Contextual research blog.

'Libau 1938' is a 3D game project, the goal of which is to revitalize my home city Liepaja as it was before it was destroyed in the Second World War. So first, a little context on my city. My home town Liepaja is known by several names. Earliest settlement name was Liva, after the river that flowed through. Eventually being Germanized to Libava or Libau in German. Photo below is a German map from the early 20th century, baring the Libau name.

During Latvian independence movement it was once again made more Latvian; Liepaja. After the linden tree, which had since become a symbol of the city. My project is set in the 1930s, and the very slightly alternate history in my fictional universe, means the name Libava (Libau) was kept.

Photo from the Leipaja tram archive (http://www.liepajastramvajs.lv/lv/node/89) The architecture in the city, even by the 1930s, was very mixed and varied, both in style and culture origin. Liepaja was developed and built up during the reign of several empires, and finally under an independent Latvia for the last 20 years, as of 1938. A diverse mix of old Swedish worker's houses, warehouses, mills and pubs. Russian orthodox churches and imperial era early industrial wood apartment buildings for workers, along with red brick factories and shipyard buildings. And near the end of the 19th century, Art-Nouveau style buildings popped up all around the city, mostly designed by head city architect Paul Max Bertschy. This means that for my project, I have been making a fairly diverse set of buildings. Some more detailed, some less so for background scenery. Another thing that has been a struggle is the tramway. The tracks and overhead cables. Liepaja is the home of the oldest tramway in the Baltics. So I almost feel like I am doing a disservice to my ancestors, if I get this wrong. Going forth, I would like to look at some of my inspirations and references. For the city itself, I have, of course, used my own time and phone camera, spending time in the city, photographing references for smaller objects. Google street view has also been a great resource, to quickly jump around the city and see the shapes and layouts of buildings, in the areas where historical buildings still exist. For pre-war buildings, I have purchased 3 books on Liepaja architecture. Including a book all about P. M. Bertschy's work, which includes sketches and even plans/blueprints, that I have been able to use to get the exact proportions and scale of buildings right. For the general street and ground references, as well as signs, and pre-war building configurations, before rebuilds, I have used the Liepaja tramway photo archive, and Latvia's national archive. They have a great, large collection of historical photographs and motion pictures, that detail the city life from a street level, showing the people, the cars and the streets themselves. The tram poles, city lighting, benches, bins, etc. The biggest inspirations for this project are other 1930s themed media. Movies such as

Road to Perdition (2002), The Godfather (1972), Public Enemies (2009), Homo Novus (2018), Dream Team 1935 (2012) Defenders of Riga (2007) And also, video games set in and around the 1930s, specifically historical era set pieces, that recreate historical cities and locations. Even games like Assassin's Creed Syndicate, that recreated 1850s Victorian London. The main inspirations for me are; Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015) Mafia (2002) Mafia Definitive Edition (2020) Mafia 2 (2010) The Godfather, The Game (2006) LA Noire (2011) Bioshock (2007)

The particular scene in Road to Perdition (2002) that inspires me the most, is the ambush in the rain, where a group walks out in the very heavy rain heading towards a car, with umbrellas. Lanterns barely able to cut through the rain with their light.

I sadly lacked the time and knowhow this time around to have a heavily rainy scene in my project, but I did add lanterns and some night time shots, inspired by the film.

The Godfather (1972) is another huge influence on my work and ideas. The dark gritty atmosphere of 1940s New York state, and city, the filmmaking and symbology the film creates for its own internal universe. For example, the times that oranges appear on screen, tragedy soon follows, making a small, more observant group the audience able to predict what may come next.

Things like this bring me joy as a fan of artistic entertainment media, and makes me wish to contribute to the genre/indusrty.

The Godfather Game (2006) was another big influence, and another reason why my own project is so focused around cars and why the final game is planned to have a big vehicle driving focus.

