Modular American Diner (UE4 environment)

algaib

Hi everyone, I'm happy to finally post for the first time here with my modular American Diner scene! Modelling in Blender, some texturing in Substance Painter, assembled in UE4. It's all my work, expect the paving and street lamps outside which came from the 'City park environment collection' on Epic's marketplace.

I've been using Unity for a couple of years so I wanted to put something together in Unreal, and this seemed like it would be a fun project. 

I decided also to share the neon signs in a downloadable UE4 project (for free) for anyone who'd like to play with them - https://gum.co/neonsigns/

All the photos can be found here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9mVA2y
Follow me on Artstation for more https://www.artstation.com/garethart




I always love playing with neon lights! Simply made in Blender using bezier curves. A nice trick for making curved ends:

Mane the shape with a curve, give it a thickness of about 0.8 and a resolution of 1 (you won't need a detailed mesh once the emissive light is on it), convert it to a mesh, then decimate to about 0.25 if you want. Then;

1. Select one of the open end loops
2. Go to Select Similar>Amount of faces around an edge
3. Press 'F' to fill
4. Press 'F3' and type 'poke' - press enter
5. Press '1' to go to vertex mode
6. Subdivide once
7. Press Ctrl+NumMinus twice so you end up with the centre vert selected (you may need to first go to edge select mode - press '2' - and deselect straight edges joining two edgeloops on small pieces. I found using the circle select - press 'C' then MMB - worked well for this)
8. Press ',' and choose 'normal'
9. Press 'O' to turn on proportional editing and choose the curved shape
10. Press 'G' then 'Z' and move about .5

You can do this for all your neon tubes all at once which is a nice time-saver.






Thanks for checking out my work!

nickfarinolanj

I'm pretty new to 3D (about 6 months). Started to learn and deconstruct modularity as a concept. What an awesome scene this is. Really inspiring. 

algaib

nickfarinolanj said:

I'm pretty new to 3D (about 6 months). Started to learn and deconstruct modularity as a concept. What an awesome scene this is. Really inspiring. 

Thanks for your comments! I've checked out your artstation, you have some really nice stuff on there. Remember to share any modular stuff you make

Lewis_kennedy

this is some really cool looking work, great job on the scene! just wondering have you considered adding decals to help add some wear to the scene? the only other thing I could think that could help is adding an ies profile to the light or a texture to add to the realism, otherwise it's really professional looking.

algaib

Lewis_kennedy said:

this is some really cool looking work, great job on the scene! just wondering have you considered adding decals to help add some wear to the scene? the only other thing I could think that could help is adding an ies profile to the light or a texture to add to the realism, otherwise it's really professional looking.

Thanks for the feedback! I totally agree and have been considered doing another pass on the materials to add wear, but maybe decals will be a better (and quicker) option! I actually have IES profiles on the lights, but now you mention it, the light from the lamps above the tables stand out as being off... Thanks again for the suggestions!

Elivenger

I really like your neon signs! How do you go about texturing them? Obviously it's an emissive texture, but do you make the textures in Substance Designer or Photoshop? I'm working on a scene that I want to learn to model an open sign for and I've never done neon signs before so thanks for the modeling tips with the bezier curves! 

algaib

Elivenger said:

I really like your neon signs! How do you go about texturing them? Obviously it's an emissive texture, but do you make the textures in Substance Designer or Photoshop? I'm working on a scene that I want to learn to model an open sign for and I've never done neon signs before so thanks for the modeling tips with the bezier curves! 

Thank you, and you're welcome! Because the emission is even across the model, I didn't use any textures. I made a small UE4 project with the signs and materials for free download here: https://gumroad.com/l/neonsigns

Let me know if you have any questions or anything and I'll be happy to help

algaib

Elivenger said:

I really like your neon signs! How do you go about texturing them? Obviously it's an emissive texture, but do you make the textures in Substance Designer or Photoshop? I'm working on a scene that I want to learn to model an open sign for and I've never done neon signs before so thanks for the modeling tips with the bezier curves! 

Here's the material in UE4. Basically, all you need is the constant vector 3 note set to a parameter and multiplied by a scalar node, and remember to set the shader model to 'Unlit' in the material graph. This allows you to set the color and strength in the material instance. I added the bottom section to add regular and irregular flashing options, but they're not necessary for the material to work. Finally, if you want the material to contribute to baked lighting, you'll need to turn on 'Use emissive for static lighting' in the Details panel of the actor in your scene:




Hope that helps!

WorLDSine

Man you have really cool work. Keep in touch!

Elivenger

Thanks for the knowledge! I'm new to UE4 and blueprints in general so this really helps!

TAJack

Fantastic! Looking into making a modular set myself, just to help me in the future. Only piece of feedback I can think of is the possibility of adding in some wear and tear decals. Might help bring more life to the scene! 

algaib

TAJack said:

Fantastic! Looking into making a modular set myself, just to help me in the future. Only piece of feedback I can think of is the possibility of adding in some wear and tear decals. Might help bring more life to the scene! 

Thanks for the comment! Yes, I agree, I think I'll do another pass to add some wear and tear as you and others have suggested