Environment designs

Current Project

The Lost Chick

The Concept

This is an ongoing personal project. I've worked on projects on other cultures, but never done one about my own country, so I saw it as a challenge. The requirements that I set for myself are that it takes place in present Singapore, and it contains a balanced amount of man-made things and greenery. Singapore is a garden city, and I wanted my project to reflect that same culture too.

The story is about a chick that gets lost in the neighbourhood, and embarks on a small journey on it's own. As the project is still developing, I allow the story to change accordingly, but still keep the basic requirements in place. To me, part of the fun is seeing how it evolves from the first idea to completion.

The Process

At the beginning of any project, I analyse the design brief and start asking myself questions. Questions like who, what, when, where, why are useful if I'm not sure where to begin. Drawing out mindmaps also helps. At this point, I just lay down all the ideas that come to mind. Once I have enough to go on, I select the ones I feel would work well. As I go along, the ideas start to materialise and I have a better grasp on how to proceed.

After setting a basic direction, I gather references of elements that I want to include in my project. These references help me to understand what I will be drawing. In order to incorporate them into my design, I need to know what it's like in reality first. Sketching and studying these references are important.

Layout and Composition

When I designed the layout and composition of the above piece, I already knew I wanted to have a neighbourhood by a canal. I also considered the shape of the canal, the placement of elements, how to guide the eye, and how to frame the piece. With each sketch, I get a better idea of what works.

Strangely, I never intended to do this bird's eye view piece in the first place. I was going to jump straight into composition pieces for the story. However, I later realised that I didn't have a clear idea of what the setting would be. Thus, I ended up doing it because I needed to know what the world I was building was like.

Designing the elements in the scene

After getting the basic layout and composition. I start going into individual elements in the scene, like the bridge and lookout points by the canal. Things I consider are what to keep and change based on references I have. How do I keep come up with something fresh and interesting but not change the culture or architecture?  As I ask myself more questions, I figure out more things too.

Designing the buildings

The buildings are a core part of the scene, so naturally a big part of the time was spent coming up with building designs. I based these designs on real-life buildings in Singapore. The buildings were based on Streamline Moderne architecture, and I had to be careful to retain those aspects as well.

The Nest

I wanted to establish the location where the story begins, which is at the chick's nest. This scene shows the surroundings around the nest. I used a combination of 3D models from Sketchup and a bunch of photos to create the base for my composition, which I then use to draw over. One difficulty I encountered was how to show the nest and chick, while still showing enough of the background in the scene. So I chose a distance that let me show both together.

Designing the nesting area and plants in the scene

I needed an open area that birds had access to, so I chose an open rooftop area outside a home. I had already taken this into consideration when designing the building, so here I could focus more on the space itself and the elements in it.

For the main plant, I chose one that could support the nest and exposed enough of the leaves to make the nest as visible as possible. In real life, the nest would be more hidden, so this was an intentional decision I had to make. As for the surrounding plants, I chose plants that wouldn't distract too much from the main plant, but that would also support the scene.

This is the point where the project is currently at, and these pieces above are what I have at the moment.

Other Projects

Below are some other projects that I worked on. In general, I go through the same process for all my projects, from analysing the design brief, gathering references, sketching and modeling as required, and finally working on the final piece.

Hunters' Inn

The requirements for this was to design a hunters' inn for a video game, both the exterior and interior. I chose mine to be based off Chinese architecture, set around the 1900s. I also used SketchUp for creating the models in this project.

Medieval Castle

For this project, I designed a castle that housed a throne room for the king. I based my design off German castles and throne rooms.

Prison concept

I designed exterior and interior composition shots for a prison at sea for this project.