In Progress
When I was assigned a room project, I bounced around different ideas. Should I create a gritty detective’s den? A messy kitchen? A crime scene? Ultimately, I settled on making a mermaid theme, since they are my favorite mythical creatures.
But, I thought that would be too difficult. How would I show that a monster lived here, without depicting the actual creature? Sure I could make coral and fish everywhere, but it would only look like a sunken room. So, that’s precisely what I decided to create.
I also decided upon a Victorian theme because of how elegant the style is. The room has a stool, sink, lounging chair, toilet and claw footed tub. For decoration, there is a potted plant, and three paintings. In the scene, a school of bright yellow sea goldies swim through a window, and a blue spotted octopus lurkes ominously behind a curtain.
My favorite part of the composition is the furniture – especially the tub, sink and toilet. Although they were very difficult to make, they look very polished and realistic.
The most difficult part of the project was the composition. Victorians loved clutter, and rooms were tightly packed with possessions, paintings and potted plants. This isn’t good for someone on a strict deadline. And too much clutter would distract from the story, and crowd the composition. So this is much more minimalistic than actual antique rooms.
Similar to the fashion of the time, many of the furnishings have metal, wood or porcelain detailing. I also applied chipped paint textures to the walls, and an old, worn done look to the wood. Although this enhanced the story, it takes a very strong computer to render quickly – something I don’t have. It took me 2 days to render 2 images, both of which corrupted and wouldn’t open. So I had to go back into MAYA, and significantly lower the render quality. Even then it took a long time to render, and my laptop frequently crashed from overheating.