Introduction
The Designer Spotlight is an 'interview a designer' session that is generally scheduled once a week at Professor Airie's Twitch stream — featuring one designer each time and providing an opportunity to explore the designer's inspiration, stories behind the homes, thought processes, design concepts, and tips and tricks.
Make sure to check out Airie's Ultimate ESO Homestead Guide along with a previous Designer Spotlight featuring @Scrambles386 from Playstation/NA!
@Yumij - PC/Europe
Being an illustrator and visual storyteller, Yumij loves to create ESO builds that transport you to a different world. She likes to create visual scenes and atmospheres that tell a story and make the visitors wonder.
Tips and Tricks from Yumij
- Start with the core of your idea. Think of the overall atmosphere and feeling you want to get across to your visitors and define the key elements of your build to reach this. This can be lighting, colours, textures, architecture, specific scenes, a lay-out, etc.
- Think of your build as a movie. Define the (visual) scenes that are important for the story. Note a few keywords along with a quick sketch of each scene and think about how you will connect the scenes (e.g. natural and open or rigid and defined).
- Use the chosen house as a blueprint. Make a layout of your scenes/rooms. Include the structural and environmental elements throughout it. If you build needs water or a specific sky (or weather), choose a house that has it. Try to align your layout with what the house has to offer.
- Enthrall your visitors by using contrast. The are many ways to create contrast: lighting (by using contrasting colours or dark vs. light), size (e.g. room size or structural parts vs. details), sound, etc.
- Add layers for a dynamic and immersive feeling - both horizontally and vertically. They can be actual physical layers (of e.g. platforms) to create depth and functionality, as well as story-layers where you give more information as you progress in the build to keep the visitors invested.
- Use the power of suggestion. You might only have a limited amount of slots, but it’s doesn’t necessarily take a lot to suggest the feeling of your build continuing on or giving hints of the activities and characters in your story. Leave it to the imagination!