I created this image of the Taj Mahal along with this other one for the "Bury It" competition at Worth1000.com. The object was to take something and partially bury it with something else. This project is directly inspired by the incredibly beautiful matte paintings of a previous coworker of mine.
In this project I was going for the larger than life epic feel, focusing on realism and the intricate details. Notice the splashing bits and trickles of hot lava, and the smoke plumes. In this project I pretty much just cut the bottom of the Taj Mahal off and constructed the lava field around it from several images, making it look partially buried in lava. Then I scattered little bits of detail here and there from several more images. I think this one turned out very well, IMO.
UPDATE: This image placed 3rd in this competition.
In this project I was going for the larger than life epic feel, focusing on realism and the intricate details. Notice the splashing bits and trickles of hot lava, and the smoke plumes. In this project I pretty much just cut the bottom of the Taj Mahal off and constructed the lava field around it from several images, making it look partially buried in lava. Then I scattered little bits of detail here and there from several more images. I think this one turned out very well, IMO.
UPDATE: This image placed 3rd in this competition.
