I've never been much one for new years resolutions, but I am a little ashamed to admit that 2019 was definitely The Year of Starting Things - I think I only finished 2 out of probably 8 or more (although I swear I'll totally go back and finish those other 6 or so real soon 👀). I got into a pretty destructive cycle of Start Thing -> Hit small roadblock -> Research solution -> Find out about new technique/program/tutorial with New Thing -> Get distracted by New Thing -> Start New Thing Project -> Repeat. This was never really a huge problem for me before 2019, or more likely in hindsight, I just never realised it was happening.
When I heard about the Experience Points and DiNusty Cyberpunk community challenge, I pretty quickly decided it would be a great opportunity to kick-start 2020: THE YEAR OF FINISHING THINGS, while getting involved in the great community a bit better (I'm a natural-habitat lurker). The challenge essentially involves creating a game-ready environment incorporating the Cyberpunk aesthetic. Usually an evening of Maya at home after 8 or so hours of Maya at work is usually pretty unappealing, but with a cool theme, preset deadline and a friendly encouraging community cheering each other on, I'm hoping to finally break free from the shameful shackles of project abandonment, and burst into the warm welcoming light of... finishing a thing I guess?
Cyberpunk is a pretty broad and diverse genre, and aesthetically there’s a lot to love here for me - from the shadowy UNATCO offices in the original Deus Ex, to the exquisite brutalist architecture of Blade Runner 2049. The common theme that I usually find the most intriguing in cyberpunk however, is the human element. Social divides, classism, crime, vice - no matter how far technology advances, humans will still be selfish, greedy, want for wealth and power, and ultimately be driven by a need to survive.
Coincidentally in line with the challenge criteria, I want to focus on building up my storytelling skills through this environment, a fundamental area I think I'm pretty weak in. I began to think a lot about how human augmentation is depicted in games like Cyberpunk and Deus Ex - an evolution harnessed by the ultra-rich as a means to further their power, physical skills or beauty. Like today, as time progresses, the technology continues to advance and the “last years model” begins to filter down to the lower socio-economic classes. A super-soldier with arms that turn into Katanas hacking through bad guys in a neon high-rise above the streets of Tokyo is pretty cool, but what about a mother in a mid-west public health clinic trying to get her 4-year old child on the list for a working synthetic arm to replace the one that was amputated during their fight with the infection they caught from the local polluted water supply? I think there's something pretty cool there too, and that’s what I’m usually more drawn to exploring.
To try to give myself the best chance of success, I decided to make a pretty explicit schedule. I knew there would be a couple of weekends coming up that I would be unavailable, and mapping it all out really drove home how little time I'm actually going to have, and how tight I will have to be with the scope of the project. Truth be told, I'm actually already a day or two behind, getting a bit of a late start, buuut that is because of wedding things. And I've been told on good authority that wedding things are also very important.
Deciding on a main concept and gathering reference was actually pretty overwhelming. There's a lot of Cyberpunk out all over the web, and knowing what to lean on from current time versus future or dystopia was tricky. However, once I found The Subway by Helio Frazao (and after an aggressive cull of irrelevant images from my board), I immediately had a much more solid vision of what I wanted my environment to be. Although I came close a number of times to doing a moody Tokyo alleyway or street, soaked in neon pink and blue (it’s an oldie but gosh IT’S A GOODIE) but the more muted atypical palettes of Helio's work triggered that same part of my brain that thinks there's something quite interesting worth exploring.
As the challenge is celebrating the upcoming release of Cyberpunk 2077, I also grabbed some screens from the trailers to get a feel for the mood from the game, and also a AAA Game Environment benchmark to hopefully aspire towards.
You might be able to tell from my lighting mood ideas, that I really don't have much idea on the lighting yet. Although the deep saturated pinks and blues are always incredibly appealing, I think they might go as far as to betray the original concept a little. I've always been a fan of the warmer tungsten tones of the later two Deus Ex games, so I'm probably leaning a little more into that territory at the moment. I've alway struggled so much with good lighting, so it’s definitely another area I'm hoping to improve on with this project. I think the lighting choices will honestly become clearer to me as the scene progresses and I can experiment more. For now however, it’s onto the blockout!
Hey look at that, I finished a blog post - 2020 is alllllright 🔥