BEASTLINK | Heavy Helicopter

OVERVIEW

A heavy military helicopter asset adapted for BEASTLINK at Grove Street Games. In-game, the helicopter serves as a player transport while also carrying a heavy rocket payload.

Originally configured for Maya/Arnold, the existing high-poly asset featured eight materials with only base color textures provided. Adapting it for Unreal Engine 5 required a complete reconstruction of its texture work, UV restructuring, and integration into the project's real-time rendering pipeline.

Working within a small development team and under tight production deadlines, the focus was on preserving the model's original geometric detail while rebuilding its materials for the visual and technical requirements of BEASTLINK.
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MY CONTRIBUTION

I was responsible for the helicopter's material and texture reconstruction, UV restructuring, material consolidation, and Unreal Engine 5 integration.

The existing high-resolution geometry was retained, allowing development time to be focused on rebuilding the asset's surface detail, improving its material definition, and preparing it for production using Nanite.
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PROCESS BREAKDOWN

MATERIAL & UV OPTIMIZATION

The original eight materials were consolidated into four, with the existing UV layouts edited and reorganized to support a UDIM-based texturing workflow.

This restructuring established the foundation for the new texture sets and reduced the number of material slots required by the asset.
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COMPLETE TEXTURE RECONSTRUCTION

All texture work was recreated in Substance 3D Painter, replacing the original base-color-only texture setup with a complete PBR workflow.

New normal, base color, and packed ORM textures were developed, introducing proper metallic and roughness properties alongside refined painted-metal surfaces, color variation, weathering, and fine surface details.

The resulting materials were built specifically for BEASTLINK, providing greater control over surface response and material consistency in Unreal Engine 5.
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GEOMETRY & NANITE INTEGRATION

Rather than performing a complete manual retopology, the original high-resolution geometry was retained and configured for Nanite in Unreal Engine 5.

This approach preserved the source model's geometric detail while allowing production efforts to focus on material reconstruction, texture development, and engine integration.
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ROLE & PROJECT

Role: Senior Environment Artist

Studio: Grove Street Games

Project: BEASTLINK