The Traveling Witch
The Traveling Witch is a 2019 3D modeling project that I made for school. The assignment was Halloween themed; we had to design and model the lair of a magical being. All my classmates immediately gravitated to horror, whereas I went for a more playful, fun interpretation. I came up with a witch who converted a bus into her home and travels a fantasy world, learning different disciplines of magic.
Concept Art
The initial idea started off with a van then I changed it to a bus so there would be more space. When it comes to designing interiors, I’m a big fan of clutter and making the space look lived in. I referenced pop culture imagery of witches with the broom, spell books, and ingredients strewn about. I think a real witch’s environment could have been just as interesting, but I don’t think people would have recognized as well.
Progress Shots
Final Shots
This project lasted the entire fall semester (Sept-Dec) and I encountered a lot difficulties during it, not so much because of the project itself but because of the class.
I was learning a lot of new techniques and expected to be immediately good at them or else I was given a bad grade. Even though we could choose to do realist or stylized, the instructor for the course would heavily push us towards realism, and would judge my work based on how realistic it even though realism clearly isn’t what I was going for.
It was a constant struggle between doing what I originally planned and having to please my instructor, which is why it looks...the way that it looks 😅 In the progress shots you can see 3 pictures where I tried to go more realistic, but it wasn’t meeting my instructors standards because I had never done it before. I ended up getting a C or a C-.
By the middle of the semester I hated this project and by the end of the semester I was excited to not have to work on it anymore, which is sad because I loved the idea. It felt like the premise of a fun cartoon and it sucks that I couldn’t execute it the way I wanted to.
