Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Pyrite Planet Arena (2018)

A closer shot of the pyrite planet labyrinth. The "arena" in the center was originally conceived of as an ancient Jedi training ground. I imagined it being a strong nexus of the Force, with ancient stones carved with Jedi glyphs and marked by millenia of light saber training. Obviously inspired by the "sword on stone" of the Dark Crystal, one of my childhood favorite movies.

Originally this was where Rey and Kylo's Force-projection light saber battle would be staged, so they wanted to play with various heights to the geometry that would sometimes correspond with the geometry in Kylo's location and sometimes not, making for an interesting asymmetrical battle scene. To that end I did another version inspired by abandoned marble quarries with much more varying terrain.

Once again, painted over a rough ZBrush sculpt rendered in Keyshot. Lighting and texturing achieved in Photoshop using clown, normal and depth passes to generate masks, with a lot of photo-texturing for realism.

Final version with more variable height terrain to accommodate Rey and Kylo's Force projection fight.

Final version with more variable height terrain to accommodate Rey and Kylo's Force projection fight.

Earlier version staged as an ancient Jedi training ground.

Earlier version staged as an ancient Jedi training ground.

Raw Keyshot render of the ZBrush sculpt. This is how far I take it in 3D before bringing it in to Photoshop.

Raw Keyshot render of the ZBrush sculpt. This is how far I take it in 3D before bringing it in to Photoshop.