Reference Images
I have dedicated this section alone for my reference images, I have used a huge amount of reference for my project, from the buildings to the cars to the details of the road. I decided to put all my references together in a mood-board style as it would be far too much-to upload one by one. I used everything from real life images, game reference and film references.
The Last of Us – scene references
I really enjoyed the game The Last of Us 2, I loved how the game was designed and was amazed by the micro details within the environment. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to create a post apocalyptic scene, I was just amazed by the scenery within game.
To gather some research I actually took some picture from within the game itself, I went to all the corners of the room and panned the camera zooming into every micro detail possible. I gathered all my reference picture into some collages, I found some incredible detailing such as:
- Foliage growing up wall onto the roof
- broken cupboards
- Building wreckage
- Leaks on the walls
- Notes with water damage
Vehicle References
I gathered some references for my car, I wanted to look for car images that had foliage and a destroyed look about it. I also decided to visit the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Belfast, I looked at all the details in the cars and in the Plane as I knew it could potentially help for my final major project scenes. Details i noted down from my experience were:
- shapes of Car lights
- Curves in cars
- width and shape of the plane wings
The Forest – Plane Crash
The game The Last of Us is extremely helpful for car reference, however I couldn’t find any images of any plane crashes so I started to look at the other games that could potentially have this. I came across the game ‘The ‘Forest’ which is about a character who’s plane crashes into a giant forest to fight off zombie characters. The game had a cool plane crash asset, however being an older game as opposed to The Last of Us 2, The Forest wasn’t incredibly detailed. However, it did give me an idea on how I would have to make my plane for my plane crash scene. I gathered some screenshots for the game that I could refer back to whenever I start modelling.
Lighting References
In terms of my lighting, it was really important for me to gather as much research as I could a lighting is a weak area for me. My scenes will be heavily based around lighting to help give it that eerie, apocalyptic look but also remaining realistic – again, I kept with researching the Last of Us as they have some really amazing interior and exterior shots that the lighting is heavily looked at.
Building References
For my exterior scene, I gathered up a lot of reference images for me to reference back to whenever I started modelling my buildings – I have had some trouble creating my exterior scene as I am still not grabbing the scale concept. I also found some YouTube videos of other Artist creating a post apocalyptic streets within Unreal Engine
I also took some images of real life buildings, any time I decided to go for a drive I made a mental note to keep an eye out for cool buildings, I seen some really interesting buildings that I loved the look off – I travelled up to Belfast and starting take pictures on my phone for reference. I also seen some building with foliage growing on the side, which I found very fitting for my major project. I also visited
Building with foliage references
I wanted to pay closer attention to finding building with foliage growing on them, I knew that this would play a large role on the overall scenery of my scene. Furthermore, it was important that I took note of how the foliage sat on the buildings and how they they scattered. I wanted to make sure that when I began to model my buildings with foliage, I had a fair idea of how they should roughly look. The Last of us 2 includes a lot of these types of building, i also wanted to to gather some images from google.
Road References
To begin creating the actual road fo my exterior scene – I started looking at a lot of references, being an apocalyptic scene I need to look for destroyed roads, with foliage and a lot of damage.
Interior Asset References
For my Apartment Scene I gathered a lot of reference for things that should go into my scene. I included images of thing I know I absolutely want to model such as:
- PS4
- Guitar
- Chairs
- Tables
- Kitchen Units
Exterior Asset References
For my exterior scene, I already gathered my building and car references – however I still wanted to put together a collage of some other assets that I will use to really bulk out and fill my exterior scene. I made a list of smaller models that I will have to create, this way I will be fully prepare when I begin the creation of my Street scene. My assets will include:
- Streetlights
- Stop signs
- bins
- electricity box
- Trees
