See How to Visualize a Scene of Long-Standing Plane Wreck in UE5

Introduction

Hello, my name is Yogesh Chintakindi, I am a 3D Environment Artist from Pune, India. I'm passionate about creating immersive environments that bring stories to life. I have worked on various AAA titles, such as Final Fantasy 16, Street Fighter 6, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, and many other confidential projects.

I've always loved video games and was fascinated by their creativity. Back then, I never thought I could be part of that world. Everything changed when I got a job as a game tester, which gave me insight into the game industry and how it works.

Inspired by game graphics, I decided to pursue 3D art, left my job, and dedicated myself to learning. Now, as a 3D Environment Artist, I’ve gained proficiency in industry tools like Unreal Engine, 3ds Max, Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Substance 3D Painter, and Substance 3D Designer.

Shelter at Plane Wreck project

I love creating detailed and story-rich scenes. My latest project, Shelter at Plane Wreck, shows a mix of nature taking over an old, crashed airplane and a small settlement built around it. Through this scene, I wanted to show how people can survive and adapt in harsh conditions, with weathered materials, plants growing everywhere, and a peaceful yet mysterious atmosphere.

The waterfall, foliage, and some desert rocks were sourced from Megascans. I retextured the rocks for a unique look suitable for the environment. All other assets, including the plane crash, slum, and bridge, were entirely created by me.

Inspiration & References

The inspiration for creating Shelter at Plane Wreck came from a combination of influences. I have always been drawn to slum environments because of their rugged beauty and the way they represent resilience and adaptability. While exploring ideas, I came across Samuel Youn's artwork Bandit Camp, which resonated with me and gave me a clear direction for my work. His use of makeshift shelters and organic structures deeply influenced my approach, helping shape this project's overall look and feel.

My artwork presents an environment where nature has taken over human-made structures. The broken airplane, now part of the rocky cliffs, suggests a crash that happened long ago. Instead of being abandoned, the area has been turned into a new home. Wooden cabins and walkways built around the wreck show how people have used what they could to survive and create a new life in this tough environment.

When I first created my artwork, I had a concept art of the slum in mind, but I wanted to base it on something more realistic. I wanted to get an idea of the look and feel of the material for a realistic result. To achieve this, I started gathering references from various sources like Pinterest, Shutterstock, and Alamy. I wanted the slum structures to feel authentic and grounded in reality, which is why I searched for real-life examples and some references from other 3D art to add depth and detail to my design.

Slum Modulars

These are the modular pieces I made for the slum environment. Each part can be reused and combined in different ways to build the scene easily. The materials, such as the rusty metal sheets and wooden planks, were textured to look old and worn, matching the slum setting. Modular pieces made creating different structures quicker while keeping the scene consistent and efficient in the engine.

To ensure optimal use of the UV space, I enable the UV statistics, which show the percentage of UV space consumed. You can activate this by navigating to View > Heads Up Display > UV Statistics (Settings). In the UV Statistics window, check the option for "Percentage of used UV space." This will display the UV space usage percentage in the bottom-right corner of the UV Editor. In this case, the UV map utilizes around 71% of the space, which is a good balance between efficiency and texture resolution.

I added some extra geometry to the metal sheets to create bends and give them a more realistic, worn look. This helps break up the flatness and adds detail to the overall structure.

I started by adding two slum structures (only blockout), which I had referenced from the concept art. However, I wasn't fully satisfied and kept pointing out mistakes and missing elements in my own ideas. I asked myself important questions: What am I really trying to present here? Would showing only slums deliver an interesting story?

After reflecting on it for a while, I realized the artwork needed something more to capture the viewer's attention and to tell a deeper story. That's when the idea of adding a plane crash came to mind. It brought a new layer of meaning – blending survival with disaster. I then started gathering references for the plane wreck, and the combination of these two elements helped me push the story forward in a more engaging way.

