MODELING & TEXTURING
BONSAI
Done with Maya, ZBrush, Agisoft Metashape, Substance Painter, Substance Designer
Ideas & References
After looking at bonsai references, I came up with two designs. The first one is a miniature house within the bonsai trunk, and the second one has a simpler design. I decided to go with the second sketch with most of the design based on the picture reference.
The trunk is sculpted using ZBrush.
Renders
Played around with perspective, lighting, and camera to create the final image.
Textures
I bring the pictures of the leaves with slightly different lighting rotating around into Substance Designer to produce the base color, roughness, opacity, normal, and height. In the final product, I add subsurface scattering to create a more realistic look for the bonsai leaves. The same is done for the ivy leaves.
The wood and rocks are simple textures from Substance Painter.
The dragon details on the pot is hand painted, taking reference from the Vietnamese Ly dynasty. The design is not only cool, but is also a part of history that I want to showcase through my work. Though the seams are not noticeable, I realized that for the UV I should've cut at the bottom to not mess with the design on the pot.
There are around 30-70 close up images for each of these textures that are compiled and processed through Agisoft Metashape to create high quality 3D models, which are then baked to create base color, normal, displacement, and ambient occlusion maps. They are exported to Substance Designer to create roughness and height.
GAME OF LIFE
Done with Maya and Substance Painter
About the Game
Bầu cua tôm cá (Gourd-Crab-Prawn-Fish) is a Vietnamese gambling game that is frequently played during Lunar New Year. The sides of the dice have pictures of the gourd, crab, prawn, fish, rooster, and deer corresponding with the spaces on the board. You place bets on the board on what you think would appear on the dice.
Ideas & References
Since New Year is associated a lot with red and yellow, and Đông Hồ paintings uses primarily red, green, and yellow, it's very easy to incorporate elements into the scene. I used these as reference to model, and sketched out the crab and the gourd since there aren't paintings of them in the traditional style.
With "Game of Life" as the theme, I think it's a good idea to have everything in motion as well as having these characters seemingly coming too life by standing and grabbing the money. With Đông Hồ paintings being a traditional Vietnamese art style, and the game being a part of childhood, they fit neatly in the theme as a part of my life.
Renders
I intended to have a singular spotlight and harsh shadows to really emphasize the game but decided against it in order to create a warmer and inviting atmosphere.
Modeling & Texturing Process
For the animals, instead of creating a singular cut-out, I did multiple parts and layered them back to create a 3D effect. I did slight warps to the meshes and decrease the opacity to make them more realistic as paper. The textures are hand-painted with sketchy lines to resemble Đông Hồ paintings.
THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE
Done with Maya and Substance Painter
Ideas & References
Based off of Grimm's Fairy Tale "The Fisherman and his Wife," I depict the hovel at the beginning of the story, when the fisherman has just caught the flounder. I took some liberties since I want to showcase the shack, but at the same time let the audience sees the flounder, which is an important part of this story. The sky is grey and muddy from the storm, but there is sunlight peaking through and shining on the special founder. Far away and blurry is the ocean, with a small boat tied to the post.
The small shack is made out of mismatched tree woods, tied together with plants as an attempt to block out the sun and rain. Nets and fishing equipment are littered throughout the place. Kitchen supplies are old, bent, and rusty.
Modeling & Texturing Process
First rendition of this I intended it to have a fish-eye effect, but since it doesn't show a lot of the environment, I decided to change the perspective.
I originally thought to have the shadows of the fisherman and his wife arguing in the background, but as the scene gets busier, it doesn't translate as well so I scrapped that idea.
For the fish nets, I decided to make the models bag shaped and added a grid texture on top. I try to have every objects dent and mismatched to show the conditions that the couple lives in. Same with the woods being uneven and are in different colors.
I want to make the scene busy but still keep the main focus the flounder, so aside from using lighting, I also keep the surrounding area cleaner to emphasize.
IT'S A SMALL WORLD
Done with Maya and Substance Painter
There are real-life elements like the streetlight, the electricity box or the AC units, but most of the alleyway is brought together by books and office supplies. The globe also appears faintly in the background to solidify the scale of this environment.
