Environments on Display

I was interested in creating objects that had a different aesthetic and feel from the usual scenes Second Life offered. I have been experimenting for some time with baked lightmaps and textured and wanted to create enclosed environments that contained their own lighting and atmosphere.

I decided to present each of these scenes in their own "containers" or spaces that when put together resemble a sort of outdoor museum. Though most of the spaces shown are in the first person view, I wanted to show one of the models in second person view because the scale of the object has created an interesting relationship between viewer and environment.

I've decided to show the spaces in one video instead of several individual videos:

Below I have included a render of the original scene in maya, with objects this time:

I liked the idea of removing the objects in the Second Life version of this scene and the strange atmosphere that was created by objects that were not visible but still left their mark. I decided to put the light source in an unexpected place (rather than just emitting from the window) because of the strange shadows that resulted from the table and chairs that surrounded the light. The way the shadows spread out across the room seemed to create a different impact with missing object rather than a straight forward presentation . Like the rest of spaces, this space was created in maya, where I spent most of my time working.