Life on Mars is set in a scientific research base on Mars in the year 2057. A lone astronaut has been tasked with finding a cure for a fast-spreading illness back on Earth. With time passing by and no breakthrough in sight, the astronaut begins to lose hope. When communication is lost with Earth and all chances of returning home disappear, the astronaut sees only one way out.
This short film serves as a cinematic trailer for a larger game project involving the astronaut and their mission to save humanity. The items seen in each shot of the cinematic become part of the game’s puzzles and quest lines to synthesise a cure, re-establish a connection to Earth, and get the astronaut home.
The environment for this project was inspired by the works of Fabien Daubet, an artist who creates detailed retrofuturistic sketches of sci-fi living spaces and architecture. The main building blocks for the environment are a modular set that I created for this project. I wanted to have a “hero” asset for each shot with several smaller items to populate the background of the cinematic shots and the game environment. I modelled everything in Blender and used Photoshop and Substance Painter for texturing. I then assembled and rendered everything in Unreal Engine. For the exterior terrain, I utilised some Quixel Megascan assets to try and replicate a rocky Mars landscape. The astronaut is a model from Sketchfab by LasquetiSpice and the animations are taken from the Mixamo animation library and modified by me. The music is an original piece written by myself.
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