Havana Courtyard

This scene depicts a lazy afternoon in the intimacy of a typical Cuban courtyard. It was inspired by a beautiful painting done by Craig Mullins. I tried to capture the atmosphere in the painting as close as possible, while also adding a few more details.

I decided to create this piece because I really liked the atmosphere and colour present in the painting and I tried to match it in a realtime environment.

The most important part of this project for me was the lighting and the atmosphere. The plants are essential to get the feeling I wanted. They make the whole scene more intimate and warm, while also giving it a more natural look.

I took this opportunity to learn UDK and practice modularity, since I still wasn’t too confident in using it. The lighting in UDK was a better fit for this scene because of the GI solution it has (using Lightmaps). It was essential to get the bounced light inside the courtyard, especially beneath the arcades.