So, this was a piece for a friend, just promo material. I did it almost a year ago, so yes this is republished...
My process works quite irrationally, i go from one version to the next based on feeling and flow. If i'm given a very specific outline for graphics i tend to get cramped up and very unproductive. So, in this example i started with some geometric shapes for logo ideas, which made me think of a character, which led to a poster of 'sorts' (no 300ppi version).
Right away, to character/poster design... I'm not big on organic drawing so i played home court, abstraction.
Like i said i'm not good with having a plan before the design, i have an organic process. But i did know for certain what mood i wanted. Something epic, with effectively flow and movement.
Playing with the environment some more
At this point i knew i had it going right, which was relieving (if you know what i mean, ever spent a long time on something only to toss it? ya)
incremental details...
what?!
My final version seems to have my usual incremental saves missing, so there's a big jump. Basically i played with colors and realized that a gray scale made for a very powerful feeling, whereas the color prior was "childish". Smoke took a long time (to make it "hi res" via very detailed texturing). I used a white canvas with a layer mask and a custom brush to carve all the smoke. It was labour-intense but worth it. I also did a version of this with "move credits" at the bottom which had its charm, but alas was cut from the team.
A year later the piece is OK but i find it quite flat. I think the smoke gets too lazy towards the side and just the general dynamism of the piece is moot. Anyways, let me know what you think, especially the bad and the ugly. If it's not already obvious i used PScs2 to make this, and I believe the big text is a font of 04b or something like that... it's a daFont pixel font.
Cheers