I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE ISLAND.
Hi! My name is Atlas Vernier. I use they/them pronouns in English, elu/delu in Portuguese, iel in French, and elle in Spanish. I’m a technologist, artist, and engineer, and my work primarily falls at the intersection of art and technology. I’m a storyteller at heart, and I’m always seeking new ways to tell stories: from immersive art exhibits to training simulations that will help astronauts in space to Dungeons & Dragons!
What sets me apart is my adaptability, determination, and pure passion for worldbuilding and storytelling. Over my career, I’ve adapted my design and storytelling approach to numerous styles, including NASA, artistic collaborations across the United States, and multiple international design teams.
Below are some samples of my work, including concept art, environmental design, logo designs, multimodal experiences, and writing excerpts. These have been designed to be tailored towards the QSMP Events team!
I would be happy to provide additional samples! My general portfolio can also be found on my website’s homepage!
Thank you so much!
— Atlas Vernier
atlas@vt.edu
ART &
DESIGN
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCEPTS
I am currently the lead for concept designs and 3D modelers (and the post production manager!) for an animated TV series.
In this role, I am responsible for creating concept art, designs, and visions that will be used by the artists to create the final animations.
These renders include weather, sky lighting, physical geography, and plant life.
I’m also responsible for transforming storyboards into backgrounds. Below is a storyboard by Maxim, our creative director, accompanied by the render I created.
To make it easier for the artists, I included multiple times of day (different light and shadow angles) and a few different weathers.
I love experimenting with new concepts and bringing ideas to life. This image was an experiment I did to see how Minecraft beacons might look in real life.
My goal was to make it seem as though the light was alive, not simply some static thing. Any block can glow - but beacons hum as though they’re alive!
This render also includes animated water, snow, and stars!
My renders aim to evoke a sense of wonder. What unexplored worlds might exist?
This was created as a concept design for a new environment. The goal of this was to show the unknown of a new world as one of the central characters explores.
This is a second version of the video above, following feedback from my creative director and art lead.
I am currently researching what plant life and vegetation would best fit this geographical build, as well as working on the mountains.
REAL-WORLD SIMULATION RENDERS
This model render and animation was designed for construction workers and drivers to be able to understand the impact of roadside construction on night driving. The complete model included construction lights, moving construction trucks, and routing cars different ways through the traffic simulation.
This is Vauquois, a tiny village in the north of France that was destroyed during WWI, erasing a piece of history.
Using technology like photogrammetry, LIDAR point-cloud scans, and Unreal Engine, we were able create a digital restoration of the village, preserving its story and restoring a piece of history.
My team also spoke with the historians at the site. As I am fluent in French, I was also responsible for translating the documents, maps, and stories of the people who lived in the village.
SPACE JAM
This project was completed during a two-week intensive program at the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology. Space Jam integrated a multitude of systems, including animated floor projection, spatialized audio, motion capture, and the Cyclorama. These systems were linked together to create a cohesive and immersive experience!
Users are immersed into a virtual audio environment. While holding a glowing orb—a planet of their very own—they are able to traverse the solar system to hear the sounds of each planet. Each planet has its own dedicated theme, including key, instrumentation, and arpeggiation. These themes are generated using live data; no matter how long you stay in a planet’s orbit, you will always hear new music!
Click play on the video to see and hear Space Jam in action at our final showcase!
SHACKLETON CRATER HEADS-UP DISPLAY
This project was a NASA project designed to create a tool for astronauts to use on the south pole of the moon, which is currently one of the most promising locations for long-term habitation due to the presence of water beneath the surface. Visibility is terrible on the lunar south pole because of the angle of the sunlight. Our project is a heads-up display (or HUD, for short!) to provide navigation and mission support to an astronaut. I helped design the aesthetic, information display, and the elements of the HUD itself!
This was designed in Unity, with some environment assets designed in Unreal Engine. The HUD was used in virtual reality, with some preliminary augmented reality applications. Unfortunately, the full animated version (and VR version!) is locked behind NASA security.
MARS HABITAT
This was another project completed at NASA Langley Research Center. This is the Mars habitat, which will ultimately be used to train astronauts. The structure itself is largely the same as the lunar habitat, since these habitats are designed to endure the conditions of the moon or Mars.
I was responsible primarily for designing the habitat itself, as well as designing and stocking the medical center. I also created the assets. This project was created in Unreal Engine, with assets created in Autodesk Inventor.
LOGO DESIGN
This was a concept developed by myself, the creative director, and the other post production leads for Symphony, an animated series which is currently in the pre-production phase. While the logo animation itself is still in progress, the logo has made considerable growth from our first draft! My version of this draft is below.
