Cluttered Spaces

Cluttered Spaces

Cluttered spaces was thematically inspired by my interest in travel and the modernization of cultures. I was intrigued how spaces can change throughout their lifetime and wanted to display visually different environments in two separate styles while maintaining a theme.

Fish market was modeled in Autodesk Maya and textured in Substance Painter and Photoshop. The original image used as reference is a photo by the use  @Bitpunkbits on Instagram and Tumblr. 

When beginning the project the original photograph was used as direct reference for composition and perspective. This reference also included a hard blue lighting, however the individual objects as well as the lighting were both dramatically to enhance composition and atmospherics. 

As I thought about the piece there was a stark contrast between busyness of objects but lack of natural life to the piece. I decided to go with a warmer scene, to view the shop before its opening during the day to create a serene presence compared to the saturated blue fluorescent lights. 

I wanted to stay within my theme of cluttered spaces, this time choosing to create a stylized piece. The concept art was originally referenced by Waiji Choo on Art Station. Every texture was developed in Substance Painter and hand painted with deliberate strokes and painted highlights.

I wanted to create interest with purposeful use of brush strokes within my textures similar to works  such as Arcane or textures found in games such as Ori And The Blind Forest. I used a mix of 3D lighting, hand drawn highlights on objects, baked in lighting, and purposeful use of a materials based pipeline. With this curated workflow I wanted every single prop to look purposeful and cohesive within the scene. 

To add a bit more playfulness I would add my own little doodles and letting my classmates sketch directly onto my countertop. All of the polaroid photos and posters were made from my own pieces of work. The photography was of my various friends and classmates edited and pinned around the environment. 

Conclusion

Both of these projects were extremely beneficial in developing my own workflow. I intend to create higher fidelity and more professional ready work in my future at Gnomon and within the CG industry. Much of the process I still need to streamlined, especially if I want to create real time ready assets within a professional pipeline. I want to further push my skills in storytelling and environment art and am excited to continue to improve my art for the future.