Architectural Flythrough
Building Transformation
On the Road to Xana2
The trailer introduces the environment and goal for a story mission to be determined, but the portal building, Xana2, is the real focus of this effort, where I'm hoping to develop the interior of the building. Originally intended for a some forgotten game project, the artwork was repurposed for an Alphazett story link. The refinery is a one-off early concept drawing.
Original Drawing
Pencil and marker on paper
approx. 24"x12"
Digital Painting from Original Drawing
Marker on paper
approx. 10"x20"
The above drawing was an oil refinery concept for an early XBox project. In those days I still had a drafting table in my office and every idea started as either ink or pencil on paper.
The drawing on the left was just a sketchbook thought without much 'idea' behind it.
A beautiful rendering prompted by of a short-story I wrote. This is a fragment of the prompt:
A devout Pagan Surrealist, Delini Fantasma believed that the afterlife was reachable through a unique non-qube portal located somewhere on a non-descript piece of New Mexico scrubland that she convinced Hammerlin Francks to buy. After her sudden death, Hammerlin immediately began building this utterly inscrutable labyrinth of false paths and weird assemblages in hopes of finding his way back to Fantasma. Eventually he disappeared without a trace, leaving this testament to her legacy and his madness....
Even if a bit overwrought, I liked the decay of the forest fantasy on the left, but it needed surface and I was looking for junkyard rather then Hobbit-land, so I did a quick scribble-over in Photoshop implying a shiny metal surface and described it as a "rotting junkheap."
At this point, I decided I want to "reconstruct the building," which seems to be a common theme for me. I've produced endless building concepts over the years, and now I can open them up and imagine what's inside. In this case, Having started with the ancient ruin, I want to work backwards to see what the structure looked like new. The shiny teapot was an acceptable starting point, so I told Chat to draw me a cross-section and I got a submarine. I did a quick paint over that image to indicate where the floors would go and what the spaces might look like, and now i have an electric teapot.
These images are just the starting point of the next step in this process to create a building.