The End of Development
So, I think I can officially say I'm quite happy with the outcome of this project.
Naturally, there's a lot of small things I'd change with extra time, but my deadlines been cut short by a few days due to other plans. But, the final scene is working!
Above is the final cinematic, created in Unreal's sequencer. After the first take, I realized that I could get away with much more than I had, so the sea background for example got scrapped simply because I didn't need it. Some of the shots are similar to the in-movie shots, for example, the last shot is based around Gatsby's death, and the zoom into the scene is in the movie quite a bit too. I wanted a lot of shots around the pool as it is the centerpiece, so everything kind of revolves around that circle.
Onto some changes from the last post:
First, the background changed to a coloured one, with some alpha at the top as well. The sand texture got replaced to one I created, with a colour that matched the scene better, and foliage! Although this is something I wish I could spend more time on, while the tree too a while to get sorted, the bushes were quite rushed. I also decided to put some chairs outside the scene, to break out of the confined area, although in game this might not be available to reach.
Some more lighting was also added, specifically point lights in the lamps. I had a play around with reflection but it made my shadows completely black, so these were removed to keep the shadows I already had.
Some pillows got added, so there is slightly more breakup in the assets, I also added a trim to the stairs.
The water texture has a moving normal, it's visible in the cinematic and genuinely makes the scene feel a little more alive. The refraction in the material also helps with rippling the light, as seen on the edges and everything under the water.
While the foliage could be better, I'm very happy with the shadows they ended up making. I wish I could also make them sway in the wind too, to add to the water as well.
Some of the shadows are a bit strange, and the lamps don't create too much light, so don't create strong shadows.
I'm very happy with the choice to model out the crosses, simply because they look really nice with light going through them. But due to how small the gaps are, they don't create any shadows, which I'd want to see.
There are also small details on the walls, these have been cleaned up for the cinematic, and add more detail to the overall scene.
And finally, leaves. I've added this with Unreal's foliage brush, which is a bit heavy on the asset number size, but it breaks up a lot of the stone, and really helps the realism of the scene. These could probably be polished, however they do their job very well.
So, the overall scene is done. With some improvements, like foliage, background and more detail on assets such as the chairs and vases, it would improve the scene slightly, but in the time I had, I am still proud of the finished product. I got a lot of guidance in post-processing and lighting from workshops, and the rest by trying to replicate from the reference I had (by which I mean watching the movie about 500 times). It was a fun project.
- Jemma.
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