Final Major Project - Developing an Idea/Creating a Composition

Final Major Project - Developing an Idea/Creating a Composition 

To give myself a guide/layout of my environment I took various assets from images such as buildings, debris, roads, vehicles and particles. What I did was mask and cut out the sections and areas that I wanted for the composition and began layering them out in the positions I wanted. 

Although I had the full composition (image wise) complete, I still needed to fix and alter something. I couldn't figure out entirely what it was so I edited the lighting through hue, curves and saturation.

Here is the progression/layering of the composition without the added lighting changes...

Here is the final image before I had made any colour correction or lighting changes. This is just the basic outline and rough idea of what I would like my final concept to look like. However this doesn't mean I'll be using this as my final concept. As mentioned, this is a rough, basic outline/guide. 

What I did was alter the curves so that each layer was significantly darker not only to mask out errors and imperfections with the masking of the image itself but also so give a darker and more grungy feel to the composition. Here is what the composition looked like once I had made those lighting changes.

I didn't want to stick with only one of these designs, of course. Only having one composition would prove for a lack luster developing concept. So; what I did was produce two more compositions that would better help me understand how I could shift, change and alter these for the best design.

I tried to keep the basics there. What I mean by this was layering and colour blending all of the layers so that they work in accordance and keep the look and feel of the post apocalyptic theme. Obviously I didn't want to stray from my creative path so I used the previous composition as a reference image.

Here is my second environment composition...

What I did differently with this composition was added the glare/dust particles which added a better and whole new feel to these compositions and will be a asset I use for my final concept, definitely. As much as this end product felt complete I again needed to add colour correction but only curves. It wasn't necessary for me to alter the saturation or levels at all. I much preferred this look to my last.

Here is the composition without colour corrections made too it...

And this is the final composition with all added filters (Gaussian blur) and colour corrections.

This final composition actually gave the look and feel of a post apocalyptic city. The dark-grungy corner by the humvee and the huge glare from the sun by the destroyed ship really adds more depth to field with this piece. This helps practice the methods of achieving the look I would want in my final piece and additionally practising and executing the methods in filters, colour and layering to do so.

I did one more final composition to see if I could replicate this post apocalyptic feel. As much as I want the same look and feel for each of these I tried to make them a little different and diverse by using different effects and tools to achieve a different, yet similar visual aesthetic.

Here is the progression (gif) of the final composition I did...

I feel this composition exercise/research has really enabled me to utilize Photoshop's tools and utilities to the fullest in order to create a good, rough and basic outline of how I could execute my own post apocalyptic environment. From here I will begin to produce developed sketches using what I have learn't throughout this process to get the same, consistent look in all of my work.