Creating a Subway Scene with Megascans Assets

For this digest, our main source of inspiration was a breakdown from Jordan Jenkins of the relighting workflow for the scene from Marriage Story.

Creating subway scenes in realistic or sci-fi approaches is definitely a trending topic among 3D artists. On this occasion, we gathered up 5 essential assets that might go as basement materials for any style of the environment you're going for. Check them out!

Rough Subway Tiles

Starting from the ground, these Rough Subway Tiles are quite basic with a few worn-out elements in it which makes them a good choice for entrance stairs and floor. Lesser details give you some space to customize them and add textures, dirt, scratches, or even dust to bring the desired mood for the scene. 

Leather 

This asset was initially picked for the seats in the subway wagon. However, the leather texture of it makes it quite universal in the production. Feel free to use for benches in the waiting area, for seats in the wagon, or for some interior details. 

Emerald Pearl Granite Square Tiles

Polished, dark tiles are used frequently inside of the subway buildings. If you're going to make a sci-fi environment, keep them glossy and clean, but for the realistic scene, we suggest you add a few spots, scratches, maybe even dirty footprints, or some details and signs of the human's presence. 

Dirty Papers

Talking about human presence, papers, tickets, graffitis will be a good addition to the scene and will help you create a little storyline of it. We picked dirty paper decals, but there are plenty of other options with such decals in the library. Check them out!

Torn Poster

And for the last one, Torn Poster. Such assets are completely optional but this one can help you set an urban mood of the scene. Feel free to combine with some hand-painted posters, and there you go!

If you're interested in the overall production process of subway environments, then we suggest you check these breakdowns: 

• The Passenger: Making a Material-Driven Scene in UE4 by Brett Marshall Tucker who also shared a handful of tips for material production.
• Recreating Subway in UE4: Texturing & Scene Assembly by Kateryna Reka who dived in the texturing and assembly workflows.