So, who am I?
I am 19 years old, a student at Middlesex University, London. I am studying 3D Animation and Games, 2nd year at the moment. I have various art-based hobbies that I have developed over the years, from simply drawing, to composing music, to creating models in various programs, Maya being my current favourite program.
What is your “Journey Towards The Light” project about?
This piece is based upon a game called “Journey” about a character who explores the world they are placed in, learning about the story behind the scenery they’re set in through ancient symbols that interact with you as you travel around the world.
I wanted to recreate a scene from Journey that really captures the scale and beauty of the game. I have always been in love with this game. The aesthetics are incredible, the scale of yourself against the buildings and mountains being incredible, and in general, it is a game well worth playing and experiencing.
The program I have used to create this project is Maya. I created every single building, the mountain, graves, the character, clouds, fog, and foliage all from scratch, very low poly, and then arranged the scene in a way which shows off how big the scene really is.
The fog and clouds that I have created for this piece is possibly my favourite thing I have learnt to do so far. I simply used platonic solids with 0 subdivisions, duplicated them in a pattern I liked, and then duplicated this group several dozen times on the floor and sky of the scene. Then I simply used an alpha setting on the vertex painting tool in order to colour every single platonic and give it transparency.
The way that I have given the piece colour, is through vertex painting, from within Maya. I have only used face-based painting to give every single face a different colour, with no gradients present in order to keep this piece as minimalistic as possible.
After I have positioned, coloured and adjusted everything to my liking, I wanted to create the foliage in the background, but also didn’t want it to look out of place (much like the large square leaves I used as a temporary solution). I decided to have a look at what else I could do with a platonic. I scrolled through the settings to find a platonic variation (Octahedron) that would not have any square polygons, only triangle polygons, just to keep things consistent.
After this, I was happy with the final product, and was ready to call it finished, being ready to upload to Sketchfab.
Sketchfab is a great platform for me to share my work with people interested in modelling, looking for models, professionals, and much more. It allows me to get inspiration from other artists, learn about their techniques as well as get new contacts from people within the businesses I would like to join one day.
I am very grateful for this project to get staff picked, even more to get a spotlight about it as it gives me an chance to share my process of how I have created my project and new discoveries I have made, to open my work up to new and creative opportunities – platonics are my new best friend.
More About Me and My Work
I am an artist in many fields. I have previously studied Graphic Design A levels at college, as well as produce music as part of my hobbies. My tumblr blog also goes into depth of how I create some of my works, as well as my life drawing sessions being posted on there. Here are the links to find more of my work:
If you would like to contact me, feel free to email me!
About the author
Adrian Gabrysz
A student at Middlesex University, within London, studying 3D Animation and Games. Previously studied Graphic Design and IT. Also producing music as a hobby.
