What If? Metropolis: Final Presentation

What If? Metropolis: Crit - 12th December 2014

What If? Metropolis: Submission Disc Artwork

This is the disc art for the submission disc. It's quite simple because it works well with Riley's work and the city.

Unfortunately, my printer has hardly any ink so the colour/black isn't very bright, but it can still be read

What If? Metropolis: Matte Painting

This is my matte painting of the city. I used the same method as to how I made the orthographs. I took my final render image, put it into a layer on photoshop and drew over it on a new layer. Although it's not realistic, it has a graphic style, which I quite like. It has more light than the final render but still works well with the city.

What If? Metropolis: Digital Set Pipeline.

Below is the digital set pipeline for the city:

Models in set

Lighting test 1

Lighting test 2

Quick test with textures

UV Layout

Texturing progress

Adding the sky

Adding the camera

Wireframe image

 Final Render

I cannot remember having any major issues when building the city in Maya, which is obviously a very good thing, except for when the computer froze during adding textures. In the future, when creating things on Maya I won't go as over board on making divisions as, as you can see from the wireframe image that is exactly what I did.

What If? Metropolis: Final Render + Thoughts

This is the final render of the city. The city is very simple in it's design, which is both a good and bad thing. Bridget Riley doesn't have complex shapes in her work. The hard to understand things in her work are usually due to a a series of lines and shapes packed closely together. It was very difficult to design the city, as the buildings should represent Riley's work and her work is quite simple, despite it's complex composition. Perhaps I should have organised the buildings in the same way as one of her pictures, but I chose to design them based on one of the thumbnails. The theatre is the building that I wanted to show the running theme in Riley's work, where there is usually a small section that is hard to see, hard to understand and very abstract. The theatre is very unique in the city as it isn't the same blocky building like all the others, which is also both a good and bad thing.

I have mixed feelings about it, in all honesty. I'm happy that it looks like my final concept pieces and that I had no big problems modelling, adding light, textures etc. so that shows that I'm improving my Maya skills. Adding and creating textures/shaders was relatively easy so that is another bonus.

As I have previously said, I struggled at first because I didn't know how to design the city. It took me more than a couple of weeks into the project when I finally started to create useful thumbnails. I knew when getting Bridget Riley as my artist that the city needed to represent her work and not just have her work as wallpapers fro the buildings. I think it may be argued that the unimportant buildings are just blocks with her style of work on, but they do match the thumbnail that I based them on. I did try to make the buildings look more Riley-esc but I found it very difficult. Her work has no structures or 3D forms so I had to create them based on 2D patterns. Her work contains simple shapes and lines that are used incredibly well, I think the city contains simple shapes that has lines used reasonably well.

What If? Metropolis: Wireframe Image

This is the wire-frame image of the city. As you can see, it is full of wire-frames. The reason for that is because I went quite over the top when adding divisions as when initially modelling the divisions gave me a rough idea of what the patterns would look like.

What If? Metropolis: Adding the main camera

 I am now on the stage of adding the main camera. It's pretty much the same view as the final concept images, so it doesn't look to different. I like the angle that I've chosen because it makes the Theatre stand out and the lighthouse's light is in the foreground which has an interesting look, although that may make the lighthouse the main building rather than the theatre.

What If? Metropolis: Adding the sky

As this a very dark city, there is no colour in the sky. The sky will make the city look very dangerous and mysterious which is how I described the city in the travelogue. 

What If? Metropolis: Texturing progress + UV Maps

I have been adding the textures to some of the buildings and the picture above shows my progress. Although, just after I screen shot the screen, my computer froze and closed Maya, so I have to add textures to some of the cylinder buildings, so luckily I haven't lost much.

For some reason, the buildings that I have added textures to are all black silhouettes. However I think that actually gives me a good idea of how dark the city can be.

I have been making the textures by going on the UV texture editor and copying the image into photoshop and painting over them. Below are 4 examples that. The first two are for square buildings and the bottom two are for cylinder buildings. They all look how I wanted them to when put on the building, which is obviously a good thing.

What If? Metropolis: UV Layout

So this is my UV layout of the city. The UVs aren't fitted to each building perfectly because I think I went a bit over board when adding divisions. Despite this, it does look quite abstract and hard to understand which is what the final city will be like.

As you can see from the 2 images below, I already added light to the city and that in itself looks quite good and works well with the obscure UVs.

What If? Metropolis: Orthograph - Lighthouse

These are the orthograph drawings for the lighthouse. I used the same method as when I did the drawings for the theatre: I put my original key asset drawings into photoshop and drew over them on a new layer on photoshop. The lighthouse is very simple in it's design, which is completely different to  the theatre which is very unique and abstract. Most of Riley's work has clean straight lines, and I want the lighthouse to represent that. These drawings do look identical because the lighthouse  looks the same all the way round. The island that it is on is an abstract shape, and the island can be reached by boat.

What If? Metropolis: Orthograph - Theatre

These are my orthograph drawings for the theatre. I put my previous key asset drawings into Photoshop, and drew over them on a new layer. As you can see, they are simple line drawings with no detail/tone, which is very useful for when I need to model it. I am very happy with this design as it is quit similar to my thumbnails and has an abstract style that works well with Riley's work.

What If? Metropolis: Quick Test

I made this quick test on Maya to just get a rough idea of what it would look like with an extremely basic image used on every building. Obviously, it's very rough but it gives a slight idea of what it will look like. I will have simple Bridget Riley patterns on the simple/basic buildings and more complicated patterns on the main buildings and the waves of the water. 

The simple pattern that I used/created.

