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Description
BACKGROUND ON THE CITY:

Babylon is a city that can be identified by its traditional style of integrating architecture and plant life. It is a bustling city of contrasts: architecture and nature, old and new, rich and poor, high and low, all constantly changing. Like the fragile rope bridge over the waterfall, life exists in a tenuous balance.

There are many areas to the city, most of which are depicted here. Moving from background to foreground:

A Granda Floresta
The largest landmark in Babylon, the city downtown and center of the government's ambitious urban renewal plan a few decades ago. The colossal structure resembles a forest, with skyscrapers as the tree trunks and trees forming the canopy. A series of waterfalls run down the sides of many buildings, a scaled-up version of the waterfalls used in traditional Babylonian infrastructure.
The forest itself is organically growing and chaotically organized. The interior has no streets, but a web of mid-air bridges connecting the buildings. The upper levels are the governmental and commerce centers of Babylon, while the lower levels have become anarchic slum areas overrun with vegetation and with no natural light - a literal version of the "urban jungle".

As Raizes
The ring shaped forest directly around Granda Floresta. It is a park area which separates it from the rest of the city.

Luas Crescentas
A newer development, these are a series of crescent moon shaped, terraced neighborhoods encircling older sections of the town. These are built around the concept of green roofs and architecture blending with landscape. Each district has several tiered housing complexes built into the hills and a community center at the top. There are also many structures underground. The Luas were originally developed by the socialist government as low cost mass housing, but due to their architectural value have become valued as higher class condominiums.

Favela Flutuanta
The neighborhood under the crescent terrace, overlooking the waterfall. This is a very old and poor neighborhood, it resembles a slum version of Venice with hilltop terrain. Many of the streets are waterfalls or small streams with bridges, which eventually converge at the bottom into the large waterfall, Cachoeira da Esperanca. This terrain gives the area its "floating" namesake.

Laguna (not pictured)
A series of artificial islands in Babylon Bay surrounding the Floresta. They are the most recent and fast growing developments in Babylon, and can be thought of as the suburban areas.

Various housing projects - Babel series
Many standardized tiered housing projects built during the urban renewal. Many are still used though some have become decrepit.

Bairros Antigos
The old quarters of Babylon, home to many ethnic groups from around the world, each with their own distinct architectural style.
These neighborhoods are also the best place to find an example of traditional Babylonian architecture, seen on the right side of the picture. Most old Babylon neighborhoods are built in this fashion. There are no real streets, but instead a series of city blocks built onto the hillsides. These are traversed through a series of stairs and rooftop gardens which are part of each person's home; at once both public and private space. Babylonian homes also usually have a trellis and latticework built into the outside wall in order to grow hanging plants and vines for food. These are located directly outside the kitchens. The other distinct feature of traditional Babylonian architecture is a series of waterfalls running along the buildings (not pictured here), which was originally used in place of plumbing and for irrigation.

ABOUT THE PICTURE AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION:

Programs used: 3ds max, SAI, Photoshop
Approx. time: 40 hours +/-
(Modeling: 30 hours, Painting: 10 hours)
Full resolution: 4096 wide

This image was an interesting experiment, since it relied heavily on a mixture of 3DCG and painting. The buildings and terrace terrain are 3D, and the plants, other terrain and sky are painted. This was also my first time using SAI, which I can only say is well beyond Photoshop in terms of painting and for a good price. I also like it better than Painter, though I haven't used either one much.

As far as real world inspirations, main inspiration came from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (naturally), Paul Rudolph, Le Corbusier and other Brutalist architects, 1970s London housing tenaments, Machu Picchu, Favela de Rocinha in Rio, and Sana'a in Yemen. The traditional Babylonian architecture was largely my own creation based on planning out the layout of typical homes and city blocks.

I never thought I'd warm up very much to Brutalism, one of the main styles I chose here. However, for some reason it seemed from the outset to be the best style to use here. I think it's the heavy use of concrete, and while being a very radical style that became quickly outmoded, its use of simple geometric concrete forms reminds me of the primal Anasazi sort of feel I wanted to create here. Brutalism also represents another contrast between an outmoded utopian ideal such as Le Corbusier's vision of Paris, and the poor contemporary reception of much of the buildings (as well as that the finishes of the concrete make them seem naturally run down.) Also, I wanted to use it because I thought it would work well with nature, since Brutalism is really the antithesis of nature. I often use Art Nouveau with all its florally inspired forms, but that would be too obvious and like the surrounding flora, instead I thought it would play off of the natural flora by contrasting with it. Anyway, I ended up warming up to a lot of the buildings in the style (some of them are still just plain ugly though.)

I plan to do a few other illustrations of this city. Hopefully next time I'll do a better job on the plants, since while they were intended to be there from the beginning they were a last minute affair. Always plan ahead, right?

