Snooty Fox Bar
The Snooty Fox Bar is a location I decided to make from our dungeons and dragons game we were playing at the time. The idea is we're a group of vampires and the pub acts as a secret feeding ground. Due to that fact I designed it to be an underground Irish bar that has as little sunlight in it as possible.
Personal Project
June 2019 - February 2022
Project Info and Aim
With this project I want to create a fully detailed environment, modelled and textured entirely by me. this will act as my hero piece as it pulls together all my skills and shows off what i can do and how useful i can be in the industry.
Development Information
Project intention: Environment from World of Darkness (D&D)
My Aim
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Create a fully detailed environment from scratch.
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Model and texture everything myself.
Software used: 3DS Max, PhotoShop, Unreal Engine 4, OBS
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Learn more about Unreal engine's lighting systems.
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
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Learn more about Unreal engine's particle systems.
Level Design
This is a Sped up video of the final level design.
After the level was designed, I shown it to my D&D party along with my DM. They all agreed that this is how they imagined the bar would look. Enough space to move around but at the same time feeling cramped and underground.
Im now hoping to Block out the level and show them a 3D space that they can walk around in. My minimal goal for this project is to make and model the bar alone. the overall goal is to do the whole building.
This is the completed level broken into different sections. I hope to get sections 1-3 done.
1) Bar placement
I placed the bar at the back of the room near the kitchen for several reasons. The pub is used as a feeding ground for our characters and has a house built above and a basement below. The idea is that there will always be someone at the bar guarding the entrance to our characters grounds.
The second reason is, in the campaign a fight broke out in the pub. So, I wanted a clear space for the brawl to take place. This created the empty space in the middle that I have filled with pillars and stand up tables so it remains decorated and looks like a pub would, while adding the open area.
The third reason its there is because I wanted it near the kitchen where another brawl took place. Also, with most pubs the kitchen is near the bar, so it added realism to the level. Whereas, for the story it meant that the characters could rush to the aid of each other.
4&5) Toilets
The bathrooms are placed to the left side of the building due to something that happened during the story of our game. One of our characters walked from the kitchen to the toilet cutting straight through the fight. I wanted to keep this in the level design as it was a fun memory to implement.
However, I did change the size of the bathroom. Originally, I wanted the bathroom to be small and only have 1 stall. In the end I changed it to a bigger bathroom as it didn’t really fit this type of establishment.
8) Back Ally
The back ally was created as a quick escape for our characters while also serving as a secluded area to move illegal objects into the pub. This is because our characters call carry weapons and other illegal items. This fit in to the level well as it’s at the there was a free space and it’s also in an area where the public cant access.
2) Stairs placement
The stairs are placed behind the bar as a form of protection from the public. Because no one in the world knows about vampires, they must hide their feeding ground. That’s where the bars basement comes in.
It keeps to the world’s narrative and fits in with the level as a bonus. The stairs also lead up to our character’s apartment, which also works as we own the bar. The back of the bar acts as a “Staff only area” and all the staff are vampires that work for us.
3) Entrance placement
I like where the entrance is as the bar has full view of it. This was decided because the pub has enemies and a shady past so I thought that the owner would want full view of who is entering and leaving their establishment. I also thought about adding a window to the wall but that would let in too much light and render the whole thing useless.
As the bar is underground, I thought it would make sense for the bar entrance to cut into the building. I took some inspiration from the bar in the tv show How I Met Your Mother and had the stairs come down from off the street and go straight into the door.
6&7) Kitchen and Fridge
When it comes to the kitchen I wanted it to be large and cluttered. This is because there was a fight taking place in there and had stuff all around to use as cover while, at the same time preventing us from attacking. Also, because our characters are vampires and the bar was previously owned by vampires I wanted to add a fridge that was really a meat and blood keeping area. This fit in with the story and the level.
Block out
This is a Sped up video of the level Block out.
The level block out was made with Unreal engine's geometry tools to get the basic shape down and see what the size of the build would be. Another advantage of using these tools is, it let me stretch the walls to the size I want and apply textures to one side quickly to distinguish which room is which.
I used the unreal mannequin as an example of how high assets should be so i could make the bar as realistic as possible.
I also imported the model into 3DS MAX to use it as a height reference while modelling some of the block out assets.
Going Forward
Unfortunately in February 2022 my computer's hard drive reset itself and wiped everything off of it.
This includes all of the assets, the project and the images I had for the website. Not only that but I have lost access to a lot of the software I used in this project due to not being in university anymore.
So alas, I must conclude it here until I can get access to the software in the future. It is unfortunate as I did love this project and how it was looking.
I will however leave this in my portfolio because it shows the planning stage all the way through to the grey box block out stage.