Plane Wreck

I used a medium-sized plane. Finding good reference images for a crashed plane, especially covering all angles, was a bit difficult. While I did come across some references, it was hard to find detailed images of a plane crash, particularly for every angle and the inside parts of the wreck. I remembered a plane crash scene from the game Days Gone, which had a well-designed crash site. So, I played the game again to capture references from every angle and used those shots to help create the crash in my artwork.

PCG Spline Bridge

While searching for plane wreck references in Days Gone, I also came across some excellent references for a bridge. Inspired by that, I created a PCG spline bridge in Unreal Engine 5, which is more efficient and flexible to use, allowing for easier placement and adjustment within the scene. This added an extra layer of detail and realism to the environment while maintaining workflow efficiency.

Rocks

For the rocks in my scene, I used desert/sandstone-type rocks from Megascans. To ensure they fit the overall look of my project, I retextured them to match the style and atmosphere I wanted to achieve. This helped blend the rocks seamlessly with the scene's environment.

I also created a vertex paint material using Quixel and applied it to the rocks, allowing me to paint moss over them. This added an extra layer of detail and helped the rocks blend naturally with the environment, giving the scene a more organic and weathered look.

Materials

I created two Master Materials – one for the landscape and one for assets. For Standard Material, I adjusted brightness, saturation, and contrast of the base color. I also toggled specular from the red channel of the base color.
Apart from this, I applied color tinting and roughness adjustments and switched between ORM or roughness maps, along with tiling and offset controls for texture placement.

For Landscape Material, I added a function to blend between three materials (A, B, and C) and applied distance blending to adjust texture size based on camera distance. These setups offer flexibility for both assets and landscape.

Terrain

For the terrain, I first created half-spheres and placed them in areas where I wanted to add mountains. Then, I projected them using the HeightField project technique. After that, I applied some Cellular Noise and erosion effects, blending in a few more HeightField noises to shape a detailed landscape. Once the landscape height was established, I created masks to blend the mountains seamlessly into the landscape within the engine. This process helped me achieve a more organic and natural terrain look.

Tips & Tricks

For the texturing of the corrugated metal sheets, I focused heavily on replicating the grunge and dirt that I found in my references. The rough and worn look of the metal appealed to me, so I took a reference image I liked, imported it into Adobe Photoshop, and isolated the grunge/dirt sections. By using Level Adjustments, I created an alpha of the grunge and then imported it into Substance 3D Painter, using it as a stencil. This technique helped me capture the grunge very closely to what I saw in the reference, as shown in the attached image.

By doing this, I could accurately achieve the look and feel I wanted for the metal sheets in my scene, which plays a significant role in the overall aesthetic of the environment.

Lighting

For the lighting, I aimed to create a dim yet balanced atmosphere that enhances the details of the environment. To achieve this, I implemented an indirect light with a strength of 1000 lux, paired with an HDRI backdrop set at an intensity of 1500. These elements laid the foundation for realistic and immersive ambient lighting.
To further refine the lighting, I utilized post-process adjustments, primarily focusing on Local Exposure and overall exposure settings. Local Exposure played a key role in bringing out the intricate details of the models without overwhelming the scene's natural lighting balance. This allowed for an enriched but controlled visibility of the assets.

In addition, I adjusted the shadows in the color grading section of the post-process to prevent any areas of pure black (0-value black). This step ensured that even in the darkest parts of the scene, the lighting maintained subtle details and didn't create unnaturally deep shadows. These combined efforts helped create a lighting setup that complements the environment and storytelling.

Render Settings

For the render settings, I followed William Faucher's tutorial, which provides a step-by-step process to achieve high-quality renders. He emphasizes the use of specific console commands to denoise the renders and improve overall quality, which is evident in the final result. These console commands are also documented in the Unreal Engine's official documentation and were essential in optimizing the render quality for this scene.

The following William Faucher's tutorials were especially helpful in achieving cinematic and best-quality renders for this scene:

Yogesh Chintakindi, 3D Environment Artist