Aaron Hamilton
Art Creation
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Creating Vast Background Vistas in Games
This scene was built as a thesis artifact.
an environment that was fantastical
and present an epic vista scene from a
in the real world. When coming up with
The purpose of the project was to create
fixed camera angle in Unreal Engine 4. To
build a scene that successfully presents
the illusion of depth in space, I explored
ways in which developers make vistas
that display beautiful art, communicate
information, and frame points of interest
in the environment. Through the layering
of one-sided mesh, billboard cards, and
atmospheric effects, a convincing and
immersive world can be created.
I’ve always been interested in visiting
beautiful, exotic locations outside the
scope of my immediate surroundings.
For this thesis project, I wanted to depict
10
ART CREATION
but was also based on areas existing
concepts for a scene, I was inspired by
the floating mountains in China, the Andes
Mountains, and the Incan ruins of South
America. I mixed and matched various
ideas to derive a scene that depicts a
lost civilization amidst a misty mountain
environment.
This project was a great learning
experience, as the mountain environment
allowed me to explore different ways
of layering assets with fog and clouds
to create a scene that appeared to
encompass a great distance.