Alchemist's Laboratory
An alchemist's laboratory of my own design. In this scene the alchemist has discovered the secrets of the Philosopher's Stone and produced the elixir of life which has the ability to change lead into gold. The plants themselves and the ram skull are courtesy of Quixel Megascans while the human bones, fire particle system, and gold/lead piles are from the Ancient Treasures and medieval dungeon asset packs on the Unreal marketplace. I was responsible for all other aspects of the scene.
Short video to provide a better feeling of the scene.
For the books I created two models and one texture atlas for them to share. The albedo of the texture is grey scale and colorized in Unreal through multiple material instances. the text on the spines was done using decals I created in Photoshop.
Close up of the rug (this is actually my favorite asset in the scene). The pattern for this asset is 100% Substance designer. Color corrections and dirt painted in with Substance Painter live link to better match the color to the rest of the scene.
Subgraph used to make the shapes seen in the rug's pattern. I made a point to keep the shapes relatively simple to save time and so I could quickly add similar shapes if needed.
The shapes from the previous graph are brought in and given different values to make them easier to color with the gradient editor. The shapes are moved, duplicated, and mirrored until the desired effect is achieved. Made some framing spirals at the top.
The lectern was textured in Photoshop and then color corrected with Substance Painter's live link plugin to better match the lighting. The urns and ceramic vessels used in the scene share one atlas and get their color in engine like the books.
The stone itself was sculpted in Zbrush and retopologized in Maya. The material for it is largely based on the Ice material for the Aurora Paragon asset with some effects added like the two-tone glow and the shimmer seen in the video.
The power siphon for the philosopher's stone. Modeled in Maya display shot taken in marmoset. Textured in Substance Painter, I only allowed myself to use my own materials and smart materials, no standard content was used in any asset.
Modeled in blender due to it's strengths in making symmetrical geometric silhouettes very quickly. (Also really wanted to try 2.8) Topology cleaned up and UVed in Maya. Textured in Substance Painter.