In this project we need to think of an environment we want to make and why, then of course show it off to show how well it actually looks. For this we have 4 main themes we can pick and 8 sub themes, so the idea is you pick one main and one sub, the options of which are:

Main:

• Horror
• Science Fiction
• Fantasy
• Historical

Sub-themes: 

• Alien
• Corruption
• Utopia
• Dystopia
• Celebration
• Decay
• Family
• Beauty

Theme Discussion

Main Themes

Out of the top 4 main themes I like the ideas of Horror and Fantasy as I like the tension and freedom of Horror as it basically just means “make it spooky”, so you get alot of freedom with it. Fantasy is the same, it is literally made from fiction and can be several versions people have made up, giving even more freedom than Horror. However I like the idea of building tension into my environment, so it can stay

Science Fiction is basically Fantasy but with technology and science, which I find kind of boring, tends to either go to robots or scientific magic, which I just don’t like as much as just straight magic. Then Historical basically means you not only have to follow real world rules, but also find a place you can base it off you like, and as someone who hated history class this is definitely a no go.

After looking at Horror and Fantasy next to each other latter on I now realize that they are very similar, as Horror can be in a Fantasy setting, but then Fantasy can also have tension, I have more ideas for just Fantasy in general rather than Horror so I chose to get rid of it from my selection

Keeping:

• Fantasy

Sub-Themes

Then next is the sub-themes, first is Alien which I don’t really like as it kind of goes with science fiction pretty well which I have crossed out, the main way I could use it is with horror, think cthulhu type aliens. Next is Corruption which I do like the idea of, this is because you can take one thing and change it to how you want, normally to make it evil.

Then next is Utopia and Dystopia, these are basically very good places and very bad places, so depression and bliss made into places. They are good on paper but kind of overdone, so I am not really interested as along with that they are pretty restricting due to this.

Then for Celebration I did originally think it was quite restricting but then realized it doesn’t just mean a fair in a town, instead it can be any place celebrating anything so it gives alot more freedom than I expected. Then is Decay which is basically death or how stuff falls apart over time, this makes it quite restrictive as it has to be on this, and even then Corruption can do it in its own way, making Decay outclassed really.

Then lastly is Family and Beauty, Family is very restrictive, you have to have a group of people and relate it to that somehow, I am not even sure how you would without just making a family household, which is boring, so no. Then lastly is Beauty which I don’t exactly get, shouldn’t your environment be beautiful anyways? Well unless you’re not going for that, so I am going to just cross this one out due to that.

Keeping:

• Alien
• Corruption
• Celebration

Deciding Concepts

Given these themes I have kept, that means I can now start thinking of how I can put them together to make an environment I can make for this project. For this I am just going to put them in a table and see what I can think of on each meeting

	Fantasy
Alien	Cthulhu-ish beings resurrecting the dead
Corruption	A evil force of nature spreading through a village
Celebration	Necromancers holding a ritual around resurrecting something powerful, like a dragon

After doing this I now realize that Celebration and Alien’s concepts are very similar, due to this I decided to fuse them together, having these necromancers being Cthulhu-ish beings as it also just fits with their evil theme.

I also made some mood boards after this fact:

This one showing the fusion of the dragon resurrection festival, could not quite find images to show a more chaotic town of undead but I think it helped to know what village type I was going for in general

Then for the moss idea I focused mainly on the village as that would be the main part of this environment, then adding in slime mold for being being almost alive and of course the corruption from terraria for the feel and colors I wanted for it

Now with these ideas better understood I can use make blockouts so I can further refine them and understand what I want to do

Blockouts

Idea One – Necromantic Ritual

The main piece of this environment will be the altar the necromancers will be on, and so I made a blockout for this, as you can see they also have holders where the books can be for each of them. Then there will be three of them with the skeleton in the middle being resurrected, then for the rest of the environment there will be a dark sort of medieval town with skeletons and such. I will basically be a run down town, so they took it over and since most see resurrected as dumb the town as kind of went to the worse with the new management

Out of the two ideas this one is definitely the better idea, I basically knew that from the start but it was nice to give the other a chance, and making the block out has definitely helped me figure out what I wanted the altar to look like, at least for the most part.

Idea Two – Moss Corruption

For a centerpiece in a medieval town I thought a church would make sense as when you think of a medieval town you normally see either the town hall or church as the main building. And churches are also just better looking than town halls in my opinion so, the basic idea was to make it fully like this then make it look run down as the moss has taken over the village. I started this idea quite excited but now I see why it isn’t very used, it is kind of boring, it is basically just a faster process of nature taking back with magic added to why it is faster. Which is why I left it as this for the blockout, because to be honest, at this point in the process it had come to me how meh the idea was

I know this seems unprofessional of me. I changed my idea as I realized my environment idea wasn’t very original (necromancers using a ritual to revive a dragon) and thought you would have still liked to see this mistake and how I worked around it. So to try to be more original I thought of this idea, which is going off the Fantasy and Decay themes as Fantasy gives the base I want and Decay will probably not get much interaction I feel, so using it should help bring more variety to it all.

Basic Concept

• Crystal Mine
  • Mining glowing yellow crystals
  • Wooden structures mostly
  • Abandoned
    • Due to the mist causing decay and death to those around it
    • Start will be boarded off
      • Done at random angles to show they were in a hurry to cover it
• Medieval Fantasy
  • Gives more freedom for the magic
  • Helps keep it more about the nature
  • Gives more reason why it was abandoned
• Center piece
  • Large crystalized snake skull
    • The main room will be quite open, with the face uncovered and the stone around it starting to be mined out
      • This is to show they then tried to extract it
        • Room will be in a U shape, having the skull in the middle
          • Basically the sides are still covered but they were trying to get a better angle
            • Some also were just trying to avoid it by going around it
        • However it wasn’t fully uncovered before they realized it was killing them in the process
    • It will have a broken pickaxe on the floor by it
      • This is to show they tried to mine it, but it only broke their tools
    • Is a dark purple color
      • Purple is used because it is mysterious
        • This is why yellow was chosen for the other crystals, showing they are opposites and not linked
          • The yellow crystals in the mist will be taking on a purple tint the closer they are to the skull
      • Mist will be coming from it in the same color, getting thinner the further it goes
        • This shows its energy is spreading throughout the mine
        • The mist will start decaying all around it
          • Stone, wood, even some people will be decaying
            • Skeletons and broken supports will be present to show this
            • Some of the decayed stone will show the rest of the skeleton is actually around the mineshaft (ribs)
              • This is done just to further show how big it was
    • Impaled by a rune covered spear
      • Holding its top jaw open
      • Corrupted by the snake’s energy
        • Runes now shown the same energy the mist does
      • Not all the skeleton is crystalised, just the skull
        • The spear was not powerful enough to fully convert it

Concept Images

I wanted to get inspiration for the mine so I did it right as I got images from a mine in Skyrim, as it is also a medieval fantasy.

Lastly I also made a small board of some notes I made so I can get a idea for what I wanted in the environment itself

As you can see I have the supports, a section on deciding what type of crystal I wanted, I chose from what types you generally see in media and weirdly the embedded sort of geo type seems very unused, so I picked it for originality sake. Then a map so I know what I actually want the environment to look like, some more sketches for other parts such as the bridge and ramps and of course the skull. I have a small table I wanted to add too with small props such as a book from a scholar and 

other small items to try and add to a story of what is going on in the actual mineshaft.

Here is a more thought over map I made after, having more detail and the addition of a lake and hole to the outside as I realized a mineshaft is kind of a building and I need some outside in this environment, so why not help break it up with a hole in the wall to nature?