BEDROOM IN ARLES

FROM FORSYTH PARK TO YOUR POCKET

For the 2023 SCAD’s Sidewalks Art Festival, I painted an homage to Van Gogh’s The Bedroom in Arles (1888), where I invited viewers to peek into a virtual rendition of the iconic piece. During the event, they would see the AR room both on the chalk painting and on cards so they could revisit the experience anytime they wanted.

THE PROCESS + SOFTWARE SMOOTHIE

I was heavily inspired by the collectible cards for NASA and the branded AR experiences. This time I wanted to give it a try on a bigger scale. After studying the original piece for several days and doing sketches to understand the forms and layout, the digital party started:

  • Adobe Illustrator: Created vectors corresponding to the orthographic views of the furniture. This part of the process was really fun because it reminded me of IKEA’s assembly instructions.

  • Autodesk Maya: Extruded the vectors, assembled the meshes, modeled the room and did preliminary set dressing. Got my UVs unwrapped, laid out and ready for texturing.

  • Adobe Photoshop: Painted the textures using GrutBrushes’ Impasto set (which I was truly happy to find).

  • Meta Spark Studio: Created a surface tracking experience, imported the scene as an .fbx file, and assigned textures and materials. I also tested the assets individually to refine texturing/modeling, and it was really exciting to see them in my living room.

UV + Textures of the windows and paintings.

AR test for texture review.

AR test for sidewalk experience.

LOGO + BRANDING

For the physical trackers, I designed a logo in Adobe Illustrator. I couldn’t miss the opportunity to emphasize “AR” in the word “Arles.”

FINAL THOUGHTS + FUTURE PLANS

This was one of those projects that I envisioned and couldn’t get out of my head. It was a 6-week challenge that brought tears to my face once I scanned the cards for the first time. At its debut at the festival, the excitement and reaction of the attendees ratified the beauty of giving art.