UC Creative Competition
in partnership with Adobe

My submission is a piece of digital media depicting a Shinjuku street view – a burrow in Tokyo known for its neon-lit rooms, galleries, theatres, bookstores and of course excellent sushi - created in Blender and Adobe Photoshop using modelling tools, lighting, and texturing. First, I created the basic model using generic shapes such as cubes and cylinders and then by using modifiers created more organic shapes as seen in the pot-plants around the scene. By using ‘texture maps’ I was able to give the impression of textures and depth to the flat surfaces such as the building walls and the paths. This is created by using ‘bump maps’ and ‘displacement maps’ which simulate how light will influence these different surfaces i.e. highlights and lowlights. To create the different light sources, I used ‘area lights’ for the red glow in the Sushi Bar, ‘spot lights’ for the coloured lanterns hanging in the street, and ‘point lights’ for the lamps in the window. To create the neon sign I used a mix of ‘Fresnel texture’ and an ‘emission shader’ to act as the light source to create the neon effect. And finally, I created my own texture maps in Photoshop using a grayscale to give different lighting effects and then imported them into the scene e.g., for the plant texture effects.