Core of the Problem:
Enter the Sci-Fi genre
The Core of the Problem
This was a much more fun and energetic piece that I made. It's not meant to be taken too seriously. However it is my second official work of art and it does carry more meaning behind it then what it may look like initially.
​
This piece depicts a dying planet as the battleground for an all out Sci-Fi war. The planet has been stripped of its resources, with the raging battle between different factions reducing the once thriving planet to nothing but a shell. The pieces shows that even on a seemingly alien planet, conflict over things such as resources still exists which has led to a worlds destruction. When we think of such conflict, we usually only think of it in terms of being a human phenomenon. But I wanted to show that these kinds of battles happen even on planets and societies that are seemingly more advanced than ours. I don't think ignorance, greed or ambition are merely human traits and wanted to portray that. The astronaut sitting and watching represents that idea as they are simply sitting and watching the show. Obviously I don't know for sure what an alien planet would fight over, but my personal belief is even petty ideas like discrimination and dominance exist elsewhere there too.
​
Again, this isn't a very serious piece. It was more fun to make in general with all the slipstreams and blasters going off. I'm quite proud that this is my second piece after Imperium because I feel it's quite a leap forward personally. The original image that inspired this piece was just a very normal looking planet as I'll show moving on, and the final product is incredibly different and I daresay unique which is really satisfying.
IDEATION
Like I mentioned above, this piece started out as nothing more than a picture of an average planet. No destruction, no ships. Not even a background. I originally got the planet as part of a background for another piece I'm still working on. The idea being that there would be a dying planet in the background of the piece. But after struggling to blend the subject and background and realizing the potential this dying planet had, I set out to make it it's own creation and turn it into a Sci-Fi themed piece. The ideas I wanted to incorporate where the following:
-
Have the dying planet be the focal point of the piece
-
Show that big space battle was taking place which would have caused this destruction
-
Incorporate classic Sci-Fi elements such as lasers and jet propulsion
​
After the conceptualization, I decided to also add the astronaut watching the show as I felt that would be an interesting and quirky element. Especially if he had empty beer bottles beside him implying we was really just chilling while watching the world burn.
ASSETS USED
Planet
Ships
Astronaut
SKETCHES
DRAFTS
Draft 1: Strong start. Laid the foundation for the piece well. Picked up some new techniques for creating jet streams and propulsion. Just need to add more ships
Draft 2: Added more and more ships one by one. Quite a tedious process on cutting out each ship, placing and sizing it, adding propulsion and laser, and finally motion blur and some shadows. Not every ship looks good on the planet. Kept trying different methods to blend them in but only some look quite good while others not as much. Think I'll have to concede since this is more of a skill issue rather than the assets themselves
The Core of this Problem
On a whole, I'm quite happy with this piece. I learned a lot of tips for creating Sci-Fi elements in a piece. And the piece overall is a fun and not too serious one. I'm most proud of the planet since I was able to take a normal image and turn it into something really interesting to me. It's not yet perfect but its still something I think is really good. And if I ever do it again in the future, then it'll only get better. The main problem of this piece is that not every ship blends in in a believable way. It really takes away from the image but I did try my absolute best and I reached the conclusion that it's my current skill level. I'll be more than happy to revisit it and remaster the piece one day but as of now I can live with it. It is only me second ever piece so for that alone I think I managed to pull of something pretty special. And coming after Imperium, I think this is a big step up so overall, I'm really happy with the final piece.