project_styles

some styles i created for a recent project. the style i originally had in mind for this project was along the lines of Neo Tokyo...the inspiration for this was from the backgrounds in Ohtomo's Akira. i really wanted to push the colours, all the while maintaining a strong, dark atmosphere.

here is the final product! i shall take you through how i achieved this.

Photoshop. i use the polygonal lasso tool to cut angular shapes into my canvas. (this is a very common direction in my workflow for design. i find that straight edges really add to strong perspective, something i consistently strive toward in my work). on top of the basic dark building scape, i have added some detail for windows...they mustn't be too contrasting to the structures, as this will be my background.

 starting to add depth, i've added more buildings with varying colours for lit windows. you can start to see the neon colours come through.

as we get closer to the foreground, i add more neon colours. as mentioned before, i am highly fond of perspective. however...this doesn't mean it needs to be correct. the disjointed feel of the buildings adds to the overwhelming cityscape.

finally, the foreground. this is the most strongly contrasted layer of building blocks.

i add my deep red background and begin to overlay (blending mode) some angular orange lighting, both between background and foreground layers.

coming to a close i add even more orange lighting, turning each layer's opacity up or down to maintain a balance. also you'll see i've added some rough textures for a slightly grungy effect....it adds imperfection... i like imperfections.

and that's it!! by adding some further grading and level adjustments over all my layers, i have a dark and colourful, vast Neo Tokyo-esque cityscape.