Role/ Environment Artist
Type / First-Person Interactive Narrative Video Game, 2022
Device/ PC
/ Group Project
with Max Cameron, Faris Elrayes, Yukti Gupte, Amber Griffith, and Hagan Miller
Software/ Unity, Maya, Substance Painter, Houdini, Photoshop
Link to the game: https://future-forgers.itch.io/project-ecotopia
Community Dining Space in Vertical Farming Area
Project Ecotopia is a first-person narrative game set across three time periods that show the development of a rooftop community garden and builds an optimistic, sustainable future. Throughout the experience, you will explore the evolution of the rooftop community space, converse with various characters, and learn about sustainable technology based on real-world innovations.
In-Game Environment Screenshots
As one of the two environment artists in the project, I mainly focus on creating plants and foliage, urban farming, clean energy technology, building, and the skybox with lighting. Below are some of the primary systems and structures we introduce in our game.
Hydraulic Vertical Farming System
Solar Panel Canopy
Hydroponic System
Greenery Archway
Wind Turbine About Gathering Canopy (Turbine Animated by Hagan Miller)
Dining Area Surrounded by Spiral Wind Turbine And Agrivoltaic System (Turbine Animated by Hagan Miller)
Modular Environment
In order to minimize our building texture size, I divided the entire building into 2-meter*2-meter units, sorted them onto different UV tiles based on their materials, and used the UDIM workflow when texturing in Substance Painter. (1K maps)
UV arrangement in Maya
UDIM texture in Substance Painter
Foliage Generation
In this project, we used Ghibli Shader with Unity URP. In order to create specific species suitable for the weather in Pittsburgh, I used Houdini to generate leaf positions. Creating different alpha based on the leaf shapes and filling leaf veins to add textures. Lastly, I utilized the shadow slider in the shader to create different color variations for our vigorous rooftop environment.
Creating Foliage Material
Bush Generation (Blackberry)
Vegetable Generation (Kale)
Tree Generation (Peach Tree)
Archway Generation
Vegetable and plant species used in the game
Environment Layout Iteration
Starting from the pre-production phase, I spent the first two weeks quick block out the environment in Maya and rendering them in Photoshop to test out the color palette, ideating on how many assets should be made in our game. Later on, me and Hagan (another environment artist) working together on our level grey boxing in Unity to quickly test out the scale and the circulation in the game.
Environment Concept 1: Community Dining and Gathering Spaces
Environment Concept 2: Combining Community Garden and Green Energy
Grey Boxing V1 (Using Color Based on Asset Functions)
Grey Boxing V2
High-Fidelity Level Blockout
At the end of the first half of the production, we finished all the high-priority assets in our game and arranged them in Unity, I worked on creating the lighting and skybox, and Hagan staged all the placeholder foliage onto the positions.
Solar Panel Canopy
Walk Path
Canvas Canopy and Wind Turbine
Community Dining Area
Vertical Farming Area
Rooftop Overview
Game Trailer