Renders
I started out with a block out of how I want the alleyway to look like and tested the lighting. During the first render, I realized that the light is too yellow, and the foreground is kind of dark and dull, so I added white indirect lights to the foreground.
I kept the modeling and texturing of this project pretty simple. The objects are repeated to keep the scene busy but not overused.
THEMED ENVIRONMENTS
Done with Maya and Substance Painter
Desperate Hs
Based on Desperate Housewives title sequence, I get to pick a theme that starts with H and have to create an environment based on the history of art. The word that I picked is Harrowing, and it's based off of two artworks from Van Gogh, The Potato Eaters and Still Life with Potatoes. I replaced all the people in the painting with swarms of rats to for a disturbing, uneasy feeling. The textures are hand painted to mimic the art style of Van Gogh, and I try to stay true to the original lighting of The Potato Eaters.
A Gift from the Garden
This theme is about the anti-war movement happening in the 70s against the Vietnam War. I decided to go with warm and bright colors to contrast with what's actually happening. The bomb, which is painted in tie-dye colors and daisies with the noticeable word "PEACE" in the middle is about to make contact with the rice field, which is also bright and colorful.
Water, Water Everywhere but Not a Drop to Drink
As the name suggested, I wanted to create a bedroom environment with ocean blue lamp shade and glass jellyfish as decoration. The idea evolved, and now it's a sea of colorful glassy jellyfish.
Between the Lines
Based on the lyrics of Arctic Monkeys' Love is a Laserquest
When I'm pipe and slippers and rocking chair
Singing dreadful songs about summer
Will I have found a better method
Of pretending you were just some lover?
I went through different angles before settling with this one, where I imagine this person stuck in the past, listening to vinyls, watching old movies that they don't pay attention to, reminiscing about a special someone.
Detective Desk
After creating the Swiss Army knife, I want to create a fitting environment for it. The knife fits right in when placed on the detective's messy table. I also created a late night atmosphere by lighting up the table with the lamp and emulating lights coming from the window nearby.
Sketches, Renders, & References
TOAD SUES HEAVEN
Done with Maya and Substance Painter
Final Product
Ideas & References
Modeled and lighting done in Maya, rendered with Arnold, textured with Substance Painter.
The cuckoo clock is based on a Vietnamese folk lore called "Con cóc là cậu ông trời" or "Toad Sues Heaven" about a frog rallying animals and going to Heaven to demand rain because Earth is suffering from a severe drought.
The architecture of the cuckoo clock takes inspiration from the Meridian's Gate in Hue and the the entrance of the Mausoleum of Emperor Minh Mang.
Heaven is the cuckoo, residing at the top, looking down to see what the commotion is.
For the revelers we have the tiger, the wasp, and the crab chasing and attacking the Thunder God.
The dragon is wrapped around the cuckoo clock, facing the bear and the fox at the base. The little toad is sounding the drum to get attention from Heaven.
While the pendulum represents the scorching hot sun, the weights represent the incoming rain that will save the everyone.
Modeling & Texturing Process
Cuckoo clock progress from blocking out passes, test lighting, to texturing.
Changed the camera angle to better showcase the pendulum and weights as well as the genre scene. Modified the base of the cuckoo clock structure to introduce more curves, so that it will look less blocky overall.
The color of the dragon is changed to be more noticeable compared to the black/dark green color from the sketch.
Added the lanterns to light up the revelers and cuckoo better. During close-ups, the characters are emphasized better thanks to this.
Characters modeling, texturing, and lighting progress.
I based the dragon's head on a statue from the Nguyen Dynasty. Made adjustments to Heaven and the bear to be more proportional and dynamic. Costumes for Heaven and Thunder God are taken reference from shows depicting the same characters. For the textures, I decided to make them look like handmade wooden figurines.
Still Images & Close Ups
Heaven as the cuckoo.
Crab, Tiger, Wasp attacking Thunder as reverlers.
Bear, Dragon, Fox, and Toad as genre.