Forest
Ever since starting work in Unreal 5, I always wanted to create a forest kind of level. Unlike my other levels, which started off as cinematic, but became levels to potentially be used in an interactive experience, I created this one to be purely cinematic.
I started by laying out the level to look like how I wanted, this required a lot of adjustments later on. Since I was only focusing on one area, all I did was place the camera in an area and adjust everything within the line of sight. I used a variety of Quixel assets and placed them within the camera's line of sight. I placed trees further to the back and leaves and plants closer to the camera. I made the leaf color that of spring/summer. I then adjusted the landscape to fit a small body of water and added rocks to populate the scene.
For lighting, I added a very thin layer of fog and created a day/night cycle. Because of the increased focus on realism, I had to completely change how I did the day/night cycle compared to my other two maps. I also made the system in a way that was highly customizable, and used colors that would make the level itself visible.
Finally, I used a cinematic camera, played with the settings and rendered the video above.
