In the industry there are quite a few sectors that require creating 'Digital Environment' as their job roles.

VFX
In visual effects industry, digital environment play an important role. The environment is a tool to goes along with the story telling together with the character. 3D artist and matte painter are the job roles in the post production pipeline that create the environment and paint the environment. They are required to model, texture, and create digital environment and set extension. Visual effects industry is widely known in film production but within the industry there are other fields like advertising and commercial that require digital environment artist. Nowadays, artists are able to create the the environment with the technologies and provide photo-realism environment which save a lot of work than traditonal 2D matte glass painting. 

Industry Sectors 

The unique of chinese architecture is the details they put even it is a minor object. In chinese culture, they believe everything have to be perfect to make sure their luck will always be with them. (perfect angle, perfect number. number 9 is always used to show longevity)

Chinese Temple, Building and Palace

Below are photos that i took when I travel to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. These 3 countries are rich of chinese cultures and there are lot of heritage and culture architecture. I use them as reference for my exterior environment design.

I found that the lighting from the tom and jerry and the way the scene was set up help me in designing my scene. 

On the right side, the L scene setting shows how the camera angle move in relation to the scene set up. There is a shot in my environment where I could use this technique for the camera movement. 

Setting the Scene by Fraser Maclean

I included some of the reference from the book as it is useful for me to set up my scene and story telling through the camera angle. 

Tom and Jerry

When there is environment related to small creatures in a house Tom and Jerry will be the first pop up in my mind. I refer to Jerry's house as it will be quite similar to the setting that I would like to have in my environment. In Jerry small home, it is small but it is interesting with minimal props and lighting. From there, I could refer to the prop placement in my scene as it is limited space for a bunny hole. 

Ratatouille

I look upon ratatouille as reference as the main character is a mouse which mean the point of view from the mouse will be from low angle, worm eye view. I could refer to the scale and camera angle from the movie. The environment will not be suitable for my theme but I can refer to props which related to the scale. Ratatouile movie also show the interaction between the animal and human in storytelling which useful for me to plan my storyboard well. 

Concept Sheet : Bunny Home/Hole

For the bunny home, I started off with sketches and then a concept sheet with Photoshop. I think of assets that will be appeared in the bunny home where the asset can be gather from the room itself. For example, candle holder, thread, cup, cloth and etc.

Concept Sheet : Bunny Hole

Blocking : Bunny Hole

Sun and Sky Light

Ambient Light

Point Light

Sun and Sky Light

The process above show the modeling process, texturing, and lighting. At first, I did put Sun and Sky Light but the render times took 5 minutes. After I found out that I could use different light ot replace that and get almost the same result, I had 2 directional lights, one from the window and one from the door. I put area light to brighten up my scene (Depth Map Shadow). For the shadow, i put effort in changing the resolution, bias and filter to obtain smooth shadow. In the end I use Raytrace shadow as it is much more easier and doesn't take much render time as Depth Map Shadow. For the texture, I used mostly image and UV wrap them. For the wood texture, I used Blin > Colour > Wood > Stucco to achieve a wood like texture. I found it is hard to get at first but when i get used to it, it is lot more easier to control. 

Before setting up the camera, I plan the camera movement , and the cut from the shot. 

Final Render Shot

From the journal plan, it keeps the tracking of my work flow. For the first 4 weeks, the work is still on the track, after the 5th week, the work did't manage to keep going as it plan while there is another module on going. After the formative, I decided to take out one of the scene which is the establishing shot to save up my time in modeling and texturing. I model the living room and the bunny home from the previous blocking scene to get the position of my asset.

Next i textured the asset using mostly the UV editor in Maya rather than the Headus UV layout which i find easier to use but I need more time to obtain the textured that I want. I am stuck during the texturing stage because I am finding it hard to get the texture I want. I enjoy modeling rather than texturing. 

After realizing I could replace Sun and Sky light with different lights, I played around with them to achieve the result that I wanted. I used directional lights, area light and ambient light to create the early morning sunshine ambience. 

I render TIFF sequence in HD720 than HD1080 because I am afraid that I don't have enough time to finish rendering it. The rendering process took me 3 days in total. I did render the final shot in HD1080 setting.

Lastly, I put the sequence altogether in Adobe Premiere Pro and add sound effects. 

Overall I am happy woth my work, If I have more time i would like to have the establish shot and proper texturing.