Speed Level Design UE5 - Desert Timelapse

Full Timelapse of a desert environment I made from a concept I created off of Midjourney. This environment took just a little under 2 days, and i'm happy with how it turned out in that time.
More in depth look at how I layered the ground and thought process can be found here:
• UE5 Layer Details Tuto...
Timecodes
0:00 - Blockout
1:22 - Zbrush
3:40 - Master Material
4:54 - SetDressing
8:37 - Gaea
9:35 - Foliage
10:17 - Lighting
10:45 - Final
Socials
dallasdrapeau.artstation.com/
/ dallasdrapeau
/ dallasdrapeau
I'm considering making each section into its own tutorial. Comment below if you'd like to see that!

[@kekuncias]

This is not level design this is environment art, none the less really awesome environment.

[@ashonline77]

Seems like a lot of people in the industry just use them synonymously for some reason even though its not. I clicked for a level design video as well because I'm a level designer but yes this is really amazing environment art anyway so i stayed for it. EDIT: just realized that people do this because it favours the youtube algorithm if you call it "speed level design" instead of "speed environment art/design". which makes sense as to why he mentions environment in the description but not in the title. oh well i guess whatever works.

[@stormstudios1]

level design is probably a more used search term

[@AwesomeNuke]

This is 100% level design.

[@mukmoffin4296]

This is 100% environmental art. The only thing that remotely resembles level design in this video is the brief moments of greyboxing.

[@AwesomeNuke]

@@mukmoffin4296 Level design isn't just GAMEPLAY stuff. It's just as much visuals as it is gameplay-driven things. Level design and Environment design are the same thing. They've been for over 10 years now.

[@SShambler]

And all done in 10 minutes, mind-blowing.

[@joaquitox1]

@@u-k Sssh dont be jealous, he clearly did it in 10 minutes

[@jasonhemphill8525]

@@u-k Literally look at the video time.

[@arthurchase8570]

🥵

[@artem-kt2gh]

@@u-k no shit dude

[@asdadas30]

10 minutes work only for one shot???

[@waltarron]

Wow this is not what i expected from the KZbin algorithm but it is certainly what i needed to see.

[@DallasDrap]

Always here for the arts!

[@loganpeavy9737]

Very well done. my favorite thing about these videos (to some extent) is not the quality of the product, which this one is very exceptional, but observing the workflow of other environmental design artist.

[@rewwhiskas4234]

Wow. As someone coming from motion design and flapping around at the moment with my first efforts in environment design, that was incredibly useful to see. Great workflow & design process. Thanks for sharing!

[@maximilianomoretto258]

Man, this is insane. I would love to see each step with a voice over, talking about your decision making and technicalities. For example, how do you bring the asset from UE to Zbrush and then back and textured without UVs

[@DallasDrap]

I actually just posted tutorial videos on both subjects!!

[@WorldPremiereGaming]

​@@DallasDrap great job man

[@sanetersoy4512]

Incredibly amazing!

[@brobocops]

Quixel Megascans has left the chat. Was NOT expecting sculpting stones from scratch lol

[@AndersHaalandverby]

Its inspirational to see some twice as talented as you do something awesome. But when they are one million times as talented, thats just depressing 😅 . Awesome.

[@victorsanchez12]

Please, consider making a tutorial series of this. This is amazing and would be super helpful! :)

[@Jefe___]

This is great. Echoing others here you should definitely create some tutorials / a series where beginners could follow along and create something for the first time! There's a lot of potential there as UE5 becomes more mainstream. I'll be patiently waiting :)

[@henrycowdery2688]

Great video. I would love to see a more in-depth tutorial on how you generated the cliffs (@4:57) and your thought process in Zbrush. Thanks for sharing!

[@ekikak5094]

so beautiful

[@Berserk_0_]

ustam, eline sağlık çok güzel oldu.

[@yohann501able]

Très belle maîtrise, , excellent à regarder, magnifique

[@LiveUPMedia]

This is insane well done man ❤

[@bad_takes]

This desert looks sick

[@voltroniix]

Holy Effying Shait!!!! this is just absolutely mind-blowing!! the fact that when we play we do not appreciate the amount of work and experience needed to make sceneries look this amazing is crazy!! I have absolutely no idea how any of this works but you seem so experienced that it almost looks "easy" which I know it isn't lol... i can't wait to see how artificial intelligence is going to help you guys map and scene makers do great things for the gaming industry! that's awesome man!!

