Neverland Tavern is a restaurant concept for the Efteling! It's inspired by the tale of Peter Pan. The restaurant is a contrast to the London family house where the story starts, when you enter the restaurant you step inside Neverland. It's cozy and has a second floor on the ship of Captain Hook. You enter this by going through the treetrunk and then by crossing the little bridge. Down at the bar, you can get cool drinks that look like fairy dust and a quick savory bite.
Mood Board
You can never start a project without a mood board! I first watched some clips from the Peter Pan movie and quickly decided what kind of aesthetic I wanted. To add something special I needed to find a way to create a contrast between London city and the nature of Neverland. So on my mood board, you find nature but also some pictures of London.
Style Board
I did some research on what I could add to my cube world and searched for some pictures. On the outside, I want an old-looking London city house and on the inside, I want nature and fairy vibes.
Concepts
Before I decided what attraction I wanted to make I made three concepts. It was pretty clear which idea I loved the most. I immediately drew some more details and visualized the aesthetic.
Hooks Freefall
In this attraction, you enter the boat of Captain Hook. You get lifted into the tower that is dark-looking and overgrown by plants. When you reach the top you hear Captain Hook laughing and after he stops laughing the ship drops down giving you an adrenaline kick.
Wendy's Stories
Wendy's Stories is a concept for a merch store. It has a night sky ceiling and high bookshelves with all kinds of merch of the Efteling that matches the aesthetic.
Neverland Tavern
Neverland Tavern is a restaurant where you can get a bite and cool-looking drinks! From the outside, it looks like an old house from London but when you step inside you enter Neverland!
I liked the Neverland Tavern the most so decided to work it out a little more. I even got out my colored pencils and practiced drawing with them!
Blender
I'm not gonna lie, after making such a detailed concept I had a hard time with Blender. I'm a prefectionist which made me forget about the low-poly rule. I think I made a wall with almost a million triangles while the max was 1,600 triangles. So that was quite the blooper. At the end of the project, I also found out I had a floor with like 70,000 triangles so that was also a no-go. I made a render of my big fail and then picked up the work again.
The render is not exactly as I made it because I already had started deleting things. But, although it's not exactly as how it was, you can probably see that this was definitely not low poly.
I deleted the wall and started over again but I must say, the motivation was definitely not there anymore. After a lot of procrastination, I picked up the work again and tried to make the best of it. I'm pretty satisfied with the base and the outside but I wish I had worked more with details to make it look less empty. I definitely could have done better but with the time I had left, I think I made a pretty okay piece.
Here are some renders of the end work in Blender. (The wireframe looks way better without a wall of a million triangles. *wink wink)
Sketchfab Renders
Sketchfab definitely did its work and made the Neverland Tavern come to life. I do still have to learn a lot about Sketchfab but I think this looks pretty great!
I'm very happy that this project is over but I definitely learned some valuable things. I really should let go of the perfectionism sometimes. I have to accept that I can't always work out every detail I have in mind and that it is okay and enough. I lose motivation by expecting too much while I don't have the time so I'm definitely going to start practicing letting go of those perfect ideas while being creative!
