Environment Art · Work in progress

Modular
House Kit

A flexible architectural kit for building varied American houses efficiently, supported by procedural materials and a developing channel-packed weathering system.

Role: Environment Artist
Tools: Maya · Substance 3D
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Status: In progress

Reference & research

I studied American colonial-style houses to identify the architectural features that needed to work across the kit. The references helped define the overall proportions, pitched and intersecting roof shapes, clapboard siding, window spacing, dormers, exterior trim and gutter placement.

Rather than reproducing one building exactly, I am combining recurring features from several houses into a reusable set of parts. This gives each assembly a consistent architectural language while allowing the silhouette and layout to change.

Large American colonial-style house used as the main architectural reference — Primary reference · roof structure, dormers, siding and extensions

American house with a wraparound veranda and repeated columns — Veranda, columns and facade rhythm

Front-facing colonial-style house with symmetrical windows and shutters — Front elevation, window spacing and shutters

Close-up reference of roof shingles, siding and guttering — Roof edge, guttering and material transitions

Close-up reference of exterior corner and roof trim — Exterior trim and eave construction

Multiple house variations assembled from the modular kit in Maya — Early house assemblies built from shared modules

Modular planning

The kit is designed around reusable wall, roof, window, trim and gutter pieces built to a consistent metre-based grid. Shared dimensions let the same components connect across multiple house layouts while keeping scale and texel density predictable.

Testing several assemblies early helps reveal missing transitions and corner cases before detailed production begins. This approach keeps the kit flexible without creating a unique piece for every possible building shape.

Modular walls and roof pieces arranged in Maya — Reusable wall and roof modules

Procedural material development

I am creating tileable building materials in Substance 3D Designer so large surfaces can maintain detail without unique texture sets. The siding study establishes the repeated board profile and fine surface breakup, while the roof study explores a separate reusable tile pattern.

These materials are designed to support variation inside Unreal Engine, allowing the same modular geometry to be reused across multiple buildings without every result appearing identical.

Procedural siding material graph and preview in Substance 3D Designer — Substance 3D Designer siding graph and material preview

Procedural roof tile material preview — Procedural roof material study

Clean siding material applied to a wall in Unreal Engine — Clean material test in Unreal Engine

Packed weathering system

I created a packed RGBA weathering mask in Substance 3D Designer for use across the modular building kit. The red channel currently controls grime and dirt accumulation, allowing the weathering strength and appearance to be adjusted inside Unreal Engine.

The green, blue and alpha channels are reserved for additional effects that will be decided once the kit reaches its final stages. Packing several masks into one texture keeps the material flexible while reducing the number of separate texture files required.

RGBA weathering mask packed in Substance 3D Designer — Packed RGBA weathering mask · red channel active

Unreal Engine material graph used to control the weathering system — Unreal Engine material graph overview

Wall material before grime is applied — Clean material

Wall material with grime variation applied — Grime and dirt variation

Weathered siding material applied to a modular house wall in Unreal Engine — Weathering system applied to a modular wall

Next stage

The next phase is to finish the architectural kit, assign the remaining packed-mask channels according to the needs of the completed buildings, and create final environment assemblies with stronger material and structural variation.