[@DallasDrap]

AI is already helping a great deal! The concept art for example was made in Midjourney, and if i were to model these, i can ask ChatGPT to make me a breakdown list of modular assets needed haha the future is here!

[@RisingJake]

Very impressive, sir. I'm a newcomer to this platform and have been looking around at the talent that makes such wonderful art. Great job!

[@isaac.3347]

Why hello there, seems we both got recommended the same video lol

[@Ell-May]

Hi @@isaac.3347 this is such a random question lol but, do you know where you was recommended from to this video please?

[@isaac.3347]

@@Ell-May I didn't get this video from someone else rather I have simply been watching a crap ton of UE5 videos lately so this just popped up into my feed so I watched it, then I saw my buddy (RJ) so I thought it was funny how we both saw the same video.

[@Ell-May]

@@isaac.3347 Oh haha, thank you for letting me know! I've just started out in UE5 myself and creating speed through videos - I wondered if you see this on a platform that I could show my channel to as well. Thanks so much for letting me know. Have a lovely weekend :)

[@kingarthur3847]

oh yes please some tutorial this is great work !

[@JamalBakari]

Congrats on the new channel!

[@georgejenson7402]

I often find that I wish I grew up earlier so I'd be like 10 when the Wii came out, but then I see this and wish I was born later where every game could looks like this to my 10 yr old self. (You have the most free time and I enjoyed games the most around that age)

[@DrZou28]

WoooW looks amazing

[@NathanHarris83]

So satisfying...

[@Touchgrassplz]

as a beginner in UE for lookdev, this is the quality and skill i aspire to.. amazing work !

[@Israel2099]

Dude this is insane, you deserve more views

[@doudoups1098]

C'est quand-même affolant le travail que ça représente, j'ai moi-même déjà créé des niveaux sur certains jeux et le temps passe si vite.

[@lunariancore]

This is amazing

[@stephen-zj2vt]

hey, im new to UE5 and am still learning all the tools and tricks. i would love to see a video on the way that you manipulated the landscape tools and created differen levels of land

[@jiggalojonski]

Wow beautiful

[@josesierra4577]

This was awesome

[@MrBashem]

Wow the tool is pretty amazing.

[@charleskelvinamacanin8197]

you are a god

[@smallspace6896]

Reminds me of that one mission from Halo 4 excellent work looks awesome

[@incredifall]

Awesome!

[@kinggimped]

That was amazing

[@StegoYTB]

keep going like that bro

[@xec1]

i was jsut expecting you to use some megascans for the rocks, but DAMN you actually took the time to model them

[@andrewhevalo4154]

Insane!

[@jcurry_clips8580]

this is aweomse!

[@blackdevilb]

Commenting below because I'd like to see every section as step by step tutorial and would love to buy one (if you would to explain nodes for materials in detail, many brush off as it is a common knowlage!) Wonderful job, well done

[@PersonianOld]

It's so satisfying seeing something go from blocky and boring to look at to THIS

[@DallasDrap]

Anyone can do it! And i hope to empower people by seeing the process, doing breakdowns and making more tutorials!

[@Slow_Boy741]

Designer Master 🔥

[@jixal]

Looks great! I wonder what the tri coint and draw calls are for this though, looks heavy.

[@StarkTech47]

This is really impressive. I am curious of what you did with ZBrush with those multiple meshes forming one big rock. Is it to make easier the texturing by using a simple image and different types of noise instead of using a dedicated software like Substance Painter?

[@GabrielSantos-dc9tg]

Well F*king done. Dude your are awesome that was insane

[@pascaladochinoochi320]

C’est la question j me posais il y a quelque jours merci pour la vidéo elle est géniale 🤩 👍🏾🚶🏾‍♂️

[@itsbayside6802]

looks very cool

[@BestTechnoMixes]

For cinematic shots, this is beautiful, for actual games, not so much of a level. Good work either way!

