Chapter 1

What is 3D Environmental Storytelling?

3D environmental storytelling is conveying a story through an imaginative space.  When story elements are infused into the model, texture, lighting and layout of a 3D virtual space, the audiences perceive feelings, atmosphere, and traces of a world that lies outside of what they know.

When the audiences are looking into an environment, immediately they would try to sense where is this place. After glancing around the architecture setting, the moving articles in the place and the natural surroundings, they should figure out where they are. Then if their eyes caught something interesting (the clue), they would then eager to find out what happened here, who has been here and when has it happened. Though, any mark on the models, textures and environment layout that shows the story elements would lead to solve those questions. Therefore, it is important that where is the place; what happened there; who has been there; and when has it happened are being examined through the objects and their appearances in the scene when designing a 3D environment for entertainment.

So here is the first question, where is this place? Obviously it is the function and purpose of an environment. Here are some examples that demonstrate the function and purpose of a place. 

·        The moving articles in this room (furniture) in fig. 1 (by Noel Hanson) demonstrated that this is a young kid's bedroom, a room with toddler style furniture, toys and full of joys.

By Noel Hanson

·        A t ree house with a small-scaled doorway, a green light window, and exaggerated mushrooms in the foreground makes an imaginative fantasy world. 

by Jeffery Weber

·   A worn out, messy room with a blackboard and knocked over school desks, as well as a few forgotten toys make this space an abandoned youth classroom environment. (Fig 2 By Jillian Pond)

Fig 2 By Jillian Pond

·       The sign on the window tells the audience that this is a box office. The movie star posts on the walls show a time period of around the late 1930s. With art deco style architecture and furniture, this is probably an urban  movie theater box office. (Fig 3 By Jennifer Johnson)

Fig 3 By Jennifer Johnson

Second, what happened here? This is the environmental narrative context.

What happened here is the key to create a high level 3D environment with an inherent sense of history. Unlike traditional storytelling such as fictional exposition, 3D environment tempted to tell the story by involve the viewers with the clues they find in the 3D virtual space and figure out what has happened in this environment.  It is more like an immersive experience for the viewers to reveal portions of the story and then piece together the history of the environment.

Many people probably have grow up with the famous board game called "Clue". I played it a lot when I was involving producing this game for PC. The background story is that in a mansion someone was murdered.  There were six guests in the house at that time. One of them would be the murder. The game was about finding the clues in the environment and figure out who is the murder. Design and creating  the visual elements as the clues in the environment became very tricky.

So the question is then, what could be the clue in an environment that has some history? Are the changes on the architecture setting or the moving articles in a room? Are the tools, weapons , or personal belongs found in the environment? Of course, all of above have contributed to the ideas of leading the environment story to be unveiled. 

Fig. 5 (by Kevin French)  established a murder scene in a restaurant. Not much of bloody, the bullet hole on the window glass,  the chaos  on the table and its surroundings lead the viewers believe what has happened there.

by Kevin French

  Clues are often the cause of curiosities. In Fig. 6 (by Benjamin Ritter), why is the umbrella and a big bag in the rain at A nighttime sidewalk?    What happened here?

by Benjamin Ritter

Fig 6 (by Adam Aly) shows an abandoned farm house and a tipped over wagon in a grass land.  What happened here when this place was being last visited?

By Adam Aly

Third, who has been here?  This exams how human factor that has impacted environment narrative context.

Most time, a 3D environment is a stage for our heroes and passengers to act. Those who have been there would mark a part of the history of the environment. Though, Not only human behavior impacts the changing of the environment, but also chasing of someone has been there by analyzing the cultural background and personality on top of their gender, race, and age  is the most helpful way to design the clues for environmental storytelling.  

let's take a look at the environment in fig. 7 (By Arial Hall ).            

·        An empty bed in the background indicates a bedroom that no one is sleeping there. The person may have gone.

·        Some old curvy art deco furniture (art deco furniture are famous being feminine style furniture) implies  that the person lived here is likely a female and may be elderly.

·        A ragged chair by the window entails she was lonely and might have difficulty of moving around (sits a lot).

·        Many empty bottles shows a unique clue that tells a special story about this person.

