After completing my MA, I wanted to create a new environment in Unreal Engine that contrasted with my previous work. This time, I aimed for a darker, more atmospheric tone inspired by Elden Ring's mood. I actually flew past this church on the train in Boston (UK) on my way to Skegness, and it instantly caught my eye as somewhere Sauron might be hanging out. 



This project was more challenging than I expected due to the night-time setting. Despite sounding straightforward, getting lighting to feel believable is a constant balance, too much light and the mood is lost, too little and the scene quickly becomes muddy. 
I approached this iteratively, making regular passes on the lighting by adjusting the directional light, introducing spotlights where needed to define form, and using height fog to help with depth and separation across the scene. 
Another challenge was the texturing, as I wanted variation across the church. I decided against the layer method I went for in my last project, as I didn't want to override the brickwork. I wanted the environment to feel dirty rather than overgrown, as if something is still dwelling there and preventing life from wanting to return. To achieve this, I used decals instead of a layered material approach, which gave me much more control. It made it easy to place dirt and grunge exactly where it was needed without overpowering the base textures. 


Overall, I’m happy with how this turned out, and it was a really valuable project for improving my approach to night-time environment design and developing my approach to mood within a scene.