Embedded Files
An immersive 360 video that chronicles the restoration process of the James River in Richmond, VA.
For the JRA project, I earned the title of Art Director and Environment Artist at Capitol Interactive. Our team was commissioned by The James River Association to create an educational VR experience. This project was commissioned in the hopes that experiential empathy might inspire the community of Richmond, VA to join the JRA in their effort to keep the environment clean. We collaborated with the experts at the James River Association to accurately represent the water depth, color, soil type, and living organisms that inhabited the river from the 1600's to the present. Capitol Interactive's VR experience premiered in the Spring of 2020 at a fundraising event in Richmond, VA and was also displayed at the Kennedy Center. This virtual reality experience is still in use today as promotional content for the JRA's environmental conservation projects.
Layout planning for the graded slope & location of plants and animals
For this project I started by drawing a 360 degree layout in Photoshop. I worked with scientific evidence about the changing conditions of the James River between the 1600's to current day. With guidance from experts at the James River Association, I used their input to produce iterative designs that could be previewed on an Oculus Go.
Using Autodesk Maya, I created 3D models, textured them, lit the scene, and animated the environment. I produced high-quality 4K renders for each time period and, in post-production, composited the environment renders with underwater creatures. Finally, I edited the final video with Adobe After Effects & Premiere.
HDRI Skybox Lighting, and animated caustic lighting test
In this project, I took on multiple roles and created nearly every aspect of the 3D environment from scratch. As the Art Director, I developed all three immersive environments, managing everything from concept to modeling and animation. This included generating waves, creating caustic lighting effects, texturing and modeling the mixed sandy and muddy terrain, and designing the overall layout of the environment. In addition to planning and development, I was also responsible for rendering environmental animations, compositing creatures, and editing the final video.
VR capture of the final product
I expertly composited two seperate videos, one that included only the creature animations (made by AJ Loayza) and another with only the environmental animations (made by me), blending the two videos into a seamless final product.
Promotional poster with my environment as the background.
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