I decided to develop the 2nd idea. The idea is to start by looking at a river, then the camera will move through woods, it will then come out of the other side of the woods to a road with a house opposite. It will also have a piece of paper blowing around. The paper will stop blowing around, and the camera will then zoom into the paper which is a wanted poster. Then the camera will pan up and focus on a house that will have a mailbox with the same name as the person on the wanted poster. The camera will then move back and you will see a gun in the holster of a bounty hunter.
Moodboard
Colour Pallet
Layout Playblast
Schedule
House
First, I 3D modelled the house using Maya. I created the wooden walls by modelling individual planks. This stopped the walls from looking flat.
I then used quixel megascans to add some tiles to the top of the roof. I also used it for the logs on the corners of the house. I also got a stone wall and a curb model and made some steps in front of the house.
Next, I textured the house using Substance Painter. I made sure that I surface imperfections such as dirt and fingerprints to make the house look more realistic.
After that, imported the house into Unreal Engine. I applied all of the textures from Substance Painter. I also created the lighting using a sky atmosphere.
I then changed the material on the glass to make it transparent. To make it look like there was a room inside the house I imported the curtains that I created during the Chernobyl project. I also created a basic floor and ceiling.
Finally, I used the heightmap from Substance Painter to create tesselation on the chimney and roof. This gave them a more detailed shape and stop them from looking flat.
1st House Render
First, I used the sculpting tools in Maya to remove any straight edges on the roof.
Next, I 3D modelled a roof tile duplicated it placed them all over the roof. I then textured it using Substance Painter.
Then, I changed the design of the windows.
After that, I added a landscape and then added a dirt material to it.
Next, I installed the "Meadow_Environment_Set" plugin and used the foliage tool to randomly place trees around the landscape.
Then, I did the same thing with the grass model. I also painted out a path in front of the house.
After that, I imported some models from quixel megascans and added them to the scene. I added a path some fallen logs and I pile of logs.
Finally, I added some rocks, plants, flowers and mushrooms and randomly placed them using the foliage tool.
2nd House Render
Next, I removed all of the grass and replaced it with some plants from Quixel Megascans and the "Meadow_Environment_Set". I added more planes around the trees and less where there weren't any trees.
After that, I used the river tool. I added a large river and then a smaller river coming off of it and flowing through the woods. I also edited the material because it was originally too blue.
I then imported the camera into Unreal Engine.
Next, I added some cliffs using an asset from Quixel Megascans. I also used the foliage and landscape tools to add some grass and trees to the top of them.
After that, I added some rocks and plants to the edge of the rivers.
Then, I used the cliff asset from quixel and made it smaller. I then placed them around the edge of the rivers to make them look rougher.
I also added some long grass and rocks under the water.
Next, I created a bridge using Maya and Substance Painter and imported it into Unreal Engine. I then added some plants and rocks around it.
After that, I found an image of a mountain on google and copied it into photoshop. I removed the sky and also made the imaged very wide. Then I created a very large cylinder and added the image to it.
Then I downloaded a plugin called "Ultra Dynamic Sky". This allowed me to get a very realistic looking sky with simulated 3D clouds. However, the lighting that the sky created wasn't very realistic. To fix this I replace the assets that the plugin created with my own lighting.
Next, I created a mailpox using Maya and Substance Painter. I used a random name generator to create the name "Larry Myers" and I put it on the side of the mailbox.
After that, I created a different camera animation that has camera cuts in it.
I then adjusted the lighting and made some small adjustments to the camera animation.
I also added a colour grade to it using after effects.
Then, I created a texture for the wanted poster but without the picture on it and added it to a plane.
After that, I changed the camera animation again.
Next, I used the MetaHuman Creator to create a Larry Myers.
I then used photoshop to put him on the wanted poster.
After that, I added 3D models of rocks to the path to add more detail. I also added rips along the edge of the wanted poster. I also animated the poster to blow in the wind.
