Making Of 'Restricted Area'

Hello! This is an article about the making of my "Restricted Area" artwork. I won't be talking about the modeling process or shader settings etc. Instead I'm going to focus on how the raw idea was transformed into the final piece.

Ideas surround us. They come as they are or we can make them from things we see in the world. It was about two years ago when the idea of a locust-concrete mixer came to me. I'd seen a concrete mixer go past me in on the street and the angle of the bowl reminded me of a grasshopper's belly. It was at that moment when the idea for "Restricted Area" was born. I started to think about how I could make this enormous heavy-duty, insect-shaped machine show emotion. My intention was to convince the viewer that the machine was real and able to work. I took pictures of a lot of concrete mixers, analyzed the photos and tried to understand how these machines were made and worked. Then at last there came the moment when I decided I needed to "think on paper". So the very first sketch was created, where I made a simple collage using a concrete mixer and grasshopper photos (Fig.01)

Fig. 01

Fig. 01

As you can see it was very rough, so I can't say much more about it. But after further development this idea became more shaped and detailed. Here are some of the sketches I made (Fig.02).

Fig. 02

Fig. 02

I tried different technical and stylistic variations. Attempting to move from general to more specific, I started thinking about the mechanics of the thing after I'd established the rhythm, plastics, contour and proportions. However all of these things were changed and re-made afterwards. I also made several sketches illustrating how this idea could exist if it was a different type of insect (Fig.03).

Fig. 03

Fig. 03

Little by little I fine-tuned the variants until I achieved the desired appearance (Fig.04).

Fig. 04

Fig. 04

Now I was faced with the task of inventing the functionality of this machine. It meant I needed to create all the basic mechanical parts (Fig.05).

Fig. 05

Fig. 05

As usual I gathered tons of reference images of robots, heavy duty machinery, engine pictures etc. I tried to understand how such a machine might look. I was inventing and changing things during modeling. Then I moved on to painting the textures and fine-tuning the shaders. I moved closer and closer the final model with every new detail I added and every test render (Fig.06).

Fig. 06

Fig. 06

When I was completely satisfied with that model, I started to think about the environment (Fig.07).

Fig. 07

Fig. 07

First the idea was to show the locust-concrete mixer standing in the restricted area behind the fence and looking through it. But this thought changed later and the composition was transformed (Fig.08).

Fig. 08

Fig. 08

The fence was broken and the restriction area eliminated, although I kept the maintenance staff there as their presence tells us the machine is in a functional condition and is still being used. I made a decision to add an open hangar with the elephant-excavator (my remade work from 2005). It brought much more variety and added detail to the composition (Fig.09).

Fig. 09

Fig. 09

During the development of the idea, the geometry was being added. The shaders and the textures were being tuned constantly, as well as the whole lighting of the scene until I got my desired mood and atmosphere (Fig.10).

Fig. 10

Fig. 10

I used a physical sun and sky system plus some additional light sources to light this scene. I also did plenty of test renders to make sure I was happy with the result (Video: 01).

Video: 01

Here I'd like to say that when I started the work, I knew I was going to depend a lot on post-processing. That gave me freedom with the texturing and rendering of the most complicated parts as I knew I could add the missing parts later in Photoshop.

Finally I achieved the desired lighting in the scene (Fig.11)! I think the feeling of early morning worked well. Further I decided to increase the atmosphere by adding signs of autumn. Then it was time to render the scene.

Fig. 11

Fig. 11

The hardest task was to render out the beauty pass. Due to the large size of the image it took about 12 hours. There were also three additional passes to render: Occlusion, Color ID and Z-Depth. These passes helped me to achieve the needed volume and depth of the picture, and were also used as technical layers when compositing in Photoshop (Fig.12).

Fig. 12

Fig. 12

Anyway, it didn't take much time to assemble and fine-tune the picture. And voila! It was finished. What a glorious moment! The idea was realized, all the technical issues were solved and that day when I made the first sketches was now so far away (Fig.13).

Fig: 13

I hope it was interesting to read my story. Have a happy art process and good luck with your ideas!
 

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