkokten4444]

I am a psychology student and i do write screenplays, last year a project i was working on i saw the dev guys using unreal engine and i decided to start myself aswell. Now im focused on lightning and your videos really do teach a lot, thanks for the great content!

[@PolygonAcademy]

Thanks dude!

[@robjinstudio]

Awesome work !!! thank you for this video!! + 1 sub

[@PolygonAcademy]

RobJin thanks rob! Appreciate the sub!

[@pancake_pancake_pancake]

Hell yeah, awesome postmortem man! I can't agree more with the importance of marketing yourself out there as an artist even from nothing. Being popular and gaining followers and likes isn't the point unlike a lot of students think so. It's about having that one person that could see your profile and help you get that first foot into the industry! And being on the trending page definitely helps with having a lot of followers. In my case, a freelancer character artist thought I was pretty promising for a student. They shared my artstation to another senior character artist from my city and he also thought my stuff was cool. He ended up, messaging me on LinkedIn so he could refer me for his studio and on top of that, he referred me to 7 other studios! Here I am after accepting one of the offers because of an absolute stranger that saw my artstation. And I'm not even a character artist! That shows how impactful someone from the industry could be. As you said, you never know who's watching! :)

[@PolygonAcademy]

Peter Tran yup! I remember seeing your stuff on artstation before we met because of your consistent posting and quality content. Your story is a perfect example of the process working! 🤛

[@williamafton7097]

I want to be a environment artist after I start and finish college. Your videos help me learn more.

[@PolygonAcademy]

William Afton awesome, just start making environments and with enough practice im sure you could smash that goal :)

[@ItIsNathan3D]

I loved seeing your workflow. I participated but found myself immediately in the weeds trying to hunt down specific plants from a Japanese biome or how exactly shrines were constructed and how I was supposed to replicate piece for piece in the scene. Your post mortem again reminds me that I need to learn to pull back on that almost meaningless detail (from the perspective of game art) especially on smaller deadlines.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Nathan Elliott yea its crazy how much you can get away with without tiny details, always gotta think of the work in context of how it will be seen :)

[@musashidanmcgrath]

Congratulations on the challenge, mate. Aside from the impressive 2nd place result, just finishing an involved and intense project like this to a deadline and against such high standard competition is a win in itself. Pretty funny too that after your long speech about Artstation you didn't even link your own Artstation to this video. :D

[@PolygonAcademy]

musashidanmcgrath hahaha yea i will probably add it but youtube hates when you link off of your videos to other platforms and right now im doing everything i can to please their algorithm to grow the channel ;)

[@actioN1337]

Please create a lot of new videos. They are really motivating for me and well made. I would love another series where you show how you create a different environment from the idea (or concept) to the finished work. Maybe do something where you are not so comfortable with that you can show how you tackle unknown things.

[@PolygonAcademy]

actioN1337 yup, im thinking of doing a scifi environment soon, scifi shapes and designs are challenging for me haha.

[@CinematicGames94]

I like your contents helping me re think things even tho we are using different engines. Anyway it is about the mindset not the engine lol but thanks glad I came across your videos please make more contents

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks! yea I try to keep my tips pretty universal and not just unreal and 3ds max specific. these techniques should work in most engines, you just gotta figure out the technical side of where the tools/buttons are in your engine of choice, but they are very common techniques that I have used across multiple engines in the industry :)

[@CinematicGames94]

@@PolygonAcademyThank you I hope to learn more from you

[@RevengeGamingREV]

Amazing Work ! Can you please make a tutorial video about Lightmaps and they needs to be done

[@PolygonAcademy]

Revenge Gaming yup, got a bunch of lighting related content im planning, some lightmap related stuff in there for sure 👍

[@Yehoogame]

Great video again, Tim! Really liked the fact that even though you got 2nd place, it didn't hold you back from giving a critic to your own work and stating some things you could have done better. Not many people can step back and find negativity after having their work acknowledged! It humbles others like me even more. :) I know you've talked about new workflows before. But since the end of the challenge, have you considered trying Speedtree for better result and quality? I'm learning it myself and it saves a lot of time! I started working on a scene and created the materials I need for texturing and I've got the block out pretty much done. I'm gonna start and begin the production of assets next week. But I'm having trouble with some of them in terms of modeling and texturing. Also since I suck at lighting and the fact it's important for the mood, I'd love to get some insight when it's time. Could I send you a message or two on artstation to discuss it even more? Thanks for understanding and thanks again for your videos!

