Rising Star 2018 - Fantasy Laboratory
A downloadable asset pack for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
Introduction:
When I started brainstorming, I knew I had to do something fantasy themed as I love the genre, with games such as Fable, Zelda and Divinity being huge influences on my creative drive. Artistically, I love the art styles of games like World of Warcraft and Okami as I prefer stylised look over hyper realistic depictions. I have previously studied Okami’s art style as well as Ukiyo-e wood block painting (which influenced the style) and as much as I would have enjoyed creating a scene that was directly linked to the game, I would much rather develop my own style and own theme. After brainstorming, I settled on the story idea of a fantasy laboratory that would mix magic and science (akin to will Wheaton’s Titansgrave). I love the idea of mixing the two, but I definitely focused more on the fantasy feel by having an ancient, magical tree be the centrepiece of my scene. I had a few ideas for what magic could be displayed by the tree and settled on a ‘tree of life’ esc feel. The tree in my final piece does not display any magical properties, because I wanted it to appear old and worn as if somebody had already sucked it dry of magical energy and left. Hence the idea of a scientist who had made the floating platform, in which the tree subsides, their temporary laboratory. To show this, papers and books would be scattered throughout to make the place look inhabited. The time in which you are seeing the scene is after the scientist has left in a panic; I wanted the scene to look recently fled, as if someone was in a hurry. To show this the desk would be unkempt and the window would be left open. The scientist took the trees energy and left quickly before anyone could steal it from him…
Summation:
If I were to create this environment again I would definitely want to make the leaves on the tree look a lot more impressive and large like they do in my original concept; I would have liked the leaves to cast individual shadows for each leaf to separate dark sections of shadows too. Furthermore, I would have loved to add some animation to bring the scene alive in Sketchfab and video clips; if the leaves and curtains swayed in the wind that would sell the look and really complete the piece. Learning how to put particle effects into Sketchfab would also be a useful skill as I would have benefitted from carrying over the smoke underneath the platform as well as the soft dust particles that add a dynamic feeling to the otherwise still environment. Another aspect I want to work on is poly counts as I always feel as if I can optimise my models further; this is especially well done in stylised designs as lots of polygons shouldn’t be needed. To conclude, I am really happy with myself for completing this environment in line with a professional pipeline and will carry this experience into future projects that I can’t wait to work on!
Sketchfab models:
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