View Option 01 and 02: Street Level Looking North and West

The first set of views that I looked at were at street level looking up the tiered seating. The problem with these angles was that too much of the upper level was out of view. The view looking more down the street was more interesting to me, but both images felt too disconnected from the “action” happening at the upper level. Compositionally I liked them. They just were not succeeding in telling the story of this area.

View Option 03: Street Level Looking South

A key idea of this zone of the pedestrian bridge is how a large proportion of the foot traffic will flow up and down the ramp and wrap around the convention center as marked by the dark red line. This view shows this relationship well and I liked the idea of placing the large sloped grassy area in the foreground. However, similar to the other street level views, I still felt it was too disconnected from the upper terrace.

View Option 04 and 05: Aerials

Next, I looked at some aerials views. The aerials did a good job of clarify all of the geometry and probably explained this area of the site the best. However, there were two problems. First, there was a large amount of context that I would need to define. I had limited time to generate this image and I couldn’t spend all of it on the city in the background. The other problem was that the aerials did not feel intimate enough. This is the case in general with most aerials. I wanted the viewer to really connect with the space and feel like they were there. These aerial options, while compositionally interesting, would not have provided that intimacy I was looking for but instead, would have felt more diagrammatic.

View 06: Upper Level

I moved the camera to the upper level since this is where a lot of the action would be happening, but the tiered seating ended up being steeper than expected and was completely cut out of the view. I needed to get pretty close to the edge for the seating to appear again. I looked into placing the camera on the hill to the right, but it still was not high enough to capture the seating.

View 07: Raised Upper Level

One option to get the tiered seating into view was to raise the camera. While this was closer to the ground than the other aerials, the same problem remained. The view felt too disconnected from the project and was at a vantage point that visitors would not experience.

View 08: The Chosen One

Ultimately, this view checked all of the boxes. Compositionally, it wasn’t my favorite, but it told the best story. The ramp cuts across the scene and wraps around the convention center. The upper level is in view as well as the tiered seating and large grass hill. The viewer can see the relationship of the bridge to the Convention center but the bridge is still the focal point. I also knew that I could use the trees and people to help frame the view and strengthen the composition.

V-Ray Rendering

With the view decided, I rendered out the base image. As I mentioned before, I didn’t have a lot of time to piece this illustration together. The model was simple, but I did take some time to add some details to the ground plane such as the stone edging. Most everything else would be handled in Photoshop.

Photoshop

There was a lot of Photoshop that went into this illustration. The vegetation was intense, but helped add lots of texture to the image. I wanted the space to be activated, but I didn’t over-do it with entourage. With so much going on in the image, too many people could have hurt the flow of the scene.

Black and White

I didn’t mind the color version, but I really liked the image in Black and White. The light and shadow reads better in my opinion. I still haven’t decided which option will go in the portfolio though.

1. Sketchup Model / V-Ray Rendering

Above, the Sketchup Model

Above, the V-Ray base rendering. The sketchup model was minimal in detail most of the textures were reused from other views. The only thing I adjusted was the amount of reflection in the sidewalks and the softness of the sun shadow.

2. Context

Next, I inserted the context by Photoshopping in facades that I cut out of online street view maps. I didn’t spend too much time here because I knew it would get washed out quite a bit by the snow.

3. Vegetation

Winter trees were added in the plaza along with shrubs and plantings up the stair wall.

4. Bridge Ceiling

I wanted to do something to draw attention to the bridge, so I dropped in some LED lights and amped up the saturation of the panels. I didn’t want the underside of the bridge to read too dark and uninviting. The LED’s also add some much needed movement to the image.

5. Wet Ground

This was an important part to the narrative of the “first snow”. The ground needed to look wet and slushy so I found several textures that I stitched and overlaid onto the street and sidewalk. I should have spent more time on this step but had to keep moving on.

6. Lights and Snow

Next I needed to show a dusting of snow starting to accumulate on the vegetation. Again, I would have preferred to spend a little more time on this step but had to keep the image moving forward. I also dropped in some lights on the trees for a holiday atmosphere.

7. Car Details

The street needed to be activated so I added tail lights and reflections on the ground. Mist from the wheels was also added to again play up the wet ground look.

8. People

A big part of the narrative of this image was the bridge turning into the perfect sledding site on top. Therefore, I inserted some sledders on and around the grand stair moving the viewers eye up to the top of the bridge. More people were added around the plaza to give the sense that the entire space was being utilized.

9. Color Adjust

Before I inserted the snow, I tweaked the tones of the images to cool things down with more blues and purples. I also drew out some more textures in the underbelly of the bridge and sidewalk.

