This scene was an assignment for my level and environment design class based on this photograph by Rasul Kaya. I remember wanting to create a piece that accurately reflects student life- high tech software and hardware contrasted harshly by cheap junk food. The Maya crash screen was honestly mostly there to keep the rainbow background present without it completely overwhelming the scene, but I personally feel that it adds a lot to the vibe of slaving away at a piece all night only for your work to fail you. Weirdly enough, Maya didn’t crash once while I was working on this piece…maybe I should complain more often.

This assignment did an incredible amount of work in getting me over my aversion to environment art. I was initially dreading this class due to having bad experiences with 2D background work- however, I found that working in a 3D space, where correct perspective is guaranteed and all I need to worry about is the accuracy of the forms and the proper sizing of objects relative to eachother made me realize that environments and props can be a ton of fun! I loved finding chances to add little pops of personality throughout the piece without a character present, and ensuring accuracy of my work to my references was extremely satisfying once I had models and textures I was happy with. Afterward, I even found myself more willing to incorporate environments into my 2D work!

Scene modeled and composed in Maya, textured in Substance Painter, and rendered in Marmoset.