HOW I RECREATED THE TFT MAP ON UE5
First scene: Forest pathway
As an avid League of Legends player since 2009, I only recently delved into Teamfight Tactics after seeing my cousin play religiously these past few years. A somewhat guilty confession of mine is that I've been engrossed in the game for hours, especially since the winter break began at my college. While I genuinely enjoy and appreciate games for their inherent qualities, the artistic side of me couldn't resist pondering how Teamfight Tactics would appear with more hyperrealistic graphics. Intrigued by this idea, I turned to the internet, relying on everyone’s trusted companion Pinterest to start curating a mood board for this creative project.
Envisioning this project, I set out to create an expansive forest reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite League of Legends cinematics, "A New Dawn." While the original Teamfight Tactics (TFT) map features a floating grassy island with a river flowing through, I desired a more immersive experience. My aim was to evoke the feeling of a wanderer stumbling upon an abandoned battleground. Consequently, I chose a forest setting, retaining key elements like the river, sandstone cliffs, and an ashy center, maintaining a thematic connection with the original TFT landscape.
Having recently delved into Unreal Engine 5, I drowned myself in numerous tutorials and online lessons, equipping me with the skills to initiate the creation of the first scene. Crafting the path into the Teamfight Tactics (TFT) map proved to be neither overly time-consuming nor challenging because of that. As a financially strapped college student (AKA broke), the availability of abundant free assets and 3D models on Quixel Bridge proved to be, as gamers say, clutch. I selected trees, rocks, boulders, stumps, leaves, twigs, and grass that aligned with the mood board I had curated, and utilizing the foliage tool, I then decorated the base environment with layers of leaves and twigs to enhance the overall aesthetic.
When it came to building the actual TFT environment, I knew I couldn’t just recreate it from memory so I started with greyboxing the basic geometry shapes using a 3D TFT model as a reference (See the first picture above).
Once I had sketched out a rough blueprint, I began incorporating the initial assets to shape the scene. The first elements introduced were the background cliffs, intended to accommodate numerous trees in the subsequent stages. Additionally, I applied a sandstone material instance to provide a foundation for patches of grass.
Once I had sketched out a rough blueprint, I began incorporating the initial assets to shape the scene. The first elements introduced were the background cliffs, intended to accommodate numerous trees in the subsequent stages. Additionally, I applied a sandstone material instance to provide a foundation for patches of grass along with surrounding the square platform with boulders similar to Jarvan IV’s ultimate.
After hundreds of trees and bushes were set to cover up the void landscape, I began tweaking the environment’s atmosphere and lighting to create god rays and immersion. Since the time of day I had in mind was before noon, I also increased the fog intensity to imitate the dissipating morning haze.
Designing the river for this scene proved to be one of the most challenging tasks I've undertaken in Unreal Engine 5. The dynamics and thought processes involved differed significantly from the other assets, which were primarily static with the exception of wind physics. Fortunately, after watching several tutorials, I used an erosion tool to carve out a path for the water system to flow.
Finally, I cleaned up the scene by adding more foliage and moss to the scene, covering up blemishes and unnatural parts of the environment.