Contents Page
- Initial Ideas ……………………………………………………(Page 1)
- Development ………………………………………………….(Page 2 & 3)
- Modelling In Maya ………………………………………… (Page 4)
- ZBrush …………………………………………………………..(Page 5)
- Final 3D Model in Maya …………………………………..(Page 6)
- Substance Painter ……………………………………………(Page 7 & 8)
- Into Unreal Engine 4 ………………………………………..(Page 9)
- Gym and Creating Landscape ……………………………(Page 10 & 11)
- Final Outcome and Critical Appraisal ………………..(Page 12)
I was tasked with creating an environment that tells a story through the final image. My environment will simulate a small part of a bigger environment for a game so it is required that I consider the story and how it relates to a game.
I have chosen to make a futuristic discovery treehouse, as I haven’t made a lot of futuristic discovery styled themed art, therefore, I decided it was a good chance to challenge myself instead of picking my go-to magical mystical themed art. I also picked to create a treehouse as I wanted to challenge myself to make more organic looking 3D models to improve my 3D skills.
The style of the environment is entirely at my discretion.
I will get to experience the environment art pipeline from concept to completion. The final image will comprise multiple assets to come together for one cohesive scene that depicts narrative, focusing around my scene. The finished scene will be rendered in Unreal Engine and/or Maya.
This project will comprise multiple workshop projects. They have been designed to help me reach certain benchmarks to help with planning and progression. These workshops are listed below:
- 4 Value Drawing
- Hero Assets
- Foliage
- Create a Gym
Initial Ideas
Mind Map
This mind map helps me to brainstorm what futuristic discovery is as a theme to help me understand what things/ assets make it futuristic. From my research, there is a lot of SciFi elements and modern looking architecture. The mind map also helped me generate ideas on the story behind the treehouse.
Moodboard
Moodboards are a collage of images that are based on my theme, this provides a strong foundation for my vision of the project, creating a moodboard helps me establish the basics of what the end result could ideally look like.
Movie Inspirations
Inspiration opens us up to new possibilities and ideas by allowing us to go beyond our ordinary experiences and limitations. These movies will allow me to explore other futuristic themed worlds to help me understand the theme better.
Star Wars
The Star Wars franchise depicts the adventures of characters “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”, in which humans and many species of aliens (often humanoid) co-exist with robots, or ‘droids’, who may assist them in their daily routines; space travel between planets is common due to lightspeed hyperspace technology.
I looked into star wars’ architecture as I love the futuristic environments they had in the movies. It had a mixture of space or spaceship-like elements, with a lot of out-there modern contemporary buildings. I want to utilise these elements in making the treehouse, to make the house a modern contemporary building.
The Martian
Mark Watney is stranded on the planet of Mars after his crew leaves him behind, presuming him to be dead due to a storm. With minimum supplies, Mark struggles to keep himself alive.
In the Martian, it had a lot of space elements, as the movie is about Mars and surviving in a dangerous habitat, I want to take the advanced technology they had in the movie into my treehouse, to make my treehouse a hideout for the dangerous climate and environments.
Avatar
A paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home. When his brother is killed in a robbery, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully decides to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora.
Avatar gave me lots of inspiration on my tree design, alienated plants and trees, with weird powers and technology, it got me thinking would the future have different trees or plants that evolved into living in a more harsh toxic environment, or would humans make fake trees to simulate what trees once were, give us oxygen, store carbon, stabilise the soil and give life to the world’s wildlife, provide us with the materials for tools and shelter.
Landmarks Inspirations
Gardens by the Bay
The Gardens by the Bay is a nature park spanning 101 hectares in the Central Region of Singapore, adjacent to the Marina Reservoir. The park consists of three waterfront gardens: Bay South Garden, Bay East Garden and Bay Central Garden.
Gardens by the Bay was part of the nation’s plans to transform its “Garden City” to a “City in a Garden”, with the aim of raising the quality of life by enhancing greenery and flora in the city.
Gardens by the Bay’s tall man-made tree look-alike structures gave me the inspiration to make my tree in different types of material than wood. I like how the tree looks like a tower, in a way looks futuristic, because of how similar it looks like a tree but it uses modern-day materials, I also like the pattern it created with the fake branches.
Angkor Wat
The trees at Cambodian temples are nicknamed the strangler trees of Angkor, as their growth results in the death of host trees. Two other varieties of trees too took firm root here, the Silk Cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra) and Thitpok tree (Tetrameles nudiflora). They are common in tropical forests throughout the world.
Different from Gardens by the Bay, I wanted to explore different looking trees that kind of look alienated and out of this world inspired by Avatar. Strangler trees of Angkor interact with nearby objects by having their roots intertwine with them and the tree trunk sits on top of the building itself, making it look alive. I want to incorporate these elements of the tree in my treehouse.