the world of steam

Skills: Concept Design, Look Development, UV Mapping, 3D, Texturing & Shading, VFX
Tools: Maya, Photoshop, Substance Suite, Nuke, After Effects

Project Overview

Set within the cinematic universe of the feature film The World of Steam, this portfolio section showcases a production-ready 3D asset pipeline centered on a lighter-than-air Victorian balloon carriage towed by an articulated mechanical steed. Designed to demonstrate high-level world-building alongside technical execution, the project balances Victorian elegance with complex retro-futuristic mechanical engineering.

Art Direction & Visual Style

Victorian Steampunk Aesthetic: Grounded in Victorian industrial design, blending polished metalwork, heavy riveted paneling, and intricate steam propulsion mechanics into a cohesive cinematic look.
Material & Surface Authenticity: Features tactile, weather-worn textures—such as oxidized brass patina, aged leather fittings, and soot-stained metal finishes—to convey physical weight, functional history, and scale appropriate for feature film production.
Cinematic Coherence: Designed color schemes and surface lighting responses to integrate seamlessly into warm, atmospheric live-action lighting environments.

Role & Responsibilities

Served as Look Development & 3D Artist driving the visual execution of the film’s central hero assets—including the balloon carriage, mechanical horse, and fleet blimps—while providing technical guidance and artistic support across broader environment and prop assets. Led end-to-end asset creation, from translating early vision into foundational concept art to refining geometry, optimizing UV layouts, and authoring photo-realistic textures tailored for seamless integration with live-action footage.

Below are some of my key responsibilities breakdown:

Asset - Balloon Carriage

Core Responsibilities: Led concept design for the balloon carriage asset, establishing key visual shapes, silhouette proportions, and functional layout passes during pre-production. Responsible for refining geometry, UV unwrapping, authoring realistic textures and shaders, and driving dynamic VFX simulations.

Balloon Carriage Concept Design

Research & Look Development:
- Design & Narrative Iteration: Evolved the asset concept from a biological horse into an articulated mechanical steed—elevating visual complexity, industrial detail, and thematic consistency throughout the world.
- Steampunk Visual Style: Blended Victorian elegance with heavy industrial design, incorporating exposed gearing, functional mechanical articulation, and steam propulsion logic to ground the asset in a believable retro-futuristic setting.

Balloon Carriage R&D

Mechanical Horse R&D

Horse Strap R&D

Technical Execution:
- Model Polishing & UV Layout: Built with clean topology and optimized UV layouts in Maya to ensure seamless surface mapping for close-up cinematic shots.
- Texturing & Shading: Textured using Adobe Substance Suite, crafting realistic weather-worn metals, glass, brass patina, and aged leather and fabric to convey physical weight and history.
- VFX & Dynamics: Leveraged Maya Dynamics to simulate realistic burner flame propagation, light emission, and heat turbulence for the airship's propulsion system.

Asset - Blimps

Core Responsibilities: Reconceptualized and redefined the visual identity of four distinct blimp variants to create meaningful visual variation within the scene, transforming broad initial concept art into cinematic-ready assets. Led look development across all four airships, handling geometry refinement, UV unwrapping, and authoring realistic textures and shaders for seamless film integration.

Initial Concept

Research & Look Development:
- Visual Variation & Conceptualization: Reconceptualized and defined four distinct blimp variants to establish visual diversity and depth within the scene, moving beyond initial uniform designs while maintaining cohesive aesthetic rules across the fleet.
- Historical Reference & Steampunk Integration: Conducted extensive historical research into Victorian airships and industrial maritime design, incorporating authentic period details, structural framing, and steam-era propulsion mechanics into each silhouette.
- Environmental Weathering & Wear: Applied realistic outdoor wear, soot buildup, fabric tensioning, and surface oxidation across all airships, imbuing the fleet with a grounded, lived-in feel and historical authenticity.

Blimps R&D

Blimps Turntable360° Look Development Showcase: high-resolution 360-degree turntable renders for all four blimp variants to evaluate material response, silhouette proportions, and surface details under cinematic turntable lighting setups.

Blimps Turntable with Multi-Pass Rendering

Blimp In-Scene Compositing Example:
- Live-Action Plate Integration: Aligned complex 3D blimp geometry and camera passes with live-action tracking to preserve realistic scale, altitude, and spatial orientation across atmospheric sequences.
- Lighting & Shadow Matching: Keyed multi-pass lighting setups to echo the warm, atmospheric tones of the live-action backdrop, ensuring believable ambient occlusion, rim highlights, and contact shadows.
- Atmospheric Volumetrics & Haze: Integrated depth-based aerial perspective, volumetric steam emissions, and environmental haze passes to blend distant airships naturally into the skybox.
- Cinematic Lens Artifacts: Applied custom optical bloom, subtle chromatic aberration, film grain matching, and lens distortion overlays across final CG passes to deliver a cohesive, feature-film finish.

Asset - Interior

Core Responsibilities: Led look development for interior environment assets, handling end-to-end 3D modeling, geometry refinement, and UV unwrapping. Developed realistic textures and shaders tailored for cinematic close-up shots and seamless lighting integration.