[@PolygonAcademy]

Midogame yea feel free to send me a message any time, ill see what i can do. Speed tree is on my to learn list for sure :)

[@Yehoogame]

@@PolygonAcademy Thanks a lot! I PM'd you on Artstation. :D

[@MaNIaC39000k]

Hey Tim, i really loved the idea of showing your Work in Progress shots and description. If i were to do such a thing where would you recommend i post so that its all under 1 page for easy access.

[@PolygonAcademy]

I would create a WIP thread on polycount, you will get lots of feedback and advice and its a great place to show the journey from start to finish. tons of industry ppl visit that site and its great to get some attention on your work

[@noniko96]

Hi! First of all, I had so much luck finding this channel. U are helping me a lot with my game art degree. I passed from a low score to a decent one. Thanks a lot. On the university, they told us to use Artstation very carefully, we should post our best work. However, this fight with what u are saying on this video: to interact with the community, participate on challenges, etc. I'm in the first year, although I'm very proud of my work, I don't know if it is enough to publish on Artstation. Can this affect negatively to my opportunity of find a job? U are completely right saying that we should build an Artstation community from the beginning of the course, but it's at the beginning when we are learning and the work is not well done. Hopefully u can help me with this. Thanks! :D

[@PolygonAcademy]

Pame Dominguez Faryna your artstation should always reflect your current ability, so when you are starting out there is no hiding the fact you are learning/suck, i know i did haha! But as time passes you can simply remove old work as you get better, i audit my portfolio and remove old work every couple years! I would say starting to gain a following via challenges and learning how the platform works is more important in the beginning, just clean up the old work when you start applying for jobs :) hope that helps

[@Spyro_76]

Looks like Nioh! :)

[@PolygonAcademy]

cheers :) havent played that game yet but it looks cool!

[@DanyGates0693]

I gotta say that I love the background music, can you link it? :P btw is super cool to have you back! Keep rocking those videos

[@PolygonAcademy]

Its all from artlist.io ;)

[@MoD-zf9lv]

Thank you again for sharing all these techniques Tim! I was wondering, how did you create the albedo bark? Is it done with polypaint?

[@PolygonAcademy]

nope, just done in substance painter with some basic bark materials that I took most of the constast out of and blended in together. pretty basic :)

[@plant066]

any ideas when the next artstation art challenge is ?

[@PolygonAcademy]

there have actually already been a couple more since the japan one finished, just click on the challenges tab on artstaion to find all the info.

[@wassimbassil287]

Thank you for the tips Tim, they are really helpful! It's really inspiring to know that, truly, with hard work and practice, you get there ... I am a junior 3D artist in Barcelona, Spain and I would like to know how would it be possible to connect with peers and like minded artists to exchange knowledge and perspectives on each others work?

[@PolygonAcademy]

there are some good forums out there like polycount.com or discord servers, look for the dynusty empire discord server, filled with artists from student to pros. thanks for watching, I love spain, been there a couple times, barcelona is awesome!

[@wassimbassil287]

@@PolygonAcademy thank you for the reply! I will surely check them out! Barcelona is awesome! it paved the way for my newly found 3D passion!

[@ahall1201]

have you ever thought about being a mentor ? Don't mean to vent here lol but I've watched all your videos and I finally can say that I actually found someone who I look up too and got inspired to just make art. Whether It's good , bad , or doesn't end up in my portfolio; I know that I am still learning from those projects while realizing mistakes that I have made by giving up on projects in the past because I felt they like weren't good enough to be in my portfolio. Thank you for making those videos!

