Another surgery, another image ;) This time i created something different. I made Budapest wasteland for a local STALKER competition. I always had an intention to create something like this, now i had the motivation. Well, here is the making of...
First of all, i had to find a good place, Ro's ide was to make the hotel Gellért and surroundings, so we grabbed our skates and headed to do some photographs. Unfortunately i don't have a proper wide angle lens for my canon, so i was unable to capture the hotel, the bridges and the area was full of tourists anyway. And a lot of cars...cables... so it was crowded with everything. But the skating was fun, i had to be careful tho, because of my face...
Idea 2.0: Ferenciek tere (My friend David lives there, but he was on vacation, so i couldn't ask him to do some shots for me) I did some digging... hours of research and only ONE image was good enough to be the base of my illustration.
Idea 2.0: Ferenciek tere (My friend David lives there, but he was on vacation, so i couldn't ask him to do some shots for me) I did some digging... hours of research and only ONE image was good enough to be the base of my illustration.
This was the base plate, thanx to AndreaBaptista that he did a nice picture from one of the hop on-hop off buses;) It had a good angle, but i only needed the two middle buildings, so first of all i had to divide the image to layers/groups to see what i am doing. In the end it will turn to chaos anyway... :)
After i masked out the parts, i started to make the buildings dirty. In the video it seems that i was tidy with my workflow, but it was a bit chaotic during the painting:)
I used these brushes mostly, but of course i used the basic ones too. One thing you have to keep in mind during the dirt ordination: don't apply it where it shouldn't be grime. Well... you can use it everywhere if you want to, nothing is carved into stone. Oh one more thing: blending modes! I used overlay/ soft light mostly. There was a correctional layer on the top of every group. To be honest the place is dirty enough by default :D
I continued the destruction with the textures. Unfortunately the situations all over the world served me with enough references :( But back to the textures:
Bricks, check. Ruins, check. Demolished buildings, check. Road full of trash, check. Actually, these were just the basic elements. I had the bricks and a lot of stuff from my previous projects, so i just searched through my archives for the proper textures. Oh, i almost forgot: i kept only the two middle buildings, i replaced the other ones, but i had to clean up the photos. Those stupid tourists are always dangleing into the pictures. After a massive clonestamp and healing brush usage i was ready to do some 3D.
After tearing down the place, i started the 3D work. Well, i didn't want to use LW, but it was easier to match the perspective with it. And i wanted to use 3D for the planks in the foreground only. Hahh.. that's what i thought...At first i dropped the planks, but hey what about a car wreck? Okay, car wreck check. And what about an IFA truck, because it is cool? (Here is a render with the IFA, without nuclear slime :) )
Wrecks check, it was time to create some vegetation. I did a lot of instances obviously. And i left the most exciting stuff for the end:
What if i would do the ruins/simulation with bullet? Like they were falling from the buildings? Of course just a minimal debris, because the buildings are still standing. so i created a few bricks, debris, iron bars and a few trash, and basically i collapsed them With bullet.
What if i would do the ruins/simulation with bullet? Like they were falling from the buildings? Of course just a minimal debris, because the buildings are still standing. so i created a few bricks, debris, iron bars and a few trash, and basically i collapsed them With bullet.
I dropped in a few more things, the stop sign, boxes, and a few more "vegetables" :) I wanted to create the enviroment with a poured out Danube, that is the reason for the reflective plane and for the planks.
That's all the 3D ;)
And little "enviromental makeup":
Then i made the foreground and the atmosphere. Bigger splotchies (RH's favourite word :D ) between the groups, smaller radioactive "steam" near to the ground. And a few godrays for eyecandy :D
Foreground: The sitting stalker is Zybid's photo, however i had a lot of work to do. First of all i had to correct all of the shadows and other things. After the stalker, i "only" had to do the barricade.
Still... it wasn't good enough, the contrast between the foreground and the rest of the image was too high. So i started to create the highlights. And it worked:) I created a few more things, plasters, plates and i smoothed out the shadows here and there. It was almost ready.
A little color correction and voilá :) 8000x4500 is the final version, so it is big enough for print. And a final step: i made four versions, to achieve different looks and mood. The " illustration" version is a bit colorfull and saturated, the "noir" which is my favorite (it is absolutely stunning imho), the "cinematic" wich is a less saturated greenish depressive version, and the mix of the previous three; the final.
The "noir" version, this is my favourite!!! ;)
The colorful "illustration" version.
The creepy "cinematic":
and the final color version:
And here is a small breakdown (again ;) )
That's all folks:) Thanx to my wife, 'cause She could handle my "maniac creative rampage" :D This was my last surgery, but i won't stop, a lot of goodies are boiling in my beaverypicturekitchen :)
cheers:
ekho
ekho
ps: which is your favourite version?
