LSR/CITY CYBERPUNK, banner for Gareth Emery
Gareth Emery was in need of a banner for his events in 2025, he needed something that would capture the feel of the whole show. His manager came to me with AI generated reference images that showed me the whole idea of the image. Based on that I created the whole 3D environment, we concluded that it would be quicker and favorable to use downloaded 3D content for some parts of the scene so we purchased neon signs and trash/litter asset packs, including some skyscrappers in the back.
The project was success, it was posted on Gareth Emery's instagram.
Our main character is Gareth Emery himself, he went to photoshooting couple of days after we started the project. I instructed his team that the photos should be taken by him facing the camera and the light being cast in front of him at an angle. Originaly, details on his costume were not so visible so I had to color correct certain aspects and areas such as metal plates on his chest, brightness and reflections of the leather material.
We discussed different color options for his suit, but they were quickly rejected because they didn't fit the environment.
Original photo, it looks outstanding. But as mentioned above, you can see how his chest armor and leather material is too dark. That was fixed in Adobe Photoshop.
Character was not 3D modeled, it was a PNG image implemented into the environment with displacement mapping added to give certain areas more depth (like nose, glasse, chest armor…).
This was the whole location setup, clients idea was that the whole street is to look wet, abandoned, filled with neons and trash scattered around. With skyscrappers in the background and densely fit neon signs, it was very difficult to put focus on the character and make it stand out.
Buildings were less detailed because they needed a lot of empty space for neons and other objects. Further from the camera, behind the character, buildings were just copy pasted.
Skyscrappers are futuristic and highly detailed, it was a shame we had to hide them in the back because they were stealing too much attention from the street and our character.
Skyscrappers were purchased on CGTrader.
Here you can see the concentration of neon signs in the street and on skyscrappers. Most of the neons at the back of the street were copy/pasted from the front rows and then slightly edited (shape and color). Same was applied to neons on skyscrappers.
If you look closer in the street, you can see the ventilation systems and AC’s that are in the same crowd as neon signs.
Adding neon signs to the street was the most fun and demanding part of this project, I had to pay attention to signs specific shape and size, color and brightness, overall composition that includes grouping and color balance.
I purchased them on Blender Market, they are procedural, which means that they are finished 3D models with textures, I only needed to customize them.
Neon signs on skyscrappers were less important but the same method of implementation was applied.
I purchased them on CGTrader, they are not procedural so I only edited their size, shapes and colors (put some randomization).
For bigger objects on the street, I was carefuly instructed by the client that it should be filled with abandoned cars, big piles of trash and trash containers…
All of these 3D models you see here were either downloaded for free or purchased and then edited by me (colors and textures), read more below to see more info about them.
Adding litter on the ground seems like less important detail, but it was a crucial part in filling the road with content. First we had in plan on doing that with rain and raindrop splashes, we had to reject that since it was covering the ground too much so we only left litter and ground mist. Litter was purchased from Blender Market, those were finished 3D models without edits needed so scattering them around wasn’t difficult.
Ventilation systems and AC’s was a great touch in filling certain empty spots on the building walls. It also added residential purpose to the buildings.