[@PolygonAcademy]

Yea I have been asked constantly about mentorship haha. I might open up something in future such as in depth portfolio review services or 1on1 hourly mentoring packages or something like that, but right now I don't really have the time to put 100% effort into it so I would rather hold off until I have the time to really deliver for people.

[@thanoszag6563]

Hi, thank you for your very nice tutorials, I am wondering how exactly did you capture the images. Did you use a snipping tool or what? Did you adjust any settings? Thank you again!

[@sargister-grigoryan7246]

Thanks Tim for awesome videos. I wonder what is the best way for lighting the grass, trees, plants and etc? Do you use static lightmap or are they totally dynamic? I tried static but it increases building times and it's looking weird. Do you know some best practices for that? Thank you.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Sargis Ter-Grigoryan if you do static make sure each mesh in your foliage paint is set to like a 4-8 lightmap, maybe 16 for the trees. Huge lightmap sizes like 256 or 512 will drastically increase your bake times and are not realistic for use in games really. I think my grass is set to dynamic but i disabled cast shadows on those meshes for performance.

[@Dan-xv6uf]

These videos are fantastic. I'm really interested in how you created the floor of your scene with the stone tiles sinking into the mud?

[@PolygonAcademy]

Daniel Lucas i just used a landscape to sculpt the overall terrain in unreal, and then smashed the tile models through it, super quick and easy :)

[@bryceporter96]

How would you go about making large sets of stairs with tiling textures? But also making them all look unique by rounding off edges and sculpting detail and cracks into random stairs then baking. Maybe making some of them larger than others. I can make stairs with tiling textures but how do I then bake the sculpt into it too? I haven't tried it but I feel like it would ruin the tiling

[@PolygonAcademy]

chances are you would be fine with just the tiling texture stairs in 99% of games. You could do a unique sculpt for the stairs and edges and then also overlay tiling diffuse, roughness and normals for the smaller details like concrete or cracks etc with a tiling detial map. I would look at lincoln hughes prop shader, it has options for that :)

[@TheMADmk]

Awesome videos, would you consider doing some more in depth tutorials on Unreal engine for environment art mainly what tools, setups and settings you use as I would love to know your workflow. As someone who has only used unity Unreal can seem a bit alien but I would love to improve my knowledge of it for environment art.

[@PolygonAcademy]

TheMADmk yup, i an about to start work on a super in depth course for environment art production :)

[@TheMADmk]

@@PolygonAcademy oh great awesome. On a side note do you think unity with its new HDRP will be good for portfolio ready environment art? Or do you find unreal the best engine to work with. Only ask as almost all Arstation pieces use unreal.

[@PolygonAcademy]

TheMADmk they are both super powerful engines, i have seen plenty of aaa quality scenes in unity over the last few years, one of the feudal japan winners was done in unity. I just preffer unreal because its what i use at work and its a bit more common in game studios. But both will give you good results if you learn the ins and outs of each engine.

[@TheMADmk]

@@PolygonAcademy Ok thanks for the heads up. Look forward to your next vid.

[@abdullahamrsobh]

greate job, why didnt you use quxiel library for the trees and foliage

[@PolygonAcademy]

the rules of the artstation challenge said we couldn't use them. otherwise I totally would have to save time ;)

[@user-ue6fy2gj4b]

interesting red white bracelet. Is it related with bulgarian tradition in march :D ?

[@PolygonAcademy]

Mитко indeed it is :) my gf is bulgarian haha nice catch!

[@AtomicNightHawk]

Thank you for this. Loved the series as it has inspired me a lot. I have been struggling with working on my environment art. I am sure to have loads of questions as I work on it.

[@kuplayfordvalls6781]

Might be a noob question here but... Could you use Megascans assets on an ArtStation challenge? Thanks!

