Bakery Cafe

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Concept art by Jacqueline Kik & 3D modeled by Renee Nejo

So here's what happened...

I was scrolling through twitter when I saw this tweet from a student in Germany. I fell in love with her concept on the spot. Like so many times before I told myself I would love to 3D model it. Here's the problem... I say that a lot. When I come across inspiring concept art, I often say to myself

I wanna make that..

Then don't. This time, something was differnt. I snapped a little. I NEEDED to make this.

When I asked if I could her response was so enthusiastic, AND she wanted to know if she could see some process. This lit a fire to not only actually do it, but track it, share it, and do it quickly.

Between being caught up on my own work, my schedule clearing coincidentally, and her enthusiasm in the learning process...a perfect storm was brewing.

Process

Day 1

I immediately got to work! I continued to pump out geometry for about 4 hours that day. I eventually had to stop because I’m human and squishy. But I was proud of what I got through and started making plans for next steps. I decided for the next sprint, I would finish some smaller meshes and details: cables, satellite dish, bike, umbrella, etc. Then I’d worry about UVs (mistakes were made).

Day 2

Goals: Cables, Sat elite dish, Bike, Umbrella, UV Unwraps.

1.5 hours on the rest of the meshes. I used splines to knock out the Cables quickly, and box modeled the bike. It’s a smaller piece compared to the a lot of the other parts, but kind of an important one, so I made it a point to have details without overdoing it on the geometry.

Note: The Bike - 870 Polys

Because I blasted out as much geometry as I could, I made an absolute MESS of my UVs. Took me about 4 hours to finally get through them all. Speed was my priority here because if I couldn’t finish by the end of the weekend, who KNOWS when I’ll be able to get back to it. I CAN’T LET THIS ONE GO UNFINISHED.

UV Plan:

I decided I would categorize the meshes into 3 groups. Trims, Emissive, Everything else, and the ground (because…I forgot). I decided to wait on foliage, since I have a different plan for them. I could have put the Emissive and Everything else together since the Unity Default Shader would support that, but I wanted the glowy parts to have more UV real-estate. Since contrast really draws the eye, I wanted to take the opportunity to have more freedom when I eventually got to painting. I also should confess, I wasn’t completely sure if I would use a custom shader or not. I’ve been dabbling in writing my own, and I really want this to have a painterly feel to it. After all the edits, I managed to do some foundational color assignment to 3 of the 4 maps that I would be using.

Day 3

Quick Paint Maps and Lighting set up

On the third day of my sprint, I quickly painted some color, basic metallic alpha, and the emission map. Once I got the maps to a point I was happier with, I blocked in the lighting in unity.

I was pretty happy with the result so far. <3

Since I had intended having more painted, I considered reworking my plan. As much as I would like to keep painting, I need to solve the foliage and bird assets. I decided to time box the painting for now. Whatever I got done on day 3 will have to do unless I can make up some time after I get the missing assets in. Next…. Foliage, Birdies, and ANIMATIONS!

Day 4

I’ll need to use a custom shader (vertex displacement) that I’ll need to make in Unity so the foliage can feel a little more alive. I decided I would model my process around Dragos Matkovski’s approach for his Illustrat 3D Nature pack. This is someone else I found inspiring recently, and this gives me the chance to have both artists influence my work.

SPECIAL THANKS TO BOTH DRAGOS and JACKY! I think you are both fantastic <3

First, I decided how I would make the textures test them on with the shader I used modeled after Dragos Wind Shader see gif here. This was my result and also birdies: