Cristian Mazzei 

Residential House | Lighting (UE5)

Studies of lighting systems with the aim of recreating different atmospheres and light conditions inherent to the various moments of the day.
 

Comparison of the "Lumen vs Baked Lights" lighting systems to evaluate the actual differences in the use of the 2 systems.
 

The scene was composed in Unreal Engine 5.

DYNAMIC LIGHTS | LUMEN:

STATIC LIGHTS | BAKED:

Terrarium (Rain Garden) | Lighting (UE5)

I wanted to play with the vegetation, glass and the various effects of water, such as humidity and condensation, to recreate a sort of "Rain Garden" as if it were a "Room of a Mysterious Laboratory" where they experiment on vegetationo. I worked with the lighting system with the intention of recreating a mysterious and photorealistic mood.

The scene was composed by me in Unreal Engine 5.1 using the Quixel Megascans free assets and with the support of nVidia RTX, Lumen and Nanite system.
The scene run in Real-Time at 60fps in 4K with Graphic Settings set to Ultra, on a PC with RTX 2070 and i7-9700K

Undertale Diorama | Modeling

I wanted to model a diorama to honor one of Undertale's most beautiful and iconic scenes, an incredibly iconic and powerful video game.

I got the textures from a few screenshots in the game and redesigned them pixel-perfect, in Photoshop. Then I imported them into Maya to use them as a reference and create high resolution models of each asset in the scene.

Once the Assets were created, composed and exported, I made their Texture Maps using Substance 3D Painter to reassign the photorealistic materials to their respective Assets on Marmoset.

Finally, I set the lighting and made everything in RayTracing.

Stranger Things inspired Scene | Lighting (UE5)

I wanted to work on the lighting system with the intention of recreating the mysterious and horror mood of the Netflix series Stranger Things.
The whole scene was taken for free from Unreal Marketplace and it's called "Abandoned Apartment". The scene was composed in Unreal Engine 5 using Lumen and Nanite system.

Abandoned Apartment Environment | Lighting (UE5)

Studies of lighting systems with the intention of recreating various atmospheres and light conditions inherent to various times of the day and different weather conditions.
The whole scene was taken for free from Unreal Marketplace and it's called "Abandoned Apartment". The scene was composed in Unreal Engine 5 using Lumen and Nanite system.

Death Stranding Environment | Lighting (UE5)

I wanted to recreate the environment and the mood that recalled the setting of Death Stranding. All the models used were taken from Quixel Megascan and the scene was composed in Unreal Engine 5 with Lumen and Nanite. It is the first time that I try the realization of some shots using the Cinecamera and its accessories such as the Rig and the Crane.

Art of Light  | Lighting (UE5)

I was inspired by the “Archiviz Museum” tutorial scene by Quixel Megascan.

The goal was to study different combinations of lights, natural and artificial, in an interior that resembled a sort of modern "Pop Museum", using luxury materials in a mixed context of “Traditional” and “Modern”.
 

For the “Part Two” of this project the goal was to study different combinations of lights, natural and artificial, in an interior that resembled a sort of modern "Pop Museum".

The entire scene and lights are rendered in real-time, on Unreal Engine 5, with Lumen and Nanite. The lighting is a mix of Directional Light (for natural light), Area Light and Spot Light (for internal Led lights) and Emissive Materials for Neon.

Subway Train | Modeling & Lighting (UE5)

The first step was the modeling of the various Assets on Maya 2021, utilizing Modular Modeling Workflows, then, I prepared the Assets for Texturing on Substance 3D Painter (In this phase I didn't pay too much attention to the polygon count since the ultimate goal was to create Assets finished in High-Poly to be imported using the Nanite System of Unreal Engine 5), then, I've imported them on Unreal Engine to begin the construction and composition of the Scene.

The final goal was to recreate the mood of the music video, in Unreal Engine 5, using Lumen and Nanite Systems to have a Phorealistic Graphic, in Real-Time, and at the highest possible quality.

The major study took place in the phase of Composition of the scene, positioning of the Lights and reconstruction of the Mood and setting of the settings of the Unreal Engine 5 in order to obtain the best In-Game Graphic.

Japanese Shrine Street | Lighting (UE5)

A small Unreal Engine 5 Lighting Scenarios, of a traditional Japanese Street, with a small Shrine, with the purpose of create different Moods and Aesthetics Look. I focused on the Lighting System and exploring the various types of Lighting that can be created with these new tool.

Terrain brushed inside Unreal Engine and all assets from Quixel Megascans.

Night Horror Forest | Lighting (Unity)

The concept was to create a nocturnal forest in a setting with an horror atmosphere.

My goal was to reproduce a realistic atmosphere that would return the idea of ​​total darkness and explorable only through the support of a flashlight.

After the first phase of design and positioning of the terrain, the vegetation and all the remaining assets, I dedicated all my time and attention to the development of the Lighting System, the Rendering in Real-Time and the Optimization of the scene. The key aspects were the development of the Moon Light and all the Camera and Post Process settings, which allowed me to achieve the desired atmosphere.

Isometric Low Poly Dungeon | Modeling

Inspired by the work of Polygon Runway, I tried to recreate a classic dungeon room, in one of my all time favorite styles. This was the first work I did in the academy and also my first approach with Maya

I love the fundamental role that lighting and materials play in giving the sensation of a specific mood or atmosphere.

Toon Creature | Sculpting

I wanted to create a cute creature inspired by the 3D style of the Disney and Pixar animated movies. It was my first experience with ZBrush and, in general, with Digital Sculpting. Texturized directly on ZBrush through Vertex Painting, I then worked on the materials and lighting of the scene on Marmoset Toolbag. I wanted to make the body seem semi-transparent, with a kind of Internal Glow

I love her fluffy look and her extremely annoyed expression.

Volkswagen Kombi Challenge | Texturing

Texture Painting of a 3D Volkswagen T1 Split, modeled by Christina Rose Ryan for the Art Challenge by The Rookies.
Painted in Substance Painter and rendered with iRay.

I first adapted the idea of Ghostbuster's iconic "Ecto-1", imagining it as a Van (Ecto- Van), subsequently, to explore the various levels of Texturing, I imagined what conditions it would be in, 40 years later.

SUMMARY

I'm strongly attracted to all aspects concerning Lighting, Rendering and Game Engines, loving the ability to create specific moods and evocative atmospheres with great artistic strength.

Interested in Architecture, Design, Graphics and Photography. Attracted by the digital world and its various artistic-creative sectors such as Computer Graphics, Modeling, Animation and Rendering. Ambitious and full of interests, especially passionate about the videogame world in all its aspects.