Project Zoya: Building a Home for an Imagined World

FOI Cloud is where I’m bringing together a new part of my creative work: fictional characters, photographic ideas, and a house and gallery that we are building in 3D. Project Zoya is the first chapter.

I’m Sourish Mukherjee, founder of FOI Studios. Photography, filmmaking and music are already part of my practice. With this project, I’m exploring how those interests can meet inside a world that develops over time, with recurring characters and spaces that feel connected.

The first images are already available on FOI Cloud. Behind those releases, there is another process happening: building the environment in Blender and working toward a consistent, editable 3D character.

Some parts are ready to explore today. Others are still taking shape. I want to share both, because the process is part of this project’s story.

Meet Zoya

Zoya is a fictional adult character created with AI, and the first character we are developing for FOI Cloud.

A recurring character asks for more than a single good image. Her face, proportions and identity need to remain recognisable across different clothes, expressions and settings. A portrait in a quiet room and a more elaborate cinematic scene should still feel like they belong to the same character.

That continuity is one of the things we are working on. The images released so far explore fashion, Indian ethnic styling, boudoir and imagined locations. They also help establish the visual direction for the character as the project develops.

If you are meeting her for the first time, the Meet ZOYA introduction and the original Project Zoya launch post are good places to begin. The Project Zoya collection brings the published posts together.

From a quiet portrait to an imagined scene

The work already moves between very different moods.

In A Moment in Black & White, the focus returns to Zoya’s face. A white top, soft shadows and a direct gaze give the portrait a quieter feeling. It is a free post, so anyone exploring FOI Cloud can start there.

Amber and Teal is another free introduction to the imagery. Together, these public posts give a way into the project before choosing whether to explore a membership.

The premium releases take the scenes in other directions. Gold & Turquoise brings together five early-access photographs, with gold embroidery, a flowing turquoise robe and burgundy velvet in an imagined heritage-bedroom setting.

The Butterfly Forest, available to Cloud Circle members, moves outside that interior world. Violet and blue butterflies, woodland shadows and light through the mist create a more dreamlike scene.

These releases are different ways of developing the same character. As the body of work grows, consistency matters as much as variety.

The photographic thinking behind the images

I approach these scenes with questions that also matter in my photographic work. Where is the light coming from? What catches the eye first? Does the background support the subject? Does the clothing feel right within the setting?

The way an image is made has changed, but those decisions still need care.

A beautiful room can overwhelm a portrait. A dramatic colour grade can hide weak lighting. An impressive first impression can also contain small errors that become clear when you look more closely. Part of developing Project Zoya is learning which details to keep, which to refine and which need to be rebuilt.

Zoya’s images are AI-created, and I want that to remain clear. My photography with real people continues as its own practice. This project gives me an additional space to explore fictional characters and settings while bringing the same attention to composition, light and atmosphere.

Why we are building a house

The larger idea behind FOI Cloud includes a home for the work.

A house and gallery give the images a setting beyond the individual frame. They create the possibility of arriving somewhere, moving through rooms and encountering artwork within a space that has its own character.

We are already building that environment in Blender. The current gallery design has 24 artwork spaces, with a Rococo and private-salon direction. The rooms, architectural details and lighting are being developed alongside the landscape around the building.

When I share updates about “our house,” this is the creative home I mean: the house and gallery taking shape within the FOI Cloud world.

The editable scene matters because it gives us a foundation we can return to. We can adjust the geometry, change a material, move a camera and examine how the same place looks from another viewpoint. Each correction can become part of the environment itself.

What is happening in Blender now

The environment includes mountains, water, waterfalls, grass and trees. Camera movement is also part of the work, so the scene needs to hold together beyond a single still image.

At the moment, much of the refinement is about making those elements feel connected. The mountains need more convincing geology and distance. Vegetation needs to sit naturally on the ground. Water and waterfalls need to make sense within the landscape. Inside the gallery, the light needs to support the architecture and the artwork.

Small changes can make a visible difference. A recent pass added five young trees to give the forest more depth. It was a modest improvement, but it helped create another layer between the viewer and the landscape.

The project has saved, editable checkpoints that have been reopened and checked. That gives us a practical base for continuing the work. The visual quality is still being developed, and there are details that need further correction.

We are also working on a cinematic hero view for an announcement. The current direction brings warmer light and layered atmosphere into the scene, while keeping enough space around the mountain edges. It is another study in progress, rather than a finished view of everything the world will become.

Where the 3D character and VR fit in

Alongside the environment, there is an unfinished editable 3D character project for Zoya. Developing that character is a separate task from creating the images already published on FOI Cloud.

A character intended for a 3D scene needs consistent proportions, convincing skin and eyes, hair, clothing and a usable rig. Those pieces still need work before they can come together as a complete character.

The longer-term ambition is an immersive 3D world, with the possibility of VR and more in-house fictional characters. The gallery, environment and character work are steps toward that direction.

There is no released VR experience or confirmed launch date to announce. As explained in Start Here, current memberships cover the published collections. The future world is a development ambition, and I will share its progress as it becomes something we can demonstrate.

How to explore FOI Cloud today

For a first visit, I suggest this route:

• Read Start Here for an introduction to FOI Cloud and its membership information.
• Open the Project Zoya collection to see the published work together.
• Begin with the free A Moment in Black & White and Amber and Teal posts.
• Explore the premium Gold & Turquoise release and Cloud Circle’s The Butterfly Forest if you would like to see more.

That gives you a view of the project as it exists now: a fictional character, published imagery, and a world under construction.

The next chapter

Project Zoya connects several parts of what I do. The portraits give the character a visible identity. The house and gallery give the work a place. The Blender scene gives us an editable environment that can continue to develop.

There are still plenty of decisions and corrections ahead. I will share updates about the house on FOI Cloud, alongside the character collections, so the development remains visible as we work through it.

This journal on FOI Studios is the wider view of that process. You can follow the images and the developing world at foicloud.com.