Outdoor background scenery model develop process-- idea and concept

The first version of the outdoor background is a town with an opera house at centre and a clock town far away. The idea was inspired by the game trailer of “Lightning Returns: FFXIII”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oDzl6FADTU

 Scene from “Lightning Returns: FFXIII”

My first concept art 

At the very beginning, I thought it would be cool to have a cinematic starting which is having a camera to fly through a huge city.

But after the discussion with my graduation thesis advisor Mr. Eddie Leung. We found that the scenery is a bit boring, cliche and lack of distinguishing feature.

At that time, I saw an anime called demon slayer, it has a short scene where a character ignores the gravity of the world and jump over wall on ever single side of the room. Which also remind me about the grand staircase in “Harry Potter” and Escher’s “relativity”. So, I designed to make a scene that can present a rich 3D space and let my character jump and fly from all angles. Which can make the scene become more interesting and dynamic. It also helps to show the characteristics of my main character.

Animation scene from "Demon slayer":

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFylNyApnmG/

Grand stair from "Harry Potter"

Relativity (M. C. Escher)

My sceond concept art:

My final idea is to make a floating tower surrounding by floating block that can be stepped on. These floating elements will be placed above a deep hole with emitting blue light of Cherenkov radiation. The hole will be surrounded by a city and a circular wall. With this design, My character will have more space to perform her acrobatic motion and reveal her weapon’s special ability.  

Draft model of the city made with 3ds Max: