The wizard study was created in August 2025. It was an exploration into a whimsical environment using soft warm tones, fantasy elements and an inspiration from lifelong love of wizards and art nouveau.

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I grew up playing Wizard101, and I've always been enchanted by the whimsical nature of the early game locations like Wizard City. Looking at the portfolio of Karl Holbert, Wizard101's lead  artist inspired me to do my own wizard study. Taking elements from the game; the night sky motif, warm toned rooms, mystical baubles and non-realistic proportions allowed me a starting off point for my project

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Taking inspirations I identified a few key things that I wanted to utilize in the scene:

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- Magical artifacts:  Fill the room with mystical artifacts to convey the room belongs to an advanced wizard, the magical artifacts need to be eye catching but cohesive

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- Stylized:   The environment needs to look stylized in a way that makes this interior look cozy, something you want to walk in and explore

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-Non-Realistic lighting:  I did not want any blacks to be present in the lighting, I wanted oranges and warm tones to be the light, and blues and other cool tones to be the shadow color. Having the lighting be more colorful can further enforce the  cozy atmosphere.

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The final model of the environment is a cut out of a full building, allowing the final camera motion to capture the entire scene in one shot. Unfortunately that limited other camera shots, if the camera panned too far it would reveal the borders of the study.

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The main eye catching object was the Orrery by the bay window. I wanted the environment to feel magical and alive without having to have characters in the scene, as to let the environment speak for itself. While i worked on this i took inspirations from Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal  and used the Orrery in that film as a way to make the scene come alive, as well as fill in space. I animated the Orrery with procedural animation, and lined it up so no elements are clipping geometry.

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The Sun face design was something I made myself, looking at 1990's home decor. I also made the stained glass texture in Photoshop, inspired by Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha.

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The Paintings are from Raphael and Rebecca Guay.