WEEK 1 | Concept and Blockout
The first steps of this 3D modeling project were contextual. Before doing anything the idea has to develop first. The environment has to tell a story, objects put in are part of the narrative and the concept has to mirror it.
Concept emerged using random ideas generating task: ‘What if?’ questions. Here are my five base ideas.
What if:
- The forests have nature spirits living in them?
- People are living inside the trees?
- After the apocalypse nature is taking back cities?
- Humans went extinct?
- The nature is created through synthetic methods?
WHAT IF HUMANS WENT EXTINCT?
What would happen if, after a disastrous event, humanity is no longer safe? One wave after another, it starts to burn out, can control inevitable end no longer. Sooner rather than later, people-operated and maintained services, systems, providing living necessities, and built monuments start to fall into disrepair. Without constant maintenance, wilderness naturally retaking what from the start was its.
<After the extinction:>
>Without maintenance, buildings start to crumble. Stems and roots start sprouting and crawling through pavement, moss, vines, ivy invade abandoned houses and tunnels.
>Pipes start to rust, electrical lines and wires break.
>Animals are moving into cities.
>Underground tunnels are decaying, falling into disrepair.
>Underground water corrodes the metal constructions holding transport tunnels. Without maintenance, transport tunnels are sure to collapse. The rivers form from sewers water and flow through the craters in the middle of the city.
<Final thumbnail and concept sketch>
The central concept of the piece is an Underground exit – stairs leading outside, but what is above remains unknown.
The few indicators of humanity’s touch remain rusted barrels, now overgrown piles of discarded cans, bottles, pieces of dirty fabric, broken signs.
Moss, vines, other plants are so slowly but persistently reclaiming this tunnel.
It looks like someone or something made it their temporary hideout in here, but abandoned it in a hurry.
On the stairway walls, a few aged, crumpled posters are still hanging.
<3D modelling: Blockout>
Because of the previous experience, the start wasn’t incredibly difficult. Mapping out the models and doing research on the real-life sizes of the models – is what took the longest.
As far as I am aware, the experience of working in a 3D environment is a strong positive. Working on this project forces my mindset to see an object simplified into its most basic shapes. It is a great practice and skill familiarization and adaptation for my future creative career.
WEEK 2 | Colour and Lighting
This week I finished my essential modelling and sculpting, added more detail, and moved on to colouring and lighting the scene.
<World setting>
I knew my scene takes place on post-apocalyptic Earth, in an abandoned city, down beneath the surface. The world after a disaster is abandoned, with no living humanoid creature for miles. Almost a ghost town. The only sounds heard are ambient noises: wind, water, slowly decaying creaking constructions, creature noises. Although the disaster wiped the majority of the human population outright, few managed to border themselves, hiding down in the sewers, underground tunnels, and lower basements. My final piece is going to be one of these places: an abandoned underground tunnel, previously occupied by a survivor.
It’s a lonely existence for the traveller, one of the only survivors of the disaster. Lonely and extremely dangerous too. You never know what is waiting around the corner in this new deserted and irreversible world.
<Base colour>
The scene is earth-toned with few touches of greenery for overgrown creases, indents in the walls, and metallic for pipes and wires.
<Scene Lighting>
At the start, I did some colour tests and experiments before moving into the scene, to really catch the right mood for the scene.
My aim is to make the scene be perceived as two different world sides bleeding into each other. That is why I am making a choice to use complementary coloured lighting. The sunset light from outside, deep warm orange/red, falls onto the stairs and into a dull cavern of a tunnel, lit by cool aqua blue coloured solar-powered LEDs.
<Light saurces>
>Key light (Orange/red): The brightest light source is outside, setting sun, drowning the abandoned buildings, and cavernous areas in its warmth and light. Through the open entrance, sunset is streaming down the stairs into the bunker/tunnel. The traveller didn’t close the gate when they decided to leave their safety and go up to explore the surface. The door is left open.
>Fill light (Teal): Light source is behind the camera, diagonally from stairs. It is streaming from a makeshift workstation’s solar-powered LED lamps. They drown cavern in cool, mechanical light.
>Exit sign above the entrance also creates lime green light. It is the weakest source in the scene, marks the exit of the cavern. It flickers constantly.
With the guidance of the given tutorials, I had first-hand experience working with lighting. At first, it provided a challenge to figure out the operating functions and the balance between direction and the power of light.
I have never lit a modelled scene before, hence seeing a fully lit scene made by me, left me a bit awestruck.
The colour palette, too, was a great opportunity to experiment using Photoshop and directly in the modelling environment.
Overall, I am satisfied with my progress so far. This week exceptionally, working on it sparked the story around this place, which made me put more thought into the worldbuilding aspect of it.
WEEK 3 | Animation and Rendering
Last week working on this project! It was time to add animation and shape it into a moving piece of art.
I will say: it was a real hustle to figure some of the animation mechanics in Blender. I took some time to find a way to make greenery move at least somewhat naturally. It was important on my end to make it subtle but visible and natural at the same time. I finally achieved it by using the ”Displace” Modifier and using the ”Clouds” texture. The overall look is satisfactory, although next time I would try to make it more realistic.
The few other pieces of animation, for instance, rats running across the pipeline, passing figures, and swaying electrical wires were easier and quicker to accomplish.
The flickering exit sign was achieved by using the ”F-Curve Modifier” Key and choosing ”Noise”. And then by manipulating the curve, the flicker was copied a few times made into a four-cycle repetition. Lighting animation and manipulation took more time to get a hold of, but it was worth it for a better result.
For the camera movement, two different variations were made for comparison. One zooming in and another zooming out.
The final step – rendering – took longer than anticipated. It was partially my fault: the preference of a keyframe interval was set for the highest quality. And that made the rendering crash a few times. But after changing and tweaking it, the rendering went as planned.
While working on it, it presented challenges to study and work consciously using the stages of production. It made me observe the project at hand with a more complex and multifaceted approach. To dedicate time to polish and work on ideas, not to jump straight into production on impulse.
This project helped me develop rudimentary 3D modelling and animation skills and valuable theoretical knowledge. Step-by-step instructions and techniques taught were straightforward, easily applied from the learning exercise to the project.
Overall, I am satisfied with the final results of the projects. Working on a similar project I would differentiate and randomize props more, such as plants or rocks. Furthermore, I am looking forward to exploring more organic props modelling and studying the features of a 3D modelling and Animation branch.