500 Words ‘Why&How’. DP2 – Virtual Environments

The Virtual Environments project was a great challenge. The task was simple enough yet allowing a great deal of freedom. We simply had to create a ‘Secret Lair’. We had to choose a superhero/heroes or a super villain’s, however at a closer inspection of the brief given, the allowed influences were various and loose… pretty much anything could’ve been used as an influence! That meant that I was able to let the imagination go while considering how make the four areas required for the project consistent with the vibe of the scene/s.

I decided to create my own set of heroes and villains (The TriStar Team Vs. The Legion Of Doom. I posted about them few weeks back) … and then decided to create the secret lair for T.L.O.D.

The way the lair had to be shown was through an animated movie file… which gave me the idea, why not making it like a video-dossier addressed to one of the two groups? There were also a couple of Z-Brush models I was having fun with, and I wanted to include them in the scenes… And the inclusion of these characters were a source of inspiration for what kind of environment would they fit in. Consistency is the key word while creating something. If you are re-creating (copying sounds awful) the environment of a well known character, somebody else’s IP, the technical details are probably more important (because it is through the details that you achieve consistency in this case), but by making my own set of characters, I just needed to make consistency my business card.

The general style used for the 3D design aspect of the lair, was to be gloomy… almost morbid at times. Even in the more sophisticated areas like the laboratory and the experiment chamber, the colour palette chosen is dull, although some reflective surfaces were used ‘here and there’ simply to increase and amplify the austerity of the surroundings. An appropriate use of the lighting was also considered to create the right vibe… if I had to give an example of this, I’d choose a particular scene where the camera cut from the lab to pass to the arena, and it does it across a corridor where two of the rarely used spotlights were illuminating the only doors… the darkness surrounding the path send a grim message about the prospect of being conducted to the arena.

Although the dossier starts by addressing the group, and shows stills that vary from real life pictures to artist impressions, consistency was the reason that prevented me from including ‘everything’. The sketches of the two super-teams were not included in the final piece for two simple reasons. The breaks in the animation when text appears to explain the previous scene or the presentation of the next scene, had to be kept to a minimum. Otherwise I would’ve risked of taking the attention away from the 3D design focus of the piece. The second reason is that these sketches are so bold and colourful that their style simply didn’t belong in the animation. I also didn’t include the pencil sketches for the creatures and the lair design… they were redundant. (I included some of this work as part of my visual essay, however).

Above you can see details from the other two rooms we have to do for our 3DsMax 'Secret Lair' project.
The first one is a bog-standard laboratory where the captured prisoner's vital signs are monitored whilst injected with a 'super-soldier' type of serum. The second area present a sturdy and rusty structure, affectionately (!?) named the 'Elimination Chamber', where the prisoners are forced to fight each others for their lives... and to entertain their cruel captors... as usual, very lighthearted stuff...