Week 9: The Crown's Selection, Final

After weeks of development, I’ve completed my final project: The Crown’s Selection. This environment tells a story without a single character. Instead, it’s the crown, resting silently in a sacred chamber deep within a chamber, that draws the viewer in. Around it lie broken weapons, fallen debris, and a discarded shield, each a symbol of a failed attempt to claim its divine power. Below is the final render of the scene.

Final Vision

The concept remained rooted in my original inspiration, being fantasy RPGs like Skyrim and Oblivion. I wanted this space to feel like a forgotten trial site, a place of reverence and silence where only the worthy may step forward. To emphasize that, I maintained symmetry and verticality in the design while focusing light directly onto the crown, allowing it to emerge from shadow like a beacon.

Lighting, Shading & Animation

The final lighting setup features a focused volumetric Rect Light from above, to show that the crown is magical or has an otherworldly aspect. This is complemented by my V-Ray fog, which enhances the depth and atmosphere of the chamber. All materials were created procedurally in V-Ray using tools like VRayBerconNoise, layered bump, and displacement maps. These techniques helped me convey a space that feels both ancient and regal, worn by time but still sacred.

To bring the environment to life, I animated the curtains to gently move, suggesting a faint wind flowing through the chamber. I also added a soft pulse to the inner sphere light of the crown, giving it a subtle magical intensity. Additionally, the fog density shifts slightly over time, creating a sense of breath and motion throughout the space. Below is the shader quilt turntable showcasing each material I used for this project.

Close-Up Renders: Technical Breakdown

Following the material quilt turntable, I captured several high-resolution close-up renders to showcase how my procedural shaders perform under cinematic lighting and focal compression. These shots focus on fine surface detail and how displacement, bump, and roughness layering come together to enhance realism.

Still 1 – Shield, Ground Debris, and Crown Composition

This image focuses on the interaction between metals and surface breakup. The shield uses a custom V-Ray material with layered roughness (VRayBerconNoise driving a mid-frequency bump), combined with a darkened VRayBlendMtl coat to simulate oxidation and patina buildup. The ground plane is driven by a displacement map overlaid with a high-resolution tile bump. The subtle edge breakup and height variation are emphasized by the light cast from the directional fill and crown glow, providing surface contrast without drawing attention away from the central composition.

Still 2 – Sword and Stonework Material Interaction

This render isolates the sword, which uses a layered metal shader incorporating a VRayFresnel node to adjust reflectivity at glancing angles. Fine engraving detail is added through bump mapping rather than geometry to preserve render efficiency. The background wall and pillar material combine Bercon noise for micro-chisel surface texture with a directional triplanar mapping node to avoid seam artifacts. The lighting here is angled to show off surface breakup through specularity rather than color variation.

Still 3 – Architectural Depth and Displacement

This final image focuses on the repeating pillar forms and how multiple stone materials handle light falloff and tonal transition. The foreground arch uses a dual-layer bump stack driven by contrasting Bercon frequencies and a subtle displacement offset (0.05), while the background arches tiles use a VRayTriplanarTex for roughness and normal direction control. The shader supports both high-frequency noise and low-frequency patterning, which holds up well under angled camera motion and lights.

These close-up renders were essential in evaluating shader performance at scale, checking for UV stretching, displacement artifacts, and render stability. They also demonstrate that materials created procedurally in V-Ray can carry both visual complexity and storytelling value when combined with lighting and composition.

Final Thoughts

This project pushed me to balance cinematic storytelling with technical precision, from shader development and lighting to animation and composition. I learned how to communicate narrative through environment alone, using subtlety and restraint to support a grounded yet fantastical atmosphere. I’m proud of how far the scene has come, and I hope the final result conveys the care and intention behind every detail.

Thank you for following me on this journey!