UE4: BSP Blockout From Concept Art to an Interior Motel Room - Tutorial

[@CinematographyDatabase]

This was great. I honestly have never used a BSP. They look really helpful lol. I liked hearing your thought process with the block out.

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Yes. You can Left Click Drag+Drop any Material onto a BSP surface. Then you can adjust how that material looks on a brush in the Details panel of that brush.

[@jrgen7527]

I've been using BSP for a while, and this tutorial gave iteresting details and tips I wish I knew earlier. Thank you!

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thanks J.

[@scottdelekta7561]

Great tutorial. I like how you showed the entire process and gave tips along the way.

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@mathieunoel6013]

Everything from you is quality. I'm always learning something new, the pacing is good and its straight to the point. I discovered you through Preproduction Blueprint, liked it and followed your tips... my skills keep expanding since. Keep it up!

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thank you Mathieu. I really appreciate that.

[@musashidanmcgrath]

For set pieces and unique spaces this is a great wokflow. However, I would not recommend this arbitrary approach to dimensions if creating a truly modular environment. It will only lead to headaches later on. Of course you can force your dimensions to fit your established modular framework dimensions using FFD/lattice tools in your 3D program, but it's much easier to build everything from the start around your framework(2m2 or whatever) I think that's what a lot of beginners below in the comments seem to be getting confused with: set piece Vs modular environment building. As for BSPs.....I haven't used them in many years. I find it much quicker to greybox in 3dsMax/Blender. The export process is so fast that it saves a huge amount of time versus the clunky BSP modeling/layout when it comes to iteration/playtesting. Also, modifiers are respected from Max so I can procedurally model as well and UE4 will respect that. The other advantage is that the modular greybox meshes can easily be polished to the final static meshes without having to rebuild everything from scratch as you do with BSPs. Lastly, greyboxing in your 3D program allows a lot more modeling flexibility in the tools available. BSPs used to have the advantage of quick boolean modeling years ago as it suited the limitations of the 'Doom' type dungeon environment, but boolean modeling in the DCCs has become so much better in recent years with tools like Boxcutter in Blender. Anyway, just my 2c. Always loved your videos, mate. Great to see you still making them. :D

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thanks Musashi. And thanks for the comment and sharing your workflow.

[@w47-p1e]

Cool tutorial. keep them coming please !

[@jayantsarkar2900]

Awesome videos ❤️ as much I see I clear my doubts more and more 😀 thank you for the quality knowledge 🔥

[@iaandrei]

I am so happy that I found this. Watched it fully and then fell asleep. lmao

[@JamalBakari]

You've been on a BSP roll recently! I like how you go start to finish instead of skipping things. I would really like to see someone show how to work with modular assets from the Ue4 marketplace. People are able to build complete buildings/dungeons/castles from small pillars and panels. Jumping in is overwhelming and you've showed that with concept art and BSPs, you can rough things out. You told us how you'd use what you create to make your own assets, but what if you have them already in modular form from someone else? This is from a level creation point of view like floors, doors, rooms, and hallways; not from an interior design point of view like adding plants and pictures (but that can be included too!)

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thanks Jamal. Thanks a good idea. Is there a specific idea you are trying this out on or specific Marketplace assets you had in mind?

[@JamalBakari]

@@WorldofLevelDesign The free assets for example: Modular Scifi Season 2 Starter Bundle , Modular SciFi Season 1 Starter Bundle , Modular Building Set . Or even free this month: Modular Seaside Town .

[@JamalBakari]

They all have example levels, but to make one yourself is daunting.

[@BarakaGameDev]

i love these tutorials

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

What are some of your favorite environment locations to create - locations that you always feel drawn to? Reply to this comment and let me know.

[@tomjue5128]

Waterfall

[@WaveWonder1]

I’ve been trying forever to make a proper shopping mall it can never seem to nail it. That and a convention expo, like where comic con is held

[@BarakaGameDev]

please make a simple FPS map. im trying to layout the areas but having a hard time

[@Badguy292]

Hell. But not in a traditional sense, but a modern type of "separate reality" hell like in the game Saints Row: Gat out of Hell.

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

@@Badguy292 That's cool. I didn't even think of that. I always liked what Remedy did with their alternate reality dream sequences in Max Payne 2.

