Cyberpunk City

by nathan_birchall on 26th November 2020 for CYBERPUNK Contest 2020

Entry for the Cyberpunk Matte Paint contest

  • Update 11

    Final Adjusted Plus Resources Sheet

    Made some final tweaks to the atmosphere in the background and some colour corrections.


    Here are the assets used in this piece too. Plenty of my own photography of my local town also made it into the piece!


    I wanted to challenge myself at the start of this contest to use Kitbash & assets I've collected in conjunction with assets I've created and to start with a 3D render for the base of the matte painting.


    I wanted to tell the story of the city from the ground level and what it feel like to be in areas of the city that didn't keep up with the booming technological advancements surrounding it. In-keeping with the theme, a corporate oppression in the form of C-17 was developed into the piece also.


    I'm really pleased with the outcome of this and believe it really fits in the Cyberpunk City theme. Thank you to everyone in the Matte Paint community for your feedback! I hope you like it!


  • Update 10

    Final!

    Taking feedback from the Discord group I worked on the realism of the foreground elements and added photo textures to enhance the pavement, road, building textures and windows. (Basically everything).


    The BMS assets feel really well integrated now and the painting feels cohesive to me.


    If you have any suggestions for improvements please let me know!

  • Update 9

    Re-working the background and lights

    After some feedback from the academy I spent some time cleaning up my PSD file and ensuring there was a clear distinction for each of the distances. Grouping elements like this made it very easy to manage the additional lights, signs and smoke clouds and so what was working and what wasn't.


    I believe these changes have made the image much more readable and cohesive.

  • Update 8

    Needs More Neon

    Went back to my original vision and removed some elements which hindered the composition.

  • Update 7

    Additions & Alterations

    The background was lacking so I added more life and the suggestion of an highway or higher society above the one we see in the main focus here.


    Didn't like the overpass in the middle of the shot much and when incorporating another photo I noticed this bit of railing which could prove useful. I'm not completely satisfied with how it's incorporated yet but it'll do for tonight.

  • Update 6

    Photo Incorporation

    Started building on the previous render by adding photo elements and incorporating the new lighting into the existing objects. I had some fun incorporating local graffiti and structures into this piece.

  • Update 5

    3D Beauty Pass

    Here's the 4k beauty render from my Blender scene.


    I moved the camera more to the left and whilst it creates an almost central composition with the building paths, I wanted to match the vision of my concept art pretty closely.


    There are some stretched textures where I cut up and used images as basic places for the shops but that's easily fixed with a paintover.


    I've also included a rendered image with a BMS guy up close with the focus trained on the actor to simulate a typical movie shot. This was great to see how well the models hold up and for post processing ideas later down the line.

  • Update 4

    Quick Render and Test

    I built the scene from my favourite thumbnail and rendered out this (low res) quick image from Blender.


    Compared to my initial concept I have noticed some slight changes that will need to be made such as widening the pavement and road and moving the shot closer to the middle of the road.


    Can't wait to make the tweaks and start properly compositing!

  • Update 3

    Breakouts of the concepts

    Thought I'd break up the four in my update into their own image so they're more clear to see for everyone

  • Update 2

    Final Concepts

    I played around with the ideas in my initial mood board and created 4 very different scenes. I'm going to choose one of these to take to the next stage and develop in 3D.


    Which is your favourite? I'm leaning towards 2 or 3 and as ever I'm always happy to receive feedback on these designs and ways I can push them.


    The updates from the community are massively inspirational and I'm excited to see what everyone ends up with!

  • Update 1

    Thoughts and Inspiration

    Wanted to start things off with a mind map of the influences and the colour and mood references. This will end up being a complex piece so a lot of planning and exploration to ensure the final design matches the initial goals is key.


    The Matte Paint brief is very open and it would be easy to lose sight of the goal. I hope the story elements and location choices will help to make the final work stand out.