Gabriel Scordel - Environment Generalist - Demoreel 2024

Hi everyone! I'm Gabriel Scordel, a third-year student at ARTFX School. In the future, I aspire to become a CG and environment generalist. Here is my work from this year for the "Rookies Awards 2024." I'm very excited to present it, and I hope you enjoy it!

Here is my 2024 demo reel. Just below, you can see detailed breakdowns of my various projects.

The idea behind this project was to create a vast environment with foggy mountains and houses to bring it to life. For this, one of my classmates developed a procedural tool to generate a wide variety of houses. I did everything except the houses.

Software used: Houdini, Nuke, SpeedTree.

Here are the trees I modeled in SpeedTree and textured in Karma. I then scattered them across my terrain.

For the terrain, I used a heightfield and a mask by object to create the valley. I used noises to grow the mountains, then, I added noise and triplanar displacement to create some details. To create flat zones for the houses, I projected small grids onto the geometry to form steps and platforms.

For the texturing in Karma, I used multiple masks to create different layers, such as rocks, grass, and dirt. I blended various textures of rocks and ground with noise to prevent tiling and add variation.

For this project, I chose to complete a significant portion of the work in Nuke. I created the fog using cards placed at different distances and matched them with the camera movement using a tracker. I utilized the depth map to add atmospheric perspective and improve the image's readability. Finally, I unified and enhanced the colors.

The idea behind this project was to integrate 3D elements into footage I captured myself in the city of Lille. I chose a church to create a contrast between the futuristic elements and the building. The church also has a sometimes ancient and eerie aspect that I wanted to exploit.

For the modeling, I wanted to create dense, cluttered, damaged elements to give the impression of a post-apocalyptic environment. I also wanted to bring a ghostly and fantastical dimension to this project with the flying circles at the top of the bell tower, as if it were a point of energy where magic operates.

First, I used the 3D camera tracker to capture the camera movement and then exported the camera into Maya. In this scene, I placed and animated my elements, then took this render and imported it into Nuke. For the compositing, I initially chose to replace the sky using keyers and rotoscoping to make it more consistent with my idea of apocalypse and to create more rupture with the original footage. I also added some atmosphere using cards and a Z-depth map that i multiplied with the emissive of the spaceships to integrate the in the fog. I aimed to achieve a green and dirty ambiance to create something horrific.

For this project, I wanted to create a cyborg character with robotic limbs to focus on hard surface work and also to develop my texturing skills. Although character creation is not my specialty, I have always enjoyed crafting characters. Drawing from my influences, I appreciate complex and gory, frightening characters. This is what I tried to implement in this project.

I wanted to create as the main piece a generator on its back containing a fetus from which it draws its energy to survive, but it also must protect it at the cost of its own life. I was inspired by organs bathed in formaldehyde for this, as I found that it not only added horror to the character but also provided a source of energy for all its robotic equipment.

For the compositing, I aimed to add contrasts, enhance the lighting, and intensify the colors to highlight the texturing and the forms.

For this project, the idea was to create a fantastical, extraterrestrial environment entirely with procedural and organic modeling. I wanted to craft a sort of dense mushroom cave in the middle of which, amidst the vegetation, organs would form and shape into a giant eye.

Here are the main assets I created procedurally in Houdini. The goal was to work on procedural organic modeling in particular. 

A significant portion of the work was done in Nuke to achieve the final render. I used all the light AOVs to make quick and flexible adjustments in Nuke. I also utilized the depth AOV to add fog and depth, enhancing readability and creating an oppressive atmosphere.

The idea behind this project was to collaboratively create a jungle environment with the main elements being a suspension bridge and a waterfall. This allowed me to work with a classmate who focused on the waterfall. For the rest, I handled the entire environment and used scans for the various plants and rocks.

Here are the assets I used. The bridge was created in Maya and the trees in SpeedTree, all textured in Arnold Houdini.

To optimize everything, I decided to create two separate scenes for each shot. One scene for the foreground with the bridge and another for the waterfall. This approach made it easier to place elements relative to the camera. The two shots are at a great distance from each other, and separating them helps avoid having a large unused area.

The main task of the compositing was integrating the waterfall into the environment. I used the depth map to add fog. I also utilized the various AOVs to enhance the colors, lighting, and subsurface scattering.

I am delighted to have been able to present my work to you. Thank you for your attention, and I hope you enjoyed it.