Gallery

Artist: Kent Matheson
Art Director: TJ Tucker

PROCESS:

The initial process for this image was a very technical exercise. This image began as a 'sketch' using blocks in the 3d program Maya, at which time the camera and lighting were also set. The art director had an idea of what kind of a layout he wanted to see and the beginning steps were to determine how to make that exist in a believeably 'physical' space with 3d objects.

Once the shape and camera was determined and I had an idea of what scale and sizing the various buildings were to be I began to explore how to actually make the city. I settled on using a program called "City Engine", a tool developed for urban planning visualization and film layouts. The program allows urban cityscapes to be configured and edited in a variety of ways using map and text inputs, in this case the map inputs were used to create the shaping of the state and various text inputs were edited to adjust the scale, styles and heights of the various buildings.

This base layout was exported back into the program Maya and to this were added many specific buildings and object that were sourced from Google's "3D Warehouse" site, a place where architects and artists share digital architectural objects. Part of the requirement of the project was that many of the actual landmark buildings of the key cities of the state be accuarately represented and these were found & adjusted and brought in to Maya and placed in locations of the layout that represented the sites of the key cities. Though its probably not as evident as I'd like it to be, though perhaps it is to people who know their cities and buildings, many of the major buildings in the image are the recognizable local city buildings.

At this point, having gotten approval for the layout in rough form, the final stages began and the 3d buildings were rendered from the camera in various ways to give me options and layers to collage and paint with. Some renders provided information about the lighting, some about the textures and others about the the depth and proximity of the buildings and these were combined and edited in photoshop with an extensive paint process that included the collage of photographs and a lot of digital painting, adding details such as reflection, boats, birds, clouds, cars, and various bits and bobbles of city life.

BRIEF REQUIREMENTS:

To show the state of Texas as a single city. The main buildings of the cities are apparent.

Additional requirements were to show the city as beleivably real as possible, though within the confines of a completey unrealistic scale and in as wonderfully happy tone as possible.The buildings of the city were to be represented realistically with detail and reflections and the surrounding territories were to be represnnted in an almost iconic manner, simple and clean, and the curve of the earth was to be apparent.

BRIEF IDEAS:

The key points to communicate with this image was realism, detail and beauty. The city was to be bathed in golden light with the skyscrapers shimmering almost as if its a city of gold.

The state of Texas is now more urban than rural, more people live in the cities than in the countryside, and the realization of this fact is prompting much debate and soul searching within the state. This image was a play on the idea of the state as one mega-city, with the various key cities having merged together, and is intended to splash the idea on the cover of the state's main magazine, within which were various articles and interviews about the topic. So the idea is to connect the ideas of "Texas" and "city" together in an immediate way without creating an imposing or foreboding city.