Hanging Sci-fi scene part 1

The notion of a hanging city has become more apparent to me within the concept art world over the last 5-10 years. Visually intriguing to say the least and Im sure one day, will appear as a key location in a film (if it hasn't already). Although Im sure it wasn't first seen here, I'd have to say the first time I became aware of the idea was of course the concept art knocked out for the Star Wars prequels.

Here's a brief backstory to the art:
Typically entitled 'BridgeWorld' many artists early on in the production were given a short brief; the clone wars will be seen in a handfull of planets that are new to the viewer. While the artists were given certain free reign over the subject, there were also key issues with each design. As these locations were brand new and were to be on screen for literally a matter of seconds the difficulty came with giving each location a specific design style/language that would be obvious to the viewer that they were seeing several different places. Among them were a giant plant-life planet, a crystal world and of course an upside down environment.

Enter Bridgeworld aka Cato Neimoidia.

So back on track, the other day I began to work on an environment design. My intention initially started with creating a large arching set of livable buildings that looked more like extreme bridges. I wanted a dusty washed out look and so started searching for dust cloud pictures as reference. As I messed about with them I inadvertantly flipped a picture vertically and low and behold saw the potential to create my own upside down world.

So with these next few posts I'll hopefully continue to show my thought process and work flow as I go through the design. What I have here to show you is the initial 45mins-hour of arranging things to a place where I feel a composition and story could be told. So here is my first step to my bridgeworld; my upside down planet; my Cloud City if you will. This is Hanging Sci-Fi Scene part 1...