Future is now: Sci-fi environment and assets

This garage environment was designed for an automotive project "Believe the Unbelievable" in Unreal Engine. 

One of the very first challenges that I had to figure out was how to make a sci-fi environment realistic. A lot of the sci-fi references that I found were not quite realistic enough, so I had to look at a lot of real-life references. The biggest design challenge was to find a sweet spot between realism and sci-fi for the environment. In the end, I made a decision to keep the design of the main modular pieces sci-fi, while the other prop assets that will be used to populate the scene remain realistic-looking. 

In my first iteration, the interior design of the garage was more vibrant compared to the final version. Since the garage is going to be shown in the first shot of our project's sequence, I wanted it to invoke a feeling of calm before the storm, and that is why I, initially, went for a bluish tint along with a clean design for the interior.

Unfortunately, the first design didn't quite work out. The colour palette also made it harder to maintain a realistic look.

I, then, made some quick sketches to help me brainstorm some ideas for the new environment. I personally like to do sketches prior to doing blackouts since it gives me a better picture of what I want to achieve. I wanted it to look more like a garage than the previous design so I incorporated more common shapes like rectangles that can be found in normal garage interiors to the scene.

After some progress has been made, I set dressed the empty shelves since the shelves are somewhat close to the camera and are sitting in almost the centre of the frame. I started off by adding a layer of plywood on top of each shelf to add more detail. I looked at some references and notice that there are usually a lot of containers on these garage shelves so I decided to make a container and a pile of wire in Maya.

Below are some of the assets I created for this environment

Most of these assets are made using Sub-d modelling technique. Figuring out the edge flow for the base of the robot arm was a bit tricky, but it was a fun challenge.

If I were to have three more weeks, I would definitely work on refining the textures since I think some of them are lacking in the visual fidelity aspect and adding in some more movements with particle effects to liven up the scene. I would like to also add more to the storytelling of this environment. All in all, this project has been a great learning experience for me.

Credit

Corvette Model by Bexxie (SketchFab)

Corvette Texture by Vivi Kang

Crate model by SkilHardRU (TurboSquid)

Some assets, textures and decals are from Quixel megascan

Here are some other works I have done in the past.