3D Environment Design and Modelling 2021-22

Alequim's Alchemical Apiculture

A Diagon Alley-inspired magical beekeeping shop, focused around modularity.

All 2D conceptual work was completed in Photoshop, with the modelling being completed in Maya, the texturing in Substance Painter (as well as Designer for the tileable textures), and rendered in Unreal Engine 4.

[Feb-May 2022]

My primary sources of reference were photos and diagrams of architectural styles from the 1830s - approximately when Victoria Street in Edinburgh, on which Diagon Alley is thought to be based, was constructed - and beekeeping equipment, primarily antiques. I also used some paintings of  medieval skeps (fibrous artificial hives) and beekeepers as key inspiration.

I also searched for references regarding the plants thought of within the wizarding world as having magical properties, with the idea that the designs of the plants themselves may play into aesthetics of their respective bee-sourced products.

Due to limited time, the concepting process for my shop was left relatively simple. I completed isometric sketches of the externals to get a good idea of what I wanted the shop to broadly look like without getting too caught up in details. I then used components of these sketches and treated them in an almost modular fashion, "mix-and-match"-ing them to create further developments in very little time. In preparation for modelling and texturing, I also completed sketches of door designs and signage to further the idea of environmental storytelling. When creating the shop, I repeatedly turned towards putting myself in the shopkeeper, Alequim's, shoes in an attempt to try and more accurately present the window display, layout, floorplan, design, cleanliness, etc, as they would have kept the shop within the narrative.

Many shops in Diagon Alley have mascots presented somewhere - be it in the window displays, or sitting atop the shop roof. I felt compelled to create my own, sculpting a bee in Zbrush before retopologising and texturing to suit the painted timber accents of the Georgian style.

[First-floor window display/Product Lineup]

[First and ground floor doors - baked from the same low-poly base mesh]

[Internal Signage]

The entire creative process was documented in my blog, here: https://oliviagunni.wixsite.com/olivia-gunn/blog/categories/diagon-alley-2022

Inventor's Workshop

In the far corner of a dystopian city sits a long-distained, nearly forgotten junkyard, within which lies a workshop, hiding a dark history of twisted atrocity.

This project was created for the 2022 Rising Star Environment Art challenge.

I modelled the majority of this project in Maya, though some of the more organic forms (the baby head, hands, foot, and adult arm) were sculpted in Zbrush before being retopologised and posed. The texturing was completed in Substance Painter, and was rendered in Unreal Engine 4.

[Dec 2021]

Living close to an industrial area, I had a selection of real-world references to pull from, including petrol banks, storage crates, mechanical components, and more. However, to broaden my horizons, I also looked towards the opposing notions of futuristic, dystopian architecture in comparison to traditional blacksmiths, butchers, and carpentry. I wanted to try and keep the viewer guessing at exactly what time period the scene would be from, as I'm sure the inventor - collecting scraps from the junkyard outside - would have collated a broad variety of items from different time periods.

For the combined bio-organic constructs, I found myself extremely inspired by looking at concept work completed for 'American McGee's Alice' and the sequel 'Alice: Madness Returns', particularly the designs created for the latter's Dollhouse world level.

Biodrone

A drone created following a brief of a 30,000 maximum polycount over the period of a month.

Modelled in Maya, textured in Substance Painter, rendered in Marmoset.

[Nov 2021]

Character Redesign Project

A redesign project focusing on selecting a character in existing video game media and an object, and combining them to form a new character design. 

2D designs created in Photoshop, sculpted in Zbrush, retopologised in Maya, textured in Substance Painter, rendered in Marmoset.

In this redesign project, I wanted to try and loosely play around with the sci-fi context of the Assassin's Creed series, using the existing narrative antagonist of Khaliset from 'Origins' and attempting to combine them with a lighting fixture I came across from a visit to the Old Vic Theatre. I tried to focus primarily on conveying this through the use of subtle shape and flow motifs in the design, resulting in the production of a wide variety of conceptual silhouettes before the ultimate design was created. 

With my design completed, I moved onto sculpting. Due to the high visibility of the character's anatomy, I had to ensure that the different components of the design did not collide or clip in any areas which may have been likely to do so.

Due to the structural delicacy of some of the thinner design items, such as the chest straps, instead of retopologising them from the high poly mesh I simply constructed a less poly-dense version through poly-modelling, creating a high-poly version from it to bake afterwards. 

To match the design, I created a quick version of the character's staff for them to pose with.

Thank you for looking at my work. I look forward to seeing what we can all come up with for next year!

Artstation: https://oliviagunn.artstation.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-gunn-94a504238/