Tse Jen Tan | What Ruins a Rose & Other 3D Work

What Ruins a Rose is an environment art thesis created over the span of 2.5 months during my Senior Year. It is part of a two-person team project with myself in charge of an interior space for the IP, while my thesis partner Pris Chng created the exterior biome.

The modelling, sculpting, foliage, set-dressing, lighting, and hand-painted textures were all created by me, lit dynamically with Lumens in Unreal Engine 5. The project used the following software: Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter, Substance Sampler, SpeedTree, Marvelous Designer, Crazy Bump, Photoshop, and Unreal Engine 5. Some materials were taken from the Substance Shop and adjusted to suit project needs.

Please take a look at the fantastic foliage work my project partner Pris Chng has done, viewable on his Artstation and Rookies page.

The project's initial pre-production stage materials are vital to the execution and the vision of the overall space. I had two main goals for this environment: 1. DESIGN THINKING GOAL: to conceptualize a unique interior space with a strong story-telling aspect; 2. ART SKILL GOAL: to create and optimize a sophisticated space that integrates hard-surface architecture with various types of lush foliage.

One of my challenges were: the space needs to be grounded in a somewhat historical setting, but maintain fairytale-esque and creative designs. 

My concept-art informs the decisions that I will be making during the creation of the 3D environment. Mood-paintings capture the lighting and tone of the overall project, while designing mod-kits, props, and ornamentation further the Big, Medium and Small details.

Cathedral Modkit

The cathedral is inspired by 14th century Baroque architecture, but as a fun fantastical element I incorporated paganist Green-Man and naturalistic iconography to compliment the overgrowth in the scene. 

Hero Asset

This thesis project required a "Hero Asset". Utilizing my knowledge of hard-surface modelling, sculpting, foliage creation and hand-painting, I created a unique asset for the space - a fantastical tree twisting and growing through an open-topped ciborium inspired by a similar piece of architecture in the Church of St. Salvy in France. 

Foliage

My main goal for the foliage was to be a compliment to my thesis partner's chaotic fantasy biome, and be varied and full, as if it was taking over the cathedral. 

For the rowan tree, I started with a base in SpeedTree and sculpted details into it in ZBrush. The foliage alpha cards were hand-painted in Photoshop and reassembled back into SpeedTree. 

Junior Year Work

This project was a 2 month focus for foliage, biome, and a complimenting architecture asset. I delegated my time between modelling some story-telling assets to set up a nice scene, and creating ground coverage, sculpting rocks and making a tree.

I also designed, modelled, and textured a small prop that would fit the biome. It is a meerschaum pipe smoked by the owner of the worn down shack. The concept art once again helps me with the creative process transitioning into 3D.

Thank you for taking a look at my work! I wanted to specially thank my thesis partner Pris Chng for his incredible advice teaching me SpeedTree, my mentor Mike Marra for giving me guidance throughout my senior project What Ruins a Rose, my classmates for working alongside me, and faculty for their support. :)