What If? Metropolis: Travelogue

Travelogue

The city grabs your eye and twists it until it cannot bear to understand. The impossible setting is a sight none will sharply forget. It’s labyrinth of streets will lose the most organised of characters. The twist and turns of the simplest of alleys will take you somewhere untraveled. The city does not work too well with reason as it’s absurd architecture stands proud, towering over the lake. It’s intricate level of detail is indescribable as no exact set of words can evaluate what is happening. The city’s wavy skyscrapers and markets create the impression of being in a magical world. The city hides among a layer of fog and so cannot be seen by the approaching sailors. The lake is littered with debris, but they themselves manage to blend within the waves, it is a sight to behold.

The city is surrounded by an 8 eight foot high metal fence. It’s bar look near to full transparency from a distance, but once the city has been fully approached, it is clear that the city is imprisoned by itself. This creates the illusion, in the mind, of oncoming travellers that the city can be easily accessed, but as soon as you get close enough it grabs your attention and draws you in, and that is how you become a resident of this dark enigma of a city.

Upon reaching the entrance of this magnificent city, you begin to feel dizzy. The city is moving. You cannot begin to understand. Trying to put an explanation into what your eyes are gazing towards will lose you in a moment of near to insanity. We dare not question the city as the city evolves according to the seasons. During spring, the darkness of winter begins to fade and the buildings resume their ongoing growth towards the sky. The summer grabs the colour of the waves and splashes it onto the buildings ferociously. In the month of November, the extended summer concludes and welcomes the red breeze of autumn. The red, the yellows and the oranges all run at you screaming and so there is no way to escape this month long season. The robotic residents of the city adore the winter months. It is within this period where the city loses some of it’s colourful charm and replaces it with the white of snow. It covers every little piece of the city. The snow does not want you to begin to understand the city, it wants you to feel the cold wind hitting the back of your neck while you squint into the foggy distance. The winter months’ aim, therefore, is to make you want to escape it’ series of mazes.
There are no children in this city. People do not get raised in this city. People do not get married in this city. The people wake up, go to work and come home. It’s an 8am to 6pm routine 7 days a week. There is no moment to relax. The city need to run perfectly in order to maintain it’s mystery as without the mystery will begin to fade.

In the centre of this asylum of a city stands the Crooked Theatre. The pillars at it’s entrance lean into the streets, creating an obstacle for oncoming civilians. This theatre holds an obscure auditorium that has seats scattered all around the room in no understandable manner. There is no method in the madness of it’s organisation. It was built to make the viewer uncomfortable. The theatre wants you to build emotions before the actors walk on stage. The red stage burns within your eye and makes you feel dizzy. You need to sit down. You take a chair. That is when the play begins.
In the distance, you may just manage to make out the lighthouse, which stands alone amongst the rocks. The red and white building can be seen best at night. It’s extraordinary beam of light flies through your window and whacks you on the face, like a slap from the wind. It is at this moment where you feel warmth growing inside you and the pleasure of belonging to this magnificent city runs through your veins.

What If? Metropolis: Building the city

Taking the city I made for my final concept paintings, I'm actually quite pleased with the overall composition and look of the city. It has the lighthouse and theatre that I talked about in the travelogue, which are the main buildings in the city. I now need to make the other buildings look more Riley-esc as at the moment they are quite generic, even though they are similar to the ones in the the thumbnail I'm basing it on.

Looking at my final concepts, they perhaps don't represent Riley's work enough, so I should try to base the other buildings on some of her more abstract work.

What If? Metropolis: Final Concept - Part 2

Following on from my last final concept photoshop painting, I have used different brushes and styles to create a more Bridget Riley style city. Her work is very smooth and has very crisp edges, and the previous concept painting didn't have smooth lines or clean brush strokes. This concept painting could still be a little cleaner, though, as some of the lines are random shapes and sizes, where as Riley's work is very consistent. I expanded the city that I made on Maya and have added a sky. This one is much brighter than the last, but it still has the darkness that I want my city to have.

What If? Metropolis: Final Concept

This is my final concept. I really liked the city that I had from the lighting tests, so I took it into photoshop and added detail/tone. I used the same brushes that the original thumbnail had and will continue using the same techniques for future compositions. I really like this result as it is incredibly dark and it isn't clear what is happening.

What If? Metropolis: Bridgtet Riley City Lighting tests

What If? Metropolis: Bridget Riley City Lighting tests

I wanted to put together a quick little city inspired by my 85th thumbnail. I chose this thumbnail because I like it's simplicity, but it also has an interesting Riley-esc style to it through the building design and floor. I uploaded this as a scribd document because of the amount of pictures. I based the buildings in the city on my travelogue as it has the lighthouse and theatre that I described. These buildings are obviously the most detailed as all the other buildings are just simple polygon primitives that I played with slightly. I wanted the lighthouse to be the main supplier of light for this city as I want the city to be quite dark and mysterious, and so a good way to show that, I think, is through a lack of light, which is also why there isn't any colour. I did however add light to the theatre to make it look like something is happening inside the building. By the end, you can see I also started playing with the render regions and this gave me some interesting results. By doing that, the light looks very linear, and it also matches the style of some of Riley's work where certain shapes fade into the darkness.

What If? Metropolis - Influence Map 2

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I’m not too sure about what the overall look of my city, I do think that it would look best black and white. Quite a lot of her work is Black and White, and it would work better with the tone of the city that I’m talking about in my travelogue. I also think that the black and white thumbnails that I have created look more relevant to her work than the ones in colour.

What If? Metropolis: OGR - 19th November 2014

What If? Metropolis: OGR - 19th November 2014