World Building & Set-Dressing

The best way to dress up a scene is to have a solid idea of what you are trying to convey to the viewer. Set-dressing comes down to the setting, mood, and story you want to tell. At Darewise our concept art pieces answer all of these questions, enough so for someone like me or another 3D Environment Artist to work with. Below is a concept by our Lead Artist, Bradley Jeansonne. I always request a piece like this for any new environment we work on as it gives me a global vision of what we are trying to achieve in terms of color, palette, tone, emotion, and setting. I can work with this. For example, the massive structure could be a temple of sorts or an ancient structure that is now providing shelter for the locals, there may be caves, canyons, rivers that created the swamp, valleys, lakes, small towns and other elements not present in the image. I have enough creative freedom and trust from my lead that I can start experimenting and suggest new ideas that could fit in the world instead of requesting 20 different concepts.

Hand Placing

Hand placing always starts with composition, you should have a focal point and build the scene around that, always guiding the viewer’s attention. At Darewise I was initially set-dressing by hand because I had to and honestly, sometimes this is the best approach because you are able to craft everything to suit your needs. The downside is that it takes time but for any project, there will always be handcrafted areas so it’s beneficial to know how to create well-established shots using the tools available to you. When it comes to dressing a scene my advice would be to work in Detail Lighting mode (black and white) to ensure your values are correct. If your values are wrong then no matter what you do with your colors, the piece will fall apart. There’s a reason the Old Masters such as Raphael, Da Vinci, and Rubens studied values and composition all their lives. Focus on the large shapes first and really make sure that everything you place has a purpose. Question it. If there is a rock in the sand, where did it come from? Did it fall from the upper canyons or did a ship crash, causing a debris avalanche? If so, where is the ship? These are some of the questions you ask when dressing a scene by hand.

Unreleased Demo Project – 3D Environments: