Waterfall temple

This cityscape concept has accompanied me through several stages of my professional growth, making it a good reflection of how my workflow continues to evolve.

The project began as an environment concept for a city surrounding a temple complex in a hot, humid region shaped by countless waterfalls. To explore the composition and camera angle, I first built a rough 3D blockout. Later, while teaching environment design, I used this very scene as a classroom example, demonstrating how a simple 3D foundation can be developed into thumbnails, value sketches, and color studies guided by photographic references rather than relying on the blockout alone.

About six months ago, I returned to this project with a different goal: to experiment with integrating AI into my production pipeline. For this iteration, I used Nano Banana to accelerate the ideation stage, followed by extensive photobashing, paintover, and manual refinement. The biggest improvement came from using generative textures and reusable element sets, which significantly reduced repetitive production work while leaving the artistic decisions, composition, lighting, and final rendering under my control.

I enjoy revisiting older work—not to replace the fundamentals, but to test new tools against a solid artistic foundation. Every new technology is an opportunity to refine my pipeline, increase efficiency, and spend more time where an artist creates the most value: making creative decisions.