Neon Eye

I had a few guiding principles during the development of this piece: First, I wanted it to feel inviting.  I tried to avoid aging any of the materials in a way that would make it appear unkept or filthy.  Second, I targeted lower-end hardware and tried to make the scene as performant as possible in regards to poly counts and texture draw calls.  Lastly, I wanted to honor the original concept artist's vision as close as possible, so I tried to capture the same mood and composition that her illustration had.

I made this secondary video to give me an excuse to have some fun with artistic liberty and diverge from the original concept a little.  I wanted to add more elements in motion to the piece, so I imagined this building as a wizard's store front.   Inside, they might be mixing potions with occasional explosions of color, smoke and light.  It was a fun challenge to get the smoke too shoot out of the pipes and chimney in a way that matched the aesthetic style of the rest of the piece.

I made sure to save a render of my progress every time I sat down to work on this piece, so here you can see the entire production.