Pool scene plans

Long story short, it seems like my pool scene has grown some legs and decided to head off in a slightly different direction.

When I originally came up with this scene, I knew I wanted to have a nice pool (which is thankfully already done) and some sort of environment to go around it that I could leverage for posing and experimentation with other expansion related activities. I was hoping that a simple rectangular fence around the area would suffice, but as I started working on that it quickly became apparent that a completely closed off space probably wasn't going to work.

There were two major problems that crept up:

1) Despite the fact that the area was closed off, it still felt too public- like it was situated behind a run of the mill hotel or something. This was supposed to be a scene where people (read: characters) could go and enjoy some expansion related fun however they wanted. For that to work, it had to feel private and more like an "invite only" facility away from prying eyes.

2) Even after extending the pool area beyond the size in the last VR render I did, the whole thing still felt like some sort of weird cuboid floating around in null space. There was no sustenance to the environment, and while I have no doubt that most people would be focused on the things centered in frame (rather than around it)- the lack of any visual meat was really killing the immersion for me.

So I went back to the drawing board, and came up with the above layout. It has (or rather, will have) the following tentative features:

- A rear rock wall behind the pool, with some foliage lit from above in front of that (this will mainly serve as a colorful backdrop for any shots aiming across the pool)

- Some open metal fences and miscellaneous shrubbery/flowers along either side of the open area

- A hybrid wood/metal cabana, likely with built-in lighting and a couple of basic ceiling fans (plus room off to the side to chain up some helium tanks...)

- Grass everywhere else outside the pool zone, along with a stone path lit by some sidewalk lights (not visible in the above picture)

- A distant treeline and some rolling hills terminating the entire scene off in the distance

Since the entire scene is at night (as I wanted full control over the lighting and ambience), the only thing the trees around the edge of the scene need to do is to block out the moonlight enough that you can't see where the scene actually ends.

The end result should be a fairly private and intimate environment that feels less like a public pool and more like a private resort (or, I dunno, possibly Vanessa's own inflation related private retreat). I can't really imagine what else I'd need to make some nice renders and image packs, so hopefully this is the last minor course correction I'll have to deal with.