UNREAL ENGINE | PHOTOSHOP
Learn how Maxim Dorokhov expertly designs a modern recreation of a classic horror video game environment
It can be tricky to give living spaces in hyper-realistic video games a grounded look. You have to find the right balance between enriching a place with details that make it believable and interesting to explore, and not making it overly grungy, unless that was the ultimate goal. To engage with the player, these environments need to have an instantly readable atmosphere and cohesive look throughout.
In this ar ticle I’ll walk through my process for recreating the apar tment from Silent Hill 4: The Room, originally released back in 2004, with Unreal Engine 5. We’ll discuss the different steps that go into creating a detailed cinematic look for an environment like this. I’ll share my thoughts on making the geometry, details, textures and lighting, and my approach to building the atmosphere and presenting your work.
01 BASIC SIZES AND PROPORTIONS
To achieve a realistic look for your environment, a good starting point is to use real-world references. Online second-hand stores can be a useful resource for finding furniture, appliances and other references for your scene. Try to track down good references and make blockouts that are based on the real-world size of objects. Make sure to pay attention to the proportions and dimensions of your models.
I prefer to make simple blockouts of all the modular objects, and large and medium props first, and place them in Unreal Engine with the draft lighting pass. It will show you which objects are better lit, closer to the camera, or just more important to the story, so they may need more attention to detail.
02 SMALLER DETAILS
It’s always good to add in small, interesting details from the real world as they can help add more information to the scene or just make it look that bit more believable. Try to include small objects such as the wires from the appliances and lights, the borders between two different types of flooring, light switches on the walls, and hinges on doors and cabinets. Photos from property websites or screenshots from movies are usually a good source for reference here.
