Concept Cathedral - My steps towards a final idea(s)

Concept Cathedral - My steps towards a final idea(s)

My idea behind this task was to give off the impression of a cathedral or place of worship without drawing the normal idealistic ideas being either a church, mosque etc. I wished to showcase this work so that people have an understanding that anywhere can be a place of worship and it doesn't have to relate to any religion or story. 

I've numbered my concepts so you can understand which one I am talking about in each paragraph by numbering the paragraph accordingly. 

1. This initial concept was a idea I had stumbled upon after playing games such as 'Skyrim', 'World of warcraft' and 'Farcry'. This concept is something that can be created easily, it was the idea that a place of sanctum. The idea was that it was a large beast of any kind that had passed away with it's mouth left open whilst also being turned to stone. Something alone the lines of a dragon dying and being turned to stone upon death. The inside is designed with a church styled theme which was something that didn't interest me as much because I wanted to steer away from that concept. 

2. A city-scape is something that I have personally always worshiped for some unknown reason. It interest me because of the amount of information it can give out at one time whether it be thousands of people roaming around or even if its desolate and evacuated. The idea behind this that I interpreted was the idea of a street being so visually busy but also being so dead because it's been deserted for many years and beginning to deteriorate. My idea with this was to create something that allowed the user to be able to concentrate on the city itself but also notice some level of destruction around it, being a concept/silhouette I didn't want to go into such detail just yet, I was just wanted to get a minor amount down just so people can get an idea of the city being the overall 'place of worship'. I have heavily referenced the game 'Destiny' here by using the 'Tower' in the game as a reference because the small city in the tower is their place of worship. I chose to leave this at number two, although it was my continued idea because it's something that is so open to interpretation that allowed for people to get a understanding of what my mind works like and why I chose this over the others. 

3. My next idea was something that was unique in a sense of structure and something that people can relate to. The idea behind it was a circus styled tent which people would find as either a place of comedy, or horror. Playing on the idea that some people have an irrational fear of clowns (coulrophobia) it can be either a place of worship or a place of torture which to some is a place of worship. I didn't wish to continue this because I wanted to get across the 'worship' side of this task so to some this wouldn't be a place of worship.

4. This concept is something very heavily referenced although not quite to the point of being a stolen idea. This related a lot to the game destiny in the way it is designed. Taking ideas from the new DLC (download-able content) 'The Rise Of Iron' there are a few buildings designed structurally on it being held in the air by beams whether its made from steel or a flesh like substance. I took this idea and made it my own by having it made from glass. The idea behind this was a gravitational effect that was slowly breaking the building bringing it to the ground overtime being that it was overweight for its structural integrity. Showing signs of it happening with shattered glass slowly floating away from the concept. The reason I didn't choose this was I wanted my own, unique approach but something that also interested me.

My iterations speak something along the lines of what I wanted to go for but aside from the 3D aspect of the other iterations that went onto becoming the final piece it allowed for me to have other ideas such as the two shown below, along with the 3D concept.

This iteration was something I wished to base my initial idea on. Something that was a reminder of someones "home". People have different definitions of "home". My idea is home is a city-scape but to most that would seem wrong or seem idiotic. To some it's the country side, some streets, to some even their own house. This image above shows a singular building referencing this idea of a home. 

Again this is something that is related to the idea of a home. Something that shows warmth, something to travel towards. I made it harder to see so that there is this level of mist/fog attracting the eye towards the light but also tricking them into the wrong section of light. Although the light in the top right is the most attractive, the light on the object in the left is what people will realise is the home in this picture. It may resemble to some what home means, whether it be a house, a source of light or even a source of comfort. 

This was the idea I had in mind, although it is all misplaced it was done so on purpose and you'll see from the final drawing shown later. The idea behind this was to have a city based around some sort of demi-god which looked over the city and kept them 'safe'. I haven't chose a certain god or person because I don't want to justify a religion I just want it to be a common myth. The city was something that was more interesting to me than the headpiece but also I was intrigued to try and keep it in but subtly so that it didn't steal the focus. The idea of it was referenced from 'Final Fantasy 7's' 'Midgar' which had a building centralised as a place of higher rankings within the city. I wished to choose this because of the rural feel it gave off as well as a ancient feel to it. Thus bringing me onto my next set of renders. 

This render allows for me to show you why I didn't need to have the city properly places on the sculpture, because I already knew I wanted to crop it down. The reasoning behind this was so that I could edit it exactly how I wanted with enough detail but not too much to have the image look overly colored. It was a simple idea which allowed me to use many different ideas in the end to create my final piece. I since changed the material and began creating my final piece. The images below were the 2D images I extracted into 3D showing off the structural points in both images. These are how I made my city in the final piece. 

This was my final piece, as you can see I managed to cut out a LOT of unnecessary information. The reason I chose to do this was for the pure fact I wanted it to have a desolate, dilapidated and dead feel to it. The idea behind this was a sand covered city which had been abandoned for many years and people were only just going in to discover history, just like today's society with cavemen. The reason I chose sand over any other environmental material is because of its destruction but also how little it can effect things, it can overgrow but not destroy. The basics behind it is the city is still covered in sand and being filled up slowly by sand storms thus people trying to get in now rather than when it's fully covered. I decided to delete a lot of the buildings and cover over them not only for the idea of having a city buried under sand but also to give off a gradient feel. I believe the lighting in this is done perfectly according to the sandstorm and also having it shimmer off some surfaces. 

I believe this final piece is enough to give to someone to be able to grasp the idea behind it.

I thought I'd add in one of my other concepts just for the pure fact that I decided to go environmental because of its beauty and also because of its destruction. This image above represents what I was looking to do, showing both the human-factor of placing a simple road and then having the environment fighting to get it back by slowly overgrowing into the road. This was just a concept that I had originally left out but I've decided to add it as it gives off what I wanted to achieve.