Manhattan shapes 01
12.07.2025 13:47
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Manhattan shapes 01
isometric TF2 using camortho
Digital painting, a flying ship junkyard
Mileships wip snip
Light blockout
My #PCG Level Building tools are now up!
Check them out on #Fab:
www.fab.com/sellers/DC%2...
or #ArtStation:
www.artstation.com/undertow/store
#UE5 #techart #leveldesign #gamedev #UnrealEngine5
3D model textured with a photo of the happy science building in tribeca
The happy science building in tribeca
Photo texturing with the happy science building in tribeca
Big inspiration from Playdead's Inside. What a game
More vent sketches in blender from a scrapped direction
half life 2 was so ahead of its time that it's kind of a struggle to make it look bad 21 years later
back then generational leaps happened every 3-4 years and not 20 🥲
Yep, there’s a few preset graybox materials
That about covers it. Very happy with the result, but that level of fidelity is exhausting. Everything becomes a can of worms.
My biggest takeaway is that Scythe + procedural tools are a really effective combo for making levels with a lot of creative freedom and room to iterate.
Finally, here's the fab assets I used. The rest are megascan assets.
www.fab.com/listings/394...
www.fab.com/listings/515...
www.fab.com/listings/9bd...
The background buildings are put together from modular megascan assets and packed into PLIs.
To add detail and hide texture repetition I used a lot of decals. I was surprised how many decals are used in some of the Quixel UE5 environments, obviously decals are an essential component but they really go crazy with them.
For the lighting, I made some basic light BPs with static mesh + spotlights. I also made heavy use of emissive planes to fill in areas.
The HDAs I made are pretty basic spline tools. Pipe tool, stiff cable tool, soft cable tool. The soft cables are really basic. I tried a version that physically drapes cables, only to return to manually drawn splines because it’s simpler to art direct and bezier curves convey weight easily.
The shell was a challenge to model, because it has such a strange structure which is what makes the facade compelling. Initially I made a simpler version, but then I realized the specific forms are what drew me to the building. The “medieval bauhaus” look is pretty unique.
The first pass in Unreal was pretty mid. The whole thing was stuck on 90 degree angles and frankly uninspired. I made the mistake of pushing it into set dressing and lighting early before realizing it was a fundamentally bad layout. So afterwards I downloaded Scythe and redid all the level geo.
I did some initial blender sketches while developing the overall feeling and direction, particularly the "normal building hiding portal to underworld" theme
The building is part of a ventilation system for the Holland Tunnel, the world's first mechanically ventilated tunnel. The first two chief engineers on the project actually died during the project's construction. I'm guessing it's haunted.
The real building was constructed in 1927 and designed by the architect Erling Owre, a Norwegian architect combining Romanesque and Gothic elements with Bauhaus and Constructivist ideas. The result is a spooky, minimalist castle.
Ref from the Library of Congress entry:
www.loc.gov/item/ny1516/
gray box vs final
The main tools I used are Unreal Engine 5.5, Scythe (@kronok.bsky.social), Houdini HDAs, and Megascan/Fab assets. Here's the graybox vs final using Scythe to block out the level.
Holland Tunnel Land Ventilation Building: exterior
Holland Tunnel Land Ventilation Building: interior
Holland Tunnel Land Ventilation Building: upper vent
Holland Tunnel Land Ventilation Building: lower vent
My latest project, Grayworld I is a level design/environment art study of the Holland Tunnel land ventilation building, turned into a segment of a game level in UE5. Walkthrough and breakdown below.
Time to start posting
