Pixie Hollow!
By Dominic van Bladel
MV semester 4 Sint Lucas
Hello hello beautiful pixies! Thank you for clicking on my Behance page and checking out my Pixie Hollow cube world which I made in Blender! If you'd like to read and see more of how I made it and how I came up with the end result be sure to keep reading! :)
We got assigned a fairy tale at school which DDM (digital design and motion) had to make a cube world out of. Sounds difficult right? Well it sure was lol. The cube world had to become an attraction that would fit the Dutch fairy tale theme park named ''Efteling'' which is located in Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands. I'm for sure proud of the progress I made and the growth I showed. Side note, this was my third time working in Blender actually! Anyhow, the fairy tale I got assigned was Peter Pan, and since you can go such big ways with that specific fairy tale I decided to make a moodboard for 3 specific characters. Peter Pan, Tinkerbell and Captain Hook. More about that in a bit! First of all when I started making my concepts I did some research for inspiration and investigated the fairy tale.
Note: I did not make these cube worlds. full credits go to the artists. I used this as inspiration.
A quick recap about Peter Pan! Peter is ''the boy who wouldn't grow up'' that lives in Neverland. Together with Tinkerbell he flies to London and eventually meets Wendy, John and Michael. Tinkerbell bestows pixie dust on the 3 children although she really dislikes Wendy she still does it. (Tink is a jealous little pixie.) Together they all go to Neverland where they meet: The lost boys, Capitain Hook, Mr. Smee, Tiger Lily, the ticking crocodile, mermaids, and many more people. Together they fight against Captain Hook as he wants to capture Peter. But there's plenty more to say about Peter Pan but I don't want to spoil too much.
I used Disney's version as inspiration and that's where I got my inspiration from.
Note: I did not draw this picture. Copyright goes to Disney.
I wanted to make concepts based on Peter Pan, Tinkerbell and Captain Hook. Why? Like this I'm able to combine different aspects of things together and keep it original, but also look at things that would give a complete new touch to the characters. I let them inspire me and I just simply let my fantasy flow. For the 3 of them I made 3 different moodboards. They will be displayed below!
Note: I did not draw any of these pictures in the moodboards. Full credit goes to the artists.
The concepts behind the moodboards. (Stories follow later)
1. Tinkerbell: Because I grew up with the 3d animated Tinkerbell movies when I was younger I wanted to give her a ride truly based on Tinkerbell. I feel like she deserves it. I wanted to keep specific aspects from Tinkerbell in it or well use it as inspiration. The Pixie dust tree, her iconic teapot house, and somehow base the concept on Pixie Hollow as well. (Pixie Hollow is the entire landscape where the pixies live.)
2. Peter Pan: So I noticed too late that instead of naming it ''Peter Pan'' on my moodboard I named it ''Dark Ride'' sorry about that. But well it's supposed to be a dark ride. We all know Peter from being the boy who wouldn't grow up, cheerful, willing to help people, go on adventures but there are actually some disturbing scenes in the movie. Because of those 2 certain scenes I wanted to give him a dark ride. (The top left and middle pictures are from the original Disney movie.) Everyone expects a beautiful ride where Peter Pan would tag along but this would not be the case.
3. Captain Hook: Find a concept for Captain Hook was quite hard because everyone knows him as the bad guy. I remembered the advice my teacher gave me ''think out of the box. A story that happens in the future, something with a twist.'' This advice gave me some pretty nice ideas. I wanted to make Captain Hook the good guy but this time he'd be a robot! I did want to keep the ticking crocodile in it but this time as side kick, as well as his iconic skull cave.
The next step was drawing out the concepts. I started with sketches and later on digitalize it on my drawing tablet. I used Photoshop to redraw my concepts, add colors and a bit of shading. I'm still a growing artist, I'm learning from every drawing I make as I also see growth.
Here are my 3 starter sketch concepts. Starting with Tink's then Peter's and last but not least Hook's. From here on I started on my digital drawings.
Starting with Tinkerbell!
So I started with sketching out my concept again and when I was happy with how it looked I started coloring it in. I started with the big parts of the drawing, the mountains, and trees.
From there on I started coloring my floating platform, branch and teapot. When I was happy with how all of that looked I added some details, colored the sky and added some tiny pixies for a final touch. In overall, I think this concept looks really cute.
Now on to the story I made for this concept!
You are born as a new pixie in the Pixie dust tree. You already decided what fairy you’ll be, which is a Tinker fairy just like Tinkerbell. She will also be your guide through Pixie Hollow! It all starts in the pixie dust tree. Tink grabs your hand and flies with you through Pixie Hollow, unfortunately you can’t fly yet so together you’ll go to the floating platform that bestows pixie dust on you guys! From there you can fly, you still fly with Tinkerbell next by your side it goes a bit wonky in the beginning but you get the hang of it! You make some loops and eventually you fly with Tinkerbell to her little teapot house that locates on a big branch. You fly into the door entrance which is also the end of the magical pixie ride!
This is supposed to be a floating roller coaster attraction but in my concept you see the enviroment since that's how it’s supposed to look. I hope you like the concept.
Next up my concept for Peter pan!
So I made a few more process pictures of this ride because I made a few more details in this ride than Tink's. Just like Tink's I started by re-sketching it digitally, color the bigger parts and then on to the details.
Lastly I started adding in tiny details like Wendy, Tinkerbell and Peter. I'm sorry for the bad quality of some pictures as these are screenshots I took when I was working on it. And on the bottom right you can see my concept fully drawn out.
Now on to the story I made for this concept!
