SANM-560: Week 5 in Full, Week 6 Begins!

Written by Shane Reuter - 10/15/2025

Week 5:

Previously when it came to these posts I felt that while I did a decent bit, I didn't do a lot to contribute to the overall project and what we'll see in the end. I can say with full confidence that this checkpoint is the exact opposite, I am extremely happy on a personal level with the quality of modeling I was able to do in the short time I did it with such primitive Maya experience.

The original door model, as seen above, was a design I personally enjoyed as it was inspired by art deco but had an ominous presence the way the Command Bridge doors of a Star Destroyer are vastly more detailed than any other and have angular tropes. However, seeing it in the scene I instantly agreed it did not match our environment well at all. This being the case I got deeper into my research on Art Deco doors, not looking for designs to adapt into my own thing but a real genuine door from that style and era. As always with a second round of research in my experience, this gave near-instant results that I was fond of, and the perfect design to use after a single scroll, shown below.

One Billion'o'Clock:

After finishing the door during our Saturday work-sesh, I am beyond happy with this model and definitely plan to repurpose it in my personal work. The door itself isn't two separate meshes, simply one that I indented to give the visual of two, as it doesn't open and I didn't want to risk having any light shine through a crack we forgot to cover up. Though, to add depth and to maintain the door opening mechanism that the directors insisted absolutely had to be visible and not just audible, I added the gates which in my opinion was a pretty decent solution to keep us from having to show behind the door for even a split second, plus the reference I believe is an elevator so it already had gates.

Week 6:

Going into week 6 and seeing how well my door meshed with the new doorframe Connor had designed over the weekend was really satisfying as I really didn't expect it to flow with the design as much as it did, while still expecting it to match of course as that was the intention. Genuinely, as someone who rarely models and considers it their weakest vfx skill, it was a really nice feeling to see it stood up with Epic Games City Sampler models and have people say they like it. The UV's are a bit meh in my opinion, but Owen didn't seem to mind when texturing it though he's probably just too good at texturing to think twice about it. I also just realized the gate actually cannot slide past the handles, and that there in fact is no middle bar in the reference picture, however I believe Robin thought the gates opened outward like regular doors anyway and didn't dislike it, so it doesn't irk me too much.

Right after finishing the door on Saturday I got to work on the escalator model, which I do have to admit was not as easy as anticipated. he original version I made shattered, as

seen on the left, since I completely forgot to delete history in Maya and it destroyed all the work I did Saturday and had to start from scratch. Thankfully, just like with the door, the second pass always comes easiest. Right before typing this post I modeled a regular and backless escalator for the stairs area, switching the intended design of one large stair with two escalators on either side to the opposite. Without the textures, the railing makes the escalators look a bit too much like stairs even with the offset right side, but I'm hoping that's

not too big of an issue because quite frankly the snail-like design the reference photos Production Design sent kept looking too gaudy and out of place, but this one doesn't feel very escalator-like. It's not entirely surprising there is a lack of real Art Deco escalators to use as reference, though certainly disappointing to me and other fans of the style.

After typing all of this, I went ahead and also made the ceiling model for the platform. It's not amazing, I definitely could've done better if we spent more time sourcing reference and all that, but this was the most common art deco ceiling design that didn't feel overtly

detailed since we realistically will only see the platform ceiling from really far away or in that singular down-up shot that would likely blur it anyway. My main goal was to really ensure that we kept the slope up design that we originally had with the arch, this is because seeing as much of the background as possible is ideal so we can really feel the depth and scale of the environment. I incorporated it by slanting either side of the ceiling away from where the pillars connect, then pushing up in the middle. It's a lot more subtle than an arch, but it gets the job done fairly well.

Overall, while I wish we were at this stage at least a week earlier, I am very happy with the work I've put in since the last checkpoint for the class. Prior it felt as though my main job

was the photography, which I love doing since I don't do it enough in my personal life, but it's nice to do different things. I'm passion driven so when I burn out I detach myself from the work for a really long time before latching back on and driving toward another burn out, with this project and the concept of being a 'floater' I've avoided burn out by simply shifting gears and touching upon different aspects of the project as much as I can. When I feel like I can't model anymore, I take pictures, once the pictures become repetitive and stale, I'm back to modeling or editing the Unreal file. It's a really refreshing workflow that flows really well with my work ethic and I honestly do hope there's opportunities like this in industry, especially at an intern level.