Celestial Atelier

Tech Art Group Project | 2023

Celestial Atelier is a semester-long class project for Digital Art Studio at CMU ETC.

The project aimed to create a dynamic art studio situated precisely on the ice and fire boundary of a unique celestial body. Here, a mesmerizing show of cold and warmth meets, offering an ever-changing canvas of natural wonders. The artistic possibilities here are boundless, and the artist who found this gem has no less creative talent.

Software

Role

Unreal Engine 5, Houdini, Substance Designer & Painter, Github

Procedural Modeling

Procedural Texturing

Visual Effects

Lighting

Cinematography and Direction

Time

Team

14 weeks

Laura Yang - Technical Artist, Co-Director

Caiyu Zhang - Environment Technical Artist, Co-Director

Melanie Danver - 3D Artist, Look-Dev Artist

Ideation

The studio is situated in an environment where the two extreme meets. Therefore, we decided to build the inside environment to echo the heat and coldness of the outside - one side of the studio will be the messy working area, and the other side the clean gallery.

Gallery Artworks

I am responsible for creating the artworks on the gallery side.

I picture the artist to be one nature and technology lover, a poetic engineer, an experimental practitioner.

Therefore, I would like their art to blend natural inspiration with a deep love for futuristic technology, striking a perfect balance between the two.

I want the final product to achieve the following characteristics:

  • Organic shape and high-tech material

  • Lively moving particles powered by electromagnetic force

  • Color palette echoing the snow and dessert (blue, white, gold and red)

Landscape

I am responsible for making the landscape materials, including the snowy land, the desert, and the middle ground(WIP).

I have the following direction in mind:

  • Snow to be undisturbed and thick with reflective sparkles and light blue subsurface scattering.

  • Sand to be smooth and dense with sand waves created by the blowing wind.

  • Middle ground to be a smooth transition between the two very different world, with gravels and puddles of melted snow.