[@KakosLykosZero]

Amazing work...and all this knowledge over multiple programs (UE5, Gaea, zbrush, photoshop) amazing! You say this took a little under 2 days, is this in hours? like it took a bit less than 48 hours? Because this is hella impressive for such amount of time! This looks like a scene that could be used in a super realistic roadrunner movie (from looney tunes). Amazing....

[@DallasDrap]

Yeah in total if i calculate hours it was probably around 16-20hrs but i say 2 days cause i did it over the span of 2 days haha And thanks! I hope to empower people to see what can be done in a short amount of time as well as how everyone can create good art without having to take months or weeks to do so themselves!

[@damsen978]

I think that's the speed of level design once you get good at it. Nobody would do this as fast without enough experience on all these programs he used. So massive props for his years of dedication.

[@Teemoauto]

amazing！

[@DRFFilmsProductions]

2:20 and that ladies and gentlemen is how baby boulders are made

[@chris09423]

idc what you all say, I actually learned a lot in this one video

[@losk3442]

I don’t know shit about how any of this works, only maybe surface level knowledge. But damn, he modeled, gave texture and lighting to this. That’s amazing and this scenery is beautiful.

[@tranduy6891]

Tôi rất thích xem quá trình làm phong cảnh của bạn hay ra nhiều video như này nữa nhé

[@escapeundergroundgame]

Very cool!

[@DomeShot52]

Nicely done! Idc what people want to call it, I call it skills. Really amazing work and artistic abilities. 🔥🔥

[@Ell-May]

Completely agree! Such an amazing environment you’ve created here 😍

[@caner_spyro]

amazing 😯😯❤❤

[@joshuaruggles219]

Saw the GPU crash at 7:39 😬 Gotta love when that happens! Great work btw.

[@pvtryan]

that crash is so annoying

[@DallasDrap]

Always XD funny thing was it was stable unless i was recording still though, we push through!

[@deepmusic2456]

Awesome 🎉🎉🎉

[@mark_kulik]

Just insane….!!!

[@EZZYLAND]

godlike

[@alanfernandes3477]

I'd buy a detailed tutorial of this video. amazing!

[@lilfern3466]

Another KZbinr I watch (Sykoo) also used to confuse environment and level design. This is environment design. Great job, though. It looks awesome in the end.

[@tomstrzal]

Very nice! 🙂

[@tomgarden]

Because there is no ‘level’ (I.e a 3D environment to lead the player through a set of experiences) there is nothing to ‘design’ (I.e designing requires a brief/an objective) This person is simply creating an environment. Typically, you ‘grey box’ the 3D environment first. This is done whilst also keeping note of what player experiences (puzzles, narrative triggers, confined areas causing the player to loose track of objective etc etc) these are worked out by a design brief usually made by the level designer or game designer. After grey box is complete, you test it and once you are happy, you replace the grey 3D boxes used as place holders with real objects. This is why this isn’t a video showing level design. Simply environment design based off concept art. Still very impressive stuff!

[@kecheever]

You did the impossible, you made that look easy. ❤

[@nwpmen2]

I'm sayin!!

[@Arthr0]

But it is not easy as it looks

[@izzi917]

The hardest thing you could ever do is to try and recreate what was made in a timelapse

[@kecheever]

@Arthr0 I can't even comprehend digital wizardry, I stick with acrylics. He's put a lot of time and effort that's very visible and admired.

[@iiyctouxdgeometrydash7074]

Lmao bro final work looks better than reference, that`s freakin insane!

[@Blerpbloop]

The KZbin algorithm always knows what I need to see. This video is excellent.

[@lmeier48]

very good, I only need to learn all that tools individually so i can do a similar ...

[@joey_wittmann]

Hell ya 🔥

[@3DPaz]

cool!

[@sirhkhk6005]

Very nice work :)

[@DummyNG]

wow

[@megitsune714]

With unreal 5.3 you can now use tesselation and displacement for the landscape so no need to place gravel/stone objects on the ground by hand anymore!

[@HeimdalAvNordvegen]

Awesome timelapse! Did you do everything in UE5? Would've been awesome to have a in depth tutorial of the different stages that is somewhat beginner friendly. Especially the 3D Modelling, the making of some of the assets. If you did that in UE5 with some of the plugins that would be awesome to see. I think UE could become veeery strong if it became as vast as for example blender is in that aspect. Awesome work! 😊

[@1Chitus]

I really appreciate the hard work

[@RigoUnreal]

I love how you are so in flowstate that you not even click off this windows message.

