Abandoned Mall

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Description

A once-busy shopping mall, now overtaken by nature after a tragic bridge collapse caused by poor construction. The tragedy led to multiple deaths, no justice, and the mall's complete abandonment. Built over the span of one month, this scene focuses on storytelling through decay, graffiti, overgrowth, and cinematic lighting. This project allowed me to practice storytelling through environmental design while improving my workflow across modeling, texturing, foliage generation, and lighting.

Procedure

Assets were modeled in Maya, materials created in Substance Designer, and props textured in Substance Painter. Cloth elements were simulated in Marvelous Designer, and foliage was built in SpeedTree with 12 custom ivy variations. All assembled and lit in Unreal Engine.

Key Learnings

- Learned to create custom tileable materials using Substance Designer

- Gained hands-on experience in foliage creation and wind animation using SpeedTree

- Improved modular asset workflow and UV optimization

- Practiced material blending and vertex painting for varied surface detail

- Mastered lighting, fog, and post-process settings for mood enhancement.

Softwares Used

  • Unreal Engine
  • Maya
  • Substance Designer
  • Substance Painter
  • SpeedTree
  • Marvelous Designer