Lucy Week 2 - Catacombs

19/1/2015 – Day 1: Reference gathering

In the story of Metropolis, the Catacombs are a secret place for the workers to meet up and discus current matters. The majority of the ‘rally’s’ are lead by Maria. We both decided early on the project, the theme and location of the catacombs. They are a network of underground unused subways that were built on top of to make way for the new city. The workers secretly dug out the subways in order to create their own hideout, which is unknown to the elites above them. This was a good basis to start working on the visuals.

I started again, by gathering images to help form ideas. (Pinterest board here https://www.pinterest.com/lucytstm/fmpmet-catacombs/ )  

I started with looking at existing catacombs which the majority are not very people friendly. Our catacombs signify the unknown hub lively with workers. Like a bustling city but underground and in secret. I then looked at pictures related to abandoned city. I used these as well as the catacombs images to photo-bash ideas. Below are some of the results.

20/1/2015 – Day 2: Photobash and sketching

Continuing with the photobashes, I began to further understand the layout of the catacombs. After photobashing I sketched over them to help breakdown each scene.

From these I could begin to see potential final images. Also, as this is a place for the workers to gather in secret fro the elites. I’d feel there’d be a lot of hatred and anger towards the elites that would be discussed in the catacombs. Therefor I may look into designing some propaganda imagery, such as posters symbolism etc. something only the workers would know about.

21/1/2015 – Day 3: 3D modelling

I picked my 2 favourite images for the final and began to whitebox the image as a 3D level. This would then be rendered then I can use it as a base for my final images. This is to help with perspective and help transfer the 3D aspects into a 2D image, hence speeding up the process and allowing for me to work accurately.

22/1/2015 – Day 4: Beginning final images

Since I have the 3D rendered images to work from. I continued to sketch over the top and begin sketching one of the 2 final images. The 2 I chose where the main area of the catacombs. All the subways lead to an old town centre where the only structurally sound building remains. It’s in this old theatre where the secret meetings of the workers take place.

23/1/2015 – Day 5: Final images continued, colour

Coming to the end of these pieces, I’m now currently working on colour. Even though the catacombs are dark due to being underground and very poorly lit. I still want them to appear warm and colourful, as they are a place of hope for the workers.

This is the final, I will probably tweak it more but for now it will do. I have some further work on the culture of the workers to do. I was thinking of symbolism, so the workers have a united identity; to appear threatening to the elites above them.