Dec. 2023 Update:

This environment model was made into an Unreal 5 game level. Check out the continuation of this project here.

 

Introduction

This 3D environment was modeled using Autodesk Maya. Textures are from Textures.com and Polyhaven. Some textures were edited using Adobe Photoshop.

Inspiration

This is a writer's workshop. A writer's personal space where they can get away, read books for inspiration, and write their novel. The aesthetic of this room is heavily inspired by the dark academia aesthetic: vintage and art nouveau furniture, vintage books and papers, and ambient lights. I really wanted to try to replicate that kind of cluttered feel these rooms have that makes them feel lived in. The main hallmarks of this room are the desk and its chair, a small armchair and bookshelf, and a vanity table. Some of the smaller props are books, a desk lamp and floor lamps, stacks of paper and loose-leaf paper, tea and coffee cups, a tea kettle, plants, and an area rug. 

References

Assorted references gathered from Pinterest.

Planning

This room has three main spaces: the desk space, the reading nook, and the tea bar. The desk spaces has the desk and its chair. A bulletin board is on the wall above the desk with sticky notes and pages pinned up. The reading nook has an armchair, a small side table, and a bookcase. The side table has some books on it. The tea bar space has a vanity table and a lot of small props, tea bags and boxes, a kettle, cups, etc. 

Sketches

These helped me visualize how I wanted to construct the scene before modeling anything out. It allowed me to see where each area of the room was in relation to each other

Process

Grey Box Model

The initial modeling that was done for this scene. The main props of the scene have been modeled: the desk, bookshelf, and vanity table. Some placeholder models were made for the desk chair and for the armchair.

Desk Space

Reading Nook

Tea Bar

Second Modeling Pass

The majority of the modeling has been done. All the larger props in the scene have been modeled out as well as most of the smaller ones. The only models that still needed to be done were the loose-leaf papers and sticky notes for the bulletin board.

Desk Space

Reading Nook

Tea Bar

First Texturing Pass

About 65% of the scene has been textured. For this first pass, I focused on texturing the smaller props in the scenes since those were the most tedious to do. A lot of the UVs had to be redone since most things were modeled via box modeling. Once these props were textured, I played around with the size of the UV map so that the textures were scaled correctly.

Desk Space

Reading Nook

Tea Bar

Finished Scene

All modeling and texturing are complete. All the props I wanted to have in the scene have been modeled and placed. All the larger props have now been textured. The windows have been replaced so they are a distraction from the scene. Lighting in this scene was also finalized. It's lit by the mesh lights in the lamps and by one large area light pointing down from the ceiling.

Beauty Shots and Wireframes

Desk Area

Reading Nook

Tea Bar

Individual Models

Books

Desk Chair

Desk Lamp

Laptop

Sticky Note Pad

Post Mortem

Overall I am happy with how this scene turned out, especially with it being my first project using Maya and more advanced modeling. If I could do things differently, I would've set up the project folder correctly. Most of the props and their textures were referenced into the main scene file and these links often broke despite being on the same drive, especially if I moved from one computer to another. Given more time, I would've liked to have tried to clean up the noise coming off of the green lamp on the desk; it seems like that was caused by the transparency of the lampshade's texture, which was an effect I wanted just without the noise. I also would've liked to try to either make a short reel showing off this room and I would've also liked to import it into Unity Engine.