Shop Front Project - Creating a Concept
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Before beginning
my process of concepting a design I had to decide what kind of shop interested
me the most and what I was aiming to investigate in the future. My 3D
experience is rather limited to simple low poly block outs for characters and
then more specifically for 3DS max making the treasure chest and dagger. For my
treasure chest I attempted foliage and heard that within this module we would
be looking to alphas for creating foliage which inspired me greatly.
·
I knew I
wanted to create a building in a fantasy medieval world instead of leaning to
realism or modern/still standing wooden buildings, so I looked into what kinds
of buildings included both foliage and flowers and would fit best in that
fantasy medieval world.
·
Because of
this, I settled for either a:
1.
Apothecary/herbalist
– A medicine building focussing on cures using herbs and potions
2.
Florist –
A shop that would sell flowers
3.
Alchemist
– A shop to convert common things into rarities.
·
Out of
these options, I was most taken by the apothecary/herbalist route since it
seemed to convey that medieval fantasy more than a florist, whilst also having
more of an emphasis on natural things than the alchemist.
Initial Silhouette and Value Checks
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To begin,
I made a set of building silhouettes that drew on the themes of a medieval
house, a herbalist’s ties to the natural world and had sufficient “wonkiness”
that I knew would lend itself to a fairly tris restricted project.
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This
helped me determine what kind of shapes and forms I would like in my project, and
I think all of them have helped guide the direction I took by allowing me to
make decisions very early on what I did and did not like
·
My
opinions were:
1.
This
design was a very structured design, with a lot of roof space and some
interesting shapes in the overhanging section at the left. It would need extra
development to make the cross section interesting and to make sure that the
shapes play well together, but I am happy with this one. This would be a
herbalist found in a town – a very established medicine shop not a hermit in
the woods take on a herbalist.
2.
This is
very similar to the first however it seems a lot less grand. This would suit a
cottage in the hills style for a herbalist instead of a well established
apothecary, however this might mesh well with style one and could be used to
find a mid-ground between to two.
3.
This
tower design was a big departure from the usual square designs I first thought
of, however I didn’t think this would fit a herbalist as much as say a witch,
or some kind of “princess in a tower”, so I didn’t consider this design heavily.
4.
This was
a major departure again and mimicked an igloo and witch swamp hut aesthetic
with the stilts holding up the corridor. This appeared to be the opposite of my
original two, being a hidden herbalist in the middle of a forest for example.
My major issue would be how I could get the plaster and stone textures to work
with such a unique design, and I would struggle to find reference of such. As
this is my first big venture into 3D, I decided I would play it safer than a
dome.
5.
Finally,
this design was meant to mimic a hobbit hole kind of aesthetic and be a hidden
herbalist like the previous design. I enjoyed this one more, however it didn’t
strike me as a design that would fit well in the 15m^3 as specified that we had
and also I would struggle to make this look like a shop, and not just the place
where a herbalist lives.
·
Overall,
I believe that some combination of both 1 + 2 would wield the most successful
outcome, so I began combining both silhouettes by making a multi perspective
concept sheet.
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Initial Shape Language |
First Iteration Concept Sheet:
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This was
my first venture into a fleshed-out concept, using multiple layers stacked on
top of each other to create a cohesive piece. I was sold on the first designs
overhang section, and on the idea of a cross section roof, so I upscaled the
back silhouette of the second and added more detail to combine the two. In
addition to this, I also started thinking about what objects would make a shop
look like a herbalist or apothecary, and so focussed mostly on barrels, sacks,
a custom sign, bottles and books, as well as designed smoke to seem more
mysterious. The timber frame was heavily inspired from reference found online
of structures in Dinan City for instance, and the colours were focussed on an
earthy tone in the walls, frame, and roof with pops of colour in the narrative
props.
·
I also
decided I would make a view of what the inside of the shop may look like – with
a cauldron, scrolls, large jars, and bottles to round out the interior. This
image was not really used again in my project, it became more a reference for
what kind of person owned and ran this shop. It did however lean more to the
witch end of the spectrum, which I changed later after doing research on
herbalists and herbalism as they are separate from witches. This research
changed the tone of the build after wards as well by steering it away from
spooky imagery like cauldrons and more to mystery.
·
This
concept sheet lacked the plaster section because I did this section not under
the impression the plaster texture was a requirement, and later on I decided
that the plaster would be only on the larger building in the top half like in
most buildings in Dinan City.
· There was also some concepting for a well and a street lamp which might fit the theme, and if I had poly’s to spare I would try and include these to the design.
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Initial Concept Sheet |
More in depth concept sheet:
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After the
initial design, I decided that to help my future self I would create a view
from all major angles that could later be referenced like a blue print. This
stage was intriguing for me as trying to piece together the shapes like a
jigsaw was a fun challenge – it also made me think about how the structure
could be interesting on all sides instead of just the front, so I fleshed out
more at the back of the building like a small garden and collection of wares
waiting to be taken inside. The top down angles was especially fun and helped
me come to terms with what the complicated roof shapes may look like, as this
was something that needed to be fleshed out very early in the block out phase.
·
I also
tried to make the building seem more alive by adding more foliage in creeping
vines, the garden and a pair of birds to go along with the already established
nest on one side of the building’s roof.
·
At this
point, I got very excited for starting the block out and began after colouring
the design.
· If I were to do this again I would have created multiple versions testing colour schemes, such as more purple and blue tones as used in the accent foliage and props.
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In depth concept sheet |
Final Conclusions:
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This step
was incredibly useful for me – I found the creating of shapes and layers
intuitive and enjoyed the problem solving involved with piecing together your
own jigsaw. I was certain aspects of this design would change, however I
thought as a core concept it was strong, cohesive and could be a great
foundation for delving into the time consuming modelling.
·
The only
issue I see with this design is that it is missing a “wonkiness” – every line
is straight and well placed which just wouldn’t happen in a medieval town, so
in the later steps this would create issues where the model would have to be
stretched after construction.
· I also made efforts to blue print this to scale – I was very happy with the proportions and so separated the whole design into a square and divided the square into quarters using guidelines so that I could actually measure proportions.
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