BASELAND 2050
Building a visual identity for a collaborative digital landscape
[!SUMMARY]
Role 3D Artist, Technical Designer Tools SketchUp, Vue xStream, Adobe Illustrator Skillset 3D Visualization, Workflow Automation, Art Direction
Context
During my internship at the BASE landscape design and architecture firm, the leadership took an interest in my background bridging 3D visualization and video game design. They tasked me with overhauling the visual identity and workflow of "BASELAND 2050", a massive, collaborative digital landscape project:
BASELAND functioned as a centralized, shared SketchUp file where all
team members were encouraged to contribute ideas and drop in elements
from their individual projects.
My primary objective was to
transform this chaotic, crowdsourced model into a unified environment
that strictly aligned with the firm's established design templates
and presentation standards.
Realism Test
My initial approach was to establish an automated rendering pipeline
using Vue xStream to convert the raw SketchUp scenes into high-quality,
photorealistic 3D landscapes.
After running initial tests, however,
I quickly realized this was the wrong path. The computational resources
and time required to render a collaborative project of this immense,
ever-growing scale in photorealism were entirely unsustainable, and the
models being contributed to the project were difficult to convert
properly to high-fidelity rendering software.
| Gallery: | |
|---|---|
 |
 |
The Solution: Stylized Automation
Instead of fighting hardware limitations, I proposed a pivot in art direction. Drawing inspiration from the highly stylized, illustrative texture work seen in the 2013 video game Shelter (by Might and Delight), I pitched the studio's leadership a visual identity that was technically lightweight but much better aligned with their existing graphic design and illustrative principles.
Once the new art direction was approved, I executed a complete overhaul of the project's ecosystem:
- Asset Creation:
I designed a bespoke texture pack and modeled custom, optimized 3D assets for trees, rocks, and various types of vegetation.
| Gallery |
|---|
 |
- Model Overhaul:
I upgraded the entire existing BASELAND model to reflect the new stylized aesthetic.
- Workflow:
To ensure that the project would not degrade back to using flat colors and sticks for trees, I engineered an automated import system. Whenever a team member imported a new contribution, the system would automatically apply the correct stylized materials and assets. - Asset Library:
I compiled the assets into a structured library, complete with usage instructions, allowing the entire firm to utilize this optimized design system both inside and outside of the BASELAND project.
| Gallery: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |