Abandoned Tattoo Parlor | Magic Lantern Projector

Base Color, Detail Lighting, Normal, Roughness

Hello everyone,

My name is Kateryna and I’m a passionate 3D Environment Artist from Ukraine, now based in Chicago, USA.

I’m currently studying at Think Tank School and I'm excited to showcase my journey through two recent projects during the intermediate term:

"Abandoned Tattoo Parlor" - A culmination of my dedication to capturing the essence of forgotten spaces.

"Magic Lantern Projector" - A hero prop assignment inspired by my love for intriguing and unique objects.

I'm exited to be part of the Rookie competition and look forward to engaging with fellow creatives on this inspiring journey.

Concept

I have always been drawn to the allure of abandoned places, where the echoes of past lives whisper tales of bygone eras. When I stumbled upon the concept of Tian Gan, it instantly resonated with me. It reminded me a lot of my favorite games "The Last of Us" and "Days Gone". And besides that, the theme struck a personal chord, as I have a history with tattoo art, having been a tattoo artist in the past.

Concept by an artist Tian Gan

References

Before starting any project I always begin by gathering references. First, I broke down the scene, made a list of assets, and then a list of what textures will be unique, tileable, or trim sheets.

I wanted to use a modular kit pipeline for this scene so I broke down approximately what pieces of modular kit I will need to create. Then I made a detailed board of references for each element in my scene. 

While I drew inspiration from the concept, I intentionally sought to infuse my own artistic expression and creative freedom into the project.

I began by blocking out the scene in Maya using simple cubes and then imported it into Unreal Engine to assess the silhouettes. Subsequently, I focused on detailing each asset, gradually replacing them within the Unreal environment

For the modular kit, I choose to make 4-meter-tall walls (4x2m, 4x3m, 4x4m). This metric facilitated the placement of tileable textures in the UV space, so there are no visible seams between modular pieces.

For the main assets I followed the pipeline high poly to low poly bake, and texturing in Substance Painter. All the cloth assets such as Red Curtains, Plastic Curtains, Mattress and Cover were made in Marvelous Designer. 

UVs and Assets in Substance Painter

Japanese Mask sculpt in Zbrush

Some of my old sketches I used for texturing set dressing in my scene

Foliage creation

These tree tileable textures (Painted wall, Concrete and Brick wall) I created in Substance Designer.

I also used some Megascan textures (floor tiles, concrete for ceiling and dirt for landscape). I utilized Quixel Mixer for mixing floor tiles with dirt and moss for more graduate vertex paint later.

Clean - Dirty floor tiles

Materials in Unreal Engine 5

The task for this assignment was to create a game-ready hero asset.
I picked the antique Magic Lantern Projector. Combining elements from various versions of such projectors I created a unique design. The particular model I focused on mostly was the projector with a revolving disc, originally intended for use in fraternal society lodges at the end of the 19th century.

The colored glass panels of the projector show an ancient Greek legend: the tale of Damon and Pythias, symbolizing trust and loyalty in a true friendship.

Wireframe - Albedo - Roughness - Metalness - Normals

For the Hero Prop assignment I followed this pipeline

References

The first screenshot depicts the proxy model, while the following two display the high-poly model. Once the high-poly model was created, I utilized ZBrush to introduce edge and surface damage, as well as to sculpt the lizard pattern onto the legs of the projector. To sculpt the lizard pattern, I created an alpha brush with a rhomb pattern in Photoshop. After completing the sculpt, I decimated the model using Decimation Master in ZBrush and made the high to low poly bake in Substance Painter.

Alphas for texturing I made in Photoshop.

This term has been a significant learning curve for me, and I can't wait to continue progressing. I want to extend a special thanks to my supervisor, Ben Kelly, for his invaluable guidance and mentorship. I've learned so much from you. Additionally, I'm grateful to my classmates and the entire Think Tank community for their support and motivation.
Thank you for viewing my work!