Introduction

My name is Michael Wu and I’m an environment artist in San Jose, California. I am currently working at Moback, a VR/AR studio in the Silicon Valley. I first was introduced to 3D art in high school where I was able to take a couple of 3D animation classes. I went to at San Jose State University to study Animation/Illustration and focused on 3D modeling.

Planning

Café Lucia is originally an environment for the short film The Moment. Diana Martinez and Kevin Maier, director and animator/story artist respectively, briefed me on the initial concept of the café and left me to fill in the blanks. I wanted the overall tone and mood of the café to be warm, mellow, and inviting; as if one was having a nice cup of coffee. I felt a slightly more stylized and softer aesthetic would go well with that tone. The café was designed to incorporate the most interesting elements of several local cafés. The warm color scheme was also planned to evoke the coziness of the space, with some dashes of cool colors for contrast. In the layout of the café, it was important to have a clearly accessible second floor, in order to convey a larger, more open space. After the film ended I wanted to make the café into a game ready environment.

When making an environment of any size it’s important to plan. Come up with an outline that details the vision and key points of your scene. What are the broad themes and mood? What style and design choices will you make to achieve those? What is the timeline for your project? When is your deadline? What can you realistically achieve in that time and do you have to adjust your scope to actually finish the environment? John Griffiths has a good video regarding project planning.

Create an asset list of meshes, textures, materials, etc. you may need to make. Feel free to add or remove these as the project continues. You can use a project management application like Trello to help you keep track.