For everyone who cannot get enough about how to create a scifi cityscape, I wrote a little something for 3dtotal.com. It’s not a precise tutorial but I’m going through the creative process behind my ‘From Here I Can Almost See The Stars‘ artwork. A cool thing to be featured on that site. Check it out for the walkthrough and maybe their gallery for some world class inspiration!
Find the article here: Making of a Sci-Fi cityscape
Regards
Beasts Shall Rise
The initial idea for this one came from a commission I had finished at the time. I took the foundation of that earlier project and expanded on it. Since you can never have enough fantasy stuff in your portfolio, I wanted to go into it full throttle. And even while writing these lines I’m still fixing elements in the picture and tuning colours. I guess it’s one of those where I will always find stuff that could need some touch ups here and there. But at some point you have to stop. Because it looks good already and the stuff you fix are on a pixel level that no one will actually see. So yeah… I’ll stop now. :D DONE.
I guess the inspiration for this one came mostly from the commission but also a lot of Game Of Thrones or Lord Of The Rings of course. These properties kind of set a standard in the recent years. At least when it comes to a more ‘realistic’ look and feel of the fantasy genre. I’m a fan of cities that are built on a mountain cliff and always wanted to explore that theme. There went a lot of work into the fine tuning of the renders I used for a plate here. I used a wide range of tools from World Machine to DAZ3d to C4D to Vue and last but not least Photoshop. Lightroom as the final step of getting the colours and mood right.
Are the dragons attacking or just flying by? I leave that to the viewer. When I had the city pretty much done I felt that there was something missing. So I added some dragons because… ‘because’. They added a level of depth that was missing before. So I decided to keep them.
At the end I had a handful of different colourschemes for this one. I decided to go with a more aggressive and colourful tone instead of a dirty greyish realistic one. I think and hope the overall look, along with the colours, give a nice and epic impression. It at least works for me. =)
I dedicate this piece to two companions I lost over the last 5 weeks. You guys always made me smile when I was down. You’ll be greatly missed.
6000×2739 – Vue – World Machine – Photoshop – Lightroom
Creative Photoshop Process
Plate 1
Plate 2
Previz/Wireframe 1
Previz/Wireframe 2
Print Detail
The artwork on:
Deviantart – Artstation – CGSociety
Regards
Fly Me To The Moon
This one was a commission done quite some time ago. It’s done for a young lady who wanted a special gift for her boyfriend’s birthday. She told me that he’s a very big Scifi fan and wanted something personal and special. The sweetest thing ever and the girlfriend we all dream of, don’t you agree? I ultimately was very happy to help her out and together we managed to create something everyone was very happy with. She very early on made clear that the pic should show a moon scene with a base and Earth in the back. I took it a step further and started to build a city.
‘Collins City’ is a mixture of DAZ3d models and modified 3d models. Everything arranged and setup with Vue. The challenge was to create a scene without using atmospherical effects. The moon has a very specific lighting going on and I wanted to recreate that as good as possible. The foreground required some extra time to get the microcomposition right. The lighting was a little tricky too. After rendering the elements I used Photoshop to fix things and overpaint a couple of elements. Also the mood and the lighting received some touch ups.
So in the end we have a neat scene where even I managed to learn things from. And a young couple that enjoys the result very much and has something I created as a symbol of their love. That’s pretty amazing.
6000×3000 – Vue – Photoshop – DAZ3d
Print Detail
Creative Process
Earth Photo Credit
The artwork on:
Deviantart – Artstation – CGSociety
Regards
Here we have the second batch of additional three pictures I created for Galactic Civilizations 3. These were made for some sort of a Tech-tree screen where you can choose special skills for your civilization. Said screen is divided into three key aspects (benevolent, malevolent, pragmatic) that represent a certain set of skills to choose from.
Skillscreen – ‘Benevolent’
This first image is used for the ‘Benevolent’ screen. It’s a light and bright setup to represent a more friendly approach with good intentions.
