come see my apartment

living room

I just got done blocking out one of my first real-world environments. I gravitated towards something indoors since I never really get to focus on smaller-scale, detailed spaces. So, I went with my apartment! Overall, the process was surprisingly smooth, pretty quick, and resulted in a few interesting phenomena that I'd like to talk about.

the process: planning

Before anything, I gathered a hefty amount of reference images of every area and corner of my space. One of the most helpful things when level designing is having a bunch of different angles of a space to use as reference. I also found an old picture of the apartment's floor plan which was extremely helpful. So, I ended up using the floor plan as my level layout, and with it being roughly to scale with real life, converting into unreal units was really simple.

After importing the floor plan directly into UE, it was time to make some modular pieces. This kit was super basic and included some walls, corners, windows, and doors/door frames. For decorative pieces, I waited until after I placed down all the walls and floors to get a better sense of scale. I experimented with a couple different player camera angles and perspectives until I settled on one that didn't made the space feel just right.

the kit

the process: the rest

Once all the basic walls and shapes were in, I started making some super simple props with primitives and the UE modeling tool. It was a weird experience dressing parts of the environment and not really needing to look at inspiration or reference images. I was essentially designing directly from my memory rather than attempting to translate a fantastical idea into reality as one normally does when building levels. I think despite it being pretty smooth, it felt kind of unnatural since I didn't really encounter the same kinds of design problems or creative blocks that come with fictional level design.

roommate room

Anyways, after the walls and most of the decor was added, I made a bunch of different colored materials to help differentiate props from each other, and I played through to close any gaps and fill out any empty space. One of the few problems I ran into at this stage was realizing I had no idea what one of my roommate's rooms looked like. I had the structure of the room laid out thanks to the floor plan, but I didn't know what to really put in it without having access or reference images of the actual space. So, I ended up closing it off with a door and including some ominous lights peeking out of it to deter anyone from checking it out.

One of my weakest points as a designer is lighting, so I gave myself the challenge of making the level be at night. It made me pay attention to all of the light sources in the apartment, and how each different type of bulb lit up areas. I ended up grabbing some more references way later into the day to get a better idea of how our space looks at night. I think the overall lighting of the level works out and keeps things visible without being overbearing. I also used some post processing to lighten :) the load a bit and hide some of the imperfections in the scene. Of course, I'm sure it's far from perfect and I'm eager to work on more levels like this to really hone my skills.

my room :)

balcony

final thoughts

Overall, this was a fun exercise! I was surprised at how much there was to learn from digitally building a space that one is already intimately acquainted with. In the days after the project, I found myself looking at certain spots around the apartment under a new lens. It was really difficult to convey the same sense of warmth and ease from a lived in space through a blockout. I was left with a level that felt really familiar, but distinctly uncanny at the same time. I feel like even if an expert team of designers, artists, and engineers were to bring the space to life with environment art, set dressing, particles, and even characters, the level would still never feel right to me. However, one of my ultimate goals as a level designer is to bridge that gap as best as I can, and I'm looking forward to doing so in the future.

entrance