RABBIT HOLE

This is what I've done for our summer 2023 rendering project. 

Before starting our third year, we were tasked to present the universe/world of our choice, original or already existing.
We had to present it through at least two pictures and one video. 

I decided to do an original world which would be based on a feeling that is very personnal to me and which I am quite fascinated with. 

The feeling I'm talking about is one I get when I feel like I'm not supposed to be somewhere, but still got to be there and be able to explore all I want. It is a curious mix of fear and curiosity which I was able to experience a few time in my life. In cinema (and eventually video-games), I was able to feel this kind of thing with the shots I saw. My main goal for this project was to see if I was able to create pictures that would evoke me that feeling. 

MY REFERENCES

I decided for the main setting to be a house with old decoration. Atmosphere was my absolute main focus and decided to have an ambiance inspired by movies like Jacob's Ladder(1990) and Dark City(1998) who both have this kind of both unsettling and aesthetically fascinating atmosphere to me. All the while picking up a lot of things I found on the internet. 

THE RESULTS

THE STORY

A man wakes up in a room with no memories of what happened before he gets there. In the room where he finds himself, there is nothing, only a door. And taking it leads him to what seems to be a mansion's hall. 
There is absolutely no signs of life. Some things lets to believe that the mansion is inhabited like some ornaments still there or the fact that the lights were on before the man entered the hall. Despite furniture and some props here and there, the hall seems abandoned. There are dishes layed on the table in the middle of the room, like if someone was expected, but there are only half of them, only one set and they seems to just be taking the dust. 
The man tries to leave by the front door, but it is locked. When he tries too look through the window, there seems to be just a black abyss on the other side. Can he really leave? 
A radio is also there, but the cable is cut. It seems that someone or something wants the man to stay. But who? There seems to be no personnal item (or just item for a matter of fact) in the room outside of some blurry photos. 
The only options that are left is to see if the other doors in the room are open. To his surprise, the man open the first one he tries and find behind it a patio surrounded by concrete walls. A room that has nothing to do around a front door. The character asks a lot of question, but his only option right now is to go deeper into this path, wondering what might happen when he opens another door...

BREAKDOWN

I wanted for this setting to feel impossible and ambiguous, and so, I didn't came with any real story behind this. There is by conscequent, not an ounce of an explaination for how those things came to be. I really wanted it to be more about the atmosphere than the story and I hope I could at least evoke some feelings through those pictures (because if not, the viewer could just think it is a random set of arrangement with no reasons behind and I can't blame them for thinking that because the story is really just a base X) )

I tried to make the main hall strange to look at. Inspired by liminal spaces and some of my references, I decided to give it this old look (to make it evoke a memory from the past. I choosed this kind of aesthetic because it makes me think of my deceased grandmother's house decoration), but also constructed it in a way to make it feel abnormal from an architecture standpoint.
We never actually see the roof in any of the pictures or the animation. This was made to make us ask if there is even a roof at all or if the wall just go on forever. Still, the light/fan is still hanging from something really high. Those kind of devices never go down that much.
In the second floor, two hallways are placed one after the other. And a window is also placed, seemingly out of reach, but also, if we take the patio into account, this window seems to have no use in particular since it is facing a concrete wall. 
In the patio, the light are not placed in a good spot and are not efficient at lighting up the obelisk or the rest of the room.

There are also some hints of physical anomalies in this setting. I mentionned the black abyss outside in the story bit. But also, when the character enters the patio, the staircase from the main hall is supposed to be protuding to the right of the door the characters walk through, but when he looks, there is nothing there. I wanted to underline the fact that there might be some psychological/supernatural elements in place. 

And at last, still as a way to pay tribute to liminal spaces, which evoke past memories, I thought it would be fun to scatter a few easter eggs through the scenery, just making them not that visible, or deform them a bit (which also worked great, I'll admit it, as good placeholders). Here are a few exemples.

SELF-CRITIQUE

I overall like the renders, even if there are a few compositing problem with them. But here are the gripes I got with the results:

From a story perspective: I was told that the setting in itself and the way the character progresses are, in a lot of ways, referencing video-game progression and that it wasn't necessarily a good way of telling a story. I effectively got inspired by the look and architecture of Resident Evil games building and while it wasn't my intention to make it feel like a video game, I definitely see why my approach can be viewed that way and why it is not a good thing.
Regarding from a purely aesthetic perspective: It feels like there are a bit of difference between how dusty and dirty some places of the hall feels (the ground doesn't seem very polished, but the table looks clean and sleek.) Also, the UVs from my table are poorly done. 
I wish I also did better materials for the pillar, door handles and radio. 
The hand we see in the animation is really badly made, to me, it is mostly the shape which is wrong. For some reason, this was just before we did a school project about the hand, so a way to go I guess X)
During the animation, the background of the patio just... flashes and I don't know why. I believe it is a compositing error. Ah... About that, the picture depth of field is not good looking. I did it by hand because of a lack of time towards the end of the project.

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Modeling and Rendering done with: Maya/Renderman
Texturing inorganic material and Title Design done with: Affinity Photo
Sculpting and texturing organic material done with: ZBrush
Compositing done with: Nuke