An Unreal Year | UE Projects 2022 - 2023

An Unreal Year

My journey into 3D art and visualization has led me on a visual adventure. I especially enjoyed exploring the endless design possibilities with Unreal Engine. This entry highlights projects in a variety of fields including architectural visualization, VFX, product design and visualization, and environment design.

Modern Northwestern Small House

Inspired by modern architecture and the cool forests of the Northwestern United States, this modern small home is one of my first attempts working with architectural visualization in Unreal Engine 5. I wanted to use clean lines and rich wood textures to compose an inviting interior and an eye-catching exterior.

Video Walkthrough

Timelapse with dynamic day/night cycle

Interior

The interior uses suspended track lighting to create an inviting open floor plan that feels larger than it truly is. A sensation of warmth was important, and this was emphasized blending natural wood textures with pops of color. The living room lighting was designed to mimic that of a stage, taking advantage of tall windows and natural light to bring the cool outdoor environment into the warm living space.

Bedroom

In contrast with the brightly lit first floor designed for entertaining; the bedroom is sparsely lit with cubic lighting to create a dark, moody aesthetic. I wanted to build a striking contrast between the two floors with a sharp transition from the warmer living space to the cozy secretiveness of the dark bedroom loft.

Exterior

The project uses Lumen Global Illumination to accurately mimic an environment set in the Northwestern United States. I carefully designed the outdoor lighting to highlight the crisp angles throughout the architecture.

The Collection - VFX & Fluid Simulations

The Collection is a short video that narrates my educational journey with Unreal Engine Niagara Fluids Simulations. My fascination with light and movement inspired me to design four unique phenomena that could be easily integrated into film or other media.

Timelapse with dynamic day/night cycle.

Dry Ice Effect

This chilling effect plays with gravity and density in the Niagara simulation to imitate the characteristics of dry ice. The ice crystals were modeled in Blender 3D, and the shaders for the ice and display were made in UE5 to create crystalized, frosted textures.

Pillar of Fire

This advanced system combines fire and smoke into a slowly rotating simulation reminiscent of a tornado. Combined with a dynamic day/night cycle, the system's appearance greatly changes depending on the lighting.

Burning Bush

Using a mesh to determine the shape and distribution of the system was key to creating the burning bush. The simulation uses no smoke, as the bush is not actually burning.

Cloud and Hailstorm.

This effect is a combination of a GPU based fluid simulation for the cloud and a CPU based system for the hail. The hail detects other meshes, generates collisions, and emits an icy blue light. 

Phenomenal - Product Visualization and Gemstone Shader Design

In gemology the term "phenomenal" refers to unique light effects displayed by certain gemstone varieties. My goal was to re-create qualities unique to gemstones through advanced shader techniques in Unreal Engine. To better display these gemological effects, I also designed and modeled a selection of earrings in Blender 3D. 

Chatoyancy - (cat's eye effect)

Chatoyancy is the gemological term for the cat's eye effect seen in stones like tiger's eye and cat's eye chrysoberyl. In most cases, this band of light is caused by very thin crystals of rutile present inside the gemstone. 

Pleochroism

Although not considered a true "phenomenal" effect of gemstones, pleochroism is the appearance of different colors depending on the direction of view. This is an effect displayed by most gemstones and is caused by the way a crystal polarizes light in different directions. Dichroic stones show two different colors, while Trichroic gems display three colors.

Adularescence

Often associated with moonstone, adularescence is a white or blue glow that dances through a gemstone's interior. The effect is caused by the interaction of light with microscopic layers in the crystal structure. 

The material follows a similar approach to creating iridescence in a shader. The blue color appears based on the camera viewing direction, and its appearance varies with the translucency of the material. 

Alabaster Forest - Work in Progress

Alabaster Forest is a project I am currently working on that experiments with open world environments in Unreal Engine 5.2. My goal is to design a lush, surreal forest environment using Unreal's new Procedural Content Generation Plugin. Here is my work so far.

Credits

Modern Northwestern Small House

Rendered in Unreal Engine 5 with Lumen. Video edited in Shotcut. Architecture, couches, bedroom lounging chair, bedroom night tables, couch side table, bedroom loft shelf wall, kitchen bar, shelving, and all light fixtures made in Blender 3D. Bed, kitchen appliances including oven and fridge, and herb containers are from Adobe Substance 3D Assets. Kitchen bar stools, dining table, dining chairs, bedroom library, and other kitchen appliances and tools from Twinmotion. Texturing done in Substance Painter and UE5. Indoor plants, containers, and some wood and stone shaders are from Quixel Megascans. Outdoor landscape material is from Project Nature on Epic Games Market Place. Pine trees are from STF3d on Epic Games Market Place.

The Collection

Niagara Fluid Simulations created in Unreal Engine 5. Water shader and ice shaders made in UE5. Dynamic day/night cycle uses Lumen lighting system. Display models and ice made in Blender 3D. Rocks, foliage, and stone textures from Quixel Megascans. All audio from Freesound.org except for background music created in Apple Garage Band. Video edited in ShotCut. Photos compressed in GIMP.

Phenomenal 

Jewelry and display models made in Blender 3D. Rendered in Unreal Engine 5 with standalone ray tracing. Some materials are from Epic Games starter pack and Quixel Megascans.

Alabaster Forest 

Foliage, rocks, and materials from Quixel Megascans with textures edited in UE5. Rendered in Unreal Engine 5.2 with Lumen. Uses Procedural Content Generation Plugin for landscape design.

Special thanks to The Rookies for this opportunity to showcase my work. If you enjoyed my projects please feel free to drop me a high five! Thank you again for visiting my entry!