Steampunk Bar, Apocalyptic garage, and Saloon

Steampunk Bar

This project was part of a team game I was part of called Silent Saboteur. It was a stealth FPS game with a semi-realistic style, focused on steampunk, art deco and a touch of Sci-fi.  For my level, I decided to create a bar inspired by the speakeasy and prohibition bars of the 1920's. 

During this process, my ultimate goal was to hone my skills in Prop modelling  (in Maya) and texturing (in Substance Painter) whilst also creating an immersive game environment. With the theme, I wanted to create a sense of luxury and evoke mystery. I am really pleased with the overall result and enjoyed creating unique props for this aesthetic.

The workflow started with me creating a mood board that encapsulated the themes we were aiming for as a team. Followed by a detailed layout and map of my level, and concept art I created of assets I wished to create for my environment.

Next, I built my level block out in Unreal Engine 5.03. 

For asset creation, I used a low-to-high workflow focusing on baking normals in Substance Painter and Marmoset. This allowed me to work artistically and technically, as I was able to add additional details whilst not increasing my overall poly count.

I used this workflow method for creating all of my props, but one challenge I faced was the amount of props I needed to make! Overall I made 41 props in total.

However, even with all my models in place I still needed to use a few third-party assets to complete my level. Special thanks to the following:

- Steampunk lamp by Roman Solohub: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/steampunk-lamp-970e0d3d2a1f4fd7a4769280f9a9741a

- Cash register by Virtual Museums of Małopolska: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/cash-register-with-a-counting-machine-6b6ecc33993d49939bd4c7633c795577

- Steam chronometer by Aleksandr Kodulev: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/steam-chronometer-00f6c41165624415b20445a1fcc38247

I enjoyed working on this project, it confirmed that prop modelling is definitely what I want to specialise in my career. 

Apocalyptic Garage

This second project was a portfolio piece of my choosing. I chose an apocalyptic environment to showcase my variety as a prop artist and challenge myself by applying realistic damage when texturing. I focused on taking the time to concentrate on topology and layering textures during this module, with the overall aim of telling a narrative through my work.

My environment started life as a block out in Maya which I bought into Unreal 5, this allowed me to organise and edit the layout of the garage. I focused on making one object at a time, replacing the block-out assets with completed ones. This made the workload more manageable.

My narrative focused on conveying that the garage had been raided, left abandoned with only a few objects left behind.

When creating the props for the scene I again used a low-to-high workflow.  In Substance Painter, I used many layers to mimic elements of real-world damage and age. I did this by using a mix of materials, smart masks, black masks, custom-made alphas etc. 

Overall I made 32 props for this environment. I enjoyed the challenge I set for myself as well as the real-world thinking needed to achieve realistic results. I believe this project helped me become a better and detail-oriented artist.

Saloon in a sandstorm

This last piece was for my dissertation, I decided to broaden my skill set by learning Blender. I chose to create a western scene of a saloon in a sandstorm, housed in Unreal Engine 5. It was quite a daunting challenge for me personally but I knew it would be beneficial for me to learn Blender due to its non-destructive workflow. 

To display my props and help set the scene for my Western environment I used a free-to-use display environment from the Unreal 5 marketplace.

I began this project by researching Blender and learning about its unique tools, modifiers and add-ons. As well as learning and practising the basics. When modelling I used modifiers such as lattice, mirror and Subdivision Surface. This drastically sped up my workflow and made it more efficient, while also giving me the freedom to edit later on.

During my research, I found a great add-on called Textools that made UV wrapping so much easier to understand in Blender! It provided me with tools in a similar layout to Maya's UV tool kit. 

All my props are supposed to be made from wooden planks, so to create that plank effect I created baked normals using the high poly models. 

To create the plank effect I had to bake objects in 2 stages. Instead of the traditional high-to-low bake of the whole model, I had to first bake specific faces. Taking the low poly model I added colour to the affected faces and made 2 duplicates. One I left as a low poly copy and on top of the other, I modelled high poly wooden planks. I then baked these 2 in Marmoset which gave me my plank effect, and I applied this texture to the coloured faces' texture set in Substance Painter when baking the whole object.

 An example of this is the crate below:

I created the sandstorm by first creating a sand texture in Substance Designer, then brought it into Unreal Engine 5. Here using shaders I was able to create the illusion of a sandstorm in the air and on the floor. I was able to customise and control the sandstorm by using nodes (including for tilling and speed) and the material instance to create movement.

The part that challenged me the most was the construction of the saloon. I first made the block out and originally intended to build this before anything else. But I quickly realised that I would need to take it one step at a time when learning Blender, so the saloon was left till last. When modelling the saloon I did have to make individual pieces instead of normals as I intended to take close-up screenshots from multiple angles. 

Using my old block out as a guide I created a new one from planes. I did this as I spotted some issues with the proportion in my old version. I used this new block out as a base which I built the saloon parts on top of. I found this method quite helpful as it made modelling the saloon easier to digest.

I am really pleased with the models and renders of my scene. I am proud of myself for finally learning Blender. The project has greatly improved my confidence in my abilities. And taught me, that even if the interface and controls change, the workflow is still the same.

Exterior saloon: 17,228 faces