10. Snow

Finally, the snow was added washing out some of the background and creating more contrast between the shadow of the bridge and everything else. You can find a tutorial on adding snow HERE.

Winter Special #5

Winter Special #4

Winter Special #3

Winter Special #2

Winter Special #1

The first starts with an extremely pulled out view of the East Coast and slowly zooms in with each addition map. Graphically, I played around with blurring as a hierarchy tool which ended up leading me down a path of creating a look similar to layers of trace paper. I still need to add much more text and information overlays, but the foundation is there for each map. Below is a quick explanation of how I created the “trace paper” look.

1. Trace the Edges

The first step was pretty straight forward. I traced a map using the Paint Brush tool and black paint. The line work was mostly done free-hand since I knew I would be blurring later and therefore didn’t need to be super precise. Be sure to keep the line work on its own layer.

2. Water Tone

To define the water from land,  I poched the water with a subtly darker shade of grey.

3. Lighten and Blur

To start creating the effect of having the line work below several layers of trace paper, I first lighten the line work to almost a 50% grey. I then went to “Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur” and blurred the line work with a radius setting of about 2 pixels.

4. More Blur

Next, I duplicated the line work layer and blurred this new layer by again going to “Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur” and setting the radius to 8 pixels. I then lowered the opacity of this layer to 50%. This move will give the line work even more softness while maintaining some definition.

5. Some Color

I had some more information that I wanted to overlay onto this map, but I still wanted to keep these elements soft like the line work, so I repeated these steps for the yellow circles.

6. Sharp Contrast

For the “trace paper” effect to work, there needs to be some really sharp and saturated elements to contrast the blurred desaturated elements. I therefore painted in some markers representing important towns with some line work connecting them back to Philadelphia.

7. Noise

To finalize the “trace paper” effect, I added some noise. I created a new layer at the top of the layer stack and filled it with 50% grey. I then went to “Filter>Noise>Add Noise”. In the Add Noise dialogue box, I set the Amount to “9”, the Distribution to “Gaussian”, and checked “Monochromatic”. Finally, I set the Blend Mode of this layer to “Overlay”. This gives the subtle effect of paper fiber and one more layer of blur.

8. The Works in Progress

Like I said at the beginning, there is still a lot of information to be overlaid on top of these maps, but the foundation is in place with each map building off of the others information. I am also going to experiment with possibly placing all 4 maps on a single spread or keeping the two spread layout I have now. More to come later.

Also, I am excited to say that I will be meticulously breaking down this image layer by layer in a few weeks at the Renderit 5 conference in Mexico City.  I am looking forward to the event and meeting everyone that comes by the workshop!

1. Sketchup Model

The Sketchup model is unchanged from the daytime rendering. The sun even remained in the same location.

2. V-Ray Base Rendering

Above is the original V-Ray base rendering used in daytime rendering. Instead of spending time Photoshopping out the shadow lines, I rerendered with softer shadows seen below.

In order to get the soft shadow, I changed one setting which was increasing the size of the sun in the V-Ray option editor. Everything else remains unchanged in the model and light settings.

3. Darken the Image

As dramatic of a change as this is, this step is pretty simple. Paint the entire image blue except for the sky, and set the layer blend mode to “Multiply”. After that, I dropped in a new night sky, and painted in some haze to help separate the background from the foreground.

4. Textures

This step took little time because I simply dragged over the textures from my daytime images and dropped them into place. I also warmed the floor just a hint.

5. Interiors

This step also went fast since I was also able to carry over the interior textures used in the daytime scene. However, I did need to paint in some floor reflections.

6. Lights, Lots of Lights

This is the step where I spent much of my time experimenting with lighting options. Everything is painted in using different techniques and layer blend modes. This could make a good tutorial in the future if I can somehow find the time…

7. Entourage

Entourage was added towards the end of the process to add narrative and give movement to the image. For this type of lighting scenario, the people were darkened to almost a silhouette, with highlights added as needed.

8. Color Adjustments

At the end, I brought back some blue tones to contrast the spots of warm light. I also used some warm color overlays to punch up areas to help activate them.

Just a few more images planned for this project including a grand aerial shot. Stay tuned….

1. Sketchup Model

For the park view, the model was as basic as you could get. I knew that image would largely be created in Photoshop, so I focused on basic massing information to guide me once in Pshop. The retail corridor view was simple as well, but a little more time was spent setting up the glass storefront system and adding small details to the tiered seating on the left.

