Textures Of Psyche

Year: 2024-2025
Artist: Jessica Hall
University: Rochester Institute of Technology
Major: New Media Design
Title: Textures Of Psyche
Tags: Asteroid
Genre/Medium: 3D render; Cinema4D; procedurally generated models and textures using noise algorithms
Category: digital still
Current Location: Digital Only
Description: “Textures of Psyche” explores the mysterious Psyche asteroid and what it may look like. Journeys into space are full of exciting and unknown possibilities that always defy our expectations, and I aimed to capture the scope of what our future images of Psyche might be.

After modeling the skeleton shape of the asteroid, I used procedural noise algorithms to add displacement to the models, adding physical terrain variations. However, the largest portion of this project involved creating textures. By layering, blending, and mathematically compiling a wide range of noise algorithms, I was able to build a variety of textures for Psyche that had exciting and subtle variations in color, surface texture, roughness, bump, reflection, and metal-ness. The final component involved lighting each scene to reflect the massive scale of Psyche, despite its lonely nature out in space.
Artwork Link: https://psyche.ssl.berkeley.edu/gallery/textures-of-psyche-2/