Update 6 - Setting Up Environment

After I was finished with my tree model, I ended up spending some time optimizing the tree and lowering the poly count so that it was able to run smoothly in Unreal when I had multiple copies of it in the world. After I was happy with the poly count, I imported the tree into Unreal and used the foliage painting to place them around my scene. I also spent some time working with the lighting to get it closer to what I was going to use in the final. The lighting is not finalized yet, and I will spend more time later to get it looking exactly how I want.

After getting the trees in engine, I spent some time tweaking their settings and size until I was happy with the way they looked. I also added wind animation to the trees, so that they were not static. This really added a great touch to the environment. I had to spend some time experimenting with the wind strength so that the movement of the leaves was not too distracting. I also created another small tree model that I placed around the scene to fill it out more.