.ROOM OF HADES

This is a school project I made in my 3D Modelling course during my second year of the Game Development Bachelor's Program. The overall assignment was to create a room in Unity HDRP based on a Disney character where I chose the Disney adaptation of Hades in Hercules (1997). The project included creating all the necessary 3D meshes, textures and materials as well as setting up the lighting and post process effects in Unity. The project spanned over approximately 8 weeks.

It was important to me to create a backstory and a detailed character before starting the design. In the end every 3D-model, texture, lighting decision and render has a backstory and thought behind it and this page presents a deep dive into these thoughts. See the ArtStation page for more process pictures. This was my first time ever using the HDRP in Unity and all meshes, the materials and textures, lighting, concepts and design is made by me.

DATE

Fall 2022

SOFTWARE

Unity, Maya, Adobe Substance 3D Painter, ZBrush, Procreate, Adobe Substance 3D Stager

PROJECT TYPE

3D Modelling and Rendering

ARTSTATION PAGE

Room of Hades

.CREATING A MULTIDIMENSIONAL CHARACTER

In the foreground you can see a childlike painting of Hades and his beloved three-headed dog Cerberus. The goal behind painting was to create a subtle feeling of compassion for an otherwise unlikeable character. The childish nature and look of the artwork could hint towards a sentimental value of the painting, something that Hades made when he was young and still holds on to till this day. It could also imply, if it was made more recently, that he still has a childlike nature and soft spot for his beloved pet. Either way, the fact that the picture is placed in a high up position in the room tells you that he values the painting and its meaning.

.SHOWING, NOT TELLING

In the movie Hades is depicted as having a strong dislike for his brother Zeus and wanting to take over his throne. I wanted the room to tell a story of a broken god who dreams of vengeance. From all the time sitting in his cold concrete chair, looking upon a great and majestic painting of his brother, the claw marks on the armrests is the result of his hatred and determination.

.TELLING A STORY THROUGH DETAILS

Including some more detailed pictures of the room would show more intricate parts of Hades' personality and motivation. The picture shows one of the windowsills, partially decorated with some candles and a human skull. The skulls can be found scattered all over the room - Hades is so used to being surrounded by death that it has become a natural part of his environment as well. Maybe he sometimes talks to them for company... In the Disney movie Hades is shown to be smoking cigars and I wanted to include these in the room as another part of his character background. The left over post-it note also indicates that he once stood looking out the window, planning something.

The shelf in the picture is filled with stocks of poison bottles and flasks, the purple ones made to resemble the one given to baby Hercules in the Disney movie. The unit is mouldy and the storage boxes are carelessly left half closed. I wanted to show the disheveled side of a god who is so obsessed with poisons and experiments that his tools have almost become an extension of himself. You can also see how the walls are filled with scratch marks, in some places Hades has been counting something by carving into the wall, in other places quotes or mantras can be seen. Other scratches appear to have been the result of pure fits of rage. I added all of these details individually by hand, adding a feeling of despair and rage to the character. I also added severe damages to the corner of the picture frame, making it look almost (maybe a three-headed dog) like something has repeatedly chewed on it.

.DESIGN CHOICES MOTIVATED BY THE BACKSTORY

.LIGHTING

The lighting was very important, as it sets the overall tone and intention of the room. I envisioned to have the sunlight at an angle and intensity where the frame of the window could be seen when faced away from it, its shadow being projected into the room. I also really wanted to include a lighthearted reference to a scene in the movie where one of Hades' sidekicks drinks a soda from a Hercules merch cup. I wanted the room to have more dimensions than just seriousness as I felt it wouldn’t represent the actual Disney character well enough.

. THE IMPORTANCE OF FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The entrance. This is the heart of the room and what you immediately see when entering. Since this would have been the first impression, it was important to prioritise this angle of the room. The fireplace and painting are the central pieces of the structure, with the cold and uncomfortable chair looking upon them. The painting shows a mighty portrait of Zeus but his eyes have been gouged out by Hades in a fit of rage. The Disney movie depicts Hades as a spiteful god who dreams of revenge on his brother and my goal was to represent these characteristics. The painting can be seen from all angles of the room so Hades is always reminded of his hatred and goal to overthrow his brother.

.INTENTIONALLY LEAVING SOME QUESTIONS UNANSWERED

A closeup of one of the open scrolls on the marble table with some equipment in the foreground and the fireplace in the background. I wanted to create a workspace for Hades to make his poisons. I was inspired by his attempt in the movie to poison Hercules and chose to give Hades a "potion master" characteristic. My intention was to add more story and depth to the room by adding scratches and dirt/mould to most of the materials in the scene. By doing this it increased the disheveled and worn feeling to the room, implying that Hades spends a lot of time in here.

I also added larger scratches to the bigger object, indicating that his three-headed dog sometimes accompanies him here. The scroll, as well as the decorative borders along the walls, was created as a reference to the ancient Greek design and lifestyle. The worn golden edges of the scroll imply that this isn't the first time Hades has read the contents of this letter or article, again opening up for further backstory to his character.

.LESSONS AND TAKEAWAYS

As this was my first time working in HDRP in Unity this was a huge learning experience for me. All my previous 3D projects had been in Unreal Engine and I had only been working with 2D spaces in Unity before. I learned a lot about the tools and workflows of the Unity HRDI, which I am very happy to have learned.

Looking back, I am proud over how I planned the project and how I stuck to my initial level of details all the way through. I am proud over the amount of preproduction I did - I made sure to have all of my meshes not only planned out before I started modeling, but I also made sketches of all the separate parts and their measurements. I had a clear picture, both mentally and physically through moodboards, of the different kind of emotions I wanted to be portrayed in the scene and I'm happy with how I kept referring back to these throughout the project.

I am less happy with how the final renders turned out. They do not represent the quality of the scene and some of the pictures are far from showing the above mentioned emotions that I worked really hard to achieve. I think the renders are way too low quality with low to no antialiasing and a lacking balance between highlights and shadows. The materials are also a little bit too varied in their quality to my liking. Some of the materials for the bigger meshes are too low quality in my opinion while some other materials have a super high quality.

So if I were to redo this project today I would spend more time on researching the ways of perfecting high resolution renders in Unity as well as perhaps looking into the possibility to divide larger meshes into smaller ones or oversee the UV mapping to prevent loss of quality in the materials. But most of all I am really curious about how this whole project would render on the Unreal Engine and I am planning on recreating the whole project there. It would be both interesting to see what the differences, if any, in render and lighting quality would be.