For 1920×1080 Wallpaper Click Here
Skillscreen – ‘Malevolent’
This second image is used for the ‘Malevolent’ screen. It’s a dark, aggressive and very industrial influenced approach.
For 1920×1080 Wallpaper Click Here
Skillscreen – ‘Pragmetic’
Here we needed something that felt different from the other two looks. So we took the approach of the ‘golden middle way’ and tried to incorporate a slight golden color scheme into it. It ultimately turned out better than I expected.
For 1920×1080 Wallpaper Click Here
These projects were done with Vue and Photoshop. As usual a combination of multiple renders, manipulations and overpainting.
Regards
The Eternals
The original plates I rendered months before I finished this project. As usual I was playing around with some stuff in Vue when it suddenly clicked. I knew I had something that deserved a shot. I also haven’t done any bigger scifi cityscape pics in a while. So this was a motivation to start and detail out the scene in Vue. Due to my mashing together of all kinds of models I crossed some limitations in filesizes Vue was able to correctly save. So I had to work with two scene files for different parts of the picture. Mainly splitted between foreground and hero object detail and less important stuff to flesh out the scene along with background elements. So in the initial stage of composition and setting up the scene I created a lot of junk data to keep alive all alternatives I had in mind for the scene. I wanted this one to be big. Much like “Phoenix Rising” or “Gates To Elysium”. Scale and detail was important for this one. Once I got my atmosphere, composition and scene ready… rendering time! Then… silence.
I had the renders done and when I looked at them I realized how much time I would need to get this to a point I would be happy with. I instantly saw a lot of parts that needed a lot of attention. Plus the fact that, while I worked on the pic, new ideas popped up on how to refine certain details even more. So I left the renders for a couple of weeks. Of course I couldn’t leave these renders alone. I already invested some serious time! I had to do something with it. The Photoshop stage then had a lot of overpainting, atmosphere and lighting tuning. I also got back into Vue and added new stuff to the scene. Ships, buildings and additional detail. I didn’t want to overload the image with stuff but I fear I lost that battle (again!). At least there is a lot to discover, wouldn’t you agree?
When it comes to a story then there is none. The only thing is the title. I can imagine, that the citizens of that city look at these huge structures, as if they would still be there, even after they are long gone. So they started to call them ‘The Eternals’. What they do? I have no idea. But maybe it fires up the imagination of the viewers and you people come up with great ideas. =D
This picture is part of The Luminarium’s latest Exhibit: Illuminate VI. A fantastic source of inspiration that can be found here. It also features a neat interview with me, about myself and how I approach my work.
Quick shout out to Nicolas Bramke who helped with some pointers and ideas. Your input is always appreciated.
Vue – Photoshop – 6000x2553px
The artwork on:
Deviantart – Artstation – Drawcrowd – CGSociety – Behance
Regards
Nok Tiris
In 2011 Jason Huls contacted me to create a picture for a shortfilm (Citizen In The Temple) he’s doing. He sent me the script and when I finished reading it I found it really good. So I picked out the descriptions for the scene and started something. As it normally turns out shortfilms, especially when worked on in spare time, take a while to get done. Everyone working on it has a real job to take care of as well and so it comes that often things get delayed a lot. Earlier this year I was organizing my harddrives and stumbled over the folder with the painting I did for the film. I still liked how it turned out but couldn’t stop myself from adding a little more detail. I contacted Jason asking if the project was still alive and sent him the refined version. The film is in its final production stages but still… good work needs time. =) I also saw that other artists did backgrounds as well… so the film should have some eyecandy for sure.
What we have here is sort of an establishing shot that reveals where most of the story is taking place. The megacity of Nok Tiris. Eolan, the Planet itself, is pretty much dead and deserted. The fundament for the picture was again created with Vue and refined/detailed/overpainted with Photoshop.
