Noir

This is a lighting study rendered in Unreal Engine 4. The intent of this piece is to display my skill and understanding of value. Creating a compelling monochromatic image with a visually striking composition and realistic lighting.
I focused on small scene with a rich story, inspired by the works of author Raymond Chandler. Although realistically rendered I did want to capture some of the more stylized aspects of the noir genre with the lighting. Harsh black hard edged shadows, blinding hot highlights, and noisy post processing, being a few of the elements I wanted to capture. This project also marks my first portfolio piece using ray tracing, with ray traced global illumination, shadows, and ambient occlusion.
In addition I wanted to create higher quality models that told a story. I modeled each asset in Blender, and created materials in Substance Designer. Each asset was modeled to look period accurate for, sometime between, 1939 and 1943. I also wanted them to look well worn, some with specific details that imply a larger narrative.