Research and Idea Generation
For the Environment Design unit I had to choose a main theme and a sub-theme, and then create an environment that fit those themes.
The four main themes were Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction and Historical with the eight sub-themes being Alien, Corruption, Utopia, Dystopia, Celebration, Decay, Family and Beauty.
For the main theme I chose Fantasy and then Decay for the sub-theme.
Researching the Themes
I chose fantasy for the very large amount of reference imagery or videography I could take inspiration from. Playing many video games and watching lots of television/cinema meant I had a wide scope of the fantasy genre which I could use to generate ideas.
With decay as a sub-theme, I first had to gain an understanding of what decay is and how it differs to corruption. Both sub-themes are present in the show “The Last of Us”. The corruption appears on screen in the form of the infected and the cordyceps vines/tendrils that cover the landscape. However, decay works in the durability of the environment in the show. Many buildings are broken down or destroyed, being decayed.
Generating ideas for the environment was fairly easy once I decided on the theme/sub-theme. I looked into the media I knew and that led me to the decaying structures of The Last of Us. The very broken down buildings of a modern world fascinated me, leading me further into decay as a topic. However, the environment needed to fit into the genre of fantasy and the architecture of places like Boston and Salt Lake City don’t exactly scream swords, axes and magic.
This lead me to look at some fantasy shows and video games to see what is more suiting to the aesthetic I would want to portray. Games like Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Skyrim and more were considered but I settled on using the environments of Castlevania, a Netflix adaptation of the original Dracula story, to . With gothic art styles and dark fantasy environments based from the story of Dracula it made perfect sense to gain inspiration from.
The Environment Idea
My environment idea is going to be the corner of a crumbling cottage with a alchemy lab, overlooking a small forest clearing. The decay will be implemented in the room and the outer look of the building with the fantasy being through the design of the building and the surrounding area.
I aim to have the cottage be slightly broken down so as to tell a small story of a place that had been lived in. There will be an upper room which is to be an alchemy laboratory. Two windows will provide views to this room, both being broken. One is a misshapen hexagon that is on the front of the structure. The window will appear similar to a clock’s face but will be cracked and have a somewhat clear view into the lab. In this window will be the asset I am producing alongside the environment, a potion bottle and stand. The asset should stand out in the environment from this position.
Designing the Environment
The following mood board contains images that I used to inspire my environment and to be used as reference images for when I am actually producing some parts of my environment. There are images of potion brewing desks and labs of many sorts for the laboratory segment of the environment and the majority of the other images are that of decaying buildings, forests and a cottage.
