The Croft Antiques Shop

'In an alternate universe, decades ago, Lara Croft’s grandmother moved to China. Her inner desire to explore the continent has led to a marvelous collection of precious artifacts. Thus she had opened a small lil’ shop where she had been selling some of her collectibles. This scene is intended to present that place in real-time 3d!‘

I’ve never been to the Asian continent, but I’ve always wanted to visit it. So this project was a ton of fun! I specifically chose this idea in order to have the chance to explore a great variety of materials, assets with more complex geo, lighting, and composition. These areas are what I wanted to improve on. It was also a pleasant experience to somehow make a reference to the Croft family with a tiny little Easter egg. Hope you can it down! wink

The project is loosely based on this concept art as a reference for the layout of my environment:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4bkDrk

I also used some ideas from the legendary Zhelong Xu as reference points for a few props; this one, for example:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oPJdw

The only external resource I used was the wood floor from the Megascans library. Although I tweaked it to a great extent and I made 4 different variations for vertex painting. Apart from that, everything is my creation.

Special thanks to Ryan Benno for helping me with his expertise during his online mentorship! I also wanna thank Jude Godin who guided during the early stages of the project. And finally, a big shootout to the members of the DiNusty and the ExperiencePoints discord community for their unwearying support!