2. V-Ray Base Rendering

The retail corridor view relied more on texturing than the park view. I wanted to make sure I had some good reflections to work off of for the retail corridor view. The park view was essentially all vegetation, so I spent much less time texturing that view.

3. Photoshop Texturing

In the park view, I first switched out the city 3D massing with a Google Earth screenshot. Yes, I said Google Earth. The quality of the screenshot was pretty low, but if you take some time to cut out/cleanup the profile of the skyline and then cover up with fog, it ends up being a simple but effective solution. I was able to match a difficult view that wouldn’t exist unless someone took a drone photo at that exact position.

For the retail corridor, most of my time was spent stitching in the interior retail spaces. Each store is made up of several layers including a base photo of the store found online, light fixtures and additional ambient spot lighting.

4. Light and Color

For both images, I used this step to define the hierarchy of the images. In the case of the park view, fog was inserted to push back the skyline and really play up the foreground grass. Soft blue tones helped push the narrative of early morning and calmness. Conversely, I washed the retail corridor view with lots of warm light to push a more active middle of the afternoon atmosphere.

5. Entourage

As I mentioned in the intro, I spent much of my time with these images setting up entourage. People were used to create the contrast between the active and less active zones of the project. I uploaded a couple of different versions of the retail corridor view to better illustrate how the energy of the images change as more people are placed in. In the past, I would have stopped at step one or two. Instead, I opted for more density and used that density to acknowledge the zones in the view such as formal dining, informal dining, lounging, etc.

As I continue to create new images, I still hope to break down some concepts within the views such as adding interior information behind glass, texturing, and possibly some 3D stuff, assuming I can find time. Stay tuned.

Since I created two illustrations, I figured I would break them down side by side. While the break down itself is brief, I still think they do a good job of showing the critical point where I stopped adding detail in 3D and began adding detail in Photoshop. Every image seems to have different modeling thresholds. I usually have limited time for these side projects so every minute counts. In the case of these illustrations, I opted to model a little more than I normally do knowing that other views will benefit later on from this extra detail.

1. Sketchup Model

Like I said above, I spent more time than usual building out the context. Even though I planned on adding lots of texture via Photoshop, I still spent time modeling context buildings, curb cuts, correct street lights, bridge overpasses, etc. I wanted to make sure reflections and shadows were consistent in all parts of the images. Photoshopping in these elements often means you are stuck with the lighting and sun settings of the image that you are cloning from.

2. V-Ray Rendering

An aspect that I focused on in the base renderings were the textures. More specifically, I played up the subtle reflections in the concrete, metal paneling of the bridge, and other textures throughout the model. I knew that if I could get these close, then I could really dial them in once in Photoshop with additional texturing.

3. Early Color Adjustments

For the highway shot, I ended up really shifting the colors of the base rendering. I had been out to dinner the night that I was working on these images and saw some really beautiful warm sun highlights on nearby buildings. I then came home and began playing with the tones of this image to see if I could recreate this effect. I achieved this by pushing the shadows to a cooler blue tone and colorizing the highlights with a strong orange/red tint.

4. Photoshop Textures

One thing that is always difficult to create in 3D is imperfection. So while I tried to get the 3D textures close, I still rely on Photoshop to add the grunge, dirt, and real world flaws. This is most noticeable in the daytime road, crosswalk paint, concrete barriers.

5. Bridge Amplification

I envisioned the bridge having a vibrant metal panel and a glassy structure projecting out the bottom. I was still “designing” the glassy structure so I ended up Photoshopping quite a bit of that into both images. I then added some warm color overlays and punched up the reflections of the metallic paneling using the reflections channel from V-Ray.

6. Vegetation

Trees, shrubs, and grass were introduced at this stage though I am still working out the design and location of certain elements. My focus here was to make sure the vegetation matched the lighting of the scene. This meant in the dusky highway view, shifting the tree highlights to very warm tones.

7. People, Lights, and Details

Little details go a long way in adding emotion to the images and building narrative. Entourage, lights, and signage were all used to add points of interest and encourage the viewers eye to keep moving around the illustration.

8. Color Adjustments

I didn’t go as crazy as I normally do with color adjustments, but I used this step to add a hint of warmth to the daytime shot and pull out some more detail from the shadows in the dusk shot. I also painted in some haze in the distance to promote the feeling of depth. Finally, a radial blur (zoom) was applied to the dusk shot and then masked away towards the center of the image.

I am hoping to generate several more perspective illustrations for this project since there are lots of little moments throughout this design that I think warrant similar studies. Especially the experience of crossing the bridge that should yield some interesting viewpoints.