Data Mining
This started out as a commission but the client wanted to go in a different direction after the initial sketches. I think the fact I did the concepts in 2D threw them.
For me if the final image is a still 2D image then the approach of using the photoshop sketches is stronger but I should have thought of the client who was invested in a 3D image wanted to see that format in drafts.
Anyway I was left with a partially developed concept that I did want to finish.
I had developed 2 colour schemes based on what I could see of their branding. As the choice was now mine alone I went with the lighter one.
I used a toon shader to keep the detail low for the data centre. There is a toon shader built in for Blender but it only works with cycles. To keep the lighting effects I wanted to stay with the Eevee renderer. You can cheat a toon shader using ramps so I used a variant of MrTriPies method here
I added some animations. I added ripples following the tutorial by Gleb Alexandrov here . This method uses the wave modifier, dyanmic paint and a particle system. The major time investment here was in getting a material and lighting set up that would leave the data lake emissions visible but still being able to see the ripples by reflection.
The figures are on the basic metarig. You can see the lighting ended up a little complicated but that is why I wanted to do the lighter scene as it is harder to control.
Lighting set up
