[WIP] Isolated mid-century house environment

[11-04-2021] Hello everyone, I’m Álvaro Martínez, a former videogame art student based in Spain and I’d like to share the progression of my final project for my Videogame art course at Universal Arts School. The point is to create a big game environment / scenario in Unreal 4 with the use of tools like Maya, Zbrush and Substance Painter.

The theme for my project will be a modern and fun mid-century house scene inside a glass dome and isolated from the outside, an arid, dry and possibly dangerous desert mostly inspired in Taberna desert in the zone of Almería in Spain.

The house design Im taking as main reference is made by Matt Fajkus in Austin, Texas which also you can find here: WORK - Re-Open House — Matt Fajkus Architecture - Sustainable Residential and Commercial Architects in Austin, TX . I had to make some adjustments to it so everything should fit in my deadline (2 months).

Here you can find my actual references (Will be adding and updating as I make progress)

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Se ve muy bien, Saludos.

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[13 - 04 - 2021] Edit from my previous post: Im still a student so dont mind when I wrote “former”. My mistake.

Im updating with blocking pictures of the project along with bookmarks. (Will post only 3 separately due to new account limitations)

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¡Muchas gracias! :slight_smile:

[18 - 04 - 2021] Started adding Megascans assets, working on the house structure in Maya and also started a blocking for the car which will be parked in front of the house. The model is Chevrolet 1960 Bel-Air.

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Great work, keep it up!!

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[21 - 04 -2021] Started the Chevrolet blocking again and started modelling it.

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[From 25 - 04 - 2021]
·Changed camera bookmarks
·Got ready some Master Materials for the upcoming assets.
·Kept working on the car carefully. I like how its looking so far (I thought it would be a flop lol)

[Update from May 2nd 2021]

·Started adding Landscape Materials to have a very first preview of the final result

·Finished modelling the car (High, low, UVs…)


[08 - 05 - 2021]

· Started modelling an eames lounge chair for the house. Low poly is almost done and so is the high poly

[09 - 05 - 2021]

·Adjusted post process (Both inside the dome and outside at the desert)
·Added materials to the Chevrolet (final adjustments still have to be made)
·Started working on a shelf and a sofa as furniture.
·Created first camera sequences.

[16 - 05 - 2021] Due to some problems with the memory device I work with I couldnt work for certain days so tried to make progress on easy stuff in a different way.

*Finished eames chair
*Finished medium sized shelf. (They are both set on Unreal)
*Started working on a ‘‘Radioactive danger’’ sign for the desert.
*Started adding materials to the house structure
*Created more sequences to have a very first sight of the final sequences

-Due to the hardware issues I ran into, I missed giving the Chevrolet material enhacements and final details.
-Had to stop working on the big sofa. I had to postpone what was left of the sculpting


(Update from 23 - 05- 2021)

·Finished sofa (modelling, sculpting, texturing…)
·Finished radioactive sign (",","…)
·Been working on house UVs and Materials.
·Imported assets and decals for the house.
·Made a first Build lighting (Had to add some light points so the house wasnt that dark for the screenshots)

[30 -05 - 2021]

This week progress is more aimed to Unreal overall (materials, lighting, plot and imported assets).

·Added lights to the interiors. (Actual lighting is already baked)
·Amplified the space outside the house so the Chevrolet could be driven around (the car owner drives around the house to kill boredom and its family are stuck inside the Dome, where they also own an underground shelter where they keep their last communications with the outside world)
·Imported more furniture and foliage assets to complent mine and complete the scene (which is one of the goals of the project)
·Changed and enhaced the Dome (More geometry and better materials)
·Worked on the shelter trapdoor located in the garden (Unfortunately lost almost all the geometry due to the file got corrupted)
·Worked on the fridge (as an B side asset)

[Update from 06 / 06 / 2021]

·Worked on a garden chair.
.Worked on the fence around the house.
·Worked on the street in front of the house.
·Finished shelter trapdoor located at the garden.
·Updated house lightmaps
·Updated desert surroundings to make it look like the past land was more alive

[FINAL UPDATE]

After a couple of weeks of rest due to health reasons, Im back here (late) to show the final product. PS: The final project was delivered on time weeks ago so Its all good.

·Worked on final house materials
·Cut out some spaces from the final level due to time problems (bathrooms)
·Added glass panels for the windows
·Enhaced background landscape
·Added more assets to give more levels of detail (furniture, props, grass…)
·Done lots and lots of optimizations (textures, lightmap density, LODs, graphic adjustments, cleaning content browser…)
·Adjusted both post process volume.
·Made a couple more of assets by myself (fence, painting frames, carpets…)

You can watch the video with all the sequences here: Desert Dome level sequences (UE4) - YouTube

You can give a look to the bookmark renders through the Google Drive links (They are too heavy)