5000×2283 – Vue – Photoshop
Regards
The Cities Of Linestra Part I
I have neglected my Comcept series for quite some time now. I started this series to play around with some things and create quick pictures to try out some things. It brought out some cool results every now and then. So here we have three Scifi cityscapes that are located on a Planet called Linestra. It’s one of the techologically most advanced places in its known universe. Well, I enjoy creating futuristic canyons of city and had some fun here. Smashed some scenes together in Vue to render out some plates to work from and refine in Photoshop. I wanted it all done very quickly and the rough look of the pics is absolutely intended. Playing around with styles.
A wallpaper pack with 1920×1200 & 1680×1050 versions of each pic can be found here.
Regards
Sanctuary
I started this one without having a specific plan. Except that I wanted to try myself on something similar to my Room With A View piece. And I wanted to do a night scene. Well, it looks like I had a plan… sorta.
I used this one to dig a little deeper into using Vue and vector shapes to create some architecture. The lady was implemented with help of DAZ3d tools. A lot of planning went into the look of the room and the balkony. Of course I wanted it futuristic and a little shiny. I had some fun playing with lights and creating the mood. Again the creation and rendering of the scene basically happened in two parts. On step for the city background and one step for the front. In Photoshop I brought it all together and did some major refinements to the room and city. Beside general fixes, refining and overpainting I also tried to add more detail to the dress our lady here is wearing. I also played with an idea I always wanted to try. A hologram display implemented into the windows. In this scene it’s basically turned off and only shows the name of the building complex. I enjoyed playing with that part.
Is there a larger story behind this one? Not this time to be honest. What’s the character doing? No idea. It looks as if she just came home from shopping and is calling a friend to tell about the newest stuff she was able to hunt down. Maybe her boyfriend is calling to take her out for dinner. I have no idea. =) Let your imagination decide.
Vue – Inkscape – Photoshop – 6000px wide
The artwork on:
Deviantart – Artstation – CGSociety
Regards
Arnou – The Royal Palace District
This one was a commission a couple of weeks ago for New Worlds Project (rpgnewworlds.net). A site about Scifi writing and roleplaying. The site gathered some very creative folks to give life to all the ideas of the world they are trying to create and visualize. May it be environments, places, cities, races and spaceships. My mission was it to show parts of Arnou. The capital city of the Rosebourg Monarchy (Info).
I’m glad the pic works, since I tried some new approaches in regards of city creation. Especially when you have to create a picture that demands to show the size of the place. The base was created with Vue along with quite some technical difficulties. But I managed to keep these under control. A lof of painting and refining in Photoshop to make it all as moody and accurate (to the descriptions) as possible.
Hope you like what you see and check out their site (mentioned above) and facebook page.
Another shameless plug… I’m now on facebook as well. Likes and the usual “spread the word!” are always welcome and appreciated! =)
Find me here: Tigaer-Design.com Facebook Page
And now I hope you enjoy the view!
Regards
FOUNDATION
What we have here is a picture that I would consider a quickie. A mashup of my earlier Scifi cityscape pictures. It still took a while to get it done but the general composition was set very early on and kept throughout the making. Normally I tend to sometimes drastically change elements of a picture even within the making. Always depending on how good things work out. Sometimes you have to work out things and look at them, to fully understand if something in a picture works or not. Had not to do this hassle for this one. Instead I did a lot of finetuning, especially in the front parts. The city I kept rather basic without investing too much time and detail on it. Just wanted to keep the background more rough. Slammed some textures and lights on it. Does the job and creates enough depth for what I wanted. Something that works really nice is the sense of business that a city like this would generate I think.
Technically it’s, as usual, Vue to create me a base picture to work on. In Photoshop I added quite a load of textures and made them fit somewhat nicely within the scene. I added masses of lights to suggest even more detail. The lights required some time to place them good in the scene. Then I tried to add a little more depth with some atmospheric glow and haze. Overall it works good enough for what I had in mind for the picture.
The docked ship in front was originally a concept drawing I did a while ago. My french Luminarium colleague Sebastien Hue managed to create a nice 3d model from my rough drawing. So a big thanks to him! Pay him a visit here. You’ll see some variations of that ship in future works soon, that’s for sure.
6000 wide – Vue – Photoshop
Regards
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