This 3D project’s goal was to develop a game environment from scratch that would include, lit indoor & outdoor areas, a textured character, real time shadows, and visual effects. For this project, I designed a character and an interior, exterior, and stage environment within a semester. I created a world for my character, and with it’s lore in mind, worked with Unity, Maya, ZBrush, and Substance Painter to realize my designs and possible game mechanics revolving around light. Within Unity, I worked with shader graphs, post-processing, sky boxes, lighting, and the render pipeline to compile and compose the final game environment. Overall this was an amazing opportunity for me to experience a full workflow and get practice on all of the programs involved in the process.

You can see my level/environment design breakdown here and my character design breakdown here!

Game Environment Screenshots

post-apocalyptic city alleyway, an oil barrel is lit with a fire. trash litters the street and the city block is covered in a layer of dust and grime. the shot is tinted red a 3d model of an adult male stands at the end of a post-apocalyptic city block. the exit is blocked by fallen buildings. the city block is covered in a layer of dust and grime. the picture is tinted red a perspective shot showing parts of many buildings in this post apocalyptic city. the road is blocked by a fallen building, a fire escape for a building is in plain view, while part of a gas station can be seen on the left of the image. the road and city block is covered in a layer of dirt and grime and the picture is tinted red. a low angle shot of the gas pump station at a gas station in a dusty and grime covered city block. a torn ad for a lawyer is plastered on the closest gas pump. the gas pumps are branded with a mascot hot dog character named frank. a glowing gas station sign with fallen letters is seen in the background. the image is tinted red a perspective picture taken from a corner of the city block. the buildings and roads are covered in dust and grime, that wear and tear is illuminated by the few working street lights on the block. the focal point of the image is the one building with power and lights, frank's gas station, all exits to the city are blocked by fallen buildings and rubble. a low angle shot showing a better visual shot of the street lights of this dusty grimy red tinted city block town. the entrance to an old building takes up the first third of the image. the latter third is the illuminated gas station. in the foreground is a trashbag. a 3d model of an adult male stands at the end of a post-apocalyptic city block. the exit is blocked by a fallen building. a fire escape can be seen next to the fallen building. the foreground is taken up by a concrete road block. the image is tinted red. the buildings and city block are covered in a coat of dust and grime a full view of the illuminated frank's hot dog mascot green gas station can be seen. the gas station sign has falling letters. the building, gas pump station, and surrounding city block is covered in a layer of dirt and grime. there seems to be no one around and no other buildings are in service. the photo is tinted red the inside of the post-apocalyptic gas station. the shelves are in disarray, there are broken bottles. the window and door are covered in a layer of dust and grime and the door is slightly cracked. the lights are still on. the shelves are empty. outside of the building gas pumps can be seen. the image is tinted red a 3d model of an adult male with one eye lighter than the other likely due to a health condition. he stands next to an oil barrel with a fire in it. they are in an alley way covered with litter. there is a light on in the building behind him, and the towering sign of the gas station and its fallen lettering are in the background. the city block is covered in dirt, dust, and grime. the image is tinted red. a 3d model of an adult male sits hunched over on a small stool with his elbows resting on his thighs. he sits next to an oil barrel with a fire in it propped up by cinder blocks. behind him is the end of the alleyway he is in with a bunch fo full trash bags and assorted trash piled against the wall. next to him are a couple bottles. the image is tinted red. a 3d model of an adult male stands in the middle of a city block covered in dust and grime. he stares at the sun over the tops of the empty buildings. on the right third of the image stands the illuminating tall gas station with bright fallen lettering. there is trash scattered about. one of the roads in the back is blocked off by a fallen building. an atmospheric shot of most of the abandoned, dusty, grimy, grimey, abandoned town. the only signs of life are the lights coming from the gas station. the tall standing gas station sign shows the mascot and advertises 99 cent hot dogs, the s in the sign has fallen down from the rest of the aligned letters. the image is tinted red.

Process

Initial Sketch

digital sketches with several iterations of dilapidated post-apocalypse city blocks, buildings, and gas stations and related props

This is my initial design sketch for the exterior space (seen on the left). The bottom right are my thumbnail sketches and layout for the interior of the gas station). I wanted the environment to show signs of the wear and tear of time passing.

