Neofeud

SilverSpook · Sun 13/09/2015 09:04:03

Thanks AnasAbdin, it only took me all week to do it! (Kind of kidding but also not really!)

Fitz · Sat 19/09/2015 20:23:05

There's something about it that immediately made me think of Blomkamp's movies. The kind of scrapland ghetto, work-with-what-you got feel of the location. The collage style really works.

SilverSpook · Mon 21/09/2015 01:17:31

Thanks Fitz for the comment and really getting the look that I was going for! There's some direct inspiration from scrapland futurescapes featured in Elysium, with the cast-off, necropolis remnants of Los Angeles being taken over by favela sprawl, slum dogs, revolutionaries, and artist-gangsters (like Die Antwoord).

Here I'm definitely trying to capture that near-future, refugee-overloaded Earth. I hadn't intended it when I began working on this section of Neofeud but it's been frighteningly topical over the past few weeks with Europe "struggling to cope with the march of misery" and Donald Trump's bombastic anti-immigrant rhetoric rocking the media.

Fitz · Mon 21/09/2015 17:32:10

Oh, you don't have to tell me about the migration crisis. Here in Europe it's #1 topic on the news all day every day, trying to sway everyone this way or that way: first, they show you sad little kids and weary people walking along the train tracks, so you go awww -- and then it jumps to a footage of a horde of young men going berserk.

selmiak · Mon 21/09/2015 17:51:00

and suddenly noone talks about ttip anymore in europe...

SilverSpook · Tue 22/09/2015 21:10:43

@Fitz: That must be quite the emotional rollercoaster! What country are you in exactly?

@selmiak: I hadn't heard of ttip but it sounds a lot like the TPP! Which is not so good!

Also, here's a very early stage "Process Shot" of a place metonymously and mysteriously named "The Arcade".

Don't want to give away too much, but let's just say the bar 'tap' literally taps into the counter of the bar.

(Click for full size pic)

SilverSpook · Sun 27/09/2015 11:22:12

(Click for higher-resolution pic)

"It's not like I'm using. It's like my body's developed this massive battery acid addiction."

Fitz · Sun 27/09/2015 16:26:09

That's a huge and intricate design. At first I didn't even notice you can stroll sideways -- and that's where it gets really interesting.

And in response to your question: I'm in Poland. Most of these immigrants are heading for Germany, our nearest neighbor to the West -- but Auntie Angela's made it so that they're forced to stay in the country that they're registered in. So it's bound to get ugly. Plus, the whole former Eastern bloc -- which we're a part of -- is largely mono-cultural. And a self-proclaimed bastion of Catholicism

AnasAbdin · Sun 27/09/2015 21:01:11

Your use of lights and shades is beyond imagination

I'm seriously starting to count the days until release.

SilverSpook · Mon 28/09/2015 01:02:44

@Fitz: Thanks! Yeah, it took a while for this to come together. I have been watching some digital painting tutorials recently and just realized that I have no idea what the hell I am doing when it comes to painting, or at least, it is completely different from any of the tutorials. I have a general vision of what I think the scene needs to be about based on the story, "An underground hangout for a gang of robots in a junkyard" and then tend to paint bits of lighting first, and play a sort of Rorschach Test on myself. "What is this supposed to be; a piston? A bar table? An Atari arcade box? Ok!" This method, if it can be called a method, just seems to work for me, for some reason.

Also, good luck up there in Poland. Hopefully things won't descend STRAIGHT to the world of Elysium up there.

@AnasAbdin: Thanks! Lighting is one of my favorite parts of design. I'm planning to do a few custom-lit character animations, for when the characters step out of daylight and into this dark 80's-neon cyberpunk dive. Like, dark figures with stylized fluorescent highlights around them. Even if this will probably be a ton of work, it will be a whole lot of fun too, if I can pull it off!

SilverSpook · Sun 04/10/2015 07:16:13

The Stratoplex, home of Neofeudal royalty. Still a bit under construction!

Incidentally, this is also the set of my most recent entry to the Fornightly Writing Competition, entitled, "The Cospauper".

I'm looking for a formal and slang term for the "Core" part of Coastlandia City. "Elysium" is already taken of course...

Current names include, The Stratoplex, The Pyramids, Aeromet, The Stratoplex, The Aeroplex, The Fulcrum. the Points, Center, â€œHightownâ€ (related to â€œDowntown,â€

Derogatory: Douchelandia, Floating Rocks, the nutsack, the Mantheon, Babylon.

I'm taking suggestions!

SilverSpook · Tue 06/10/2015 12:33:27

Updated version of the Stratoplex.

AnasAbdin · Tue 06/10/2015 12:44:44

Wow! the use of details improved it so much. I can't imagine the amount of time you spent on this background.

Blondbraid · Tue 06/10/2015 14:09:05

It looks dazzling! Are those skyscrapers built out of disco balls?

It sure is an excellent contrast to the slums and junkyards in the previous pictures,
for it is one thing to read about a class society, and another to see it.

selmiak · Tue 06/10/2015 15:54:25

cool! I'm absolutely looking forward to playing neofeud. Keep it up!

SilverSpook · Tue 06/10/2015 21:04:25

@Anasabdin: Thanks! Coincidentally, I hate remembering how much time I spent on this background!

It took a while just to figure out how to really differentiate it from the slum areas, and then another day to figure out how to paint ultra-reflective surfaces.

@Blondbgraid: They're pretty much discoballs! I wanted everything to be super-mirrored and crystalline. Like made out of Cinderella's glass slippers and nanotechnological wizardry. Monolithic vanity skyscrapers that cost a lot of money, built by Starchitects, as opposed to cobbled-together bits of corrugated plastic, car parts, tarp-tents, and abandoned squatted government buildings. A prince is only a prince in so much as he can lord his wealth over the paupers and the fallen and such.

@Selmiak: Thanks! I can't wait to release it!

SilverSpook · Sat 10/10/2015 06:39:30

Aleph The Artist

"The sad thing about artificial intelligence is that it lacks artifice and therefore intelligence." -- Jean Beaudrillard

(Click for full size)

I don't want to give too much away about this character, but suffice it to say he's been one of my favorite to create yet.

selmiak · Sat 10/10/2015 13:30:46

wait, does he, she, it have a blowtorch hand? I hope aleph is friendly...

Frikker · Sun 11/10/2015 01:36:15

sorry to dampen your blowtorch pyro-maniac excitement Selmiak but I think its a paintbrush with yellow paint on it.....

SilverSpook · Sun 11/10/2015 01:42:47

Unfortunately, no, Aleph does not have a blowtorch. Although, he does whip it out a few weeks before Burning Man is set to take place.

I'm probably going to give him one more arm somewhere, possibly holding the acrylic palette and/or a spray-paint canister. He's very hi-lo culture post-modern like that.