Character design - Steampunk/Ninja enviromental ideas

The enviromental designs are key to how the Character should physically appear, also being a basis of what drives their personality or on screen counterparts. Therefore I think it is important that I visually analyse some different key locations that my project fits within.

Interestingly enough my concept of a City above the old world isnt without it's ties to reality. In modern China, there is such an increase in population that they have no choice but to consider new options, one being building on top of their current landscape.

(Full article found here)

http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/cities/china-s-cities-in-the-sky

A few key points to note are:

• Over a billion people will live in China’s cities by 2030, requiring construction on a scale never before seen. This gives China a unique opportunity to create and develop its cities in a way that supports economic growth, preserves the environment, delivers the highest possible quality of life for its citizens, and results in a stream of valuable new technologies. If handled correctly, these developments will not just benefit China but will also have profound implications for the rest of the 21st century world.

• Each of these megacity clusters would have an economic scale equivalent to a moderately sized European country. Greater Shanghai could be as big as Germany today, while the central Yangzi cluster around Wuhan might be France.

• Just as New York, with its scale and talent, made Wall Street possible, China’s megacities will create unprecedented opportunities to develop service industries by enhancing the scale and frequency of interactions. Cities in China will become models for the rest of the world, achieving a large scale of industry and financial-market depth. Spending on culture, recreation, health care, and education will grow by orders of magnitude from their current languishing state.

• China’s demand for energy will double over the next two decades even as energy efficiency also doubles. Both existing and new sources of energy will be required. China will become a major coal importer even as it turns away from fossil fuels to become the world’s largest nuclear and renewable energy producer.

• The choices that its city leaders make will shape not only its buildings but also its society, and indeed the world.

• China’s cities will encourage a high level of environmental investment, with waste and water recycling becoming a way of life for both industry and consumers. Water will become a more valuable commodity and encourage investment in water efficiency as well as the world’s largest water treatment projects. Large, integrated recycling projects will minimize the impact of industrial and energy production.

Jonathan Woetzel. (2011). China’s cities in the sky. Available: http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/cities/china-s-cities-in-the-sky. Last accessed 28/09/2011.

Sounds familiar doesnt it? This gives me confidence in my story idea that I can persue the course that I am taking. Here are a few images placed together within an influence map to help me further grasp an understanding into the mash up's needed to create my Characters enviroment.

All of these different landscapes seem to amazingly merge into one despite their vast differences. There is apocalyptic scenes from mankind's own self made destruction, there is science fiction based futuristic Cities floating in the sky, there are Steampunk Cities (already similar to my envisionment) and there are basic estimations of a typical futuristic City scape.

Chris