Peter kidnaps Wendy from her room in London together with Tinkerbel. Wendy doesn't know what's happening and screams on the top of her lungs but no one hears her. Eventually Peter, Tinkerbell and Wendy enter Neverland as Peter takes Wendy to the skull cave, Wendy notices that the ticking crocodile is already swarming around her because she will be his next snack. Peter then ties Wendy around the rock in the cave. After a while Tinkerbell comes back because she feels really bad about what she did, unties her and sprinkles some pixie dust on Wendy which makes her fly. The two together then fly off as Tinkerbell leads the way through Neverland back to London but Peter is stopping them on the edge of Neverland. Wendy flies in and kicks Peter causing him to fall down on a pile of leaves. Now free, Wendy flies back to her home through the gate which is also the end of the ride.
This ride is supposed to be a water ride/ roller coaster kind of inspired by ''de vliegende Hollander'' in the Efteling.
Last but not least, Captain Hook!
Once again I started with the sketch. I decided to start coloring from the left side and then going to the right. Like this I was able to focus on the 3 parts of the single attraction. First you start in a boat where you can see Peter destroy a house. Eventually you sail to the UFO. The passengers then get out and walk into the UFO, flying over Neverland in the evening trying to catch Peter.
In the last part you're in a cart with laser guns where you're able to shoot lasers at Peter to stop him. Once you go through the ending portal the ride ends.
Now on to the story I made for this concept!
It all starts in a boat, you're traveling around London as you see Peter destroy houses in the neighbourhood. Someone is expecting you, as you eventually sail to a suspicious skull cave. You see the crocodile swarming around you but it's in need for help, you then approach a little bridge where you need to get off. You walk with the other passengers to the UFO where you see a robot waiting for you. ''Welcome travelers, I'm so glad you could make it.'' as the man turned around to face all of you it turns out to be Captain Hook but as a robot! You guys fly over neverland at night because Peter won't expect it. Like this you guys can shoot him with your lasers and once he's hit the UFO will use his laser beams to lift Peter up and capture him inside. From then on Captain Hook gives you his thanks and lets you off in a portal sending you back to your hometown. That's where the attraction ends!
So once I finished my concepts I discussed them with my teacher, asking for feedback and hoping on a ''Go'' so I could continue my assignment. My teacher found my ideas pretty nice and original but asked which one I could make within the time we still had left. I said I liked Tinkerbell's concept a lot, although I really like Captain Hook's concept as well because it's original and not something I'd normally ever make. But since Captain Hook's concept was so detailed I ended up chosing Tinkerbell's concept instead.
Now that I chose my concept I started working in Blender. What I did first was sculpt my tree. This was the first time I sculpted something in Blender, after I finished my tree I instantly gave it a texture. Here are my steps!
I also sculpted cliffs and the mountains, I didn't really take many pictures off of it but I will still show you. I started with a cube and just built them upwards, then did my magic and sculpted them.
I then wanted to give my beautiful trees some leaves because every tree deserves them. I wanted to make realistic leaves before by using a picture in photoshop, import it into Blender and edit it but it unfortunately made my Blender freeze and my laptop crash so I went with plan B. I used spheres and stretched them out and at last I gave them a green textures.
Next up I started working on my floating platform. I used the magical floor from Barbie and the twelve dancing princesses as inspiration for it. I originally wanted to make the fairydust part in the original tree but I figured a platform would be cooler!
Note: I didn't draw this picture. Full credits go to Mattel.
So I started with a sphere again (sorry for the bad quality on the first picture.) I then added in a cube, made it longer and eventually started sculpting it. I started by making the base lets say ''fatter'' and then sculpted on the details. I did the same for the base. And eventually I moved it into the middle of my cube world for now.
As the last step I started making stars, these will float around the floating platform and represent the fairy dust. I used a plane, extruded it and adjusted the points. I added more stars around the floating platform.
Next up I started working on the teapot. I also made leaves. I made the leaves the same way as I made the stars but made them a tiny bit thicker. For the teapot I started with a sphere, extracted some points to make the spout and the handle. After that I joined the leaves on top of the teapot and extruded a little hole in the middle of the teapot that represents the little door, but this time it's open. The teapot was inspired by Tinkerbell's teapot house but not only the teapot house, the stump as well where the teapot is on.
From there on I started making the stump. For this I used a donut but that didn't work out when I wanted to sculpt it. I used a cube instead and started extruding it. Why? So the inside would be thicker so when I'd sculpt it my stump wouldn't completely vanish. I eventually added some Turkeytail's onto the stump. Fun fact, Turkeytail's in Dutch are called ''Elfen bankje'' which mean ''pixie couch'' when it's translated. A cute little touch really! I also made the Turkeytail's the same way as the leaves.
Yes we are almost at the end! I'm sorry for keeping you guys here for so long. Next up are the textures. I unwrapped my textures by using smart UV unwrapping. From there on I started painting my textures in texture paint. I gave the floor a glossy blue color so it'd represent water but it wasn't good enough for me.
I then also added some fireflies around my teapot and trees. It can represent pixies as well. I gave them emmission so they'd light up. The same goes for my stars.
Lastly before finishing my entire cube world I decided to add a little river that flows under the teapot into the mountains and ends in a waterfall. At the bottom of the waterfall I also added some fireflies and obviously I also added my textures and gave the fireflies some emmission. At last I gave my beautiful cube world a sun so it'd shine around and add some light.
Here are some final renders of my cube world! I hope you like them. :)
And finally here is my sketchfab file. Here you can turn the model and look from every side. I found this assignment very difficult but I'm glad I finished it. Thank you for reading this far I hope you found my process interesting and I hope you also learned from it as well. Until next time on my Behance page!
Regards,
Dominic. :)
