Astronomers Bedroom Blog
For this project I wanted to create an environment that would allow me to highlight my abilities specifically for the type of job I want to apply for. I want to create a realistic environment which is asset heavy but is scale-able for my time frame.
I decided to use a concept of an Astronomer enthusiast’s bedroom. This concept is ideal as it is a black and white line art drawing which allows me to make decisions on materials. It also has a good theme and many assets I can create. Using this concept, I will be able to show I can create a 3D environment from a given concept piece.
This project is primarily to focus my portfolio towards the career I want: a 3D environment/prop artist for a AAA company.
By making this scene I can display a range of relevant skills that would be necessary for me to be successful. These skills in particular are my modeling and texturing abilities, along with my presentation skills and knowledge of engines and different software. I hope as a stretch goal I can light the scene at both day and night time along with adding some simple animations where necessary.
I have always been inspired by large world environments which can immerse me into the game and I aim to be a part of the development of these games during my career. Games such as The Witcher 3, Cyber punk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, Doom and the Elder scrolls games from various AAA developers are some examples of the type of environment developments that I'd like to be a part of. Any environment that can tell the story of the world I tend to enjoy.
I am looking forward to modeling many of the small unique objects in the scene such as the Lunar lander and the rover as it will be a fun thing I have not done before.
Modelling
Having many high-quality props was something I aspired to achieve during this project. I also aimed to maintain a sensible poly counts throughout the scene. I used Marvelous Designer throughout the scene for bags, curtains, blankets and the bed sheets. I wanted the room to feel lived in so having a lot of mess and clutter would give this illusion. I had difficulties making the bedding as trying to create a realistic duvet was challenging. Creating creases, along with adding padding and thickness to it took me a long time to achieve. I also wanted to make the bags in Marvelous Designer as I wanted their shapes to react to the environment. This is seen from the hanging bag and the bag resting on the floor and desk leg.
I really enjoyed making a lot of the smaller assets in the scene such as the computer and keyboard, alarm clock, telescope, along with the lunar rover and lander. Going into depth of references to create an accurate version is something I enjoy doing. Finding and working out references for the lunar lander was a real challenge but was one of my favorite parts of the project.
Texturing
For texturing I used Substance Painter with select textures made in Substance Designer. The floorboards, a knitted blanket material and the carpet material where made in substance designer. For the carpet I used parallax occlusion to create the effect. This is also seen on the cushions near the window.
This is the Unreal engine 4 material for the Carpet and Pillow. I created material instances' from this where i was able to change the colours, patterns, scale and other factors to adapt it to different objects.
For the curtain I created a material in UE4 to allow the light to be affected when passing through it, creating a tint that effects the room. This is the same material used on the lampshades.
Lava Lamp
For the lava lamp I wanted to make it move in the scene. I was not sure how to go about this to begin with. Research led me to an idea on creating light rays where two maps would rotate around a cone to give the illusion of dust moving. I played around with the inputs and colours and managed to create the effect of a lava lamp. From a distance I believe it works well however up close I am not fully happy with the result. I will need to do further research on how to create the affect better but from just experimenting on my own, and by combining prior knowledge I believe I did an ok job.
