The biggest challenge for me in this project was getting the visual scale of the scene to feel correct to the viewer without relying on character models or utilizing first-person view. Without enough familiar visual landmarks to act as reference points, the space can appear smaller than it actually is, and the scale feels much less impressive than intended. Many typical landmarks, like doorways, lose their usefulness in a stylized architectural environment where proportions are exaggerated, so other ways of conveying “human scale” must be found.
My favorite part of the project was creating materials and shaders. I particularly enjoy working with materials because there are so many ways to approach even a single surface type that it rarely gets boring. Shaders feel like a natural extension of that work, as only so much can be achieved with texturing alone. Good textures can make individual objects look great, but the right shaders bring the entire scene together. This project allowed me to improve my workflow and organizational skills when creating shaders in Unreal Engine, as well as experiment with techniques I understood theoretically but had not yet applied in practice.