A 3D environment based off of both the painting by Alexander Hodges (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/yJDdV9) and the real Sherry and Port bar in Wiesbaden, Germany (https://maps.app.goo.gl/EV7wrBg9amLzXikg8). The wooden wine barrel was provided by tori.cane (https://skfb.ly/orySP).

My goal for this project was to replicate the concept art while incorporating procedural modeling tools and keeping optimization in mind. For example to create the number of unique picture frames I needed to decorate the back wall, I used a combination of Houdini and blueprints. The Houdini frame generator HDA was used to make around 20 unique frames at different sizes. I then set up a blueprint that would check the orientation of the generated static mesh, then use that orientation to randomly select a picture from either the landscape or portrait portion of the atlas. This random photo texture was set using CPD, allowing each unique frame to all have the same draw call and keep the scene performant.
This project was also a good opportunity to learn more about indoor lighting, something I hadn't had much experience with before. It was a fun challenge to find a way of capturing the dim yet illuminated atmosphere of the reference without making the scene poorly optimized. Exponential height fog was a big help in diffusing the light in the scene, as was including some hidden planes with a bright emissive material to add some extra illumination for minimal cost.