Hong Kong Inspired Environment - UE4

Growing up in Hong Kong, I wanted to recreate the cramped yet intricate nature of the city - and highlight the cyberpunk-esque qualities that the city is well known for. Utilising my knowledge as a Hong Kong resident, I felt capable on taking on the task of recreating Lin Heung Tea House - a place I have visited in the past. 

The centrepiece of the environment, the Lin Heung Tea House on 162 Wellington St, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.

However, I realised that creating solely the building was unrealistic, as there would be empty space around it - similarly to a Diorama piece. Therefore, I decided to split up the building into a modular kit that could then be utilised in the creation of background buildings and an overall chunk of an environment; as my goal with the piece was to create a navigable environment.

This project helped me to learn about many environment art processes that I was unfamiliar with; including creating a Modular kit, creating Trim Sheets, assigning Trim Sheet textures to objects, texturing using Substance Painter, adding Cable Mesh Actors to a scene, and implementing Lighting and IES Lighting Profiles into Unreal Engine. 

Other modular buildings surrounding the Tea House that I created include a warehouse, a shipping facility-like building, and apartment complexes.

Side-by-side screenshots detailing the scene in Detailed Lighting, Unlit, Wireframe mode, and its Final Rendered state.

The scene's decorative props and modular kit pieces, laid out in Unreal Engine 4.

"Hero Assets" rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 3.

Overall, the project was an incredibly valuable learning experience and taught me so much more about the general modular environment creation pipeline, and I hope to utilise the knowledge I have gained from this in future projects!