Unreal Engine 4 - Samurai Dojo
This was a 6 week portfolio piece I did as a final project for my 3D Computer Graphics class. I chose to build a 17th century style samurai dojo in the mountains of Japan. The purpose of the project was to practice modular asset creation, and environment design.
The first two weeks were for modeling, UVing, and building modular assets. The next two weeks were for texturing,. And the final two weeks were for lighting, rendering, and finishing touches. Everything you see here (except for the foliage, water, trees, and rock assets), were designed, modeled, UV'd, textured, assembled, lit, and shot by me. Assets were done in Maya, the terrain was made in Houdini, and texturing was done in Painter and Designer.
Foliage credit goes to Quixel Megascans, Pure Polygons, Epic Games, and Tharlevfx
Demo Reel showcasing the level, and giving a short breakdown of my assets and materials.
Music credit goes to Sir Cubworth.
After this image is my documentation of these works in progress.
Building the base walls, shoji doors, tatami mats, and floor.
Assembling the main floor plan in UE4.
Building roof assets. I UV'd one shingle before duplicating it across, then randomized the position of the UV coordinates on the trimsheet.
Testing roof piece modularity, and how well it fits with the walls.
Building the corner piece. I basically smooshed two roof pieces together and cut along the intersect. Then hid the seam with a curved wood corner piece.
First images of the walls and roof assembled in UE4.
Outside shot.
Building the weapon racks. Fun fact: The blade side should be facing up when on display, as to not dull the edge.
Another fun fact: In times of war, the handle will be on the right side, as samurai were trained to fight right handed. The handle would be on the left side in times of peace.
Building of tatami seats, and the rug.
Most assets are now built and assembled in UE4.
General model layout.
Tatami thread material made in Substance Designer.
Tatami material applied to the models.
Substance Designer graph for the wood trimsheet for the floor.
UE4 wood floor textures applied.
Substance Designer graph for the wood and wall materials. Fun fact: Tsuchikabe is the name for this wattle and daub plaster material, made from mud, clay, and straw, layered over a frame of horizontal and vertical bamboo strips.
Clay roof shingle textures applied in UE4.
Used vertex painting to add some mossy texture to the roof, to give it some custom variation.
Testing out the lighting of the shoji screen material. I found the foliage shading method works really well here.
Hand painted tree design for the shoji divider screen.
Substance designer graph of the rug. Had a lot of fun making this.
The tatami seat, the sake set, and the scroll (not pictured) are all one material. Taken out of Painter.
Substance painter screenshot of the sword and weapon racks. The sword, the practice sword, and the racks are all one material.
UE4 place setting materials applied.
UE4 sword textures applied.
Kanji characters meaning "Honour" and "Respect."
Torii gate trimsheet textures applied. Fun fact: These Shinto structures, called torii gates, represent the transition from the mundane into the spiritual.
Fence post and railing models built, and then assembled in UE4.
WIP for the lantern model.
Textures for the lantern taken out of Substance Painter.
Proper shadowing of the frame against the shoji paper of the lantern.
First lighting tests.