It’s often difficult for me to begin with a ‘blank canvas’, but after spending a lot of time with Midjourney last year, I wondered if I could use it to create something new. Why stop at creating pretty images with AI, when I could use them as inspiration for an environment?
One particular image I generated resonated deeply with me, igniting a spark of inspiration that led me to embark on a challenge: I resolved to recreate the depicted scene using Unreal Engine 5.
This undertaking proved to be a remarkable journey of learning and growth. Immersed in the intricacies of Unreal Engine 5, I familiarized myself with its cutting-edge features, such as Lumen and Nanite. My primary objective was to craft a scene that faithfully mirrored the concept art, while also ingeniously adapting certain elements to seamlessly integrate within a tangible environment.
To realize my vision, I leveraged the Megascans library, created particles and modified selected assets and textures to align with my creative vision. In addition, I incorporated a Paragon character with some animations, contributing an added layer of depth to the project.
The project as a whole has not only expanded my skills but also granted me invaluable insights into the potential of Unreal Engine 5 and its innovative capabilities.
By far the most challenging aspect of this environment has been to incorporate the look and feel of the concept while maintaining a realistic environment that would still feel believable.
Certain elements like the foliage shaders had to be exaggerated in order to achieve the result I was aiming for.
Everything about your environmental recreation of the Shangri-La Temple that is inspired by Midjourney’s AI concept is brilliant! I watched it twice, once in 1440p and then in the earth-shattering quality of 4K, and the difference in quality cannot be understated! I am particularly fond of the camera work you effortlessly incorporated into this design.
Each element of the overall design POPS, capturing the viewer’s attention in a way that leaves you craving to see more when it’s done. Beautiful work with this recreation, @fennekk! For what it’s worth, your video does more justice to the overall concept a billion times over!
A very realistic scene made with great inspiration! You have achieved all the goals that you set for yourself in this piece of art. Harmoniously placed details of vegetation, random positions of stones, and a range of colors made your work way better than the Midjourney source image.
Oh, wow! This is absolutely stunning. Replicating an AI design is kind of a brilliant idea. Especially when it inspires projects like this. The lighting and foliage are what stands out the most to me - those elements make the environment incredibly dreamy and give that high-quality feel. Wonderfully done!
Thanks for sharing! How long did it take for you to create this project?
Time wise I didn’t really track it too much. Like I mentioned in the post I started a little bit last year where I spend a couple of days to block out the area and define camera angles and so on. Then I did a very long break where I didn’t touch it and then a few weeks ago I picked it back up and for 3-4 weeks I spend some evenings on it working on it further.
The original plan was to just create the side-by-side vertical screenshot so I could show off how far I was able to push it in Unreal, but then the scene became bigger and more detailed as I was now planning on doing a camera pan and showing more areas of the scene in close-up
It’s so beautiful to see what people get their inspiration from. I think the way you showcase the 3d aspects of the temple are beautiful. Shangri-La is such a delightful concept and it’s truly a magical scene brought to life with your own spin to it!
Very curious, how did you manage to get the above lighting to showcase everything while keeping the small temple light from being too washed out?
Hey! So the lighting setup is rather simple. I ended up removing a bunch of lights in the end that I felt were hurting the composition and the scene in general. The most challenging part on the lighting was that there are some areas that are just flooded with GI and have almost no contrast and are blooming like the trees and a lot of the exterior geometry but then some areas appear to be almost getting no GI and are really dark. I ended up using a sunlight and skylight actor with regular GI contribution and enhanced it in areas that needed more GI using point lights with little intensity and high GI boost to act as GI boost lights.
Apart from that there are a bunch of spotlights to highlight certain parts of the environment to show off more of their silhouette and shape and create more interesting shadows.
I can’t wait to see your future art pieces!