Spooky ‘Footage’ Of A Time-Worn Japanese Train Station Is Entirely 3D

As gaming gets more advanced, graphics start to take a life of their own. One artist takes it even further by recreating a Japanese train station that has left viewers questioning reality for a moment. The video of the station was created using Unreal Engine 5’s groundbreaking 3D creating tools.  

Lorenzo Drago, a 3D environment artist, recreated Etchū-Daimon station in Toyama, a prefecture in Japan. His formidable camera work took the video up a notch as he perfectly mimicked the way videos are shot on phones, and captured that sense of realism with the shaky hand movements and the swiveling of the camera as it panned around the station to take in its surroundings.

The distant sounds of cicadas buzzing, the sounds of gravel crunching underfoot, and the bells of a railroad crossing ringing from far away only immerses the viewer further into this little world he has created. The way the light hits and the textures of the station trick the senses into truly believing this short video wasn’t just filmed at the station itself.  

Daylight suddenly fades from the video and the viewer is then thrust into the darkness of an abandoned station in the dead of night. While the torchlight is reminiscent of the mood in horror games, it still somehow manages to force viewers into doing a double-take.

Drago has stated that this is not captured in real-time and is, instead, a high-resolution render of the environment in order to showcase the full spectrum of Unreal Engine 5’s capabilities.

With time, Drago believes that the visuals and framerate would improve significantly as the current state of the project is not fully optimized. 

Unreal Engine’s graphic prowess has time and time again blown users and viewers away at the level of detail and realism that artists manage to portray in their work. As gaming continues to evolve rapidly, it’s amazing to think that graphics as realistic as this aren’t even in their final form.  

For more hyperrealistic projects like this, be sure to check out Lorenzo Drago’s website and portfolio.

[via Polygon and IGN, images by Lorenzo Drago and featured with permission]