NEW SCIFI PROJECT - Film Sequence

Started with some concept design - drawing & photobash

Created a mood board for the direction I would like to go with my concept. To build into a polished environment shot.

This is the first scene I chose to create a shot environment.

I created a rough layout and set up the camera in MAYA.

Then, generated foreground and background terrain, and scattered vegetation and rocks (megascans) in Houdini.

The city was layered with the sci-fi buildings generated by the sci-fi structure generator that I’ve created.

Bigger structures, platforms are constructed by my scifi kitbash and other objects I’ve made for previous projects.

This is my current stage - camera, layout, scatter, general lighting (test look)

I want the whole shot to be a night city. Very dark environment, with the Tech Noir aesthetics. Alot of mist, city lights, red neon lights to contrast with the dark environment and misty atomosphere.

Can I get some tips for the further detailing process, directions on how to build atmosphere for a film-like shot? (eg. Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner, Alita: Battle Angel)

Previous Look Test1 - camera, layout & scatter

Then I’ve put this sequence into NUKE and added a sky and depth haze. Haze did give a lot of information. I realised the back mountain was too close.

The composition appears clustered, so I removed the scatter and iterated on the positioning of the main shapes and terrain.

Test2 - new - camera, layout & scatter

  1. Referring back to my concept art, I want the composition to be loose and spread out (test1 looks too tight). So, I widened the camera screen size, flattened and regenerated the terrain, then revealed more sci-fi parts.

  2. I want the landscape to be very contrasting, as in the terrain to look very natural - photorealistic, then with the sci-fi city on top.

  3. For a more dramatic reveal, I put the camera half behind a rock. Also, pulled the camera lower so it kind of reveals the background environment. Especially allowing the water to break the landscape and the visual track.

This is the next scene I want to work on. With the camera set up like this —————>