Visions of future worlds have always captured the imaginations.Images of towering cyber-cityscapes, awesome uninhabitable planetary worlds, sleek super-cars and space cruisers, strange mutant beings, and terrifying alien life forms have spilled from the feverish minds of fantasy sci-fi illustrators for as long as the genre has existed. Today, as more and more artists are switching from traditional media to the digital world of computers, the images being created are breathtakingly realistic.

1 Introduction

The Digital Sci-Fi Artist

Creating Artwork in 2D

Adobe Photoshop

Creating Artwork in 3D

3D Software

Poser by Curious Labs

ZBrush by Pixologic

BodyPaint 3D by Maxon

World-Building Software

Corel Bryce

Vue d'Esprit by e-on Software

Planetside Terragen

2 Light Sabres at the Ready

Fine-Art Photoshop

Channels and Layers

Blending Multiple Renders

Using Curves in Photoshop

Distorting Reality

The Art of Noise

Anatomy of a Sci-Fi Image

Creating Clothing

Texturing in Bryce and Poser

3D Textures in Bryce

Realistic Lighting

Surface Modelling

Special Effects

Setting the Scene

Postwork: Motion Blurs

Postwork: Light Rays

Postwork: Head-Up Display

Postwork: Warfare

3 Playing God

Mad Scientist

Cyborgs: People of the Future

Building a Robot

Creating a Mechanoid

Inner Space

Creating Alien Forms

Creating Alien Flora

Future Weapons

The Future Warrior

Futuristic Vehicles

Spacecraft

Creating Alien Landscapes

Futuristic Cities

Life in the Future City

Distant Suns

Digital Colouring for Comic Art

4 The Gallery

Sources

Index

Artist Acknowledgments