Master’s Thesis : Reconstructed Ruins with Fantasy Overgrowth
Decay/Destruction
My first area of focus was showing decay and destruction primarily through material blends. I researched natural erosion and weathering processes to inform how and where my decay would occur.
Fungi
My second area of focus was on fungi as an alternative to more common foliage such as trees, grass, flowers, and bushes. The goal was to show a wide variety of fungi, (including mushrooms, molds, and lichens) assets, ready and implemented into a game engine.
Historical Authenticity
My third area of focus was historical authenticity. I was reconstructing a ruin to its pristine state. For this project, it was Al Khazneh in the ancient city of Petra.
The Artifact Summary
My artifact consists of two scenes, one pristine and one ruined. The ruined scene contains the ruins of Al-Khazneh, “The Treasury”, a Nabatean tomb that has been placed into a fantastical deciduous forest and overgrown with various fungi. The pristine scene depicts a reconstruction of Al-Khazneh, at the height of the Nabatean empire. The areas of focus for this project are decay/destruction, foliage, specifically fungi', and historical authenticity. In addition to a high-quality, game-ready scene I wanted the ruined scene to be heavily reminiscent of a fantasy RPG dungeon entrance that would be found in a classic Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Hence why I chose to make my fungi so large, I wanted them to feel fantastic and removed from the normal world.
Ruined Scene
Pristine Scene
Statistics
Time Spent: 517 hours total, over the course of about 11 months
Rendered In: Unreal Engine 4
Software Used: 3DS Max, Maya, Zbrush, Photoshop, Substance Painter, Substance Designer
Ruined Scene Progression at Each Milestone
Decayed Materials
I created the nineteen base materials that were used throughout both of my scenes using Substance Designer. I imported these materials into both Unreal and Substance Painter and then utilized them as the base to build all of my texture work on top of. I used three methods to wear my scene’s materials down. The first was using lerps between one material and another, controlling that via a grunge mask. The second involved vertex paint, I used this to paint transitions between my different materials. The third was done inside of Substance Painter, with individual assets, I utilized the generators and various grunges within Painter to control the decay.
Stages of Decay
I establish 6 “stages of decay” that I could achieve utilizing my three methodologies. For my ruined scene, I decided to aim for between stage 4 and stage 5, leaning closer to stage five,
Hero Assets
I chose the more detailed portions of the building to take into Substance Painter and created two sets of textures for each piece. One pristine and one decayed.
Fungi
Fungi is a term that is used to describe mushrooms, lichens, and molds. I wanted to depict an example of each group in my scene. I chose Shaggy Mane Mushrooms, Veiled Lady Mushrooms, Purple Corals Mushroom, Turkey Tail Mushrooms, and Yellow Slime Mold. There is also a lichen on the trees in the background. All fungi are known to grow in deciduous forests, with wood as a common substrate. Additionally, I chose fungi I believed would look compelling at their overgrown and large scale.
Mushroom Types
When picking my mushrooms, I wanted to sample some of the subcategories of mushrooms since even the term mushroom is very broad and mushrooms have many forms. Shaggy Manes are “cap style” mushrooms, the purple corals are “corals”, the veiled lady is a type of stinkhorn, the turkey tails are “shelf” mushrooms.
Fungi Pipeline
This was the final pipeline that all of my fungi models went through. The stages remained the same but the pipeline had to be adjusted a little but for each mushroom, due to the varied forms.
Historical Research and Reconstruction
RESEARCH
I did historical academic research into the Nabatean culture and history in order to learn more about Al Khazneh, the ruin I was reconstructing. I needed to find recreations of Al-Khazneh and images of its rediscovery. I also researched the kinds of materials that would have been used to construct and decorate the façade. I needed to know these details for my reconstruction and for my first mastery. I used online databases accessed through SMU’s LibCal system, in addition to checking out books from the Fondren Library on Main Campus to gather my images and information. For the pristine scene, I had to pull sources from other ancient Nabatean ruins due to the lack of imagery or recreations of Al-Khazneh.
NABATEAN CULTURE
The Nabateans descended from a Northern Arab nomadic civilization. They were merchants, and the culture flourished during the first century. During this time, the Nabateans built their capital city, Petra. Petra the ancient site is located in present-day Jordan. The Nabateans had mastered the control of water in the desert. Their city had pools, gardens, fountains, and orchards. Due to the trade routes utilized by the culture, their city represented an ancient melting pot of the region. It combined Arab ideas and deities with other cultures, namely the Romans. For Al-Khazneh specifically, the builders were heavily influenced by the late Hellenistic-Roman sensibility of cities such as Alexandria.
Al Khazneh Upper Order
The façade of Al Khazneh is 43m tall and decorated with symbols and statues. On the upper order, the center rotunda depicts the Isis-Tyche, a representation of many goddesses in the region. She is flanked by Amazons wielding axes on either side and Nikes. These beings are connected to death rituals, hinting at Al-Khazneh’s original purpose, a tomb. The fact that the beings are depicted at all is a sign of the blended culture of Petra. As a long tradition of iconoclasm was broken, for this façade and other ruins at Petra.
Sculptural Detail
For the capitols, I modeled them using splines and poly models. Having the individual pieces sped up the creation of the upper capitals, since they shared the same design elements with the lower capitols.