·        An half opened book says that she read, another clue that says she maybe along a lot.

·        The light shining through the window almost likes a sign of something from heaven.

All those clues helped to enriched the environment storytelling in this design.                                                                                                                         

By Arial Hall

Now let's take a look at this dreamer's world in fig. 8 (by Marc Thompson). A viewer walked in this room would not make mistake to identify the owner of this place is a big dreamer by seeing this handmade kite. and many drawings on the wall and in the shelf.

by Marc Thompson

Fig. 9 (by Elizabeth Kirby) created another dreamer's world.

The old style typewriter, handheld lamp and books on the table made this room a writer's hideout. But then the falling grass from the broken hole above, the concrete sturdy structure, and nuclear bomb related post unveiled the mysteries environment story and more in depth information about this writer. Who else have been here? This writer's enemy, because the tapped over chair?  

By Elizabeth Kirby

Finally, when has it happened? This question leads to two aspects of  examination, the ecological change and human behavior shape our environment; time of day sets the mood of environmental story.

Aspect 1, ecological change and human behavior shaped our environment which helps us to figure out how long ago that it was happened. 

The physical properties in Fig 10 are represented by the ancient ruins which include dilapidated stone columns and guard statues, roots from cracked walls, floors and ceilings crawling around the environment, human skulls and skeletons tucked in dusty corners, rustic and broken swords and bows spread across the space, etc. These indoor scenes tell a scary, undisclosed, aged, and culturally-enhanced environmental story.

* Lost City production: Unikil

Director: Salim El Harizi,

Lead environment artist: Roberto Rodridguez

Environment artist: Marisa Gonzales, Cody Laine, Wonjin Kim, Jennifer Gilliland Ricardo Tena

By Lost City Production

Fig 11 (By Steven Hernandez) demonstrated an abandoned public restroom.

By Steven Hernandez

 Fig 12 (By Rachel Downing) shows an ancient ruin that was modified for a farmer's market.

By Rachel Downing

Aspect 2, time of day sets the mood of environmental story.

Before we start talking about time of day, let's discuss how color affects emotion. 

Within general knowledge, red, orange and yellow in the red area of the color spectrum are known as warm colors. These warm colors evoke emotions ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger and hostility. On the other hand, blue, purple and green on the blue side of the spectrum are known as cool colors. These colors are often described as calm, but can also bring to mind feelings of sadness and apathy.

Time of day changes lighting and color in our environment, which greatly influences our mood and manipulates the way viewers perceive the environmental story. Below are the color shades for different times of a day from natural light.

Sunrise before or after – white, yellow, and purple shadows. Soft contrast in lighting. Fig 13 (by  By Noah Thompson) shows purity and pleasant moment of this environment.

 By Noah Thompson

10:00 am morning, lots of diffuse lighting. Fig 14 (  By Roberto Rodriguez) gives the real world occurrence. 

  By Roberto Rodriguez

Noon- Blue is dominant, producing a “cool” light. It produces the clearest, sharpest environment in bright light. Less bounce light makes the shadow darker (See fig 15 By  Matthew Cangelosi).

By  Matthew Cangelosi

 Late afternoon golden light, light moves to intense yellow. Fig 16 ( By Bret Linne) presents almost joyful feeling, yet also fatiguing to the eye due to the high amount of light that is reflected.

 By Bret Linne

Sunset, most contrast in color. Lighting gets scattered off by particles, leaving the longer wavelength of red to be perceived.  Fig 17 (by Maxwell Engman) illustrates love, warmth, and comfort.

by Maxwell Engman

 Night, light from moon and bounce light. Fig 18 links the views to danger or death ( By Bonseuk Koo)

By Bonseuk Koo

  
 Twilight before sunrise, the blue period. Fig 19 creates feelings of sadness and serenity.

By Chun Lu

In conclusion, storytelling is an important aspect in 3D environmental art creation. Yet, it is often ignored by many 3D environment artists. People often assume environmental storytelling is the level designer's job. As an environmental artist in production, the only skills are modeling and texture. This is the reason that I started a series for 3D environment art creation. In the following chapters, I will discuss environmental storytelling from design, 3D modeling, texturing and lighting. 

All rights reserved  Nov. 2012