A different direction

Sometimes, when you feel stuck, the best thing you can do is change direction.

I studied Architecture at the University of Ferrara, and after graduating, I felt a bit lost and didn't know which path to follow next. I've always been interested in video games, and during those years, I enjoyed creating basic 3D models and editing images in Photoshop the most.

When I learned about Architectural Visualization, I decided it was worth taking that extra step that would open new opportunities for me. And I'm so glad I did it.

I hope you enjoy viewing my work as much as I enjoyed creating it.

· Teatre L'Artesá | AMM + Forgas Arquitectes ·

This is the project I chose to represent for my Master's Thesis at FX Animation. The goal was to produce at least five images, with different illuminations and moods, that would be as similar as possible to the actual photos of the existing building. I chose to recreate this particular project because I really liked the architecture and also because I wanted to test myself with a public building of large dimensions.

Since I only had available a few plans of the project, I had to model the entire environment using mainly the photos on Archdaily and Google Maps as a reference.

The challenging part of this scene was the replication of the old brick wall on the left. For that, I unwrapped the UVs and texture painted the wall in Photoshop using part of the original photo and part of other brick textures. I then created the normal and displacement map to obtain the final look.

I wanted to try something new for this external view, and a snowed scene would be challenging since this was my first time creating one. Following Bertrand Benoit's tips on creating a winter image, I used a plugin called Polysnow for the snow on trees, objects, and the central architecture. For the ground, I created different snowed materials with footprints and tire marks. I then enhanced the winter mood with some fog added in postproduction in Photoshop.

Below: In the first row, the original photos by Simón García. In the second row, the images created by me.

Unreal Engine 5.1 - a work in progress

Once I completed the project in 3dsmax and was happy with the final images obtained with V-ray, I proceeded to export it to Unreal Engine 5.1 using Datasmith. I relighted the project with Lumen and enabled nanite for almost all the meshes. I changed some materials and created the Blueprints for all the interactions inside the scene.

Below you can see the interactive walkthrough:

I created all the interactions, the menus, and the UMG UI with Blueprints. Here are some examples:

To populate the environment around the Theater, I used the Vitruvio CityEngine Plugin on GitHub for the buildings and some props from Quixel Bridge for the decoration:

Here some still images too:

· Villa Trapa | Joan Miquel Segui Arquitectura ·

This is the first practice I did at FX Animation School. The main goal was to choose an existing project and, focusing on the interior visualization, represent the spaces under various lighting and climatic conditions.

Technically speaking, the most challenging part was the material creation. I wanted to be as faithful as possible to the original project and represent the environment and the exterior vegetation, which I scattered using ForestPack.

Interior day - night:

Exterior day - night:

Rain - After the rain:

For this image, I recreated the rain using Tyflow's particle system and then enhanced it in Photoshop during postproduction. Below is the workflow used to create the wet materials and the Tyflow effect.

Unreal Engine 4.27 Visualization

Next, I exported the 3ds max scene to Unreal Engine. I relighted the project with a combination of baked lightmaps and Real-time Ray Tracing for the reflections. I then added the landscape and the foliage vegetation and improved all the materials.

Here is a short introductive video:

Here some still images too:

Last but not least, the gameplay walkthrough:

Thank you for watching until the end!