Eternal Solitude

This is the main shot which was my vision and my target render when beginning this project, all of the renders including this one were done in Unreal Engine 5. I wanted to create a sense of loneliness and despair for the robot, thus having a second focal point of the toy giraffe. Scene assets sourced from Quixel's Megascans.

I wanted to build a narrative so I made a few focal props including the crossing post and the diversion sign, so that the eye lands on the robot, then to what he is looking at, then to the 'diversion' sign, which diverts the eye back to the robot. 

For this last shot I wanted to continue the narrative of him waiting at the stop light, to crossing the road when there is a red light, I think this adds a certain human element to No. 047, also building the context of his purpose to learn about human life. The stop light post was created by me, and some background buildings were sourced from KitBash3D's free Neo City Pack as well as Megascans. I also referenced an existing photograph for lighting and composition reference (incl. below).

Close-up texture shots:

Here are the three 4K texture map outputs from Substance Painter. (from right to left: albedo, normal and ORM)

Turn table to display texturing done in Substance Painter.

Progress breakdown video of the main shot when conceptualizing this project.

Material channel screenshots from Substance Painter's viewport. (from left to right: Material, Base Colour, Metallic, Roughness and Baked Normals).

Substance Painter file WIP displaying UV's and topology

Here is a WIP update of the sculpt which I shared on social media for feedback and critique.

Early modelling and texturing WIP updates that I posted on social media to request feedback. One piece of feedback I responded to was to do with the size of the head and how the neck may not be able to support it, so I reduced the head size and added more wires to improve the silhouette.

Here was the inspiration for the third environment render, a photograph of a rainy New York morning. I liked the mood of this shot, the composition of the overcast day and lighting. Credit from viewing.nyc. Photo via @arin.nyc.

My rough initial sketch of the robot concept where this project started. He originally had four legs however I thought that giving him three made it seem more infant like and had a sense of innocence (trike, stabilizer wheels and three wheeled car have connotations of lack of balance, which can be a very child-like trait)