Seaside Sauna  (Fall 2017)
This environment was based off the book, A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham. I was tasked with recreating the scene depicted in the text, and decided upon this warm get away. Below are the final renders taken in Unity and further is the design process in its entirety. As well as, a bonus Sketchfab wireframe turn around at the bottom of the page.

Final Renders
These are real time, in game renders using Unity with additional post processing through Photoshop. 

The Narrative and Inspiration

The chapter from Daniel's book really gave me Mediterranean vibes with structural and architectural influences from the Roman empire. I thought of marble columns, cool blues and gray tones, warm sun and all the great things of being near the equator. While I don't know if Daniel's book takes place on another planet, it still reminded me of Earth.

​Thus, in order to get a better idea of where I was headed with design, I made a collection of images I gathered from Google to get me started.
*All text, from A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham, is for reference purposes only. 
​[Copyright © 2006 by Daniel Abraham]
Now, with the passage from the book and my newly acquired images from Google, I was able to proceed forward to the next step of the design process. I decided at this point it would be a good idea to make a sketch of a possible layout for the sauna. To the right is my initial idea, which ultimately was modified a bit, but still gave me a solid foundation for what was to come next. 

Design in Illustrator
After the rough sketch was completed, the general layout was finalized in Adobe Illustrator in black and white, and then in color to get a better idea of possible colors (left). The images below are composited from the floor, and three wall panels. (below)
What I found out later, was that it might seem odd in a real world scenario to just have windows and benches surrounding the main pool. So, I reworked the plan while modeling to include a wash station (considering it's a bathhouse sauna, after all). Before continuing with the model I also spent some time sketching out possible items to add additional flare.

Rendered Sketches
Rendered using Arnold then detail work added in with Photoshop
After I got a decent portion of the model completed, I then needed to figure out the lighting situation a bit more. I wanted light to pour in from the central windows, and I needed to know how it was going to affect the visual clarity of textures in the scene. So, I rendered some shots with Arnold in Autodesk Maya and painted over them in Photoshop, superimposing possible ideas for textures.
After doing this, I moved forward with giving everything in my scene a nice base texture or solid color similar to the the final version. I adjusted the lights until I felt the scene was adequately lit and considered the project done. Little did I know I would revisit the scene a few months later and redo the lighting and textures completely to visually update the style reflected in the final renders at the top of the page.

Environmental Wireframe (w/o Walls)
Please feel free to press the play button and fly around this wireframed environment.