Triton's Edge Concept

This is a concept painting I did for a friend's 3D project.

"Set in an off-world and recently abandoned water treatment facility: the "Triton Edge Complex" had once supplied desert fuel-mining colonies with absolutely necessary water from deep mining wells. In such an environment where the key to these colonies' survival was so obviously water, it only made sense that this facility would be the first target of an opposing power's greedy eye. It now stands as a monument to the importance of colony defense."

This first step was my initial quick pencil and basic color concept to decide what sort of viewpoint, blending interior and exterior spaces, we were trying to achieve.

From here, my friend John created this simple geometry (below) in Maya and sent me many angles to decide upon, from which I agreed to paint over this one:

First, I began by blocking in general light sources and suggestions of where the most detail would be.

And soon after, using the perspective already apparent in the 3D geometry, begin to add in objects, color, and more detail. After this point, pictured below, everything has already been set up and it is just a matter of time and effort put into detailing. We also wanted to maintain a rusty feel, hence the predominant rust color and rough textures.

Finally, after approximately two hours total, the piece is ready to be used as a reference to be modeled and textured!

Vestige Paintover II

Another paint-over I did for our game project "Vestige."
www.vestigethegame.com

Starting from step one, you see the basic screenshot taken by the modelers in order that I can, through the paint-over, give them a sense of a possible lighting scheme and detail enhancements without loosing the overall feel of the already established room. From with what I develop and the team agrees upon, the lighters will begin their work lighting up this 3D space in the game engine.

In the above screenshot, we can judge the space appropriately and see where the light sources should be by seeing where the light-fixture models are and already being able to see stand-in light sources to support them. A natural light source, the vertical pipe opening that is causing that vapor to light up and cast light on the ground, is also present but in need of refinement.

Now, what I do next to this image is add in more direct lighting and also suggestions of items to fill this otherwise scarce area. The purpose of paint-overs is also to shape the space and add believability to it. It should be obvious that this is an area constructed for a specific purpose. In this case, a maintenance access hallway. So things that should be present are pipes, access hatches, machinery, etc. This stuff is present but needs to be enhanced in a way that it all doesn't just look slapped together but planned and complex.

Here we can see the lights begin to have a volumetric quality, meaning the light they emit is almost tangible because of the atmosphere the steam-powered equipment is filling the room with. Also, detail like the more crude texture on the stonework, graffiti, extra/uneven piping, and wires hanging from the ceiling give it the desired "operational but abandoned" feel we were going for. The image at this stage is still rather desaturated and it isn't immediately apparent that there are both natural and florescent lighting schemes at play.

In the final image, more contrast and warm natural/yellow lighting brings the near areas forward in space and the florescent and colder visuals recede.