MINECRAFT BUILDS
The images below are Portalis, which served as a central hub between worlds on a modded Origins SMP. Each of these gaps led to different dimensions, including key locations like spawn, the Nether base, and an underwater base. These used datapack dimensions to unlock numerous worlds, with Minecraft commands and command block triggers to perform many actions.
Portalis is fully automated, with water-breathing origin players automatically given water-breathing (which functioned as air-breathing for them!), game mode was set to Adventure, and the saturation effect was added to prevent anyone from dying in Portalis. All of these effects were reversed as soon as they entered any new location.
One of the most unique elements was the Creative portal on the upper-right corner of the image below. This sent players to a creative world, allowing them to experiment with block palettes and larger builds. Their inventory was wiped before returning to Portalis, and the command blocks and portal controlling the dimension were locked to only be edited by a few players.
As a designer, I also embedded my logo in numerous sites throughout the build, including in the sky above Portalis (right) and in the base of the Great Tree (below).
The full tree build is pictured below. This was the Great Tree, complete with floating lanterns, housing for multiple players, and a take-off point for elytra flight.
WRITING
As a creative writer, my ventures vary from action-adventure to Lovecraftian horror to science fiction. I’ve written over 173,000 words for my own creative endeavors—and that’s not counting the non-fiction reports written for research and classes! My most recent independent piece was the script for a short film. This film, entitled “Au nom de l’amour” (In the Name of Love), is a retelling of the French classic La Princesse de Montpensier from the perspective of Renée de Montpensier: the princess herself. Here is a sample, side-by-side with the original French.
French (original)
Depuis des siècles, on me connaît comme la Princesse de Montpensier : une femme sans nom, épouse de mon mari, et combattant pour un amour vrai.
Une seule de ces choses me fera mourir.
C’est magnifique, d’être amoureuse. C’est exaltant, d’être choisie, d’être désirée. L’amour était grisant, même avec le chagrin d’amour. C’était un amour brisé—peut-être comme chacun de nous. Mais il y avait une beauté dans la fêlure ; des éclats de verre sont encore brillants dans le soleil.
Une plus jeune femme aurait pu dire que l’erreur n’existe pas ; il n’y a que de nouvelles opportunités. Mais je crois maintenant que c’est possible de rencontrer les deux.
Le monde voudrait tourner en noir et blanc. Je suis soit méchant pour aussi poursuivi ce que je veux, soit bonne pour avoir poursuivi l’amour. Chabannes avait fait quelque chose de bien en quitter la guerre, mais il est considéré comme lâche.
Peut-être je ne suis pas une bonne personne—certainement pas un honnête homme. Je ne sais pas si c’est important.
Chabannes m’a parlé autrefois d’étoiles. “Astra inclinant, sed non obligant,” il m’a dit. Les étoiles nous inclinent, mais ils ne nous enchainent pas.
Je me souviens d’une autre phrase : Igne natura renovator integra. Par le feu, la nature renait entière. Et moi - je suis passée par le feu.
Peut-être le destin, c’est une offre, autant qu’il pourrait être une erreur. La peur, le désespoir qui vous hante—c’est rien de plus qu'e le précurseur de quelque chose de plus grand. Pour continuer en dépit de cette peur, à triompher tout s’écroule autour de vous, d’aimer face à la défaite—c’est ce que signifie d’être vivant.
English (translation)
For centuries, I have been known as the Princess of Montpensier: a woman without a name, wife to my husband, and a fighter for true love.
Only one of these things will be my death.
It’s a magnificent thing, to be loved. It’s exhilarating to be chosen, to be desired. Love was exhilarating, even with the pain of heartbreak. It was a broken love—perhaps like each of us. But there was a beauty within that brokenness; shards of glass still shimmer in the sun.
A younger woman might have said that there’s no such thing as a mistake: only new opportunities. But now, I believe that both may be possible.
The world wants to paint things in black and white. I am evil for chasing what I want, yet good for chasing love. Chabannes did something right, when he left the war, but he is considered a coward.
Perhaps I am not a good person—certainly not an honest man. I don’t know if that matters.
Chabannes spoke to me once of stars. “Astra inclinant, sed non obligant,” he said. The stars incline us, but they do not bind us.
I think of another phrase: “Igne natura renovator integra.” Through fire, nature is reborn whole. And I, I have passed through fire.
Perhaps destiny is a gift, just as much as it might be a mistake. The fear, the despair that haunts you—it is nothing more than the precursor to something greater. To continue in spite of that fear, to triumph while the world crumbles around you, to love in the face of loss—that is what it means to be alive.
For the sake of brevity, this is not all of my work! This collection has been tailored to the QSMP Events team application. My general portfolio can be seen on my website homepage, which is linked below. I would be happy to provide additional samples as needed.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration!