The Okiya's Fade

The project "The Okiya's Fade" is my very first personal project realized after the Skyup Academy's computer graphics course. The inspiration for this project came to me while watching a film that I loved very much as a child, "Memoirs of a Geisha". For this project I was responsible for all the aspects: starting from the environment composition, to modeling, to texturing and lighting.

The idea was to recreate a Maiko's room in an Okiya during the transition from the Meiji to the Taisho era (1912 ca), and let the character, the girl herself, walk through the scene as if it were a psychological journey of her. In my mind the room had to be warm and saturated but cold and bare, producing a sensation of comfort and discomfort at the same time.

I spent lot of time looking for references. First, I studied the culture of the Geishas and the specific era, such as the customs of clothing and jewelry. I then dedicated myself to the furniture and various objects of the scene.

For the next phase, I put myself into creating the volumes for the blockout of the scene. Not having a specific reference, the composition of the Okiya and the position of the various props has been changed several times.

Finally, I was ready to move the scene into Unreal.

I really enjoyed the texturing phase. I took advantage of the opportunity to study PBR materials on substance designer. I thus created three main materials, of which I produced some color variations. This is how I realized the material for the tatami, the wooden parquet and the ceiling. Starting from the parquet wood, I made different wood variants without paneling that I used for the furniture.

Here are some of the props I've made starting from zero.

Finally, you will find some final renderings below.