La Tiendita

Introduction

My first participation in The Rookies is a very personal, very intimate project, and at the same time, one with the intention of being universal. While we all have different childhoods, with this short film, I aim to depict a very Mexican, very '90s dynamic. A child goes to buy the groceries his mother asked for to continue making the meal. Simple, yet it is a memory I hope transcends time, one that makes us hold on to our roots and humanity. May the nostalgia for those safe times become a reality again, and may that sense of community never be lost.

Inception

The original idea for La Tiendita came from the childhood experiences of my good friend Luigi. When he remembered those times when his grandparents had that store, he created this illustration to honor those memories. I instantly fell in love with this illustration and the narrative it conveyed just by looking at it and starting to notice some of the exposed details. It also made me travel back in time, where, without a doubt, it motivated me to explore the possibility of continuing the tribute to those beautiful childhoods and to do something with my 3D modeling and texturing skills.

What a Problem

Since I already had a starting point with Luigi's illustration, the next thing I did was to identify a problem and start solving it in practice. The problem was as simple as starting to model everything, and since I wanted it to have a realistic look, the first thing I needed to do was gather some additional references. After that, few excuses and a lot of work.

Modeling and Texturing Assets

While modeling and texturing some of the key models for the little store, I took more liberties to try to tell stories with each one. The bookshelf, with some of its grains oriented differently and construction flaws, reflects the idea of DIY and the notion of asking a friend who’s a "carpenter" to do it cheaply. The desk is a recreation of a very similar one that I have used in my own workspace since university, which was passed down to me by an uncle. As for the refrigerator, even though I didn’t have enough time to personalize it more, I was satisfied with the final result because it fits the stereotype of the fridges you find in small stores.  It has stains on the white paint and cracks in its texture to give it more character.

The Fun Part was all of it

The arcade machines were, without a doubt, the part I enjoyed the most, both modeling and texturing them. It felt as if I were modeling them as a game ifself or something like that. It was about paying attention to the details, thinking about how time affected them, and representing that with dirt textures and procedural generators. In short, it was an adventure that I enjoyed immensely.

Technical Difficulties 

The plastic rack for the water jugs, and more specifically the jugs themselves, as well as the cabinet where I display the bulk candies, were a real headache for me. I wanted them to look more realistic than they ended up appearing. Materials with transparent plastic properties gave me a lot of trouble. I was trying to resolve this issue for weeks during my tutorials with my professors, but there was some feature in Unreal that simply wouldn’t work on my computer. The same material produced different results on different computers. The other objects all exported correctly from Blender to Unreal Engine in .fbx format and some in .usd.

Rusty Metal Shutter Animation

As part of my practice and exploration in 3D modeling and texturing, I created this animation of a rusty metal shutter. Initially, my goal was to integrate this animated asset into Unreal Engine to enhance the final cinematic video. However, due to time constraints, I was unable to fully implement this animation in the main project. Nevertheless, I am pleased to showcase this piece separately to highlight the additional work and effort invested. This animation was created in Blender, and it was rendered in cycles. 

The Newspaper

One of the clear ideas I had from the early stages of the project was to create a local newspaper, completely altered with news that I made up and featuring photos of friends and family. I did it, and I included it in the video. The Easter eggs are there, and it's just a matter of finding them. The newspaper is featured prominently in a scene of the short film with a close-up shot on the desk, where you can read a news article highlighting the work of all the participants of The Rookies 2024.

Creative Process

In the painful and intriguing creative process, I continued making renders and testing both materials and lighting with Blender, experimenting with different camera angles and, of course, refining the look I wanted for the final scene, both in the static image and in the videos generated in Unreal. The images were very helpful in defining the final narrative of the entire story, as it was only by seeing how it evolved with each test render that the final idea took shape in my mind.

Forcing myself to learn new things

When I decided to texture the interior of the little store, at first, what seemed most intuitive and logical to me was to use tileable textures for both the walls and the floor and ceiling. However, later on, I thought that texturing the entire interior with 4K textures for each surface using UDIMs would be the perfect excuse to delve into that workflow. That's how, watching tutorials, I was ultimately able to texture the entire interior with UDIMs, and the final result seemed more than acceptable to me. Additionally, the customization that allowed me to paint dirt and imperfections on the surfaces in a completely intentional way was a great addition.

My own Journey into the Past

The facade was something Luigi's illustration didn't provide, and although I had the possibility to discuss it with him and eventually imagine and sketch the facade of his grandparents' original store, I took creative liberty. Riding the wave of nostalgia, I wanted to recreate a store I used to frequent as a child, right on the corner of my house. With a collage of pop culture covering the Coca-Cola branding, this facade was an achievement for me to recreate, at least as much as possible, from somewhat blurry memories. Unfortunately, I didn't have any reference images, only conversations with my older brother that gave me some clarity to bring this to life.

The Way of Knowledge

Here I attach some screenshots of the node setups of some materials that formed the basis for the majority, if not all, of the assets I imported into Unreal Engine. I have to highlight the great ability of Butic to convey technical knowledge; they are excellent professionals with a strong teaching vocation. These base materials will surely be useful in future projects, and understanding how these node structures are formed paves the way for experimentation and discovery.

JUST THANKS!!

I dedicate this project to my family and friends who have always supported me in this career I am trying to build. I must express a great gratitude to the institution that trained me and gave me the necessary tools to face this challenge, Butic: The New School. And thank you very much to you who have taken the time to watch and read this post. Greetings from my beautiful Xalapa, México.