Hidden Hangout
The hidden hangout is a place where a group of teenagers spray paint, shoot guns and collect items which they store in this hangout spot. No one comes to this part of the city which makes it the perfect hangout spot.
Overtime the drains have become clogged, water is pooling and causing water damage and allowing moss to grow. Ivy is growing around, dirt is building up and parts of the environment are falling apart due to the lack of maintenance.
I was inspired by Deus Ex Mankind Divided environments/design, Stray and Half Life 2 canal style level sections.
My main goal was to improve my composition, storytelling, texturing and lighting skills. I created a few of the props which you can see in the breakdown. I did a lot of material and texturing work to make everything fit. I developed a vertex painting material to paint water damage, concrete damage and add some green moss type of texture.
I did research on locations and tried to come up with a unique composition for the scene and use photo reference to make the details in the scene convincing.
The posters were fun to create. I used Canva to develop the designs and created a unique material for poster damage and add dirt to have it fit into the environment.
The gun model was originally from the Market Place. I did some kitbash and modelling work to develop a new design and look using marketplace pieces. I'm a big fan of how films kit bash together to create new assets and I enjoy doing this work for certain scene props.
I also used megascans assets to help add clutter to the scene and add assets I didn't want to spend time creating so I could focus on the composition, storytelling and lighting. The assets I worked on myself are in the asset breakdown picture. However all assets were modified to fit in the scene via materials or vertex painting.
https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-abstract-painting-1550564/
This is where the texture for the spray paint can is from. I found a nice graffiti art piece which I applied to my spray can model and also the mattress. The mattress has an additional dirt layer from a decal and has a mattress pattern as well.
Trying a lower FOV screenshot.
Prop Breakdown: These are some props I worked on for the scene. The gun was kitbashed together from Unreal Marketplace. Architecture work is in the video below.
I used the Unreal Engine 5 modelling tools to create simple architecture. I traditionally would have used a 3D Modelling package but the UE5 modelling tools were great for simple architecture shapes. Even certain modular shapes I unwrapped/textured.
I created a master material with a simple vertex painting addition. Lerping between two textures. I could add extra detail to every single surface in the scene by plugging in different textures depending on the desired look.
Breakdown of the environment from blockout, trying a few concepts and eventually landing on the composition, lighting and post processing.