[@fhajji]

Wow! This was this channel's first tutorial I watched. Instant like, subscribe, AND bought the Quad Bundle. If the rest of the tutorials are just as great, I'm optimistic that I won't regret this impulse buy (I'm usually not an impulse buyer, lol). Do you plan to make some level design tutorials on Godot, maybe once Godot 4.x comes out? A Godot + Blender workflow series would nicely complement this UE4 series!

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thank you very much Farid. I hope you are enjoying the bundle! I've heard many great things about Godot. I don't have any plans right now to cover it but I will never say never.

[@RaduButarascu]

Awesome video man! Thank you!

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thanks Radu!

[@accessblaster7876]

The beds feel a little wide at 27:27 specifically the distance between the mannequins hips.

[@CrashDemicStudio]

Thanks for video. I think that the only problem of this technique is that you will have only few vertex for wall, ceeling and others. And even if it will be more performant, it also doesn't permit to better use the paint brush to do environments. If we could you this technique and also decide the number of vertex could be great.

[@jaadui_chirag]

I love your tutorials 😍

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thank you!

[@pwerfer8124]

You can make a level design interiror with BSP'S or Static meshes..

[@geno2kgeno]

Thanks for this great video! I'm highly interested in the modular design approach. Do you have any tips & tricks on how to approach this with level design? I think during the blockout phase we should use our artistic license and just work on the level for the most part, right? However, what will we do when time comes to move on to build the actual static meshes? How do you define the dimensions of the modular pieces? Just nudge the width/height to make it fit or move/enlongate/shrink parts? And also how would we tackle the light mapping issues with modular pieces that you mentioned? Would really appreciate if you could make a video about this. :-)

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thanks Geno. You are right about the blockout phase. You should use your artistic license and work on the level establishing scale, proportions, implementing gameplay and playtesting. When you start building Static Meshes you use the BSP blockout as your framework, as a guide to go from. It doesn't have to be identical and it often will not, but close enough is close enough. A lot of times when I work it doesn't match 1:1 and that is fine. It often won't. BSP blockout is the framework to build on but it doesn't need to be identical. When it comes to lightmapping and modular pieces there will be natural light seams in between meshes. That is something you cannot avoid. BUT there are many ways you can hide it and work around. This includes using materials that have natural seams built in near the edges, using other Static Meshes such as columns, trims and pillars. I do want to cover this in more detail, I've had a lot of similar questions asked all the time. This is a big common issue. I hope to cover all that as soon as I can, after I complete some ongoing projects/courses I've been working on.

[@geno2kgeno]

@@WorldofLevelDesign Thanks for your reply. This helps me a lot already. Keep up the good work.

[@toddgilbert1057]

Is there a part 2? The next steps after this one?

[@elfideorubio1308]

Hello thank you so much for showcasing your method of blockout I had a couple of question I hope you can answer 1) 13:23 when you are closing of that section isn't it better to leave that 20cm gap that way when you unwrap you don't have to account for the gap where the texture will be hidden 2) How do you approach unwrapping a whole room, are you making seams every 2m and the overlapping them? or something else. thanks in advance, also please consider making a video on the whole process of unwrapping, I feel there's tons of video on youtube of how to create static meshes, but so few showcasing how to properly unwrap and handle textures.

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thanks El. 1) Well in this case it doesn't matter. These are just BSP brushes and when I closed that gap off its just a way I work with these brushes (coming from Source Engine). In the end, that gap won't be there because I would create the walls in 3d software as a Static Mesh. So the BSP brush you saw there would be only used as a template to model from, so I wouldn't unrwap these BSP brushes. 2) Once I created the Static Mesh room I would unwrap the whole room probably using tiling textures, trim sheets. There is a lot that goes into it that wouldn't make sense without showing. So let me give you few links to look at. This one: polycount.com/discussion/144838/ue4-modular-building-set-breakdown and this one: wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Modular I will end up creating more focused tutorials on this topic and sharing them with you. I just need to finish up few projects and courses I've been working on to get it started.

[@mashonoid]

@@WorldofLevelDesign dude you are like the father of all interested fellas in level design. helping out soo much. thanks a lot man

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Happy to help! I am obsessed with level design and environment art and I have to talk about it to you or I would not create anything and die :)

[@mashonoid]

@@WorldofLevelDesign Man that makes 2 of us, I am obsessed too, but I am at an very early stage and your work really helps me. And I love how you are so keen to talk with random people like me on internet and helping out. We are really blessed we have an angel like you. Keep up the work and our support will only increase. Actually tbh I feel like we all owe you for your knowledge that you share for free because this stuff is only taught into big famous art schools. Love you brother. Hope to see your upcoming content soon.

