DANTE'S INFERNO
Hello ! I'm Axel, I'm 20 and a New3dge Concept Art student. You will find here some of my most important projects over this year, through which I try to tell you the stories I love so much. I hope you enjoy my strange tales, and see you soon !
Graduation Project : Dante's Inferno
For this final project at New3dge, I chose to tell a story following Dante's journey through Hell in his Divine Comedy.
However, we may be going through the resting place of the damned, but we do not belong here. As Dante, you are no more than a visitor, trespassor and witness. This is not a story of violence and suffering, but of fear and regret.
Beware, Wanderer. You are not welcome here.
Designing the City of Dis was my first and biggest challenge. As a symbol of Divine power and Godly spite, combining a bastioned fortress with cathedral-like details ended up being a clear choice.
However, reaching the City itself is no easy task. Before even being able to crawl below its gargantuan walls, one must traverse the stagnant waters of the Styx moating it, and avoid its hordes of wrathful souls.
But soon you shall leave this pungent marsh, and make your way inside of Dis itself. Your respite will be short-lived however, for you're only going deeper into Hell.
Designing the inside of the Great Halls of Hell was no easy task either. How to convey sorrow and regret for one's past mistakes through architecture ? My decisions led me to a labyrinth-like layout, aimed at giving you a semblance hope before forcing you to accept your fate, aswell as a design philosophy revolving around an imbalance of details and crushing shapes.
Soon, these reflexions led me to the last steps of our journey, where we enter the nether level of Dis, and unearth the graveyard it holds.
And as we reach the final destination of heretics here below, our Journey into the depths of Hell ends.
This graduation project has been an amazing learning experience, and a great occasion to test out the skills I acquired over the last few years.
I hope you liked it, and will continue to enjoy the rest of what I have to show !
INTERCLASS PROJECT : TOWER 42
Below are the concepts I've created for Tower 42, one of the yearly project at New3dge, laying the foundation for the Game Art and CGI students, whose works are showcased in the slider presentations beneath, bringing the initial concepts to life.Being in charge of designing the nature of Agni, the ever-burning planet on which Tower 42 takes place, I had to face a lot of interesting challenges. Mainly, how do I make an environment constantly on fire look dangerous for the player, but also look like it is in its normal and "peaceful" state ?
The solution I found involved making the fire as integrated into the environment as possible - becoming a very part of the ground and trees themselves, flowing through it.
Once the issue of props an worldbuilding was solved, I moved onto figuring out moods, color palettes and compositions in order to help the Game Art and CGI teams understand the setting as much and as efficiently as possible.
Then, I went on to build my actual shots. To help contextualise my work, I tried to prefer angles that could be replicable in-game aswell as show a lot of key elements at once.
I didn't want Agni or the Tower 42 project to only be burning everywhere. I estimated that it would be much more interesting and impactful if we had areas of rest to clash with the raging fires of the forests.
This is how the Ashen Sea was created - a No man's land of ash and smoke, born either of the natural dying out of the fire in the area, or through the valliant efforts of our firefighters protagonists, fighting to reclaim this planet.
This promo piece was my final contribution to the project, made a few months later.
Special thanks :
Art consulting : Karine Villette
Art direction : Timo Peter
Creative direction : Aurélien Fournier
My classmates : Samuel Lauro, Sara Hermellin, Unai Loidi & Baptiste Guérin
Please Check the work of the other classes aswell !
Game Art :
Hippolyte Gely, Antoine Joséphine, Valentin Lefevre, Mathis Boumedjmadjen, Walid Miled, Yohan Houel & Oscar Chalaux
CGI : Elena Vorabouth, Thomas Samimi, Brice Se & Vincent Larcher ; Celine Dang, Ismail Fassi-Fihri, Elisa Gauthier & Naomi Drigo
Portfolio
Hello ! Introducing myself briefly again, I'm Axel, a 20 yo Concept artist currently based in Paris, France.
Even though I have always loved drawing, painting and crafting stuff with those little hands of mine, I have now only finished the 2 years Concept Art course at New3dge, and finally feel like I'm ready to go and make my fangs out in this big vast world.
I absolutely love telling stories and, and am fascinated by tales of mysticism, the surreal mixing with the real, and of places where we don't beling. So, the moodier the merrier !
Here's a collection of some of my works over these last two years, hope you enjoy !
Painting realized with George Varodi as a mentor, was super fun to try out !
A small keyframe done over a 5days course with Jama Jurabaev
It was my first time trying out a lot of new techniques, and a pretty hard lighting to work with. A very interesting experience !
Interior design class with Edouard Caplain. "What would happen if a grandma were to take over a school's toilet ?" Well, this, I guess
And finally, a brutalist/egyptian inspired temple done with the guidance of Sacha Beliaev
Some Final words :
Those last few years were an insane amount of fun and of learning experiences, and I am delighted to have this luck. I am extremely grateful to all those that were here, the New3dge staff, our teachers, my classmates and my friends - Thank you all. You were a great part in this adventure.
I cannot wait to see what the future holds, and hope to keep having just as much fun. See you all there soon !
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