Bytescapes

a gallery of computer-generated images

The Day they Left

Comments

This image was created as an entry for a contest (it didn't win). The theme of the contest was 'Visions of the Future', and entries had to be accompanied by a brief explanation of what future event was being envisioned. My note read:

I was just a kid at the time. I didn't know then what I was seeing. Now I know that those columns of light and smoke in the sky were the sign that they were leaving us behind. It was the exodus of the artificial intelligences and the gene-hacked post-humans, heading out into space and leaving the human race down here in the dirt, in the smog-wrapped wreckage of the Earth that we'd ruined. I always wonder what they found out there, but I don't think any of them will be coming back to let us know.

This isn't very close to the image that I had in my head. I wasn't able to reproduce that, in part because of difficulties in composition, in part because some curious quirks in Carrara meant that I couldn't place the camera exactly where I wanted it without scene elements disappearing.

The scene is modeled and rendered in Carrara. The city was created using surface replication of a selection of buildings from Sparkyworld's Ruined City. The rising smoke trails are Carrara clouds, while the stairs and platforms were created in Carrara's spline modeler and assembly room.

Applications

Carrara 8 Pro
DAZ 3D

Models