Blossom Shanghai
UE5 Environment Group Project, 2024
As a time traveler, you are brought back to early 1990s urban Shanghai, a city that coexists with tradition and modernity, eastern and western, grassroots and petite bourgeoisie…
The project aims to recreate the essence of 90s Shanghai in Unreal Engine, focusing on a bustling restaurant street -Huanghe Road. The team draws inspiration from Wong Kar-wai’s latest dramatic period piece, Blossoms Shanghai.
Role
Software
Team
3D Artist, Texturing Artist
Maya, Unreal, Substance Painter, Substance Designer
Iris Zhang, Yiran Zhang, Kimi Du, Jason Jiang, Airan Xu
Video
Scene Overview
Zhizhen Yuan
For the interior, we generated 2D background images in MidJourney and placed the furniture model in the foreground. This combination created a cohesive visual blend.
Research
Before creating the scene, we extensively researched the historical background of Shanghai's 1990s. We looked for real-world street layouts in the documents and collected lots of photo references. Additionally, we set down a color palette and lighting scheme to authentically capture the atmosphere of the era.
Building
Neon Signs
Solutions to Interior
Hero Asset - Zhizhen Yuan
There are several significant buildings on Huanghe Road. We decided to pick four of the buildings as hero assets. Zhizhen Yuan is one of them. It stands at the start of the street, marked by its large, symmetrical compass. Based on historical references and TV series, I modeled the building in Maya.
Zhizhen Yuan stands out with its glamorous neon signs at the entrance, which not only showcase its grandeur but also establish it as a defining feature of Huanghe Road.
Modular Assets - Other Restaurants
Zhizhen Yuan Interior
Other than the hero assets, we also modeled restaurants based on historical references and procedurally generated residence buildings in Houdini to populate the streets. I modeled three of the restaurant buildings.
References
Restaurant Reference Photo
Three Restaurant Buildings
Streetscape
Irregular Neon Signs
The streetscape is characterized by its dominant irregular neon signs, which add a vibrant and chaotic energy to the scene. Since most buildings on the street are restaurants, the neon signs often are crabs, fish, and other related motifs. Later, we also animated them using material nodes in UE.
Street Props
I was also responsible for creating small assets that enhanced the street's atmosphere. For instance, I made the menu and advertisements displayed in front of the restaurants. Additionally, I added posters and electricity boxes to the exterior walls of the residential buildings, adding more detail and realism to the environment.
Animated Street Assets
Since there were no characters in the scene, I animated various street assets to bring the environment to life in the absence of people. I created a traffic light animation by writing an Unreal Engine blueprint that switches the light from red to green every ten seconds
References
Neon Signs
Posters and Electricity Boxes
Menu and Advertisements
Traffic Light Blueprint
To add a subtle wind effect to the posters, I used the world position offset to animate them, giving the impression of a gentle breeze passing through the street.
Traffic Light Animation
Wind Flowing Material
Poster with Wind Movement