Behind the Scenes: Cyberpunk Nightclub

I like to switch the styles and themes, that I work on every week, to keep things fresh and interesting. So every time, after a few interior shots, I focus my attention on the exterior diorama series. I keep a list of possible themes and there are still many things to explore, but this week, I felt like doing another cyberpunk inspired work.

It's always very rewarding to dive into the possibilities of dystopian futuristic setting and especially lighting of these scenes is a real treat. Most of the cyberpunk genre is presented at night, and neon lights reflecting on a wet surfaces are a staple of the genre.

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Even though this is not my first, or even second cyberpunk inspired work, I always start from scratch with the reference. I want to keep every piece at least a bit unique, that's why I always look for a fresh inspiration. Sometimes I can reuse some of the reference boards I already have, but having a fresh perspective on top of that is always welcome.

There might be many things you missed before, even if you search similar terms and on top of that, new works are being made every day, so make sure you don't miss them too.

After looking at some images, I found one with the traditional theater style entrance. And even though it was more like diesel-punk and noir type of thing, I got an idea to incorporate an older style building entrance with the brutalist cyperpunk building to create some kind of night club setting.

To have a clear picture of what I'm gonna do in 3D, I always start with a pencil sketch. I blocked out a building shape and started to sketch in the old style entrance with the striped banner over it. I added the carpet and ropes to support the idea of a high-class member entrance.

After exploring my reference board, I sketched in a place for the underground entrance and some details, like roadblock, vending machine and street lamp. The street lamp is of a very specific style, that I found on one of the concept art reference images.

The rest of the building was sketched in a brutalist and technocratic style of the cyberpunk genre, to balance out the vintage and decorated parts of the rest. So large concrete blocks, rounded windows and a lot of air ducts and pipes are bread and butter of the genre.

You can watch the process video on Youtube