The Crystal Pearl | Kyra vd Dries

A 3D environment Project in Unreal by Nuriya Bouwman and me.
Composer & Sound designer : Juliette Korthals Altes

The Crystal pearl is an environment inspired by a Chinese fairytale about helping others first, and how they might help you in return. We have translated themes from the story through different area's in a surreal environment.

The Story behind the Area's

The Town Area

We designed the town to look cosy and warm, while trying to give some forshadowing to the garden, through the different lantern colours, barrels or oranges, and a fiddle shop.
We also really wanted to guide the player through the environment by using gates and tunnels.

The Garden Gate

The colour is more blue here, like the dragon area in the garden. And you can see the first garden gate, that transitions the viewer from a more familiar town to a magical garden incased by glass.

Garden Wedding Area

We designed this area after the first house the protagonist visits in the story of the Crystal Pearl, where he meets an old woman who has a mute daughter and asks the boy if he wants to ask for guidence on his journey to help her daughter speak again. At th end of the story when the lad is traveling back he passes their house again and tells that she will talk when she meets the man she wishes to marry. And ofcourse that turns out to be the protagonist, so they get married. In this area whe really wanted to combine the silent and wide landscape with the wedding theme, using warm reds and pinks to highlight the festivities in contrast with the blues and purples around it.

Garden Prosperity Area

This area was inspired by the second part of the story where the protagonist meets and old man with a land full of orange trees, but they bare no fruit. And this man, like the previous person asked if the lad could ask the wise man at the end of his journey how to make the ornages grow. When the lad gets back it turns out that they have to dig to find a well. While they dig they find a massive amount of gold and silver, and the water that springs out makes the oranges grow immediatly to full size. The boy is gifted with some of the money they found and travels on.
To visualize the story elements we used a lot of gold coins, vases (which contained the gold in the story), water and a huge orange tree. This area had a very orange glow to resonate with the gold and the oranges, to give it a warm and wealthy feeling.

Garden Dragon Area

This area is filled with water themes, pearls and a bridge that simbolizes the dragon that helped the lad in the story cross a wild, raging river. In return for this favour the dragon asks the boy to council the wise old man at the end of his journey, because the dragon wishes to return to the sky, but is unable to do so and wants o know why. When the boy returns, he tells the dragon that he has to remove the pearl that is on their head, so the dragon can grow his horns and return to the sky. In thanks for this the dragon gives the lad the pearl, which is able to cleanse the water in his home village.

The Floating Palace

We wanted the palace to be in a very purple light, that would show the magic of it. We designed this srtucture after the palace of the old wise man in the story, who is said to have all answers. We really wanted this to be a big reveal in the story and fill people with wonder and curiousity. Trhough the environemt we tried to lead the player further and further away from reality until we end on a deck on poles that dissapear into the clouds with the view of a floating magical palace in the distance.
We wanted the structure to defy gravity, by leaning on a tip and having dangling cords and being surrounded by floating lanterns and rocks.

Town Area

Garden Wedding Area

Garden Prosperity Area

Garden Dragon Area

Dragon Pond Design

The Floating Palace

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