There were three different ideas I concepted for the colour scheme of this environment (though as you can probably see, the room was not quite completed when I started concepting, so some of my assets are missing). The first one is probably my least favourite, as I think the colours are too chaotic and cartoonish (not utilizing colour theory), and I also don't like that many of the greens are slightly different, as I much prefer it when the colours match directly. The second one is quite good, I am a big fan of the green+yellow+beige combo, which is one seen in a lot of Tran's art (for example this piece, which also inspired the bricks). However, I think it looks a little too modern, which conflicts with the whole idea of Greek mythology. The last concept is the one I ended up using, since it gave off the Victorian vibes that I was looking for. I like the darker look of the wood, and the white bricks are very aesthetically pleasing, in my opinion.
Next I started experimenting with the placing/intensity of the lighting. In this model, I have placed three main lights, which I intend to recreate later on in unreal engine. For the purposes of visibility, I put an area light over where the ceiling will be, which allows you to see the room slightly better in this mock-up. Of course, in the final environment, the room will be lit up just by the three main lights.
The three lights I intend to re-create in unreal engine are the lamplight, the window light, and the fireplace. You can see that in this mock-up the lampshade and curtains are slightly transparent, which gives it an unusual look, quickly critiqued by my peers and tutor. This was done in order to let the light seep through and hit the rest of the room better, since it was bouncing off things harshly before. I was assured by my tutor that I would be able to more attractively achieve this desired effect later on in unreal engine. Other than that, I very much like the look of these lights, and would especially like to keep the warmth and realistic colouring of the fire and lamp, as I think it really brings out the reds and dark browns in the room's colour scheme.
Of course my initial plan for my interactive asset was for it's eyes to glow when you press a button on the pedestal (as seen in my concepting) - since I am keeping the bust in my new environment, I think that this is still a great idea on how to make my sculpted head relevant and interesting.
This is, again, a mock-up done in blender to simulate how this asset will look when its eyes are glowing. I have intentionally made the colour of the lights pure white, since I think it contrasts the warm oranges of the fireplace and lamp. This makes a distinction between the light on the bust and the light in the rest of the room, and will draw the viewer's eye to this asset and make it look more ethereal and out of place compared to the natural light of the fire and the yellow-tinted light bulb in the lamp.