Rage over Babylon by zman4d
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Description
Grand prize winner in the latest CGSociety challange "spectacular" !
story
It was just another silent, peaceful day in Babylon, the center of all cultures, 5,500 years ago when all of a sudden,
clouds strangely started to gather over the Tower of Babel. Most people kept at their daily business,
not even realizing that the very existence of the tower had angered God. The first to realize what was happening were the animals.
They sensed something was wrong and begun panicking slightly before there were even signs of the chaos that was about to hit the tower.
After a short while the sky started to shape in an unnatural way, being very bright on one side and dark on the other.
This was in fact a revelation of God himself. At this point most people still didn't know what was going on and while some stood shocked and terrified,
others were fascinated by the spectacular view. Some people still kept at their daily occupations ignoring all the signs.
Moments later, the ground which the tower was built upon started trembling, increasingly shaking the very foundations of the tower.
Thats the point when this image takes place - just about the last second the Tower of Babylon stood tall, when it just started cracking up
(the lower stories beared the highest pressure) and a few moments before it collapsed and changed the face of human history forever.
While watching helplessly as mankinds' greatest creation began crumbling into nothing more than bricks and dust the confusion just got much greater
as God started to spread different languages among the cultures resulting in anger and forever separating mankind into many groups.
[disclaimer] I did a lot of research about this story and about the tower design before I even began working on it.
I've tried to keep things generally authentic but also to give them my own twist.
A few notes about the symbolism in this piece -
Peace - I think the whole concept of Babylon, the city where all the cultures lived together speaking the same language and worked together for a shared goal,
is the strongest symbol of peace. When you think about it, This was the last time mankind ever lived in peace.
Advances/Innovation - The Tower of Babylon was probably one of mankinds greatest creations.
It probably seemed impossible to create a few years before the construction begun,
same as things and achievements we make today seemed impossible yesterday.
I think this tower is a symbol of mankinds will to always push his boundaries and break the limits
(even as far as to reach the height of God and maybe beyond it).
God - The bible is filled with stories about how mankind angered God and got punished for it but also were forgiven for their sins.
I've tried to symbolize that in the sky and in the lighting:
one side of the sky is dark and raging while the other is warm and "hopeful".
The general lighting setup is the same - cold from one side and warm from the other.
The end result of this story is the same: God was angry, but he decided to only shake the ground
around the tower itself to bring it down and not to harm people who were far enough from it.
Comments (42)
sirjon
Quite simply amazing! I love the tower and all the detail...the dif color banners..the sky..the birds..the foreground..the background. I could gush all day. Stunning!
jesterhawk
I agree, amazing!
dlk30341
Stunning!!!!
restif
Well...Amazing is not even good enough to describe this. Truely breathtaking. Great work with this!!!
iloco
Master Piece. :) Enough said.
DigiArts
WOW. A real jaw-dropper. Outstanding+ work.
Lashia
great graphic work!
98Bones
This is pretty darn amazing, congrats...
dayna2
Excellent and my vote Fantastic artwork Dayna xxoo
jacalu57
Incredible image...doesn't get any better. V-fav
artgum
An extraordinary piece- !!
IceDancer
No wonder you won. This is such a masterpiece. Every action of each character looks well thought out. Must have taken you quite a while to create this.
ISSE
A great bravo
ddaydreams
Great stuff. The look of tallness is great
crypticghost
Just F*king awsome.... WOW! hurray for real artist! V
petes
hey..well deserved win!
zulaan
Simply Fantastic
zaberc
Fantastic...bravo!
Dinoraul
Wow!!!Lovely sky!
deadhead
Amazing !!!
bertolli
Breathtaking!!
gerberc
Most impressive work! Bravo and vote!!
crommcruac
The tower is amazing itself - I love the textures and the concept based on many paintings (I think Breughel version is the most known). But all those details below... WOW!!! They tell us the whole story. V
3D_Explorer
This is beyond fantastic. Can you imagine it as an animated scene, wowzers, that would be cool.
SeanDay
spectacular doesn't come close to describing this image. Unbeleivable level of detail, the tower and the sky are excellent!
techno99
Wow....oddly, when I was very young and in Christian school, I'd hear this story, but never got a sense of what the tower of babylon really looked like...until now. Incredible work.
stonemason
& very well deserved..this is truly a spectacular image..well done!
1402dandoy
i wish i had this one in my "viewmaster" reels when i was a boy
SirLancelot
You told the account of what happened very well.
CorporateArts
WOW, that's really great!