The Mafia 2020 remake is an important influence on my work because it is another project that is a era set piece with a focus on architecture, atmosphere and cars. A great focus in the game is on the vehicle design, modeling, quality and even handling and physics.

Again, this is something i wish to one day include in my own project once it becomes an interactive real time game, but for the cinematic trailer, i simply showcase my own 3D car models, and my passion for pre-war motors and their design.

A huge influence in, not just my own creative work, but in my tastes in media as a whole, is thanks to LA Noire (2011) by Rockstar and Team Bondi. Just, the atmosphere of that game, it is intoxicating. During my teenage years, I spent probably months worth of time in that game, just soaking in the dripping atmosphere. The music, the cars, the recreation of 1940s Los Angeles architecture, everything. If I am allowed to be perfectly honest here, then let me just say that, if there is one thing I hope my own project will one day achieve, is to be half as good at immersing the audience into its time period, as LA Noire. That game is brilliant, and I can't even give you specifics as to why exactly.

Then another big drive that motivates me and moves me forward, is the Latvian domestic cinema industry. Many Latvians see the pre-war period as a sort of lost Latvian paradise (more on that later in this blog)

So a lot of films are set in that era.

Notable examples being Dream Team 1935, Homo Novus and Rīgas Sargi (Guardians of Riga).

These films each has a slightly different atmosphere, but they make my list of inspirations for being mostly non-fantastical and showing the audience the way of life in a free Latvia we forgot, and only reclaimed in 1990.

Homo Novus in particular explores the late 1930s in Riga, featuring motor vehicles and other, at the time, modern things in Latvia.

And this brings me to the major reason why I make this project in the first place. I am not ashamed to say this, I am a huge Latvian patriot. I am immensely proud of my nation, my Latvian brothers and sisters, our parents and our ancestors. Immensely thankful to my ancestors for their sacrifices and hard work they had to make, and put in, to give me the free, open, unique Latvia that I can enjoy today. And of course I am deeply in love with Latvian culture, history and people.

And because of this love, I spend a lot of my time learning about our history. Learning about how things were before the communist occupation. How things were before the soviet and nazi bombing and destruction of our fatherland.

Ever since childhood I have obsessed over historic photographs of my home town, especially from the 30s, learning how it used to be, what we used to have. Spending entire evenings, trying to place obscure photos of unknown buildings.

Seeing how many architecturally and culturally significant buildings my city lost during the war, that were never salvaged or rebuilt, makes me deeply sad. I weep for the lost city we once had. The very city my great grandparents lived in and met.

This is the main motivation for me to make this project. My main motivation to recreate my home town as it was in 1938, before the war. Recapture even a fraction of that city we used to have. Show the grand scale of some of our lost buildings and streets.

I use the Latvian National archives which have public access. Private archives of companies or individuals, like the Liepaja tramway photo archives. Even old postcards. Going back to games. I have also been playing these games, inspecting 3D models, inspecting their textures and geometry, trying to understand how they were created. Sometimes even finding inconsistencies, like giant garden shears in Mafia 2, for example. trying to understand how other game artists make their streets feel more alive, with different street furniture, trash, litter, mud, puddles, tram tracks, plant life, etc. Inspecting car models, seeing if I can find artists' uploading them online, as part of their portfolio, and I successfully found the 3D artists who worked on the vehicles in Mafia. They have several of their models on ArtStation. It is definitely interesting to see, and compare, and learn. I have realized I have been making several mistakes with my own models, and I have learned several new techniques, just from trying to replicate some of the patterns or normal maps, that I see in my favourite games. Pinterest also has been a huge help to me as well, with its many visual references for 1930s fashion for my character designs, as well as general visual reference for everything. Most of my visual references for the 3D cars I have created, have come specifically from Pinterest. There will be links to my Pinterest board at the end of this post. More about the technical side of things in my other blog post! https://28robis.wixsite.com/robinmikanimation/post/technical-blog-final-project