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

@@mashonoid Thank you man. Very much appreciate that!

[@mashonoid]

dude this is soo fucking cool. thanks for this video

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thanks man and thank you for watching!

[@dhirajrathod505]

i am a bit confused about the static mesh part at 27:21 like you will create the whole scene as one static mesh or just the walls of the room because for an exterior environment what I did was I created all the static mesh (props) as separate but they all shared one UV tile so are you saying that you are going to model the floor and the ceiling as one static mesh and other props (like bed n so) in another static mesh? sorry, I know this is a dumb question but I had to ask because i was confused

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

The room itself (walls, floor, ceiling) would be one mesh. Then the props would be separate and I would do it exactly like you have. All props would be separate meshes sharing one UV layout.

[@dhirajrathod505]

@@WorldofLevelDesign yayy thank you for clearing the doubt

[@prtomostomas]

What is a good scale and move increment for blocking out?

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

I like to use 10 unit grid snap, sometimes 50 for larger blocks but usually 10 units. For full scale guide see this video, it works for both UE4 and UE5: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6TCZ2uGj5KAa68

[@prtomostomas]

@@WorldofLevelDesign thanks I love your videos. I use these as references for building in Roblox studio!

[@sean8306]

Awesome video thanks :-)

[@JotaFaD]

Thanks for these tutorials. Do you plan to make more tutorials in the source engine or is unreal the focus now?

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Thanks Jose. Right now I am focused on UE4 but I do plan to go back to Source. Source is something I am always drawn back to.

[@JotaFaD]

@@WorldofLevelDesign Thanks! I'm currently in the detailing phase of my map and the blockout phase along with references is making things go very smoothly

[@RaduButarascu]

I am just a beginner here, so I quickly googled "Source engine" and found out it is an engine put out by Valve. BUT, just like Unity, it appears to not be free. Not like Unreal Engine at least. Why would you opt to develop on that platform instead of UE? Thank you.

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

I can't speak for Jose, for me with Source is that you get to create maps for existing popular games (CS:GO, L4D2, TF2, HL2) that include a set of gameplay mechanics. It also helps if you love and play some of the Source games you are creating maps for. So whatever you create you get to play right away using that game. Although, Source is older and you are right, not something you'd really develop with as much as you would with UE4, it does give you the ability to create level designs for a game with gameplay where other people can play in right away. Something that is hard to do with UE4 out of the box. There aren't many existing games that were created with UE4 that also have level editors included. One example would be the new free version of Unreal Tournament but not many others with a large user base.

[@RaduButarascu]

@@WorldofLevelDesign Ahh, that makes sense. Thank you for sharing this.

[@N0x_005]

I love you three thousand!

[@raptorwars6332]

WorldofLevelDesign: Makes video about how to make a basic hotel room! Me: Shit, this guy needs more likes for this video!

[@derek7284]

Me: What a dumb ass way to comment "Great video"

[@pavan6400]

Is there any other way to export Level blockout to .FBX rather than exporting Level ?

[@bluegizmo1983]

Dumb question probably, but I'm new to ue4 and modeling in general... What is the advantage of doing geometry edit like you did instead of just using the scale options for making the floor/walls/roof/etc?

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

Scaling brushes moves the vertices/edges off the grid and it becomes very difficult after that to align and snap brushes to each other.

[@bluegizmo1983]

@@WorldofLevelDesign ah ok, thanks!

[@ThisIsNotWhatItLooksLik]

2:45 importing manquin

[@DLVRYDRYVR]

Thank you

[@herrcobblermachen]

Is there a next video for this ;)

[@WorldofLevelDesign]

No. It was just a blockout. But may do an update and continue.

[@daviedood2503]

Plot twist: He just became a digital G-d when he dropped the first Cube. NPC are pondering where they came from and what their purpose in the Unreal Engine really is.. #InTheBeginning

[@shakaama]

this is excellent and simple, just like me. LUL

[@MecegguemMohamed]

second good tutorial

[@mashonoid]

Yoooooooooooooo first