[@maxek46]

This is great! Been feeling increasingly inspired to start doing landscape/environment art design like this, but a little intimidated by additional software beyond free UE. Are Zbrush and other programs you use essential and/or expensive?

[@matthewboyer4212]

If you're a student, Zbrush is US$10/6mo. Otherwise, it's ~$20/mo, or $900 for a perpetual license. It's pretty expensive, so I wouldn't recommend it for starting out. I only have it as I've been screwing around with another Maxon product as a student. At the same time, I can't name anything that matches it. Blender is slightly worse than a jack of all trades, and while you do have sculpting in it, your mileage will vary. Gaea's free.

[@adrianocirillo6269]

I have a doubt, regarding the cliff made on zbrush, is it worth doing the retopology process, considering the potential of nanite technology? I mean even if you have a bad topology, after sculpting a cliff, is it like "nanite will take care of that"? Really great environment btw :)

[@domehead6422]

Always good to save on storage space

[@Fortunate_Son979]

Man, that is absolutely sick. You need to make some videos on how materials is setted up, and those sky clouds setups. Subscripted and wait:)

[@schneemannconstantin8871]

This Level is a Peace of Art. Must be fun to Play it.

[@thebigscreen1]

I literally went this 😃😃 to 😵‍💫😵‍💫 So complicated...it is

[@rainerzufahl]

How many FPS do you really get in a scene with this level of detail? Are you using nanite to help with performance? And how large in filesize is this scene, if exported into a playable state?

[@chiraghon2997]

awesome video and efforts ! Can you teach us ? please

[@Mikelica69]

Wow!!! 😊

[@nxtboyIII]

This is incredible! Very good job. But it looks like at 4:52 you just skipped over placing some of the meshes. But this is really well done. Also I noticed you're doing something with the rectangles you are placing, it looks like you're using some kind of tool to cause the edges of the rectangle to curve downward? How do you do that?

[@Blerpbloop]

I hope that UE adds a lighting option called Minimal Lighting that illuminates the entire level with a weak light. This would be effective for designers to see shapes and colours better while positioning details. The hard shadows of the Lumen lighting makes it hard to see some things. So does turning off the lighting physics. That Minimal Lighting option would fix that.

[@bruno_madalozzo]

You can try to fix it with indirectional light or post production

[@michaelkukula5926]

Would love to see a tutorial on how you make your materials :-)

[@avistryfe4534]

There is many really good tutorials online. Just make sure you are using same versions/addons or you will be blocked someplace scratching your head looking for buttons that arent there.

[@rozrywkowycthulhu1350]

wow!!!

[@xnicktendox7501]

Can you do a tutorial video on how to do all this? I'm fairly new to UE5 and would love to learn the step by step process of creating a scene like this.

[@avistryfe4534]

It would be a tutorial 48 hrs long. At least.

[@avistryfe4534]

I reccomend drawing them on paper until it looks fantastic. You need to be an artist to make things like that. A tutorial can help sure. But you need to learn art in many mediums to "see where things should go" as an artist. Practice practice practice. Pencil paper stage is just as important as rendering stage. You cannot skip that stage if you expect to pull stuff out of your head and have it look amazing in performance.

[@travisbehrendsen6992]

wait wait wait, what is that card your putting down for blending the soils? is that the ue mesh editor? 6:06

[@erksp7961]

The process was the real art here! Unpractical for games, but methods for inspiration nontheless.

[@justinkenneth3143]

do you need assets to do that or you can just do it on ue?

[@josephpalmer94]

How long did this take you my friend?

[@33Verst]

Are people gonna start using UE5 now instead of Blender? Like bloody hell look at this!

[@WONDER-S]

이사람 작업하는 방식 마음에 드네.

[@-_--tk2pt]

you have a very power computer 👍

[@Dre2fish]

step by step tutorial??? i love it

[@ocbat]

Help pls. When I click Landscape mode, I have nothing on the left side when landscape settings should open, idk how to fix this problem 😅