This project was an opportunity for me to explore and practice modeling and texturing in a more realistic style. I wanted to create a post-apocalyptic world, and I also wanted to model a gas station. This project’s main focus was on lighting and texturing, so with that in mind I found myself revolving around the retro plastic gas station signs that are lit up from behind via a light box. With those ideas combined, one thing led to another and I decided to make the exterior environment a corner gas station with its adjacent streets. The interior would be the gas station itself, and the stage would start off as a standalone environment — my character standing outside the map next to objects that related to his character. What resulted was a post-apocalyptic city scene with a character whose purpose was to serve ultimately as an NPC for travelling players to buy tools from. Eventually this idea would be changed to the stage being an alleyway where my character would start from, and move out into the street and eventually toward the gas station.


Unity Graybox

screenshot of an untextured city block 3d model group with minimal lighting in unity editor

For proper scaling, my initial blocking out of my environment started in Unity using ProBuilder. I started with the corner gas station, and slowly built outwards. At this stage, I was unsure on how to confine the character to just this area without the player seeing the edge of the world.

screenshot of an untextured city block 3d model group with a red dusky skybox

This is another shot of my gray box, with my first sky box test. I was going for a dusky and dusty-windblown-town look. I had to play around with the angle of the shadows in order to bring focus to the gas station as the interest point of the environment.

Maya Process

screenshot of basic color coded textures in maya editor of a 3d model group city block. there are different types of buildings.

After bringing my gray box into Maya, I redid the buildings according to scale with more detail. I then blocked out the materials for future texturing on all of the models. As I worked on this, I thought about how the streetlights could be used as a lighting and guiding mechanic for the player to navigate through the environment.

screenshot of assorted untextured unlit 3d model assets in maya editor. there are various crushed soda cans, broken bottles, bottles, store shelves, racks, and countertops for a gas station

In the same project, I also worked on several items that would become prefabs within the final Unity Project. In addition to the garbage/clutter items, I worked on the interior objects for the gas station as well. I experimented with Maya’s deformation tools and simulation features for shattering solid objects.

Substance Painter

three 3d-models. the first is a close up of the gas station sign. it says frank's and has a retro hot dog mascot drawing next to it. the second model is a tall standing gas station sign with two rectangular signs on a pole. the top is the franks logo and hot dog mascot. the bottom has lettering advertising 99 cent hotdogs, the letters are slightly crooked. the third model is a gas pump station. there is an ad for a lawyer on the ad slot of the gas pump. all models share a similar color scheme and are weathered worn and torn with dust and grime and scratches.

Model previews in Substance Painter of Frank's gas station sign, Frank's tall standing gas station sign, and a gas pump from Frank's gas station.

The first three models I textured were the main sign, the standing sign, and the gas pump for the gas station. I had a blast designing the mascot and company for the gas station. A lot of time was spent going back and forth between Photoshop and Substance Painter. I would create my graphics and my text in Photoshop, and then project it onto the models. In addition to this, I started creating my own height maps in Photoshop, this can be seen in the square panels in the gas pump image. I started off with these models first in order to create a consistent color palette and wear and tear pattern for the rest of the models for the gas station. The gas pump specifically took 3 full work days to complete. I felt the passion coursing through my veins as I made niche references for the ads on the gas pump. There are also so many individual parts in the object group as a whole, I spent a lot of time making sure there was no inconsistent tiling break. That object taught me the most about black and white masking, UV image projection, emissive textures, height maps, and texture resolution! I liked it so much I made two individual advertisements for each of the four total gas pumps.


Back to Unity

screenshot of a post-apocalyptic city block in unity editor. an atmospheric dark with minimal lighting skybox has been applied. textures and lights have been placed in the scene along with the buildings textures. the buildings are covered in dust and grime.

I brought all of my textures back into Unity and connected them to the corresponding models and materials. The emissive textures I made needed more detailed attention and a separate material to make them glow.

screenshot of a post-apocalyptic city block in unity editor. an atmospheric dark with minimal lighting skybox has been applied. textures and lights have been placed in the scene along with the buildings textures. the buildings are covered in dust and grime. street trash assets can be seen in the back

Another shot of the project, I scaled the assets in the back down for street trash in the scene. If I were to return to this project I would add a dust storm particle system to run through the map for more visual movement!

Character Process

initial sketch of a character design for an old man who is camping and survival oriented. there is a front facing full body, 3/4 facing head shot and silhouette iterations with possible character props. the character has short messy hair, an unkempt bear, wild eyebrows, and a bandage on the side of his forehead. he is wearing a t shirt and jeans and has small hands and a weird posture

I brought all of my textures back into Unity and connected them to the corresponding models and materials. The emissive textures I made needed more detailed attention and a separate material to make them glow.

turnaround character sheet design for an old man. there are several views: back, front, side, and side profile for face. the character is wearing a t shirt and jeans and is old, has wrinkles, a bandage on the side of his forehead, unkempt beard and hair and wild eyebrows.

