My Little Director - WIP Short Film
I am currently working with a team of 5 artists on an environment-only short film in Unreal Engine. Telling a story through only props and environment is not an easy task, but over the past few months we've been able to get a solid story direction and visual style. The film is about a father and daughter, and how important it can be for a parent to encourage their child's passion. We are expecting to finish the film in December 2026.
As one of the four environment artists on this project, I have been responsible for modeling, texturing, and importing a large variety of storied props into the scene. I have also helped to establish our team's pipeline, which includes P4V, critique and iteration at every step, and utilizing material instances and optimization practices in Unreal for better engine performance.
In this post you will find concepts, work in progress renders, and prop breakdowns of some of the props I have created for this film.
Current state of the garage environment in our shared Unreal project; some Fab assets were used as placeholders so the camera blocking could be completed while props are actively in production
Early environment concept drawing by Jade Foy
A section of the short film highlighting some of the props I modeled
Render showing 4 stages of the castle set. The first three are as it is being built, and the last one is when it gets rediscovered 25 years later
Three texture variations on the complete castle mesh: being painted, complete, and 25 years later
Work In Progress shot in the short film of the castle set being built
Garage door final textures in Substance Painter
The spline I created for the garage door blueprint
The blueprint I made so the four-panel garage door could be opened and closed by the animators by editing only one value
Early-stage video demonstrating the blueprint in action, showing how the garage door opens and closes