Then, I started to make the character. I started with a basic character from Maya's content browser.
To make the jeans I duplicated the character's legs and waist. I then extruded them to give them some thickness. I made them go inside the lower legs to stop them from interfering with the boots.
To create the boots I added a cowboy boot from the content browser.
I then adjusted it to fit the shape of the leg and foot. I also smoothed it out.
To create the shirt I added one from the content browser.
I then adjusted it to fit make it look like it was buttoned up. I also deleted everything that was going to be covered up by the jacket to stop it clipping through and also allow for a higher resolution texture. I also added some buttons.
To create the jacket I downloaded a cartoon suit jacket from cgtrader.
https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/character/clothing/cartoon-suit-with-handpainted-texture
Edited it to make it look like a leather jacket.
I only UV'd half of the jacket because the other half will not be visible in the shots that I chose. I also made the seams in the same place as they would be in real life so I could use the auto stitcher in Substance Painter.
To create the sheriff's badge, I added a 5 sided cylinder and then edited it into the shape of a star. I then added spheres onto the end of each of the points.
I then textured him using Substance Painter. To create the clothes I used the materials built into Substance Painter and then edited them to how I wanted by using either my own surface imperfections or using the built-in ones.
However, creating the sheriff's badge was more complicated. I started by adding an image of a sheriff's badge as a texture for the colour and height. But it looked like an image was just added to it. The reason for this is it had lighting and reflections on the image.
To fix this I imported it into photoshop and painted over the top of all of the parts that were sticking out. I then created two images, for the colour I added a flat gold colour and for the height, I added a flat white colour. This meant that the material would react to light accurately and would also have an accurate height map.
Finally, I added some surface imperfections to it.
Substance Painter Render Previews
Arnold Render Preview
Then, I made the characters hand. I started with a basic character from Maya's content browser and imported it into ZBrush.
I then sculpted it into the shape of a hand. I also sculpted the fingernails.
Next, I imported it into Substance Painter and applied a basic skin material.
After that I added wrinkles by using some of the skin presets and also by manual painting them on with the wrinkle brush. I also painted a vein on his hand.
I then painted the texture on the nails. I also so hairs onto the fingers.
After that, I created the gun. I 3D modelled it using Maya and textured it using Substance Painter.
Next, I 3D Modelled a simple holster and then imported the character, gun and holster into Unreal Engine.
Then, I created a waterfall. I started by 3D modelling a curved plane. Then I added a water texture to it and animated the texture to move down. I then used the texture to control the tesselation
After that, I added a Niagra particle system and made the particles emit from the mesh. I also change the starting velocity to make them fall in the same direction as a waterfall.
Next, I placed some steam particles that were part of Unreal Engines starter content.
Then, I added a noise deformer to the wanted poster.
After that, I placed some smoke particles on the chimney that were part of Unreal Engines starter content.
Next, I edited the mailbox to make the light emphasise "Mr Larry Myers" rather than "U.S. Mail"
Then, I edited the model and texture of the boots.
I also improved the holster to include a belt with bullets and a better texture.
I then made the leaves blow in the wind by adding a "SimpleGrassWind" to the "World Position Offset" of the material.
After that, I made the rocks and ground look wet around the river. I did this by copying the original material and increasing the metalness and decreasing the roughness.
I also added a dirt material and some dirt to the bottom of the small river.
Then, I added a pitchfork and a shovel from Quixel Megascans and placed them in front of the house.
I also added some leaves to the roof and side of the house.
Then, I edited the Jacket model texture to make it look more realistic. I also made the sleeve longer to cover the wrist more. Another thing I did was I slightly edited the hand model and texture
to add more detail. I also edited the holster and jeans textures to add more dirt.
Finally, I rendered it using the Movie Render Que and done some slight colour grading using After Effects. I also got someone to write some music do some sound design.
Final Version
Breakdown