The floating habitat

I am very pleased to present my final project from my first year at ESMA: The Floating Habitat. The aim was to tell a story on this theme using a diptych composed of two images without characters. Mine takes place late in the evening in the lounge of a scientific schooner, where researchers who were working on the seabed have suddenly interrupted their work… to celebrate a colleague’s birthday!

Final Render Image 1

Double-click on the image to zoom in and move around more easily.

Final Render Image 2

Double-click on the image to zoom in and move around more easily.

Intentions

My goal was to convey a birthday surprise using the principle of revelation between my two images. In the first image, I’ve opted for cool, dark tones to reflect the seriousness of the scientists who had just been working. In the second image, which takes place the following day, I’ve opted for warm tones to convey the joy of a birthday.

établit scientifique en 3D sur lequel se trouve un microscope, des tubes à essais et des portoires pour tubes à essais

table d'anniversaire dans un salon d'une goélette scientifique sur lequel se trouvent des assiettes et des couverts sales ainsi qu'un cadeau déballé contenant un jouet soucoupe volante

Pre-production

In order to prepare for the transition to 3D, I’ve worked on the lighting and colour scheme of my images using traditional drawing tools. I then stylised one of my images in the dynamic style of Krzysztof Roslan to accentuate the festive atmosphere.

Preparatory drawing no. 1

Tool: pencil

Colourisation no. 1

Tool: coloured pencil

Preparatory drawing no. 2

Tool: pencil

Colourisation no. 2

Tool: coloured pencil

Stylised version

Tool: gouache

Technical Drawings

Once I’ve established the atmosphere, I drew a floor plan of my schooner’s saloon to visualise the layout of the furniture in the room, particularly for positioning my cameras. I then produced a technical drawing in four orthonormal coordinate system of one of the key objects in my story to make it easier to model in 3D.

Orthonormal view

Floor plan

Photobashing

I needed a more accurate preview of my renderings before starting my final models, particularly to determine the textures. To achieve this, I’ve created a quick blocking of my 3D objects without textures, except for the glass objects. I’ve then rendered my images with the Maya version of Renderman. Finally, I imported my two raw images into Affinity Photo to manually apply textures to them.

Production

After the pre-production phase, I needed to find as many references as possible, particularly photos of the same object from different angles, in order to model and texture it as accurately as possible. To do this, I used Pureref to gather my references and Milanote to organise my work. All of my objects were modelled in Maya and textured in Substance 3D Painter. The maps were connected by using the Pixar Renderman shaders.

Organisation

I used Milanote for its tree-based organisation method, which allowed me to group my references, tasks and working hours into different categories in a simple and practical way

References

I particularly needed construction plans and documentary photos of diving and scientific research equipment for my subject.

Microscope with its UV

texturing in Substance Painter

Hypershade

Pixar Renderman node system. Here, I've used a PxrLayer surface to create the graduations on my glass objects.

Conclusion

This project was a good introduction to narrative and technical work in storytelling without characters. It taught me visual language for conveying emotions, particularly through colours, and helped me develop a system for working across different software programmes. I also enjoyed exploring the scientific world, particularly when I contacted Tara Expedition to ask them for information about their environment. 3D combines artistry, technical skill and documentary research. It is this diversity that I love about this discipline. Thank you for reading!