The plan for this piece was to design and model an interior scene featuring a scifi workstation with a window view. I'd originally been inspired by spacecraft cockpit views but I also liked the idea of Victoria's high office in Oblivion, and my first few blockout sketches headed in that direction. I couldn't settle on an idea for the view from the window so I moved straight onto modelling the desk and tech.

I'd recently finished the mainframe access shot and I knew that this one was to be a part of that story, so I used a similar design style for the workstation models. I wanted the equipment to feel relatable, and I planned for the desk to be quite large, covered in different objects. I opened up Blender and  designed a few models that could be laid out around a monitor and keyboard. The equipment has a bit of a retro feel to it, 90's technology with a futuristic twist, which fits the narrative and achieves the look that I was aiming for.

Once I had all the pieces modelled and arranged on the desk, I started to work on making the setup a little more believable. One of the main points I wanted to get across in the shot is that the workstation has been used recently, so I included some intertwining cables to connect all of the pieces together and bring some disarray to the top of the desk.

I'd given the narrative more thought and had come up with some ideas that I could include in the graphics. I used Affinity Designer to create a set of decals for a few of the models and applied them to the scene.

I decided to go half and half with the original ideas and make the view from the window a planet, putting the viewer onboard an orbiting spacecraft. I modelled the room and it's window, plus a chair and some extra cables, then arranged the planet and asteroids outside. Since the beginning of the project I'd wanted the lighting to be dramatic so I composed the scene with that in mind, using a distant sun to light the edge of the planet and let some light into the room.

I took the rendered image into Clip for post editing: brightness, contrast and colour tweaks.