Backyard - Research, Planning & Sketching

 When it comes to art, stylized is my true love. Why would I want to replicate real life when it already exists? So when I found out we are free to choose this project's style, I immediately chose stylized. 

So with this decision already made, I set to figure out what exactly I wanted to do with my backyard. Since there are already a lot of new things and challenges for this project, I chose to do something a bit closer to my comfort zone, just to give me space to experiment with the techniques rather than with the concept without taking on too much and risking to not finish the project. One step at a time is my motto when it comes to projects and experimentation. If I can learn a new thing every day, that's perfect. I believe that if I try to just yank myself out of my comfort zone it would do more bad than good. 

My mind then went to the fantasy MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft, thought of the vibe that those kind of fantasy worlds give, the mysterious and eerie feeling, I started to wonder how the backyard of a sorcerer's house would look like and set out to find some reference. 

For this I mostly concentrated on the aesthetic and general feeling, trying to figure out how the house would look so I could visualize the backyard using that information. As I went on and the idea grew, I also gathered some reference for the assets and style. I knew I needed a focal point, so I thought about modelling a tree, something like a blueish, purplish willow type of tree that would inspire a mystical feeling through that colour palette. I believe that the combination of blues and purples and all their tones tends to convey the idea of magic, of something arcane and mysterious. An example of this are the Night Elves of Warcraft. Their entire colour palette is made out of these colours, sometimes even some green, though even this leans more towards a turquoise in the case of the character Tyrande.

I analysed the colour palette used in the work of Kevin Young, dungeon artist at Blizzard Entertainment, so I could hopefully get an idea of how I could convey a similar feeling in my own work. 

Kevin Young, 3D Dungeon Artist; additional art: Denis Rogic; Blizzard Entertainment
Art Station

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EV0Ey2

I then started putting together a second mood board, to research in more detail what I would like my assets to look like, what materials they would be made of, and how I could make that material look stylized. 

I noticed that the big forms and symbols that inspire the idea of the object to the viewer are kept and exaggerated, while the realistic detail is discarded. For example, when it comes to wood, in most cases, the surface property is only showed by the winding lines that imply the model of the wood and immediately make the viewer think of wood, without any further information needed. 

 

I then sketched my idea, to visualize it better. 

The sketch is pretty detailed in terms of lighting, but I still made a blockout in 3ds Max and brought it in Unreal to see how things would look in 3D and make sure that it would fit, that no things would overlap badly and that the lighting would be proper. 

Being satisfied with this, I set out to model my backyard.