What If Metropolis: Colour comps

Following Phil's advice I changed around the composition of number 7 from my last page. I made the clock less central and made the rock at the front smaller. I also wanted to test which colours derived from Ernst's work would fit best for my city. 

Composition wise I like 1 best. I feel like keeping most of the middle third empty gives a feeling of absence to my city much like some of Ernst's paintings. I also like the colour of 1 best though I could possibly add some red and orange to help balance out how green it is. 

What if Metropolis: Compostions

Some quick compositions I put together with some of the props I already had, I used black and white here so I could just focus on the composition itself. In terms of the kind of city I want to create 6 or 7 I think would be my best option if they were worked into.

Maya Tutorial: Alley Digital Set Lighting

Here's the Lighting for the Digital Sets tutorial. This one gave me a few problems, Maya kept crashing and some of the tools disappered, I also had to judge by eye the intensities of the lights because  mine came out a lot brighter. About half way through I noticed that the lampost was blocking the poster and changed the shot at the end to get a better composition.

What if Metropolis: Building thumbnails

Did some thumbnails for buildings I thought could fit in with my clock tower design. I tried creating unusual organic forms that could possibly be arranged into a street scene (influenced also by de chirico's work). I'm going to take these buildings and use them to inspire some compositions. 

What if Metropolis: Key asset thumbnails

I did some thumbnails for what I thought could be key assets for my city. I quite liked the idea of a clock tower and a bath house (Inspired by aquis submersus) in my city. From previous thumbnail sheets I felt like the green colour scheme was working partially well. 1 from the clock towers is my favourite and I think 2 or 3 would work best for a bath house though thouse blocky looking buildings are going to have to go! I want to design some buildings and set up some compositions tomorrow, I think fitting them to suit the first colock tower will make my work interesting.  

What If Metropolis: City ideas

 I really want to push one of these ideas that I now have for my city. 

The first is to create a mix of the structural work ernst does with the most organic work he creates. The city would be built into and around the organic looking structures.

The second is to use only the organic paintings to influence how my city looks, creating buildings from them. 

I quite like both ideas but I'm stuck on whether to include both types of Ernst's work or just the one, feedback is appreciated because I want to sort out my composition and key assets asap!

What if? Metropolis: Thumbnails 105-136

I tried to create more thumbnails again using Ernsts colour schemes and looked at using texture to create thumbnails. I also tried to look at possible more structured buildings for my city, I looked at Ernst's work and also somewhat looked at Italian and Greek architecture. 

Though I liked the way the structures look I didn't like the colours, I think some of them need toning down.

I carried on with the textured work because I felt it was a sucessful way of working.

What if? Metropolis: Thumbnails 76-104

Here I looked at creating thumbnails using collage. 

I then took those thumbnails and made more using the colours from Ernst's images above. I like 90, 94, 96, 97, 103 and 104. 

Maya Tutorial: Alley Digital Set UV Map and Texturing Prep

Part way through the tutorial I had problems with getting the UV's on the right side, so I reversed the polygons because it was round the wrong way.

@Phil New ideas! Opinions please!

After the OGR I took onboard Phil's comments about my travelogue being too happy. Being the happy person I am I looked at Ernst's work but unintentionally added far too much cheer to my city! It's not really that I didn't understand Ernst but more I clashed with him at first, I was a little stuck on how to create a depressing, unfriendly city.

I went back to some of the research I did about Ernst and relooked at some of his paintings and colleges. I noticed more of an uncomfortable aura and the way colours are pushed. Though he uses bright colours they're contrasted with intense shadows and there is something uncomfortable about it. The forms in the artwork are also often twisted and deformed shapes.

I also looked into Freud's theories and noticed the elements of neuroticism and the unconscious mind. Ernst's work shows feelings of repression and almost a fear of the unknown.

Having a better understanding of what direction to take I then tried to figure out what makes something seem depressing or creepy, I looked at graveyards, etc and noticed this feeling of abandonment and things being rundown. I don't think the people of my city would care about how the city looks however this isn't an excuse to be lazy on design! I'd have to carefully consider how it may have looked to start with and then take it from there.

I really liked the idea of a forest and water, both are places that can be dark and hide the unknown so I had a think of how I could incorporate both and came up with the idea of a swamp because I felt it could portray the kind of atmosphere I wanted. I also still want my bird imagery in there, I thought of an idea of the citizens wearing animal themed masks. The most important people would be wearing sinister bird masks and it's be a way of establishing a hierarchy within my city. Also the masked element would show that these people have something to hide.

I'm a little stuck however on what kind of buildings and amenities would be a part of my city, the last thing I want to do is be really generic about it. I know most likely my buildings would be made from wood, rocks, dirt and natural materials but trying to figure out an interesting setup with these materials is a little difficult.