Invisible Cities OGR

Deanna Crisbacher

Esmeralda

Ersilia

Moriana

Phyllis

Thekla

Despina

Tamara

Isaura

Sophronia

Zirma

Armilla

Baucis

Fedora

Zenobia

Octavia

Leonia

Anastasia

Diomira

Argia

Argia

Argia

Argia

Chosen City: Argia -Description

Chosen City: Argia - Mission Statement

The description of Argia stood out to me before I even began to draw my thumbnails. Even after experimenting with all cities, I was continuously drawn back to Argia. I wanted to make sure the city didn’t look too fantastical or fairy-like. For example, I considered using crystals for a light/colour source but after some feedback, agreed it wouldn’t match the theme. I didn’t want to lose the gloomy, eerie atmosphere that I imagine this city would have considering it is a dead underground city. I want to avoid making this city from looking too dull and blob-like when it comes to colours, textures, and the actual building shapes.!!After some research of architecture such as Pére Lachaise Cemetery, Uplistsikhe, Göreme, Vardzia, Sagrada Família, crypts, and catacombs I know what I want my final city to look like. I’ve also looked at caves and different types of rock structures such as basalt, lava tubes, limestone and other minerals/materials that form stalagmites and stalactites. I plan on combining stalagmite rock formations (I prefer the look of the limestone stalagmites) and the architecture mentioned above to create stalagmite buildings with a menacing feel to it. I’m also inspired by cities in Lord of the Rings including Isengard, Minas Morgul, and The Mines of Moria.!!I’m planning to avoid using the too many muddy greys and browns as I feel it would make my concept art look boring and repetitive. This will be a challenge since the city is described with words such as: earth, dirt, clay, dark. While researching colour/light sources, I recalled a creature called a glowworm (which is actually the larva of a fungus gnat in New Zealand) I saw while watching the Planet Earth documentaries a few years ago. They have a ghostly blue glow due to bioluminescence, which lights up mucus strands they produce to catch prey in caves. I thought the idea of the citizens of Argia farming these glowworms and using them as a light source was interesting and would provide the city with light and a phantom blue color to compliment muddy browns (buildings/rock structures) and oranges (possibly candles inside the buildings). It will also add a damp, gross feeling since glowworms essentially make ghostly chandeliers using mucus. !!While the exterior of my city is going to look like stalagmites that were converted into buildings (possibly with glowworm street lamps lighting the deserted streets), I want the interior to be catacomb-like. I imagine that the citizens of Argia are actually dead, that Argia is the Underworld where people go after they die. I want to decorate it with really narrow ‘beds’ (graves in the wall), with winding stairs, skulls and skeletons morphed into the walls, candles scattered in the room/corridor, and glowworms on the ceiling. I chose Argia because I can make it more than just a grey, muddy underground city. !

Exterior Influence Map

Interior Influence Map

Key Thumbnails:

Composition & Colour

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Composition & Colour

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Links:

Who’s Who?:!

• Darek Zabrocki

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Film Reviews:!

• Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari

• Metropolis

• King Kong

Autodesk Maya:!

• Modeling in 3D Software

• Block Modeling #1

• Block Modeling #2

• Texturing Part 1- Common Shaders

• UV Layout

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Perspective Exercises:!

• One, Two, and Three Point Perspective

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Digital Painting:!

• Pears and Apples

• Master Studies and Abstracts

• Composition & Colour