Rational-Virtual Environments

So I know this is a bit late but hey.

My lair that I created for my virtual environments project is, sadly, not what I initially had in mind. However due to polygon issues and the need to restart it has ended up like it is now. The inspiration for my lair came from the idea of having an ex soviet union KGB style man. Bearing this in mind I went for a very soviet era Russian look, with simple concrete buildings and functional fittings. I also kept the lighting low to try an add a bit of a gloomy atmosphere to an already gloomy scene. The main inspiration came from looking at photos of old Russian cities, and how they followed the same pattern of simple block type apartments. I also noted that there was a large amount of Soviet propaganda pasted onto the walls, and thus I have tried to capture this feel by placing it around my lair, almost like pictures. The colour scheme is a combination of concrete outer surfaces, as was common in the photos, and then simple interiors, in true communist fashion. The only major difference to this colour scheme is the red carpet in the main hall. I made this red as I thought it helped to emphasise the villains connection to Russia and what it used to be like.
The other additions to my lair include a garage which I have kitted out with tools that would be used to fix the large truck inside it, and then the large truck itself. The truck started life with a more complex track system then the one that is in my lair. However these tracks were well over a million polygons in themselves, so after some remodelling I ended up with he truck seen in my lair. Saying this I'm still happy with it, just not so fond of the tracks. The inspiration for the truck came from looking at old half tracks and armoured personnel carriers. Thus I created a high sided, tracked vehicle. I also have another truck within my lair, and this is more of a high performance truck than an armoured beast. This is reflected in the fact that it has wheels and a streamlined body instead of tracks and a heavy armour shell. This truck was more inspired by racing trucks than half tracks, thus the streamlined body. The workshop in my lair contains what I feel to be my best models, the guns. These were inspired by my old Warhammer models (sad I know but they were good inspiration. I also added tools and shelving to the workshop to give it a bit of a filling as it were. It was around this time that I started laying with the renderer and discovered the Raytrace materials. From this point on I used them almost exclusively. The last building in my lair is the shooting range. This is simply a long building with targets at the far end. The targets were simple models with a bitmap attached to them to create the bullseye.

The compound itself is something right out of a prison, and this also I thought suited my villain down to the ground. The high walls and watchtowers mean nobody can get close without being seen and thus dealt with. Overall I am please with how it turned out, but will certainly be doing lots to improves it.