Batuu Market - Star Wars Fan-Art

Batuu Market - Game Environment

The Batuu Market is a real-time environment inspired by the Star Wars universe. I made this project within a month and a half while I was in my 3rd year of Game Design at ESMA.

My goal with this project was to improve my workflow in creating a detailed and believable environment. I also wanted to focus on storytelling to make it feel like people have been here.

Artstation post : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Xgrn4a

Reference Gathering :

This part was the most important since it's a fictive place, but in the Star Wars universe, so I have to make it believable that this could be in Star Wars. I found a lot of references with Disney's theme park called Galaxy's Edge in California.

Early in the process I wrote which techniques I wanted to work on during this project. It was useful at that stage because I could research and learn on how to use and set up those techniques and maybe cut them out of the project at the very beginning.

Once I had a good idea of the overall ambiance and look of the environment, I started gathering references for the things that would bring life and realism to the environment : props, materials, cloth, etc.

Blockout :

I started with a quick and rough modular kit in Blender and then moved into Unreal to place my modules and my camera angle in order to get a first look. Once I was satisfied, I added details to my modules and started placing some of the props that I modeled.

Props Workflow :

Some of the props needed to look like they were handmade/sculpted by the locals, so I took them in Zbrush to break thoses hard edges and add some details.

For the others props that needed a hard surface look, I just modeled them in Blender.

All the props were textured in Substance Painter. I also created RGB mask that I use inside Unreal Engine to have more control over them.

Material Setup in Unreal : 

Since I didn't used a high-poly/low-poly bake workflow for all my assets, I needed a master material that would allow me to texture all my props, even the ones without proper textures while they were still using RGB masks. With this material I can use textures for props that have proper baked textures, and add an RGB mask on top of it. But I can also use my trimsheet for the props that use it, or I can use a noise map to texture the props and add the RGB mask or not.

Trimsheet :

For a matter of time and performances, I made a trimsheet to texture some parts of my props and modular kit elements.

Made in Blender, textured and baked in Substance Painter.

Vertex Paint Shader :

I created a vertex paint shader to break up the flat look of my walls, add variety and detail, and make the overall look more realistic and believable.

Cloth Simulation :

I wanted to learn how to use Marvelous Designer, and I think this was a good opportunity to try it out. At first I used Blender to do my cloth simulation, but I wasn't convinced by the results. So later in the project I used Marvelous Designer and the results were much more convincing and realistic than the first one.

Lighting and Fog : 

The lighting was the last pass, I was really happy with the look of my scene at this point, but I knew my lighting could add even more to it. I added a few fog cards here and there to give the final render more dynamism and it was done!

At the very end I thought it would be interesting to have a night version of the environment that would tell a different story. So I made a night version, added Stormtroppers and different colored lights to bring back the bazaar ambience.

The idea here was that during the day, there is a warm ambiance from the outside and a cold ambiance from the inside of the market stall with a blue-toned lighting. At night it's the opposite, a cold ambience and cold colors from the outside and a warm and yellowish color from the inside. Pretty happy with the end result!

Final Note :

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

And for those who stayed at the very end, here's a little gift, a full progression gif of my work.