For my first set brief as part of my 3D module I had to make, hand paint and light a shopfront design in a concept of my choice, along with incorporating wooden beams into its structure. This was to be done with 3 tiling texture sheets and up to 2 texture trim sheets along with a building/prop combined tri count of 14,000.
My research and plans
I started my project off by doing some in depth research on interesting types of shopfronts and buildings both from real life buildings and low poly models found on Artstation and Pinterest. This part of my project was important as I knew I wanted to create something that I was passionate about but would also push me out of my comfort zone in terms of modelling and creating textures. When doing my research I was very inspired by a lot of the East Asian concepts as Asian culture is something that I have a big interest in personally. Furthermore I was interested in pushing myself to try and recreate some of the beautiful and unusual textures that I was seeing on these buildings. After collecting a range of research based images of Japanese style buildings, shops and temples and considering some other ideas such as a gothic style tavern, I settled on a traditional style Japanese shop, like those which I had seen on my trip to Kyoto. I was inspired by some of my own photos from my holiday and thought this would be an excellent opportunity to bring these into some of my own work. The type of shop it was to be took me some more deliberation and research to decide. I chose to add a cute modern twist onto the traditional Japanese style by making a bubble tea shop, as bubble tea is my favourite kind of drink. I also thought this would be a great opportunity for me to have a go at modelling and drawing elements that I have not tried to before in order to push myself.
Visual aids, references and quick brainstorming
When planning for projects I like working in a way which is loose, fast and bold so that I can get all my ideas down efficiently and clearly. This mood board showcases some of my reference images, that I thought would be most relevant and inspired me the most.
I was particularly interested in this image and it really showcased what I wanted my 'traditional style Japanese bubble tea shop' to look like. I wanted to incorporate aspects that I saw used within this building and other traditional shops and take them into 3DS to model for my own project.
This is a very typical style of bubble tea shop sign commonly seen on shops selling bubble tea in Japan and Korea. I really loved the boldness of the colours and thought this type of design would be a fun and challenging asset to add to my trim sheet and a unusual contrast to the earthy traditional colour pallet of the building itself, as I chose to add a slight modern twist.
I wanted my shopfront to have a clear and interesting build and silhouette to it, therefore I did some quick 5 minute concept sketches so that I wouldn't be going into 3DS blind and with no set plan as this would make for an inefficient project. Here are my 4 different ideas for the build of my shopfront. I didn't want to spend too much time on these as I wanted to have the maximum amount of time I could in order to refine my texture and model as best I could. This brainstorm sheet also included some reference images I took for how I wanted render my tiling roof texture. The red arrows show the design I chose to take forward and some aspects I ended up changing.
Texture sheets
For my texture sheets I chose to paint;
1 tiling plaster
1 tiling Japanese style roof
1 tiling stone wall
1 trim sheet
1 lantern texture
My trim sheet included textures for both my assets and for aspects of the house such as windows and doors. I noticed that on a lot of traditional style Japanese shops big bold fabric banners are used, this is something I wanted to emphasise as part of my build. I also painted some little posters and a menu to clearly present what the shop was selling. This was a challenge as I am relatively new to digital art so painting unusual textures and images such as these pushed me out of my comfort zone. I also made emissive maps for the shoji screen windows and doors.
This is my Japanese style roof tiling texture, I had to overcome some issues with how this was tiling when painting as I found it very difficult to get it to match up, I managed to get it right after a lot of trial and error. I also opted for this deep green colour pallet as another burst of fun colour to add to my shop. I wanted the roof to stand out and be a bold and eye-catching asset. The colour pallet was a recurring theme amongst my research and reference images and really represented the temple like concepts.
This was my first attempt as the stone texture, however it looks very flat and does not represent how I wanted the texture of the stones to look like. I went back in and added some more refinement to really make the tile sheet pop out. I used a range of experimental brushes to achieve my finished texture.
My last texture was made during the second improvements to the model itself as a custom texture for some Japanese lanterns I was modelling as part of feedback I received on the bottom half of the model not having enough to it. I later added an emissive to this texture with its own emissive mask.
Modelling my shop
I originally blocked out the basic shapes of the shop to get an idea of sizes and how the pieces from my trim sheet would fit together. After some feedback I decided to change the silhouette of the actual shop part because it looked too blocky and boring. I used the ffd modifier to do this along with some added geometry. A lot of Japanese style shops have this simplistic box like shape combined with textured roof however for this stylised funky project it wasn't suitable.
After the feedback this is what my model looked like with some added geometry on the roof as this was an element I wanted to make bold and stand out. I used the texture to add geometry and in the UV I unwrapped parts of this to make it more aesthetically pleasing and clean. I then received feedback on this version of the build and it was brought to my attention that the bottom of the house didn't have enough interest to it so that where the player would actually see It wouldn't look bold enough. I then went on to make some changes to my build to add some more player interest.
After feedback- I added an extra little tea house section along with a roof top shrine and some little stone shrines and lanterns. This will add some extra dimension and interest for the player. Here are some images of the finished model in 3Ds before I import into unreal for lighting.
Putting it into Unreal
Next I imported it into unreal engine in order to light it up and present it nicely in a setting that would be more realistic to the game and the player. For my lighting I decided that I really wanted to have a look at some scenes from the Ghibli film 'Spirited away' as I loved the scenes in the earlier parts of the film when Chihiro runs through the spirits towns once all the lights start to go off and it becomes evening. This whole scene is so beautifully lit it presents an eerie yet warming and comforting atmosphere amidst all the chaos of the movie.
Here are the reference images I used from Spirited away and also a real life scene which really inspired me. I love the warmth of the scenes and the atmosphere they create. I emulated this in my work by adding emissive to both the windows doors and a red emissive to my lanterns along with some additional elements of lighting to accentuate this atmosphere. If I have time I would like to add some particle effects such as fireflies to also add to the spirity atmosphere. Below are some images from my finished lighting scene. The only thing I would like to do is add some particle effects and maybe some extra bits if I get time. I also added roughness maps to the trim sheet and stone texture and made the roof tiles shiny.
Update
I added the particle system to my unreal work in order to create this atmospheric firefly effect.
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