First Thought and Start of the Ideation Process
Deconstructing Familiar Environments
My initial thought was an image of war—collapsing buildings, deconstructed familiar living spaces, and destruction. The man-made landscape is being torn apart by bombing and bombardment, with architecture falling to ruins.
I quickly realized I didn’t like this idea. Scenes of horror, suffering, and terror caused by war are still present today, and I didn’t feel inspired to create something rooted in such darkness. I appreciate the beauty in life, and since there’s already a scarcity of it, I didn’t want to dwell on or reflect on the uglier aspects of human existence.
I think at the back of my head I was referring, to the exhibition I’ve been to in the past “Fragile Brutalism”, exploring the future of the Ukrainian urban landscape affected by the result of the war. More info here Fragile Brutalism | Goldsmiths, University of London
What’s Possible?
As a complete beginner, I faced the limitations of not knowing what was possible to achieve. In the first week, we were shown some examples, and as the weeks progressed, I discovered more and more possibilities. I was encouraged by the idea that almost anything can be brought to life in Unreal Engine. However, I also became acutely aware of the vast amount of knowledge I lacked.
I knew it would take time and effort to learn how to implement my ideas. Discussing this with Serra, we both agreed that my decision to approach the project experimentally was reasonable and justified.
What is a Familiar Environment?
It’s the places we live, love, and laugh in. The world around us—nature, the countryside, landscapes.
I started off thinking generically. But the key word for me was “environment.” While reading 3D World magazines, I often came across terms like “environmental artists.” That’s what I wanted to learn: how to create worlds.
I wanted to think big, so manually placing assets wasn’t an option. Instead, I explored ways to optimize my workflow. I discovered procedural techniques for populating terrains with objects such as rocks, trees, and foliage. Most of my inspiration came from other artists’ work, especially those featured in 3D World magazine.
Initially, I thought the concept of the familiar could be boring. It needed deconstruction to make it exciting. Unreal Engine offers a platform to create far beyond regular landscapes, so I thought—why not aim high?
Soon, I became inspired by surrealist aesthetics, particularly paintings with surreal themes. I was drawn to the works of Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński, whose art I was fortunate to see last summer in Sanok. Examples of the Beskinksi work are pasted for reference below.
Exploring Surrealism
This led me to explore methods for visualizing the unconscious mind, inspired by Sigmund Freud’s theories. Freud famously disapproved of surrealist aesthetics, yet his ideas about the unconscious deeply influenced the surrealist movement.
The unconscious often produces surreal visuals that lie between the real and unreal, resulting in distorted yet sophisticated aesthetics. These visuals are often odd, mysterious, and compelling. To me, this felt like an interesting way to deconstruct familiar landscapes.
Salvador Dalí, for example, used techniques to manipulate his perception. One of his methods involved waking himself from sleep just as he entered the deep phase, by letting a plate fall and create noise. This allowed him to capture distorted perceptions of the room around him.
I became fascinated with these ideas—perhaps too fascinated—and spent far too much time reading about Freud, Jung, and the surrealist movement. Eventually, during a conversation with my mentor about my project’s progress, I realized my true goal was to learn Unreal Engine. So, I moved on to practical studies and decided to incorporate only a few surrealist concepts into the art direction of the project.
World Creation
For this project, we were advised to use assets from Fab (formerly Quixel Bridge). Essentially, the world was our oyster. However, I was hesitant about using someone else’s entire project. I wanted to create something of my own, even if it might not look as visually impressive.
More than anything, I was interested in techniques rather than visual appeal. I decided to focus on functionality first and add the “icing on the cake” later. My approach was similar to developing a minimum viable product (MVP): start small, iterate, and improve.
Terrain
The foundation of any world is its terrain. Unreal Engine includes a landscape mode for sculpting environments. Using a brush, the terrain can be shaped manually. However, most tutorials recommend using heightmaps instead.
I experimented with this. First, I generated a Perlin Noise heightmap in p5.js and used it to create the terrain. It worked to some extent.
Then, I tried digital drawing in Adobe Fresco, creating black-and-white images with brushes scattered across the canvas. This method also worked, but I wasn’t particularly impressed with the results—or the process.