PAULAB

Paula López
Environment art & technical exploration

Experiments & process

Lab.

These are my experiments with Houdini, Unreal and AI agents. Some became editable tools; others are still unfinished. I've included the results and the problems I ran into.

Projects

Larger projects, from individual procedural assets to environment setups.

  1. Unreal Engine / Local AI

    RoomMemory

    Work in progress · 6 November 2026

    What does a small AI model need to understand and edit a 3D world?

    An isometric pastel room with a plant on a table, a mint chair, a floor lamp, a wall shelf and a round window.

  2. 3D pipeline / Simulation

    From video to a robot test.

    Completed pilot / Ongoing exploration · October 2026

    A real-to-sim pilot examining collision complexity and the visual and functional checks a simulation asset needs.

    A simulated Panda arm holds a mug over a reconstructed tiled trolley in MuJoCo.

  3. Procedural architecture

    Organic architecture

    Prototype · August 2026 / presentation revisited October 2026

    I wanted to choose and shape an arch inside Unreal to suit the environment I was working on. An AI agent built the Houdini setup, and I tried the controls and worked on the forms.

    Interwoven ribs join at the feet of an organic arch, shown in a neutral studio render.

  4. Environment pipeline

    Market Street

    Partial pipeline · September 2026

    I started with my own market-street blockout and worked with an AI agent across Blender, Houdini and Unreal. Getting changes all the way into Unreal was the difficult part.

    A greybox market street in Unreal with modular facades, overhead cables and cloth canopies.

  5. Environment study

    Salt Shrine

    Paused environment study · June–August 2026

    Exploring where AI helped me develop an environment, from composition variants to candles, wax and surface accumulation.

    An early coastal shrine composition with warm directional light on pale stone and clustered offerings.

  6. Procedural sculpture

    A procedural sculpture gallery

    Twelve captured studies · August 2026

    Twelve Houdini studies built by an AI agent, exported into one Unreal scene and recorded with their failures.

    An overhead Unreal view of twelve procedural sculptures arranged on individual plinths in three rows.

Tools & studies

Smaller tools and tests.

  1. Procedural wall

    A ruined wall from five stones

    Prototype · June 2026

    I sculpted five stones in ZBrush, then worked with an AI agent on a Blueprint to build walls from them in Unreal.

    An Unreal editor recording of a stone wall changing height and damage state.

  2. Shape language / artistic judgment

    Shape before surface

    Exploratory study · June 2026

    A procedural rock study that moved from adding detail to understanding the relationships between its main masses.

  3. Blender tool / edge treatment

    Edge ribbon decals

    Add-on prototype · September 2026

    A Blender add-on prototype for building editable decal ribbons along selected or detected hard edges.

  4. Surface treatment / failed approaches

    Procedural edge damage

    Unresolved prototype · September 2026

    Trying to get deliberate, planar chips on modular pieces without sculpting every damaged edge by hand.

  5. Procedural modelling

    Helix study

    Captured study · August 2026

    A ribbon swept along a helix in Houdini and exported to an Unreal test scene.

    A grey ribbon wound into a helix on a plinth in an Unreal test scene.

  6. Workflow notes / AI integration

    Giving the assistant useful controls

    Notes from several experiments · June–September 2026

    What changed when an AI assistant could build and inspect a system inside my 3D applications.