Description
BACKGROUND ON THE CITY:

Babylon is a city that can be identified by its traditional style of integrating architecture and plant life. It is a bustling city of contrasts: architecture and nature, old and new, rich and poor, high and low, all constantly changing. Like the fragile rope bridge over the waterfall, life exists in a tenuous balance.

There are many areas to the city, most of which are depicted here. Moving from background to foreground:

A Granda Floresta
The largest landmark in Babylon, the city downtown and center of the government's ambitious urban renewal plan a few decades ago. The colossal structure resembles a forest, with skyscrapers as the tree trunks and trees forming the canopy. A series of waterfalls run down the sides of many buildings, a scaled-up version of the waterfalls used in traditional Babylonian infrastructure.
The forest itself is organically growing and chaotically organized. The interior has no streets, but a web of mid-air bridges connecting the buildings. The upper levels are the governmental and commerce centers of Babylon, while the lower levels have become anarchic slum areas overrun with vegetation and with no natural light - a literal version of the "urban jungle".

As Raizes
The ring shaped forest directly around Granda Floresta. It is a park area which separates it from the rest of the city.

Luas Crescentas
A newer development, these are a series of crescent moon shaped, terraced neighborhoods encircling older sections of the town. These are built around the concept of green roofs and architecture blending with landscape. Each district has several tiered housing complexes built into the hills and a community center at the top. There are also many structures underground. The Luas were originally developed by the socialist government as low cost mass housing, but due to their architectural value have become valued as higher class condominiums.

Favela Flutuanta
The neighborhood under the crescent terrace, overlooking the waterfall. This is a very old and poor neighborhood, it resembles a slum version of Venice with hilltop terrain. Many of the streets are waterfalls or small streams with bridges, which eventually converge at the bottom into the large waterfall, Cachoeira da Esperanca. This terrain gives the area its "floating" namesake.

Laguna (not pictured)
A series of artificial islands in Babylon Bay surrounding the Floresta. They are the most recent and fast growing developments in Babylon, and can be thought of as the suburban areas.

Various housing projects - Babel series
Many standardized tiered housing projects built during the urban renewal. Many are still used though some have become decrepit.

Bairros Antigos
The old quarters of Babylon, home to many ethnic groups from around the world, each with their own distinct architectural style.
These neighborhoods are also the best place to find an example of traditional Babylonian architecture, seen on the right side of the picture. Most old Babylon neighborhoods are built in this fashion. There are no real streets, but instead a series of city blocks built onto the hillsides. These are traversed through a series of stairs and rooftop gardens which are part of each person's home; at once both public and private space. Babylonian homes also usually have a trellis and latticework built into the outside wall in order to grow hanging plants and vines for food. These are located directly outside the kitchens. The other distinct feature of traditional Babylonian architecture is a series of waterfalls running along the buildings (not pictured here), which was originally used in place of plumbing and for irrigation.

ABOUT THE PICTURE AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION:

Programs used: 3ds max, SAI, Photoshop
Approx. time: 40 hours +/-
(Modeling: 30 hours, Painting: 10 hours)
Full resolution: 4096 wide

This image was an interesting experiment, since it relied heavily on a mixture of 3DCG and painting. The buildings and terrace terrain are 3D, and the plants, other terrain and sky are painted. This was also my first time using SAI, which I can only say is well beyond Photoshop in terms of painting and for a good price. I also like it better than Painter, though I haven't used either one much.

As far as real world inspirations, main inspiration came from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (naturally), Paul Rudolph, Le Corbusier and other Brutalist architects, 1970s London housing tenaments, Machu Picchu, Favela de Rocinha in Rio, and Sana'a in Yemen. The traditional Babylonian architecture was largely my own creation based on planning out the layout of typical homes and city blocks.

I never thought I'd warm up very much to Brutalism, one of the main styles I chose here. However, for some reason it seemed from the outset to be the best style to use here. I think it's the heavy use of concrete, and while being a very radical style that became quickly outmoded, its use of simple geometric concrete forms reminds me of the primal Anasazi sort of feel I wanted to create here. Brutalism also represents another contrast between an outmoded utopian ideal such as Le Corbusier's vision of Paris, and the poor contemporary reception of much of the buildings (as well as that the finishes of the concrete make them seem naturally run down.) Also, I wanted to use it because I thought it would work well with nature, since Brutalism is really the antithesis of nature. I often use Art Nouveau with all its florally inspired forms, but that would be too obvious and like the surrounding flora, instead I thought it would play off of the natural flora by contrasting with it. Anyway, I ended up warming up to a lot of the buildings in the style (some of them are still just plain ugly though.)

I plan to do a few other illustrations of this city. Hopefully next time I'll do a better job on the plants, since while they were intended to be there from the beginning they were a last minute affair. Always plan ahead, right?