Week 4: Concept and Prop Setup
- Dominic Di Leonardo
- Apr 21
- 2 min read
Week 4 presented me with a new project: conceptualizing and arranging props for a terrarium plant project. The goal of this project is to blend an organic plant with otherworldly elements to produce something both believable and extraordinary. My inspiration draws heavily from enchanting, glowing flora, similar to the golden flower from Tangled or the flower from Beauty and the Beast. See below the concept images for my project.
Concept Development
When conceptualizing my magical plant, I was encouraged to use AI tools to expand my creativity and see scenes that I wouldn't normally be able to find.
I spent more time experimenting with the AI prompts and decided on this image as the foundation for my plant. I realized that I would need to modify certain elements to recreate it, but overall, it provided a solid starting point for me to begin looking for props to use in this project.
Prop Search and Scene Setup
With a clear vision, I set out on my search for props on platforms such as Turbosquid, CGTrader, and SketchFab. I collected several items that closely matched my reference, and I also did some modeling myself for the glass dome surrounding my plant. Below, you can see the base scene I have created so far using basic colors and materials.
Finally, as I added these objects into my scene, I needed to adjust all the UVs for the models. Although the models were correctly constructed, the UVs would have caused significant problems when I retextured the objects. Below, you can see the current state of my UVs, and everything is ready for texturing!
Journey Ahead
This phase of concept design and prop searching has been great in exploring different ideas and expanding my creativity. Now that my idea is finalized, I am confident I can make something both magical and believable. In the coming weeks, I will be retexturing and redesigning this scene to make this as realistic as possible. Thank you for reading, and see you in a few weeks!
