Forest Healing - Serenity

The Inspiration

This piece by LZY on ArtStation - simply titled "Harp" - was one of the first that really caught my eye, and I kept coming back to it as I decided what to create. As a harpist myself, I was really drawn to the serene atmosphere and air of quiet mystery.

For this project I really wanted to recreate that hand painted feel, and tried to imitate a more 2D look with a flatter camera focus.

concept to final render

The Process

After gathering reference compiled using PureRef, I planned out everything I needed to accomplish.

The Harp

I decided to start with the harp and build the scene in Maya around it, as it is the focal point. Using my own expertise I determined I could use two real world harps, a Lyon and Healy Drake (left) and a Salvi Titan (right), as a base and to get accurate measurements to scale my scene. I took aspects from both harps for my model and then adjusted the silhouette to best match the concept.

Having something to build around helped me orient and organize myself during this early blockout stage. 

The Girl

I did all my sculpting in ZBrush, the main things being the girl and her clothing, the trees, and a little wood grain on the harp for texturing. Since I'm not focused on animation or rigging, I decided to sculpt the girl in an A pose and rig her using Mixamo for posing. This simplified the process quite a bit and sped up my workflow, saving time and energy.

After finalizing the pose in Maya, I created hair cards for her long flowing hair. However something I would do differently next time, is make her braid crown as geometry instead of weaving the cards together, since it doesn't stand out as much from this angle.

The Flowers

The flowers and foliage in this scene are another part of why I love this scene so much. I wanted to get them as close to the concept as possible, and so this involved hand placing each flower onto the harp and the foreground leaves.

I modeled a few different flowers: a rose, violet, daffodil, daisy, lily, and lily of the valley. Between these 6 flowers and altering their material shaders, I was quickly able to create a variety of flowers to populate my harp and scene with.

I created the grass in a couple layers. I made a simple overall grass layer as a base using a MASH network to generate individual blades on the plane. Next I added grass clumps also using MASH to add texture and get that fluffy look.

The Trees

The trees were all modeled starting in Maya and built up by extruding along a curve. This was a very fluid way of modeling since I could easily adjust the flow of a branch using the curve as a guide. Then I took the UV'ed tree into ZBrush for sculpting. 

All my textures were done in Substance Painter. I used generators to create a general colour base and then hand painted the rest. The last step to get that painterly feel I used blur slopes to blend everything together, really tying it all up nicely.

I also used this same method for her clothing.

The Journey

I renamed my piece "Forest Healing - Serenity"  as a reflection of what I felt while working on it. I wanted to add more depth and storytelling into LYZ's "Harp" and really evoke a sense of wonder and magic in the viewer.

I believe we can all use some healing and a gentle reminder to take a break, enjoy a moment of peace and quiet in your own space. Get in tune with nature. It's these moments that can always make my heart feel full.

progress over 4 weeks