PAINT CONCEPT ART FOR ARCHVIS
15
ADD COLOUR
In this step we are going to add some detail
in the form of colour to the centre of the complex.
Let’s just pretend in between those buildings is a
huge atrium and the company who owns this facility
is hosting a big event right there. Of course they are
going to have very powerful and amazing light-
shows going on. We are going to use that story to
make our picture more interesting. Pick a red tone,
which is a complementary colour to the overall blue
of the image, and paint in details, where the light
would hit the facades.17
COLOUR CORRECTION
At first add a new layer, pick a soft brush
with the Opacity set to 20% and paint in some more
glares. Now go to the adjustment layer panel and
select Color Balance and push the colours to a
slightly warmer look. Cyan/Red +1, Magenta/Green
+15 and Yellow/Blue -10. Create a Hue/Saturation
adjustment layer and lower the Saturation by -30.
Yes, that looks better. Create one more layer, add
some more blues for the sky, brighten the
insolation from the right and push down the value of
the top left corner. Group all these layers by
selecting them and hit Cmd/Ctrl+G.16
ADD DETAIL FOR SCALE
We are now adding an aeroplane and some jet trails to intensify the metropolitan feel of the scene
and illustrate the big scale of the complex. Paint a tiny white shape of a plane in the top left corner of the
image. Add a soft glare to it to make it pop out. Now on a separate layer, paint two long, soft, diagonal and
white strokes, where one should obviously connect with the plane. Now again use the Smudge tool to
make them more organic and cloud-like.20
GOOD PRACTICE
Last but not least it’s important to label your
artwork with the project name, subject or task,
creation date and your name. In bigger productions
whether commercial, game or feature, where several
artists are constantly creating output, it is very useful to
put this information into the picture so supervisors,
producers and directors can refer to certain artwork at
a glance. With your artwork finalised, it’s time for it to
be passed on for rendering.19
FINAL OVERALL TEXTURE
Let’s put some film grain on top of the
picture. We do so by creating a new empty layer at
the very top of the picture. Fill this layer with a 50%
grey (RGB 128/128/128 or HSB 0/0/50) by selecting
the Paint Bucket tool and clicking on the canvas.
Now go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Set the amount
to 10% and make sure Uniform is selected and
Monochromatic is Off. Now go to Filter>Noise>
Median and set the Radius to one pixel. The last thing
is setting your layer’s blend mode to Overlay.18
ADD CHROMATIC ABERRATION
To push the image ahead of its pure, digital
feel, we are going to add chromatic aberration and
grain. Click on the top layer in your layer stack, now
create a new merge layer of everything visible on the
canvas, by pressing Shift+Alt+Cmd/Ctrl+E. Select this
layer and go to Filter>Lens Correction. Open the
second tab, Custom, and adjust the Fix Red/Cyan
Fringe to +100 and the Fix Blue/Yellow Fringe
to -100. Hit OK. When you zoom in you will notice
some slight colour shifting around the edges.Smart Objects and adjustment layers provide the flexibility
necessary to give you a truly non-destructive workflow