orrery

Substance Designer Planet Primitive Texturing in Unreal

Visualizing Individual Planet Characteristic Aesthetically Using Shapes and Substance Designer Textures
Type /     3D Art and Material Design, 2022
/     Individual Project
Software/ Substance Designer, Unreal, Maya
Orrery is a 3D environment art project focusing on material making only in Substance Designer, real-time rendering in Unreal, and pure form modeling and UV editing based on Maya primitives. I spend most of my time creating different material fantasies based on the scientific character of individual planets.
| The Orrery System

Orrery animation rendered in Unreal

The environment is based on a smaller mechanical orrery model scale, making the solar system more delicate and surreal. 

The Orrery project uses the Geocentric system as inspiration, changing the order of the solar system and making every planet equally important in the system.

Planet modeling progress in Maya

| Material -  Parallax Occlusion Mapping
Since most of the height details come from the materials I made in Substance Designer, I made the parallax occlusion mapping based on the tutorials I found to create the illusion of drastic height difference when rendering in Unreal.
| Saturn
When designing the material of Saturn, I come up with the concept of creating another living ecosystem because of its robust ring system and numerous natural satellites. ​​​​​​​

Saturn Overview

Saturn Ring and Gravity
Instead of making a levitating ring, I make two gravity plates to hold the planet, retaining the ring shape and having land area based on the new concept. The inner plate depicts a living environment with a road system and landscapes; the outer one is a sea supporting the lowest-density planet in the solar system.
Hexagonal cloud
The North pole's persistent cloud pattern is another attractive feature besides the ring. I make it a transparent funnel holding the fallen ginkgoes to create a sense of gravity and a livable vibe.
Gas Layer and Core
I reverse the normal of the outer core to create the lightness of the planet gas structure and the illusion of being both inside and outside of the architecture.

Using the Pantheon interior as the primary reference. I create three stories of the texture from the concave dome, fake windows, and column hall

Inner Gravity - Follow real-life roundabouts as a reference, I create layers from paving, gardening, and road system, to surrounding buildings one at a time

Hexagonal Storm - I translate the character into a real-life element to fit other material designs. I create a pile of ginkgo leaves falling to the core of the planet and create a variant of ginkgo leaves by warping shapes and edges separately

| Jupiter
​​​​​​​Magnetosphere
The existence of Jupiter has a strong influence on all the other planets and their natural satellites. I choose its powerful and massive magnetosphere as the presentation to visualize its importance in the solar system.
Ice and Rock Core
 I shape a small ice cube with trapped flowers at the center to correspond to the scientific truth of Jupiter's core structure.
Cloud and Inner Layers
To express the thickness and lightness of the planet. I make the outer atmosphere into lines and rings and grow the thickness toward the core. Thus, the viewer can easily see through the planet and find details and depths after navigation.

Flythrough inside Jupiter

Ice Core -I follow the tutorials to create an icy appearance, and I add extra material believability by creating flowers inside the texture with warp and refraction effects. 

Outer Rings - To make the depth of the Jupiter outer atmosphere with plentiful variety, I create flowers and leaves with color and rotation variations

| Venus
Greenhouse
I create a frame inspired by a conservatory structure, making a clear floor plan letting the viewer feel the massive greenhouse effect inside the Venus atmosphere.
Rose of Venus
I use the flooring as a reflection of the whole model. Observing the Geocentric model for eight years, the trace between the Sun and Venus can create a beautiful rose pattern.
Gold Sulfuric Cloud
I imagine a flower textile pattern with an absurd color palette to imply the concept of a toxic and acid surrounding environment on Venus.

Flythrough inside Venus

Flooring Design - Manually create the curve of the geometric pattern, Making the position of the Sun primary light source with color variations

Cloud Design - Making the flower petal as center visual of most UV shells, creating background texture with curvature and metallic contrast

| Earth
Built Environment
To create the human environment, I make two stories house elevation tiles in Substance Designer with random colors and emissions and arrange the mesh UV to align with it afterward. Besides, I design a house number plate system to create more variation among units.
Building elevation and number plate system
Building elevation and number plate system
Road paving and side gardening
Road paving and side gardening
Road
To create a livable exterior vibe, I make a road paving system with organic side gardening and lamps.

Earth flythrough video

The paving - Gardening system was created based on the ambient occlusion map.

Building Elevations - Aligning UVs after the building tiles are made, creating house number plate with sequencing system

| Mercury
Dark Carbon Façade with Ice
To visualize the abundant carbon material on Mercury, I create dark substances with diamond shapes to imply the ingredient of carbon.
Besides, I attempt to create the existence of icy weather in specific areas on Mercury. I use snowflake patterns and spreading ice petals to variate and illuminate the inner ornamentations of the diamond façade
Transit of Mercury
To amplify the celestial event of the planet passing between the sun light and eyes, I design a torus to focalize the light and reflectiveness changes during the process.

Transition of Mercury/ Sun

| Mars

Sand Dune
To envision the environment on Mars, I create a barren desert and add brick relics to hint that there might be lives existing before.
Colonization Plan
Inspired by popular Mars colonization fiction, I imagine another layer of the planet's livability. 
By making a greenhouse façade with radial emissive elements and highly metallic materials, I also try to create a spaceship vibe on the design.

Environment - following the tutorial to create a barren desert, adding brick relics with surrounding sand effects to create heterogeneity

Atmosphere - I create layers of cloud, radial emissive elements, and glass greenhouse textures on top of each other

| Sun​​​​​​​
I attempt to create a crystal effect on the sphere by utilizing the Parallax occlusion mapping techniques with drastic height map contrast.
Solar Flare
To represent the primary perceivable solar phenomena of the Sun, I use drastic color and height contrast to emphasize the solar flare. In addition, I make the flares with different waveforms with other substances. 
Inner Lava
To visualize the surficial activity, I use little orange noise on the outer and deep inside faces to reveal the internal process of the star
| Moon
Tidal Effects
Inspired by the real-life kinetic sculpture, I create multiple units with different rotation to simulate the ebb and flow of the tidal effect on different sides.
lunar Phase
By creating a ring with a gradient emission value, I try to visualize the periodic dynamic changes between the bright and dark sides of the Moon.
| Moons of Saturn in Maya (Under Development)
| Moons of Jupiter in Maya (Under Development)
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