Behind The Scenes: Fortress of Barnitude (Patreon)

I so enjoyed the making of Central Perk from Friends as a first project of 2022, that I was looking to make something with similar vibe again. And I think closest to Friends you can get, is How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM), the modern sitcom that aired in 2005.

I looked up some image results of the show, just to determine, which scene might be influential and worthy to capture as first. The other flats and the group's pub looked interesting, but there is something about Barney's bachelor pad. I guess it must be the fact, that it's cool and posh, while totally geeky at the same time. And of course, way over the top, as the protagonist himself.

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When searching for image similarities, still can't beat Pinterest, so I created the board and started pinning multiple angles of the apartment. As always with movies and TV show, it's a bit hard to get nice quality angles that cover everything, so it's a bit time consuming to get enough material.

When going through the references, if became obvious, that most of the essence comes from simplicity and quality materials. Which is not ideal for low poly stylized diorama :)

Substance materials to the rescue! I decided to go with semi-realistic style to catch as much of the apartment's atmosphere as possible. That would of course increase the production time, but I think it was worth it.

And one more thing. I really wanted to include some easter egg, that would remind the observer of some particular moment in the show. My pick was the cardboard stove, which underlined the purpose of this living space and Barney's attidute towards home cooking and relationships.

Luckily, I was able to get a floorplan of the flat, and it was good and bad news at the same time. First, the living area is quite large and not a square shape. Second, it's kind of impossible to separate the living room and kitchen area without losing the mojo of the space (and I wanted to include that cardboard box).

I roughly sketched up few variants of the flat in a square space and it was apparent I need to make some changes to make this work. I cut the kitchen in half and left out part of the furniture with the fridge, leaving the wall blank. That allowed me to reduce the width of the kitchen and move the important magician poster to the other wall.

I end up with quite reduced space for the living room area, able to include only sofa and a table. Silver lining - there was enough space from the window, so the stormtrooper suit and katana stand were no issue and are essential part of the space.

In the end, these two, along with the colorful poster details and cardboard highlight mixed with quality materials helped to create instantly recognizable scene, and nobody even noticed the layout is completely changed.

You can watch the process video on Youtube