Interiors full of life by Lara Christin Schmitter

My name is Lara Christin Schmitter, I am 20 years old and I recently graduated at PIXL VISN Media Arts Academy. 
These are two projects of my student Demo Reel which I created after 18 months of education.

Interior - Cozy Evening

I was scrolling through Instagram when I kept seeing all these Interiors with different little lights and candles which created a very cozy, chill evening vibe.
I was so inspired by these that I quickly decided to do something similar in a bedroom and living room combination.

COLLECTING REFERENCES

I kept collecting references from Instagram, Pinterest and online in general to get an overall idea of how to part the rooms and to help me decide what furniture style and vibe I should go for.

CREATION PROCESS: COZY EVENING - LAYOUT, MODELING AND TEXTURING/SHADING

As I had the rough concept in mind, I started blocking out the scene and placed my cameras to see which parts of the interior would need my attention. I used the wall in the middle to separate the room into two different sections to devide the bed and livingroom area.
With this project I wanted to focus more on the Texturing/Shading and LookDev part so I took the more difficult models, like the sofa, bed parts or the plants from asset websites but I did the models I could not find by myself.

When I had the models done and arranged, I started Texturing and Shading. I again made the textures myself and used some provided from the asset websites.
For this interior I decided to use a lot of wood textures and overall beige, brown, green and white colors. I used the 3D texture projection method for the models with simpler shapes, so I did not have to create UVs for them.
Additionally, I added a good variety of different specular values (for example at the ground) to add detail.

wireframes of modeled assets

CREATION PROCESS: COZY EVENING - LIGHTING, LOOKDEV AND COMPOSITING

For the lighting I decided to use a yellowish, orange, warmly undertone for the lights and candles and overall scene inside. 
I also created a color complimentary contrast between the light that is shining through the windows from outside (blue) and the light that is coming from the lamps and candles inside (yellow/orange).
This underlines the cozy and warm atmosphere inside.

One challenge I had to overcome was figuring out a wide variety of different lighting values to not make it too flat but convincing and realistic.

After I was happy with the overall look, I rendered a still image of the scene and placed it into NukeX for color correction and adjusting of lighting. I worked with the Vray LightMix to get a better grip on every single light I had placed into the scene. To underline the color complimentary contrast, I chose a background image with rather blueish colors.
To align it with the camera path, I created a 3D scene in NukeX and placed my geo into it and the background image onto a card.
Lastly, I added some particles with a big, round bokeh shape.

Finally, I began to render everything with Vray and applied my comp to the sequences.

beauty render - lights - particles - background image - LUTs

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Interior - Sunny Day 

Because I already had done an Interior with an evening, night time lighting, I decided to do a second one with a day time lighting setup.
I am a big fan of bright and open kitchens and I also like clean and organized living rooms with big windows. I decided to merge these two obsessions together into one big interior project.

COLLECTING REFERENCES

The use of reference was important to figure out a general mood regarding lighting and arrangement of my scene. It also helped me finding a specific furnishing style and a fitting color palette.

CREATION PROCESS: SUNNY DAY - LAYOUT, MODELING AND TEXTURING/SHADING

When I had the rough concept in mind, I started blocking out the scene and placed my cameras to figure out which parts are visible and needed my attention. I used assets like the windows, curtains, posters and the sofa as a spatial separation between the living room and the kitchen.
With this project I again wanted to focus more on the Texturing/Shading and LookDev part so I took the more difficult models, like the sofa or plants from asset websites to save time. 

After I had the models done and arranged, I started Texturing and Shading. I made the textures myself and used some of the provided of the assets websites. For this interior I decided to use a warm and bright color palette such as white, light brown, green, beige and gold which creates this kind of "boho"/"modern" summer vibe.
Again, I used the 3D texture projection method for the models with simpler shapes, so I did not have to create UVs for them and to save time.
One thing I had to keep working on was a good variation of different white and specular values. 

wireframes of modeled assets

CREATION PROCESS: SUNNY DAY - LIGHTING, LOOKDEV AND COMPOSITING

After that I set up my lighting. I used Vray's physical sun and also placed some sphere lights into the kitchen lamps.

Then I started a test render and put it into NukeX to do some first color correction and to see if the textures still needed some touch up with shading. I also rendered a light fog out of Maya and attached some particles to it, which I created in NukeX, to add a bit more depth to the scene. Adding LUTs  gave the scene the final touch.

When I was happy with the comp, I rendered my sequences again with Vray and placed the geo into a NukeX 3D scene to attach the background image, which is visible through the windows, to the camera path with the help of a card.

beauty render - lights - lightfogs and particles - background images - LUTs

Thank you for reading all the way through! I hope you enjoyed it.