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Traditional Ukrainian House: Breakdown

THE ROOKIES AWARDS 2025 DRAFT SELECTION

This environment was built as a modular kit in Unreal Engine 5. I designed the main living space and added a pantry to show how the kit can be used in a flexible and reusable way. All the assets (except for the foliage and some decals) were created by me, with a focus on keeping things optimised—some objects have unique textures, but many share texture sheets to reduce memory use and keep it game-ready. The foliage and decals are from fab.com and textures.com.

I mainly worked in 3ds Max, with some sculpting done in ZBrush. For texturing, I used Substance Painter as my primary tool. I also created tileable materials in Substance Designer, such as the white clay/plaster walls and wooden floors. Photoshop was used for some map adjustments and texture tweaks.

I created a trim sheet for repeated elements like wooden beams, clay borders, and other modular pieces both inside and outside the house. Real Ukrainian ornaments and patterns were used as references, and many of the models are based on objects from museums and private collections to ensure historical accuracy.

You can find more technical details, including polycounts, texture maps, and a breakdown of each asset, on the page.

The modular kit can be used to create various environments.

The modular kit can be used to create various environments.

This wooden floor material is created in Substance Painter and set up in UE 5.

This wooden floor material is created in Substance Painter and set up in UE 5.

Clay/plaster material is created in Substance Designer and set up in UE 5.

Clay/plaster material is created in Substance Designer and set up in UE 5.

Wireframe render of the main assets.

Wireframe render of the main assets.

Lighting and decals setup in UE5.

Lighting and decals setup in UE5.

Lighting and decals setup in UE5.

Lighting and decals setup in UE5.

Process of creating the interior of the "hata".

Process of creating the interior of the "hata".