What If? Metropolis #2: Re-sit Submission Post

What if? Metropolis #2

What If? Metropolis #2 : Final Render

This is the final render of the city. It is very colourful and crammed together, so in that regard it matches the thumbnails and Hofmann's work. However, it could be argued that it's just a series of colourful shapes packed together, with little detail. Perhaps I should have made the buildings look like generic sky-scrapers and more like small buildings.

What If? Metropolis #2 :Concept Piece #2

This is another concept piece that I did. It is at a lower angle so you can see more of the city. Due to it being so compact, you can't see the roads and how each building is connected.

What If? Metropolis #2 : Concept Piece #1

Using the silhouette thumbnails, I put them into layers and put them together. I then drew over the it, made it a bit neater and added the colours. I tried to make it look a bit 3D as wells as trying to replicate Hofmann's work. Although his work doesn't have any outlines, especially ones that are as thick as the ones in this picture. This will be a view from above.

What If? Metropolis #2 : UV Layout

This image shows the UV layout of each building in the city. Like the wireframe image, it is very confusing to look at and makes little sense, but it did help when texturing.

What If? Metropolis #2 : Wireframe

This is the wireframe image of the city. It is quite a pointless thing, in a sense, as there are to many edges. The reason for this is because I took my silhouette thumbnails and extruded them the same way as the other thumbnails I did. I had to make a lot of edges so I can extrude the right shape. Then I had to make more edges to make it easier to understand when texturing.

What If? Metropolis #2: Lighting tests

Below are a series of light tests that I tried. I tried using different intensities of the ambient light, as well changing the colour to a pale yellow. I chose to do a pale yellow because Hofmann's work in some cases features one colour more than any other. For the textures and the lighting, yellow will feature regularly.

What If? Metropolis : Modelled out scene

The above image shows the city fully modelled. It is very compact and closed in, and there is no "hero building" or unique structure. The reason for this is that in Hofmann's work the main shapes are rather straight forward. It looks a bit like a labyrinth, and I think that works well with the shanty town idea as they too are hard to get around and understand. 

What If? Metropolis #2 : "Paint" textures/UVs

Although Hofmann's work contains simple shapes with basic colours, some of his work contains shapes that have a very quick brush stroke of the paint. It is because of this you can see how the colours haven't fully mixed with each other and so you can see several colours in one shape. Because of this, I made some textures using real acrylic paint. I made a lot of different colours that work with the city, but still look like the shapes in his work.

What If? Metropolis #2: Extruding Hofmann's work in Maya

These are some of the images that I chose and took into Maya, so that I can extrude some of the shapes from Hofmann's work. It gave some very interesting results, some of which look like a city. They are quite compact in some cases, and so they work well with his style. I have taken what I have learned from making these into making the final city.

What If? Metropolis #2: Silhouette thumbnails 1-26

Below are the silhouette thumbnails that I did very early on. At the time of making these I was unsure about how the city would look and be made etc. so I wanted to see what shapes I could get from Hofmann's work. I did get some very interesting results, some of which made it easier when I was extruding images in Maya, which I will upload a little later.

What If? Metropolis #2 : Final idea

Whilst I'm waiting for things to load/save in the Fantastic Voyage animation, I wanted to do a quick post just to give a little idea of the city. I will still be making the shanty town and compact/crowded city that I have talked about before, but I will incorporate certain features from several pieces of Hofmann's work. For example, from fig.1 the light blue area will be made into a river. Fig.2 has that stair-like shape, so there will be crooked stairs around the city as a way of getting around it. And from fig.3 there will be tall adjacent buildings that will have a similar shape to the ones in that piece.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fantastic Voyage: Scene 2 + WI?M UPDATE

Having just realised that I haven't posted anything for a while, I thought I'd post this to show how it's going. Although this is just the one shot, I have done other shots from the animation but haven't completed them all and put them together. I have had to do other things so I have had to delay completing the animation once again.

I have also been completing the What If? Metropolis re-sit and have been working on thumbnails. I have done some silhouettes using the shapes from Hofmann's work, which don't work too well. I have re-created more compositions in his style, and have taken some of his work into Maya and have extruded the shapes, which have given some interesting results. I will post these in the coming days.

What If? Metropolis #2 : Influence Map - City concept

Looking at Hans Hofmann's work it is very compact and colourful due to a series of shapes. These shapes are all squeezed into the picture and so resembles that of a shanty town. Looking at these cities, especially the Favela in Brazil, the buildings are all very close to each other and are also, in some cases, quite colourful. Some of the images in the influence map show this as there is a wide selection of colours involved, especially in the second image down from the top right corner. That is something that can be seen in Hofmann's work and so would create an equally compact setting.

What If? Metropolis #2: Influence Map - Hans Hoffman + Initial thoughts + Fantastic Voyage UPDATE

This is an influence map showing some of Hans Hofmann's work. As you can see it is very abstract and so creates some interesting shapes. With regards to designing the city, my initial thoughts are that it should be very colourful and quite obscure. In some of these pictures, I can see layouts of a city, replacing blocks with buildings of the same colour and using  colours for the sky/sea/background etc. In comparison to both Bridget Riley's work and the city I designed,  I imagine this one to be more vivid and more "crazy" - if that's the right word. I think my biggest challenge will be managing to convert the rather basic shapes and colours of his work into a city.

Fantastic Voyage UPDATE:

I have been working in flash for a couple of weeks or so now, and have been doing so while having a wealth of internet problems. I intended to have it finished by the end of this week, but it will probably be next week.

What If? Metropolis #2 : Who's Who? - Hans Hofmann

Who's who? - Hans Hofmann

The bibliography and illustration list are a little confusing because I wasn't able to find all the information needed, but this is my research into Hans Hofmann, who my What If? Metropolis resubmission will be based upon.

What If? Metropolis: Final Presentation

What If? Metropolis: Crit - 12th December 2014

What If? Metropolis: Production Designer profile - Peter Lamont

Production Designer Research - Peter Lamont

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.