I wanted to practice drawing more realistically in a semi-realistic sense, and draw a different age group and body type for this project, because I would also get more practice on modeling him as well — especially because of the facial hair and features.

ZBrush

a screenshot of a 3d model of an old male model sculpted in ZBrush editor. there are turn around views of the front, side, and back. he is wearing a t shirt and jeans and outdoor shoes. his hands are small, his hair is wild, his bear unkept, his face stern, and his eyebrows wild.

Turnaround of the full character in ZBrush

a close up screenshot of a 3d model of an old male model head sculpted in ZBrush editor. there are turn around views of the front, side, and back. his hair is wild, his bear unkept, his face stern, and his eyebrows wild.

Turnaround of the character head in ZBrush



two close up shots of the 3d model character's shoe. it sports an outdoorsy design with laces and textured bottom for better tread. part of the bottom of the character's jeans are showing, it has a seam going down the middle side

Close up shots of the shoe

Starting with the face and using my turn around sketch, I worked my way down to sculpt Russett in ZBrush. I started off with elongating spheres and then building and removing from that base with the clay build up brush, and then refining with the trim dynamic brush, move brush, dam standard brush, and the inflate brush to fix mesh holes. I spent several hours straight many days on ZBrush, and I feel I got pretty good at developing a workflow! I found myself focusing a lot on trying to get every angle consistent with the turn around reference I drew, as the angles would change each time I made a sizeable edit on one view. I had a handful of times where using a mask pen brush helped a lot as I would create an outer shell using it — which was used to make the shirt, beard, eyebrows, and many layers of the shoe! I then polished the edges using trim dynamic and dam standard to reinforce the lines. I used dam standard for wrinkles, hair texture, and stitches! I also used the snake hook brush to make the hair for the model, and further refined with with the clay build up brush and dam standard brush. I was often smoothing out the mesh and refreshing it’s dynamic mesh resolution appearance in between strokes for everything.


Substance Painter

a screenshot of a 3d model of an old male model textured in substance painter. there are turn around views of the front, side, and back. he is wearing a black t shirt and jeans and brown outdoor shoes. his hands are small, his dark brown hair is wild, his bear unkept, his face stern, and his eyebrows wild. he has one discolored white-ish eye from a medical condition and the other is brown. his clothes are covered in dirt. he has a bandage on his forehead.

Turnaround of the full character in Substance Painter

two close up shots of the 3d model character's head. one is with basic substance painter textures, one is with handpainted textures on top of the base. it is clear with the handpainted textures on the face and head that the character looks more dimensional and realistic. the one without these details looks like a clay model

Close up shots of the character's head comparing textures

After heartbreakingly reducing (decimating) the polycount on the mesh, an UVing the model in ZBrush, I exported the model into Substance Painter to texture. I found that the hardest part of texturing Russett was his face, hair, and skin. I hand painted those elements. The best way I can describe the process was, as if I was putting make up on him. I spent a lot of time adding eyeshadow and eye liner to his face, and blush and tint to his lip and cheeks. Even putting the wound on his forehead felt like a special effect! The hair texture was created with several layers of different colors and varying strokes of a multi-lined brush. I made sure to get some skin color in the beard area as well to create the illusion of dimension. The eyes were very fun to texture, I never realized how shiny our eyes are compared to everything else on our bodies. The body hair was a little hard to figure out, I’ve never looked that closely at the pattern our hair grows on our arms. I think overall it was very successful!

Makeup tutorials really saved me here, it is very apparent how uncanny Russett looks without proper painting and attention to facial features like the eye’s shadow, and lashes — and the hair without its dimensional texture of course.

close up shot of the bottom half of the 3d-model. it shows worn down jeans with dirt and grime on it and a pair of brown outdoorsy shoes. the screenshot was taken in substance painter editor

Close up shot of the character's lower half

Having textured all of the objects for the scene at this point, I knew that I needed to keep the wear and tear on his clothes consistent with the environment. However, I didn’t take into account how much different it is to texture a human compared to an environmental object. I found myself spending a lot of time trying to get the fibers of the clothing accurate to real life. I’m quite proud of the jeans and shoes in particular. I feel the seams and dimension of the jeans is very realistic, and the shoes material and likeliness to the typical outdoorsy dad hiking shoe is accurate! Adding the wear and tear was a nice touch, and one of the easier parts of the process.