Environment Design // Exercises & Project 1

Environment Design // World Creation & Exteriors

Ibrahim Fazal Ahmad / 0337423 

Environment Design  / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylors University 

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INSTRUCTIONS 

Starting off in Environment Design, it's rather unfamiliar territory to all of us. So theres definitely that feeling of being lost just as we began. It helped me since I already planned out the elements and regions during my break. Which allowed for me to move straight into sketching without really having to plan the my world much. I had ideas for two regions I wanted to focus on, Korea (Ice) and Maldives (Water). Both regions would heavily be fantasised and stylised along with being combined with their given element. 

Initially for Korea I had an idea in which I focus on two different regions, the first being the night market which would be in the lower regions. Secondly, focus on the "sky kingdom" on top of their icy mountains where more mythical creatures reside. 

For the Maldivian region, I wanted to focus on creating something like a cemetery or focus on the entrance to the island. In this world Maldives had already sunk and now are residing in their islands that float above their old city. I really want to try and emphasise the colours of our water and add waterfalls as well. I focused on a cemetery because I saw this image of Koagannu Cemetery in my hometown. It looked so peaceful and beautiful I really fell in love with the energy and wanted to try and capture it.

Here are some reference images I got for the Maldives. Both real life photos from the country of our art and architecture along with some fantasy and whimsical art I saw online which I felt fit the vibes well.

After listening to a lecture from Mr Kannan, I tried more adventurous and interesting angles for my drawings. It's still quite hard to grasp the whole environment design concept since it's really new for me. But I tried just sketching what I imagined the inside of the city might look along with how it would look from the players (third person) perspective.

During this week I further explored into my world, in the Maldives here it is a bunch of floating islands. All of which are being suspended/powered to stay in the air by an Air crystal. I also drew a more developed version of the graveyard using an actual perspective grid instead of just guessing. I attempted to break up the island using a map as well. 

Mr Kannan had asked all of us to come up with nine thumbnail sketches for our environments. The first three are all based in Korea, while the last six are based in the Maldives. Mr Kannan had told me to go for number 2, 3, and 5. But for number 3, combine make the angle more interesting.

After having chosen the three compositions, I blew them up to full size and added a perspective grid and drew in more details. I was told to try and ignore the characters for now and just focus on the environment instead. For the mountain piece, the idea is that it is based in Minjuns homeland of the Sky Kingdom in Korea.

In this drawing, it is also based in Korea. But this time it's in the lower areas which is full of different markets and a bustling night life. There's a lot more story in this, Keikos fox dragon companion is running towards a shop owner who is selling food. I thought this would be a cute story to tell! I also drew a very rough sketch of a possible interior idea of the night market stall itself.

Lastly, I have the Maldivian region. In this I changed the idea from the original quite a bit. It's still a graveyard but I removed the gigantic water structure because the perspective was really warping the image to a super awkward look. Instead I added a building and some waterfall tiers as well for some interest. All the buildings and designs are referenced to Maldivian mosque designs.

Lastly, here are all the sketches coloured in with values before moving onto colouring them in the next project, which will hopefully be followed by rendering!

Project 1 // Exteriors:

REFLECTION

I definitely had a rather rough start on this subject, considering I had never done environment design  before I was very much overwhelmed with how much there is to think about when working. Watching Mr Kannan work is like watching a magician at times, with how quickly he can come up with cool ideas. Unfortunately my magic is still rather weak and it takes me forever to come up with any ideas whatsover which can get really frustrating. I know I should be working, but I just can't come up with any idea that actually seems worth it. Thankfully, I landed a few that work well and I'm excited to progress further on them. I've observed how important the details are in environment design. Without words and even people at times, the environment itself does the speaking. This means we need to tell the story of the environment through different objects and markings and other things in the image. Overall, I think I am growing to really like environment! Just more practice as usual is required.