Constructing My Low Poly Environment

My task is to configure and assemble my low poly models to create a low poly environment that I can use for my portfolio.

I started off by creating a Plain for my low poly models to stand on as I started to plan where I can position the models. Next I looked online for skybox textures that I can modify using Photoshop to make it fit the low Poly environment. Once I had the skybox texture ready I imported a sphere and enlarged it until it swallowed the environment to create the sky.  When I rendered the environment I did not like how the edge of the environment was visible, so I duplicated the low poly mountain and placed them around hiding the edge of the environment.

For adding in the finishing touches to my environment I created a tarmac road for my low poly go-kart, also I revamped some of my low poly textures to make them look more polished. Finally, I created a pond by using a cylinder then applying an ocean texture that acts like water then I ungrouped my campfire and duplicated the rock and used it to surround the outer rimes of the pond. For the lighting I used directional light to act like the sun and I lower the directional light at a low angel that mimics a sun set.

The problem I faced when creating the sky box is that when I implemented lighting into my environment the skybox is blocking out the light, so I tried to looking at tutorials to find out how to resolve this problem. However I could not find a definitive answer to resolve this problem, so I’d had resorted to asking for help. The main problem was to unstick a box that is found in the object interface that stops the object casting a shadow.

What can I improve on is that my trees and rocks that makes up most of the environment needs more verity because all of my low poly trees are the same, so my teacher explained to me that it will look more professional if I add in more variety of different trees rocks etc.