Update:
Spent a little more time to quickly adjust the roughness map for this previous exercise. I really liked the sleek look the previous renders had but after some feedback it just made more sense to get the roughness map to a good foundation.

Previous:
Exercise for the evening that ran a bit long. This stone wall was created in zbrush from a single subtool, the idea here was to maximize the mileage you can out of a single asset while still aiming for a strong visual target.

These maps are ready for PBR authoring followed by testing in Unreal.

 Quick Exercise. Can never have too many crates...

Continued work with Substance Designer.

Pulled in height maps from rocks I had previously created in Zbrush for the pebbles.

 Layout in Substance Designer.

First test using Substance Designer 5. Takes a good couple hours of experimenting to get a better understanding of how the various nodes function. LOTS of blending nodes to say the least. Will post a screen-grab of the node setup this weekend.

Another quick exercise for the weekend

 

Getting some base textures established.

 

Repeating Texture Exercise // Addicted to the zbrush....

 

Building a stronger foundation of confidence in zbrush techniques. Trying to be more conscious of how the eye will move across the form and focusing on addressing primary and secondary shapes up front before pushing into details.

Repeating Texture Exercise

Subtools - 5 for variation

Initial Placement of Elements

 Honing in the maps with Knald

Trying out some new methods this weekend, burned through a couple rocks and landed on this one to showcase.

Lower contrast material

Working out the logistics of creating a path cut directly out of the rock for my unreal project. Great exercise for getting a lot of time in with the transpose tool. 

Placement in Unreal 4

Assets have been placed in engine and some work into materials, terrain, lighting, and a particle system for snow has been made to slowly walk in the desired look for this environment.

I utilized matinee to setup a simple dolly shot for the scene. Dolly shots are great for emphasizing the subject, in this case we have a focal point that is complimented by continuous snowfall. Composition will likely change to cater to the rule of thirds.

 

 Additional setup is needed for audio to further drive a sense of immersion, and although the terrain setup in unreal is awesome I feel that a custom shape out of zbrush will be the ideal solution for snow.

Unreal is phenomenal and with 4.9 being released it seems things keep getting better and better :)  

More to come as always and I will try to get some frames exported out to showcase the snowfall.