Best Of

For my first full environment portfolio project, I am working on a homicide crime scene in a rundown apartment in 1960s New York, aiming to push realism inside a playable, but believable space that could (hypothetically) be in a game with an investigation element.

My hero assets are a period-appropriate CSI camera, murder weapon (large pipe wrench,) and the victim (covered by a cloth.) At the moment, I am finalizing my establishing shot, the pacing within my greybox/blockout, and the base lighting.

Below are some examples of inspirations of the space from my larger mood-board (which consists of shots from neo noir films and photo references of abandoned/derelict spaces of the era.)


From the inspiration, I fleshed out a Narrative Guidance that I can refer to as the environment develops:


This was my initial blockout (using simple shapes and model placeholders) that I started with in UE to feel out the space/dimensions:


Then I moved to setting up the bases of an architecture kit in Blender (one for the unit, one for the halls) - along with more placeholder props (I attempted this project a couple years ago and have some meshes from then that work perfectly as placeholders.) I also put in some very basic lights. 
Over the past month, I've done more detailed kitting (vents, pipes, cabinets, fixtures, etc.) base lighting, and further defining of the architecture kit along with starting in on the environment settings (fog volume, indirect lighting from the sky, etc.) to further flesh out the greybox / feel of the space.


This past week, I focused on exploring the establishing and supporting renders along with general tweaks to the greybox/lighting etc.

Establishing shot:

Supporting "Investigative" shot:


Does this approach to lighting and the shots I am trying to lock in evoke that contrast of desperation/grunge alongside a crime scene investigation effectively?

Next week will be starting the modeling of the heroes (starting with the murder weapon) while also fitting in some more lighting tweaks / trial and error with finding the right shots I want to stick with throughout the project.