Brushstrokes of my soul

I've always been fascinated by the enchanting world of 3D Art, a world I wanted to be part of but never felt up to entering. Until, a little over a year ago, I finally decided to take the leap: I jumped from the rock of the architect's job to dive into a passion that was calling me strongly, immersing myself in it deeply, letting my creativity flow, like a painter would do, without thinking too much about "can it be done?", but rather trying to realise everything comes to my mind.

The following images tell a bit about this dive of mine into 3D Art, started enrolling in Master ArchViz at "butic The New School", where I learnt to use many CG programmes and acquired precious notions about photografy and art, pushing my limits and unleashing my creativity. Hope you enjoy!

"If you can dream it, you can do it" said Walt Disney.                                                                                                                           This has been the motto for this image.

The brief for this image was creating an object using the organic modeling techniques and then putting it into a scene.

Inspired by childhood dreams of the future, I decided to put my efforts into modelling a music box, with its dancers and its floral decoration on the base. And then I simply placed it on a shelf, next to a framed photo of La Scala Theatre...capturing a moment in the life of a little girl, who lets her imagination fly with a delicate music.

This project is about Senses, about stimulating just a couple of them.

So, I trapped a balloon inside an almost empty space, with just one risky way out, and I played with contrasts, trying to evoke sensations and to sharpen two senses...of course I won't say which ones!

Representing the answer to the question "What is your vision of Nature?" is quite a challenge. Imagination, visual inspirations and personal experiences generate so many different images in the head that it is difficult, at first, to choose one. That's how it was for me, until I closed my eyes and focused on the Nature of my homeland, of my experiences, that Nature that always surrounded me, silently, in many cases almost unnoticed and yet always capable of surprising and captivating me.

I had two great challenges for this scene: one was the construction of the trullo's architecture, with its peculiar shape and its overlapping stones arranged to form cones, and the other was distributing the vegetation and representing the dialogue between natural and human elements with their colours and characteristics, trying to reproduce a summer Apulian snapshot. Undoubtedly, iToo Software tools have been my greatest allies for this project.

. Moodboard

. Elements' insertion process with Forest Pack

The brief for this scene was to 'transcribe' a text into an image. Among many more or less evocative texts, this poem by Machado, written in 1903, immediately captured my imagination, letting it fly to a bygone era's atmosphere.

Although the image I wanted to create was quite clear in my mind, the path to achieve it wasn't really easy and took me time.
First of all, in fact, I spent time looking for references so that I could model everything to reproduce as faithfully as possible a Spanish schoolroom of the beginning of the 20th century. I wanted everything to be believable and in line with the era to which the poem belongs.
I then worked a lot on the materials, making various attempts to make them realistic and 'tangible': I wanted to make them lived materials, but at the same time alive, not relegated to the past as if they were 'archaeology'.
Finally, I devoted time and effort to post-production, wanting to bring out the contrasts: between the inside and the outside, the light and the shadows, the warm and the cold tones... and trying to give the images a pictorial, rather than photographic, sense, in accordance with the evocative atmosphere I had in mind from the beginning. 

. References

This project is the first step for a larger one that I have yet to realise. Thanks to the skills I acquired during the first year of my Master's degree, I have been able to embark on the challenging task of modelling and rendering a piece of city, which I hope to animate soon with Unreal Engine, but which, for the time being, I have given light to using 3dS Max and Vray.

Starting point and constant inspiration for these images has been Disney's New Orleans, which I reinterpreted at the rising of a day after a rainy night, trying to preserve its charm, mystery and beauty. Another fundamental point for the scene modelling have been the fascinating iron-lace elements, on which I worked a lot to highlight their protagonism through the use of light, textures and reflections.

I must admit that it has been a very demanding work and that more than once I've thought I should give up: modelling and texturing all the assets, keeping them as faithful as possible to the real references of the city, as well as working in post production aiming to give the images the almost dreamlike atmosphere I wanted, seriously put to the test my abilities... as well as those of my computer and softwares, which fortunately withstood the load! But definitely it has been an incredible opportunity for me to push my limits and improve my skills, so that I finally can whisper to myself "Keep on going!"

. References

A few more words to thank everyone who took the time to watch this entry through to the end, I hope I've been able to convey a little of myself and share colorful feelings.

Last but not least, I wholeheartedly thank the incredible tutors and mentors of the ArchViz Master's programme at "butic The New School" for all their valuable advices, teachings and time dedicated to me: it has been a pleasure and an honour to have your support and guidance throughout this adventure!