Amalia Liakonis

Deep amongst the secluded peaks of the Jade Forest, beyond the main settlement of the Tian Monastery lies what the monks call, "The Illuminated Shrine"; a place where one may go to train mind and spirit over body. This piece was not only inspired by the in-game lore of the Jade Forest with a heavy focus on Asian inspired mythology, but also by real life monasteries which are built amongst high peaks in complete seclusion to draw one away from earthly distractions and closer to enlightenment. Places such as Meteora in Kalabaka, Greece, which I had the incredible opportunity to visit just this past October, and was a heavy source of true to life inspiration. One of the main reasons I was drawn to the Jade Forest in particular was the stark contrast of the bold red buildings that pop amongst the green background of the lush peaks, all of which in my scene are fully hand painted. The warmth of the sunset sky and golden hour lighting also nods to the title of “illumination” as both the shrine itself and the minds of those who chose to come here become illuminated in its glow. I am so proud of the outcome of this project and of myself for completing it in time. This was my first attempt at a major contest like this and I am so glad I participated as it allowed me to challenge myself, grow as an artist, and reconnect with fellow College for Creative Studies Alumni and previous contenders. Thank you to my friends Sarah Krystallia Johnson and Daria Matlahova for their encouragement and inspiring me to participate in this contest myself. You guys are the best. And thank you to the incredible CCS community members such as Daphne Fiato, Kayleigh Danieli, Lena Wachs, and Fred Osborn for their support. I'm so grateful you took the time out of your busy schedules to give me feedback, and I'm so lucky to be part of such a strong and talented community.

I'm happy to finally share this project that I've been working on for my senior thesis! Introducing T0-B (pronounced Toby) a little robot who, after the great AI uprising, explores the post apocalyptic world he inhabits finding beauty in the bleakest places. The goal of this project was to have my environments and models feel more alive and I accomplished this by pushing my lighting, environmental story telling, and materialization by learning and implementing substance designer textures that were touched up with hand painting in photoshop. For that added bit of oomph I animated T0-B in Maya as well as learned Unreal's Niagara particle system to create the butterflies that T0-B is so infatuated with. A big thank you to Daphne Fiato and Sangsu Ha for their advice and recourses regarding this project, and to my senior thesis professor David Bentley for all his support!

This model is based off the incredible concept art by my awesome professor Watty. Check out more of their incredible work here https://www.watkins-art.com/ I wanted to take all of the skills I've developed through my previous projects and test them out by making a full scale outdoor environment. I used previous methods, such as custom made tiling textures through ZBrush and hand painted ultimate trim sheets, while also learning new skills, such as utilizing runtime virtual textures to achieve a soft stylized look for the grass and dirt. I also really wanted to have a simple video to show movement in the wind and foliage to make the environment feel that much more alive. In the end I'm super proud of how this turned out!

Over the summer I've had the incredible opportunity to be mentored by the one and only Daphne Fiato. With her guidance I have learned new tips, tricks, and programs that have helped me further develop my skills as an environment artist. One of the main areas in my art that I wished to improve on was my ability to render and assemble foliage. This post in particular showcases many multi-petal/leaf flowers and ferns on a single foliage sheet, which I hand painted entirely in Photoshop. Beforehand I really struggled with how to go about rendering foliage, especially when it came to knowing where to add highlights in places that made a flat, low poly card feel more dimensional. After everything I've learned over the course of this mentorship I am fully confident in my foliage hand painting abilities, and I'm excited to create more for future projects. While I am proud of how far I have come in such a short time, there are a few more techniques I wish to develop further before I showcase everything Daphne has taught me. This includes learning more about programs new to me such as Substance Designer and 3D Coat (Woohoo! New tools in the tool belt!) I hope to showcase it all in a future full scale environment soon. Think of this as a teaser for what's to come.