Stone Circle Level Progress - April 21st + Rudston Monolith

I have been doing a lot of work on my Stone Circle level lately in order to get it ready for submission at the start of May. Here is what has changed since my last progress update.

• I have modelled and textured two of the three "Sacred Trees" that are focal points of the environment and will be pivotal to the level design/gameplay when it is implemented at a later date. I textured the trees in Substance Painter which has helped me to develop my skills with this software. (I will make a more detailed post about the tree models later).
• I have developed the level layout a bit by expanding the areas that house the Sacred Trees.
• The Oak tree now sits on a cliff-side overlooking a forest. This area is accessed through a small rocky gorge. This is intended to make the level more interesting and varied. By providing a long sight-line of the forest from the clifftop, I aim to give the level a greater sense of scale and imply a larger world outside of the playable zone.
• The Hawthorn tree now sits on a river-bank. Again, this will hopefully make the level more interesting and varied, and also help the player differentiate between the level's different areas. You can see areas outside of the playable zone which gives the impression of a larger world.
• I have done a lot of work on the overall look of the scene including the lighting, visual effects and post-processing effects.
• The scene now features light shaft bloom. This simulates "crepuscular rays", also known as "God rays", basically rays of light can be seen shining through the trees and other objects. UE4 documentation on this feature says that "these rays add depth and realism to any scene."
• I've started to create custom particle effects for the level such as glowing dust and magic coloured mist. In doing so, I've learnt a lot about how the particle feature works in UE4. I've not yet decided how I want to make use of particles but I'm sure I will come up with something!

On the whole, its been a very productive week and I've been learning so many new software skills! Here's some pictures of how the level looks now.

Stone circle and altar. 

Stream/small river flowing through the level.

 

Entrance to the gorge that leads to the Oak tree.

The Oak tree, sat atop the cliff. 

View of the forest outside the playable area from the clifftop.

The Hawthorn tree on the river bank.

This picture shows off the new light shaft bloom.
The gorge entrance is in the background.

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On a separate note: I was on holiday on the East coast last week and managed to fit in a visit to a very cool location that is relevant to my research for my environment: The Rudston Monolith! This is the tallest megalith (standing stone) in the United Kingdom and it dates back to the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age - basically its a very big rock (26ft tall to be exact) but its important because it allowed me to have another real-life look at an ancient man-made stone structure, just like the stone circle in my scene.

It sits in a church yard in a tiny village in East Yorkshire and has been there for about 4500 years. The theory is that the church was built around the rock as a show of Christianity's supremacy over the Pagan religion that the rock is believed to relate to. There's even the remains of a Celtic burial site on the grounds. This location was clearly significant to the people and practices that my level is inspired by.