This heart shaped chocolate box was created as a game asset for Proxi, an unshipped title from Gallium Studios. The goal was to make a prop that reads clearly at game distance, holds up in close ups, and stays efficient for real time use.
Modeling and UVs
The model was built in Maya. UVs were handled across Maya and Blender during iteration, which kept the layout flexible while I refined the mesh and texture targets.
Texturing and Graphic Work
Most of the visual identity comes from the decorative lid treatment and the paper elements. I recreated the lid scrollwork in Adobe Photoshop using vector artwork to keep the curves crisp, then brought it into Adobe Substance Painter for final texturing. I also created the heart graphics in Photoshop and applied them as alpha channels in Substance Painter for consistent placement and sharp edges. Each layer stacks with ability to toggle cutouts for the cutouts for them on the layers stacked below to avoid any overlapping normals.especially where scrollwork is used.
The model is baked for AO and supporting maps, then refined with curvature driven layers to enhance definition. The wave detail on the paper cups was created using a curvature based layer with an alpha texture to form the repeating ridges without adding heavy geometry.
Optimization Choices
The paper cups have no bottoms to save polygons. To preserve the look of separate cup bases, I painted the cup bottoms directly onto the box surface in an additional Substance Painter layer, which also allowed independent material control without increasing mesh complexity.
Tools used
- Maya (modeling)
- Maya and Blender (UV mapping and iteration)
- Adobe Photoshop (vector scrollwork, heart graphics)
- Adobe Substance Painter (bakes, alphas, curvature detail, layered texturing)