[@PolygonAcademy]

They discouraged it, like 1 or 2 small things would probably be ok, but the whole point is to level up your art creation skills. Most people create most of their work form scratch. But for regular portfolio work its totally fine, lots of studios use them already

[@Marcos_____]

What about turning shadows for every grass, small ground plant asset. Unreal would handle it ?

[@PolygonAcademy]

Marcos not really super good for performance, definitely not for console games haha

[@TheGrinchStoleIt]

Hey Tim, question, how long did it take you in terms of hours? OR how long do you think it would take if you did it again? like what is your self time line? did you work on it a few hours everyday, skip days?

[@PolygonAcademy]

I probably worked on it 4-8 hours a night, 4-5 days a week for the two months of the challenge. Doing the videos definitely added extra time to the overall production. Id estimate about 150-200 hours probably overall.

[@TheGrinchStoleIt]

@@PolygonAcademy okay sweet , i was estimating 140 , im trying to do a similar thing but im, just doing it for my self since this challenge was long before I decided to really try to get into this industry. :D thanks!

[@DaMeshMonster]

Where is that tutorial? we want to see your process in creating that hero prop bro.

[@PolygonAcademy]

I might do one for the next artstation challenge, enter into the hero prop category where I can focus on creating something smaller but super in depth and focused on the prop workflow instead of a more broader environment creation. hoping I have some more free time when the next challenge pops up :) the king arthur one was super cool, was sad to miss out on it.

[@Jules-gp6xb]

Say you're not working on an artstation challenge but a normal project and want to continue including wips to show development, would you continually update your project in artstation then so you can see the whole development or some other way? Sometimes I see folks just do a nice breakdown of main components but no wip development when they finally post a project

[@PolygonAcademy]

the blogs section of artstation is perfect for that. or a thread on polycount. but highly detailed blog posts on artstation are a great way to get visibility as the ratio of blog posts to portfolio posts daily is still super low. ive had blogs in the main feed for a week vs 1 day on the trending page for an portfolio post. super under priced attention at the moment.

[@Jules-gp6xb]

@@PolygonAcademy Solid point, thanks a bunch!

[@dimidrolhalitovich5241]

The most weakest things for me in this scene are trees foliage. i m looking from phone and see very cracked silhouette. other stuff is great. little bit ivy is also missing. its cheap in production but make a big visual impact in terms of details and patterns

[@xplusziefv]

good video but about 7 minutes in the music gets a little bit too loud in my opinion

[@xplusziefv]

7:30

[@PolygonAcademy]

yea I changed how loud the music is in my latest video and will keep it lower for future vids :) thanks for watching!

[@xplusziefv]

@@PolygonAcademy thank you for making these videos :)

[@PolygonAcademy]

@@xplusziefv my pleasure, hope everyone is learning something from my ramblings XD

[@mateolinares1634]

Thanks for this video Tim! I have a background in architecture but I'm really hoping to become an environment artist for AAA games one day. I am still relatively new to the game art workflow but I am definitely inspired now to participate in the next challenge. I'm currently enrolled in a 3D college program and I'd love it if you could check out my artstation page for some feedback! www.artstation.com/krayd

[@PolygonAcademy]

Mateo Linares cool dude! Yea those challenges are a great opportunity to learn and grow your skillset. Ill take a look when i have a min 👍

[@mateolinares1634]

@@PolygonAcademy thank you! I'm excited to see your next videos, I would love to learn more about trim sheets and optimization

[@blackmentasiwhiteomu6306]

your eyes are red dude take a pause

[@PolygonAcademy]

haha yea that tends to happen after 8 hours at work staring at a screen then coming home to do more art :P breaks are good!

[@devjitpaul1191]

all this work and how much do you get paid by a studio? you guys literally make 80% of the screen of a game

[@PolygonAcademy]

Devjit Paul haha i make a decent salary, but an actual game takes a huge amount of talented people to come together :) all those programmers make it possible to have nice visuals!