Introduction

Hi, my name is Vitaly. Three years ago, my friend sent me a video with work for a 3D challenge from Pwnisher. I watched it several times in a row, it impressed me a lot, and I thought I wanted to try to learn something similar and get at least a little closer to that level. Since then, I’ve been studying 3D graphics, first hard-surface modeling, then sculpting, and now I’m focusing on creating short animated atmospheric scenes.

About six months ago, I came across Roderick Porter’s track “Ghost” (feat. Ivri), and I really liked it. In general, I’ve always liked sad, melancholic music like Lil Peep and XXXTentacion, and this time was no exception. An image of a quiet street in a city at night instantly popped into my head, which later developed into the work When the Lights Are On.

First and foremost, it was important for me to convey the melancholic atmosphere and mood of the night city that would match the music I have chosen. At the same time, I wanted to move away from PBR textures to make the work look stylized. Soon, I started collecting references, looking for photos and stylized images of night streets, researching the colors and shades of the night.  

One interesting thing to make my work more realistic, I opened the game “Spider-Man”, flew through the streets of New York, and took screenshots of objects and compositional solutions that I liked.