To follow my previous theme of various elements, I figured why not try my hand at ice? Seemed like a pretty common material that could be repeatedly used, so I added it to my library of materials.
Immiediately I started thinking of games like God of War and Skyrim as reference for when I began working on my ice reference board. I've always thought these looked cool and wanted to merge a nice texture with moving tech art parameters.
While poking around online I came across a pretty nice concept art piece from Planet Quest on Reddit. It gave me a Sci-Fi feeling and figured I tried to go for something similar.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/NFT/comments/rw3cg2/planet_quest_new_p2e_nft_game_very_early_link_to/?rdt=42984
Source: https://nerfeados.com/god-of-war-ragnarok-ps4-ps5-resena/
To make all of this work, I needed to start with separating channel maps so Unreal could know which textures and parameters to use distinctly from one another. The goal was to set up about three different variations to paint between and using Height LERP was the best move for this.
Pretty straightforward, I used three varying textures. Snow, on top of cracking ice, and then some moving water mixed in wherever. Because I only needed the normals for the water, I mostly left that one alone except for adding the dark colors underneath, which gives a nice (and spooky) depth to the water that's added.
Blending between the different normal maps is imperative to give the proper look and feel to the environment. Once I understood how to properly "move" between different "materials" everything seemed to come together then.
I originally hadn't thought much about the roughness values until the snow looked as slippery as the water. I figured I had to replicate some node structures to separate the roughness values. Now, the snow looks soft, water looks wet, and the ice looks slippery. Below, I had some surface adjustment to be able to increase or lower the height of the snow next to the building to give it a more natural feel, as opposed to being a straight plane all the way through at a constant level.
Here is what everything should look like put together.
I think overall the mood and setting I was going for has been achieved and as always, I learned a ton doing this. Vertex color painting is extremely powerful and I know I will find myself coming back to use it over and over again.
Environment - https://www.fab.com/listings/86913335-3c75-42bf-8404-54fe9d9d7396