Concept Design

Research & Look Development
- Period-Accurate Aesthetics & Materiality: Conducted deep historical research into Victorian interior architecture and decorative arts, assigning distinct, authentic materials—such as carved dark woods, polished brass, tufted velvet, and ornamental plasterwork—across different elements of the environment.
- Intricate Surface Patterning & Normal Mapping: Developed complex, high-detail normal and height maps from custom pattern layouts to reproduce period-accurate wallpaper, relief carvings, and decorative molding without compromising geometric performance.
- Historical Weathering & Lived-in Detail: Layered subtle environmental wear, edge scuffing, varnish aging, and fabric patina throughout the interior to convey historical authenticity and a grounded, lived-in feel.

Interior R&D

3D Model

Final Render

Eric Zhang

☺

the world of steam

Skills: Concept Design, Look Development, UV Mapping, 3D, Texturing & Shading, VFX
Tools: Maya, Photoshop, Substance Suite, Nuke, After Effects

Art Direction & Visual Style

Role & Responsibilities

Asset - Balloon Carriage

Balloon Carriage Concept Design

Research & Look Development:

Design & Narrative Iteration: Evolved the asset concept from a biological horse into an articulated mechanical steed—elevating visual complexity, industrial detail, and thematic consistency throughout the world.

Steampunk Visual Style: Blended Victorian elegance with heavy industrial design, incorporating exposed gearing, functional mechanical articulation, and steam propulsion logic to ground the asset in a believable retro-futuristic setting.

Balloon Carriage R&D

Mechanical Horse R&D

Horse Strap R&D

Asset - Blimps

Initial Concept

Research & Look Development:

Visual Variation & Conceptualization: Reconceptualized and defined four distinct blimp variants to establish visual diversity and depth within the scene, moving beyond initial uniform designs while maintaining cohesive aesthetic rules across the fleet.

Historical Reference & Steampunk Integration: Conducted extensive historical research into Victorian airships and industrial maritime design, incorporating authentic period details, structural framing, and steam-era propulsion mechanics into each silhouette.

Environmental Weathering & Wear: Applied realistic outdoor wear, soot buildup, fabric tensioning, and surface oxidation across all airships, imbuing the fleet with a grounded, lived-in feel and historical authenticity.

Blimps R&D

Blimps Turntable360° Look Development Showcase: high-resolution 360-degree turntable renders for all four blimp variants to evaluate material response, silhouette proportions, and surface details under cinematic turntable lighting setups.

Blimps Turntable with Multi-Pass Rendering

Blimp In-Scene Compositing Example:

Asset - Interior

Core Responsibilities: Led look development for interior environment assets, handling end-to-end 3D modeling, geometry refinement, and UV unwrapping. Developed realistic textures and shaders tailored for cinematic close-up shots and seamless lighting integration.

Concept Design

Research & Look Development

the world of steam Skills: Concept Design, Look Development, UV Mapping, 3D, Texturing & Shading, VFX Tools: Maya, Photoshop, Substance Suite, Nuke, After Effects

Art Direction & Visual Style

Role & Responsibilities

Asset - Balloon Carriage​​​​

Balloon Carriage Concept Design

Research & Look Development:

​Design & Narrative Iteration: Evolved the asset concept from a biological horse into an articulated mechanical steed—elevating visual complexity, industrial detail, and thematic consistency throughout the world.

Steampunk Visual Style: Blended Victorian elegance with heavy industrial design, incorporating exposed gearing, functional mechanical articulation, and steam propulsion logic to ground the asset in a believable retro-futuristic setting.

Balloon Carriage R&D

Mechanical Horse R&D

Horse Strap R&D

Asset - Blimps

Initial Concept

Research & Look Development:

Visual Variation & Conceptualization: Reconceptualized and defined four distinct blimp variants to establish visual diversity and depth within the scene, moving beyond initial uniform designs while maintaining cohesive aesthetic rules across the fleet.

Historical Reference & Steampunk Integration: Conducted extensive historical research into Victorian airships and industrial maritime design, incorporating authentic period details, structural framing, and steam-era propulsion mechanics into each silhouette.

Environmental Weathering & Wear: Applied realistic outdoor wear, soot buildup, fabric tensioning, and surface oxidation across all airships, imbuing the fleet with a grounded, lived-in feel and historical authenticity.

Blimps R&D

Blimps Turntable360° Look Development Showcase: high-resolution 360-degree turntable renders for all four blimp variants to evaluate material response, silhouette proportions, and surface details under cinematic turntable lighting setups.

Blimps Turntable with Multi-Pass Rendering

Blimp In-Scene Compositing Example:

Asset - Interior

Core Responsibilities: Led look development for interior environment assets, handling end-to-end 3D modeling, geometry refinement, and UV unwrapping. Developed realistic textures and shaders tailored for cinematic close-up shots and seamless lighting integration.

Concept Design

Research & Look Development

the world of steam

Skills: Concept Design, Look Development, UV Mapping, 3D, Texturing & Shading, VFX
Tools: Maya, Photoshop, Substance Suite, Nuke, After Effects

Asset - Balloon Carriage

Design & Narrative Iteration: Evolved the asset concept from a biological horse into an articulated mechanical steed—elevating visual complexity, industrial detail, and thematic consistency throughout the world.