Last Yard

For my final project at Think Tank, I had the pleasure of working with Kacper Niepokólczycki, who helped to keep me on track and provided invaluable feedback. I started the project by going through concepts on ArtStation with the goal of finding a concept with a somewhat complex environment that would allow me to put to use various skills and workflows.  

I eventually found a concept by Huihui Chen that caught my eye due to its vibrant colors and mood. It depicted an abandoned tram station turned into someone’s personal gardening yard. I was fascinated by how detailed the concept was and the emotions it evoked through its composition and lighting. Additionally, the concept had a wide variety of assets that I could create using different workflows. Once the concept was set, I began gathering references, creating an asset list, and developing a schedule.   

I organized references using pureRef. I mainly stuck to using real-world references, which were mostly pulled from Unsplash, Flickr, and Google Images. Since it can be difficult to get high-quality pictures from Google Images, I would adjust the advanced settings to filter for only images larger than 40 megapixels.  

I also used Google Lens to identify some of the props I was unfamiliar with or to find references that better matched a prop in the concept. When selecting which references to use, I look to see if there are any details in the reference that would be useful, such as its texture, any important details, or if it provides a new angle of the prop. It was also important to me that the references had a sufficiently high resolution, which helped a lot later when creating materials. 

From the text within the concept, I was able to ascertain that the concept itself used Dobashi Station, a tram station located in Japan, as its base. I located the station using Google Earth, which provided me with several invaluable references, helped me to understand the layout of the station, and provided a good view of the background buildings.