Alexa Miars
3D GENERALIST
3D Environment + Props Portfolio
DEMO REEL
PROJECT NAVIGATION
STEAMPUNK INTERIOR
With this interior, my focus was to create a painterly final product with bold lighting. To maintain a consistent look, all models and textures were made completely from scratch.
modeled in Maya, textured in Substance Painter, posters drawn in Procreate, rendered in Arnold, color graded in DaVinci Resolve
Responsible for all except concept (concept by StarCG on Artstation).
Throughout the process, I constantly did rough paintovers of my renders to plan lighting and problem solve issues.
While the original concept had an eerie tone, I shifted mine to have a more wistful final look to contrast the eclectic state of the room.
STONE LIONS DON'T ROAR LANTERN, FOLIAGE, + PROPS
Tasked to establish a style for the fantastical short film "Stone Lions Don't Roar," I created a Look Development test based off of the concept art of Leah Whalen, our director. My priority was to create materials that would be responsive to the extreme stylistic lighting the of the film while not sacrificing the illustrative style the concept team desired. To accomplish this, I developed assets and shaders alongside a workflow for painting normals, scattering cards, and adjusting foliage coloring based on factors like position.
modeled in Maya, tileable base textures made in Substance Designer, textured in Substance Painter,
assembled in Houdini, rendered in Arnold
Responsible for all except concept.
FOLIAGE CARDS
RICE LODS AND PLANT VARIATIONS
HERO FOLIAGE
STYLIZED TILEABLE TEXTURES
HERO PROPS
Before I started experimenting, I analyzed the works of our concept team, the final renders of animated films with similar styles, and real life references to prepare. This stage helps me identify key features of the target style as well as create a game plan for manipulating shaders and materials to reflect the style.
STONE LIONS DON'T ROAR BRIDGE ENVIRONMENT
modeled in Maya, tileable base textures made in Substance Designer, textured in Substance Painter,
assembled in Houdini, rendered in Arnold
Responsible for all texturing excluding the bridge, waterfall, and fire wisp.
Responsible for scene assembly, foliage models, and rock models.
PLEIN AIR ENVIRONMENT
The aim for this project was to capture a joyful and ethereal atmosphere using realistic assets. To accomplish this, I leaned heavily into light's ability to convey emotion. My primary references were film photographs and Romantic landscape paintings.
concept and paintings made in Procreate, modeled in Maya, textured in Substance Painter, assembled and
rendered in Unreal Engine
Responsible for all except for foliage and rock assets (sourced from Quixel Megascans).
STREET MARKET ENVIRONMENT MODEL
The goal for this environment was to achieve a stylized final product that mirrored the imperfect and hand-made quality of models crafted for feature animation and many AAA games.
References for the concept were mostly gathered from personal photos of Savannah, Georgia, specifically the hidden corners of the historic district. For greater detail, I looked into props from the cultures that inspired the visual culture of Savannah, heightening the depth of history in the scene.
Concept made in Procreate, modeled in Maya, high poly details sculpted in ZBrush, normal maps baked in Substance Painter, rendered in Arnold, color graded in DaVinci Resolve.
Responsible for all aspects.
MODEL INSIGHT // TREE
One of the things I challenged myself with this project was to create a tree without using any plugins or premade templates. To do this, I started with the curve tool, created a base mesh using sweep mesh, added volume using primitives, retopologized using quad draw, and added sculpted detail from ZBrush using a normal map. For the leaves, I blocked out a silhouette using primitives, created a couple different leaf opacity maps, and distributed the leaves using MASH.
This approach allowed me to have a final result that matched my animation style reference.
The total amount of reference photos used for this project was over 400 images, but here is an example of how I used references for a single prop- Athena's Helmet (sourced from The Met and Le Louvre).
As the project progressed, I expanded beyond my initial concept, leaning into the imagery of war and wealth as well as weaving a story through my placement of props. Even with the changes to the details, however, I ensured to maintain the layered composition, hand-crafted shape design, and intentional use of light from the original concept.
