Interior & Exterior 3D Environments

OBSIDIAN 0-72

- SCI-FI SPACESHIP INTERIOR ENVIRONMENT -

This was one of my first projects using Unity and my first time working on a sci-fi-themed environment. The main objective of this project, which was completed in 3 weeks, was to create a walkable sci-fi corridor environment viewed from the first-person perspective.

This project had a completely different concept, which made it more interesting as I got to explore the different styles and approaches when creating the setting. I find myself focusing more on using emissive lighting and post-processing to create a sci-fi-looking environment.

Finding many reference images online provided me with many ideas for conceptualizing and designing my own sci-fi corridor environment.

All the assets were modeled in Maya and textured in Substance Painter individually, and I made use of the texture atlas and trim sheets to apply to modular assets. I also played around with the particle effects in Unity to complete the environment with a more realistic touch. 

BREAKDOWN

- Visual Research

I start by searching online for reference images to get ideas. This first stage is very important to me as it provides me with lots of ideas and motivates me to start well on every project!

- White Boxing

Afterward, I begin with white boxing in Maya and used human size measurements, which is the UE4 character, to determine a suitable spaceship size, before I proceed with modeling and assembling in Unity.

- Texturing

A total of 2 texture atlases and 1 trim sheet were used to create the environment. I challenged myself to use as few texture atlases as possible, so I had to plan out how the textures on the texture atlases could be used again with other modular assets. The process was really enjoyable as it allowed me to play with a variety of textures and identify the ones that were the most suitable.

Texture Atlas 1

This texture atlas was mainly used for the corridor assets.

Texture Atlas 2

This texture atlas was mainly used for the floors and ceilings.

Trim Sheet

I created a trim sheet for the first time and used it on the walls of the rooms.

Other Assets

Here are the assets that were modeled and textured individually.

- Hero Asset

I created a rescue pod for my hero asset, and I had to bake the high poly onto the low poly model in Substance Painter. This rescue pod design was inspired by ADR1FT.

- Corridors

I created 2 different modular assets for the corridor setting.

Corridor Environment 1

The process view below moves accordingly from the Baked Light map, Directional Light map, and Light Overlap, to the end result.

Corridor Environment 2

The process view below moves accordingly from the Baked Light map, Directional Light map, and Light Overlap, to the end result.

- Rooms

Main Room

This is the right area of the room.

This is the left area of the room.

Laboratory Room

- Lighting with Emissive

I also added lights to the scene to make certain areas brighter but not too much to ensure that the emissive lights could still be seen from the scene.

- Particle Effects

These are the particle systems I created in Unity, which are the smoke, sparks, and dust effects.

This is the final result once the particle effects are added to the scene.

THE ENIGMA OF TIME

- MEDIEVAL COURTYARD ENVIRONMENT -

This was my most recent Unity project, and it was also the first time I had ever created an exterior environment. It was a fun piece to create as I got to challenge myself to create a walkable exterior environment with a mixture of mysterious and mystical atmospheres. 

This project was viewed from a third-person perspective. I find myself experimenting and focusing more on Visual Effects (VFX) using particle systems and shader graphs in Unity, to create the overall mood for this environment.

The creation of this whole environment was broken down into two separate stages. 

The first stage mainly involved creating the courtyard setting and applying local post-processing effects. 

The second stage involved building a mythical private garden behind the closed door that leads from the courtyard, and more VFX was applied to this stage.

Maya was used to model the modular pieces, while Substance Painter was used to texturing them. Megascan assets were also added, which are the rocks, plants, and statues, to complement the modular assets I created.

This environment uses fewer modular assets since I wanted to concentrate more on implementing interactive shader graphs and particle effects to the environment.

BREAKDOWN

- Visual Research

During my research, I had the idea of portraying the medieval courtyard setting to have some historical surroundings. And once the player has entered a certain entrance, a secret mystical garden will be revealed to convey the mystery surrounding this island.

- White Boxing

 I first used the terrain tool in Unity to lay out the cliff and use cubes to position where the buildings will be located, before proceeding to model.

- Texturing

A total of 1 texture atlas and 1 trim sheet were used to texture the modular assets. I aim to use as few modular assets as possible and apply similar textures to both the texture atlas and trim sheet so that the overall look of the environment will be consistent.

Texture Atlas and Trim Sheet

These are the modular assets that were texture-mapped using the texture atlas and trim sheet.

Other Assets

Here are the assets that have been modeled and textured individually.

- Hero Asset

I created a tree as my hero asset for this environment. The tree trunk was first modeled in Maya, then sculpted with Z-Brush and baked from high poly to low poly in Substance Painter, before applying the texture.

Photoshop was used to hand draw the leaves, which were then positioned on an image plane in Maya, duplicated, and put together to form a mesh of leaves. 

Instead of modeling and sculpting each leaf separately, drawing the leaves with shadow and depth allowed me to quickly produce more realistic leaves, in a shorter period of time.

This is the final result once the meshes of leaves are put together with the tree trunk.

- VFX Graph

This project focuses more on the shader graphs and particle systems as I wanted to explore how integrating effects can achieve a realistic approach to the environment.

I first learned about VFX Graph through this project as I often use Unity’s built-in particle system to create effects. Since I am a beginner with VFX Graph, I referred to many video resources online and experimented with the effects to achieve the desired result I wanted.

The following video will display all the effects created using VFX Graph. 

These are the following Shader Graphs shown in the video.

Interactive Water Ripple

At the end of the video, it showcased an interactive water ripple that only appears in the water when the player is in it and disappears when on land. VFX graph was used to create the water ripple, and the particle system was used to produce the splashing when the player is moving in the water.

This effect requires C# coding to detect if the player is in the water and moving or not. 

- Particle Effects

These are the particle effects created, which are the Waterfall, Water Fountain, Fire, Fireflies, God Rays, and Falling Leaves.

This is the final result once all the effects are implemented into the scene.

Thank you for taking the time to look through my works! :D