Environment Project - Fantasy Archway
For this project I set myself a brief to create a small environmental diorama from start to finish, to help me learn about the whole 3D workflow. I set out with a general "overgrown fantasy" setting, and was quickly drawn to imagery of doors and archways. After iterating on this until I had a design I liked, I textured it using a mix of procedural materials and photographs I'd taken, and created two lighting setups for day and night. Overall, I definitely achieved the aim of learning more about creating environments in 3D, and there's a lot of skills in areas like texturing, UV mapping and particle systems that I'll take forward into future projects.
Final day and night renders of the scene
Initial sketches exploring designs of fantasy doors and gates
First concept to take forward into a 3D model
I changed some things up in the model, and ended up deciding that while I liked the archway and the window, the door itself felt too mundane for the focal point of a fantasy piece.
Sketches to redesign the door - inspired by metal gates and Art Deco designs
Final sketch for the gates - I ended up flipping it and adjusting some elements as I converted it into 3D.
Some subtle animation, the way I imagine it would look in a game or scene. The dappled light effect was created using a transparency-masked plane with a tree branch texture.
Turnarounds with and without night-time shading