Eureka Seven Too close to the sun

Okay hey anime junkies . Back with another collab with ze. Okay so it started with ze sending me a couple pics , because he wanted to do another collab. I had the honour of choosing which pic we would make a wall of . There were a bunch of pics , but the one that caught my eye was from Eureka seven. I dont know where the original scan was from.

So then i got busy trying to think of a suitable background image. And i finally decided to go with a spaceship themed background, because the original scan made the characters look like they were floating. So i thought they could be underwater or they could be in zero gravity .

I googled space station and got a couple cool ideas of what i wanted the background image to look like . Shopped the scan with the googled image , and had a basic concept. Then i sent the concept to ze for approval.

http://img248.imageshack.us/i/eurekasevenconceptflat2.jpg/

Once it was approved i started recreating the background in 3d max 2009 . i tryed to keep the geometry very simple . Once the modeling was done , i came up with some texturing ideas. It was a long process ,trying to get the right look. But i eventually went with a dirty looking futuristic room. Ze wanted me to try using cell shading for this project , so thats what i did. I used the ink and paint material , which comes with 3d max 2009 and just played with the settings

http://img21.imageshack.us/i/ren3scanlinelighttracer.jpg/

the design of the room was very important because i wanted there to be light coming in from space into the room. Which had its consequences when it came to doing the lighting. I wanted to go with advanced lighting techniques , but my knowlegde of such things is limited , so i went with basic lighting with photometric lights.

Then it was time to render. I tryed to match the angle of my cameras to the angle that i did for the concept . So i hit the render button and this is what came out.

http://img130.imageshack.us/i/viewporteurekaseven.jpg/

http://img821.imageshack.us/i/finalrender1mentalraybe.jpg/

By this time ze was almost done with the vector of the scan. When he was done i comped the background and the vector. Did a couple lighting edits ,using various gradients and lots of layers of different colours. I also masked the shadow areas of the background , and tried to apply those shadows to the vector. This was a long process , and i spent days trying to get it right . I also got a lighting in photoshop tutorial from ze , which helped me get the final look of the wall.

The final stage was adding the sun ,which would make the lighting logical. At least in my line of thinking. Then i wanted to add other stuff floating in the background , but i didnt get around to doing that , i just did a floating screen , which i thought would tell the story of why the characters look consenerned with something . And thats where the text came from "too close to the sun"

when it was done i sent it for approval . Then ze wanted to try a different approach which you can check out on minitokyo .

Im happy with the outcome of this project , i do enjoy ze's take on the vector and think that both perspectives on this project are spot on.

"Thats all she wrote"

peace

Ze's write up:

Greetings people on the netz.

So for this wall it was another collab with kulu. The concept and composition was kulu's, I thought it was awesome [Sci-Fi!!!]. We landed up doing different versions on it, which worked out well. Seeing as kulu did a great job with the 3D background and I did the vector. The main difference is just the post effects. Hence the two versions.

My aim was to blend the two styles into a film styled shot of the characters, lighitng played a big part in this and was a tedeous exercise. My wall style was inspired by Kulu's 'burnt' style. It was fun, working with 3D and vector. I learn't how to do some new things in PS, over all a success. Thanks to kulu, it was awesome dude! To the wallers, keep wallin.