Portal Storms

[clarky003]

I havn't posted anything arty here for a while so I thought maybe I should.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/Clarky003/Codename%20White/PortalStormLandscape.jpg

Origionally was drawn up for inspiration on a mod idea that is on hold, lol.

Mainly done because there is alot of discussion on the portal storms, but not alot of clarity on what it actually may of looked like as far as I know.

[CrazyHarij]

Motherf*cking brilliant. Great color scheme, just tons of atmosphere in this. big ups.

[Stigmata]

The only real criticism I can think of is, "Too much storm, not enough portal!" :P

Very, very nice though. If it were bigger I'd set it as my desktop background.

[Ren.182]

God I love this!
Make a desktop if its possible :D

[JNightshade]

Fantastic :D

/me wants desktop version!

[Glo-Boy]

Nice, I like your clouds. I think you should make a portal in the clouds that is much bigger than the citadel to throw the sense of scale to an even bigger proportion.

[Adabiviak]

Brav-O! Very nice! Captures the look quite well, I think.

[Cuthbert]

Fantastic! Gooseflesh! :)

[Shippi]

Bloody awesome :D

/me also wants a desktop size version

[clarky003]

Thanks for the comments, :) I'll whip something suitable for a desktop up for you folks

[Ravioli]

Looks great but i dont think the citadel was up right when the portal storms where on. And the wires holding it balanced with the ground is a bit longer and stretching futher out if i remember correctly. Also the ground seems a bit empty, you can see a few buildings near the citadel but not the wall, how come? Maybe the wall is stretched byond the camera angels view but then there would be a huge step into the earth (remember when you enter the citadel in hl2). However, if its outside the wall boundary then it would be cool to see the wall and parts of city 17 but maybe the darkness is to deep to see that. Im having a hard time adapting to the scale.

Other than that it looks great, really well made and good atmosphere!

[Angry Lawyer]

The portal storms never stopped.

Plus, Clarky, I love you man.

-Angry Lawyer

[CyberPitz]

Goddamn, that's awesome looking.

PS 1280x1024 :D

[Ravioli]

What you mean never stopped? There arent any portal storms in hl2, i thought they where only active during the 7hr war. Afterwards they used portals and teleportations (such as the one on the citadel).

[Samon]

Ravioli, the Citadel was shot through the Portal storms, and as such would be upright upon entry. The Portal storms do continue to this day, they simply died down.

Awesome Clarky! But as someone said...too much storm, not enough portals!

[Glo-Boy]

Even though this is a concept piece probably with no further plans, as a fellow artist I'm just going to offer up a suggestion for a piece perhaps in the future, I hope you don't mind the overpaint I just did.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c372/facemypunch/FIVEMINUTEoverpaint.jpg

I really do like it the way it is and what I suggested isn't necessary at all.

[Ravioli]

Portal storms still continue to this day? How come i didnt see a single portal storm in hl2?

Also, it seems kinda weird that the citadel was "shot through" the portal, like an arrow from a bow. Seems unrealistic that such a huge building can just shot straight into the ground without causing damage to itself. I mean, just imagine a world trade center being teleported and shot through the sky straight down to the ground...it would be splatted and demolished.

:/

[clarky003]

I say watch more sci-fi, they are dimensional storms, the citadels were probably already built and for lack of a better word 'beamed' into position from their dimension. At least that's what I assumed when I made this.

Thats Awesome though Glo-Boy :) I was definately going for something moody, towards the end of the storms as they were coming to an end. Something very lifeless in the sense of creatures.

Infact as a 2 picture sequence your changes would look good as the first picture next to the origional which would be after the event taking place in your edit.

[eraser]

Absolutely wonderful, really dark. I would love to be sitting out there. Can't wait for the desktop version.




1280x1024 preferably. :p

[Asuka]

Wow. This looks very very good. The color and....everything.

[Samon]

Portal storms still continue to this day? How come i didnt see a single portal storm in hl2?

Also, it seems kinda weird that the citadel was "shot through" the portal, like an arrow from a bow. Seems unrealistic that such a huge building can just shot straight into the ground without causing damage to itself. I mean, just imagine a world trade center being teleported and shot through the sky straight down to the ground...it would be splatted and demolished.

:/

Did you skip the part where I said they had 'died down'. And yeah, watch more sci-fi. Though, they were probably 'beamed' in, actually. Large chunks of the inner city vanishes and a Citadel appears. And we aren't talking about some human huilding. The Citadel is a machine, a huge tower of metal that can withstand a nuclear explosion. So you know, stupid example you used there.

[Tee Kyoo Em]

Hey, clarky003. The dark and broody atmosphere you captured in the picture looks great.


As for my critique, it's concerned with your interpretation of the portal storms.

The term 'storm' is quite evocative and you captured its aspects well in the picture, but let me explain why I do not think that the portal storms are natural storms-in-the-sky as we know them as depicted in the picture. For one, the thought of headcrabs, barnacles, ichthyosaurs, bullsquids (which haven't been shown, but they are said "to be there"), etc. falling out of the sky is rather amusing, but I don't think that this is the predominant way it happens. For another, I imagine portal storms to happen all over earth and not necessarily that high in the sky. They are storms in the sense of being disturbances in the fabric of space and do not obey the same laws as "natural" storms do. My rationale is ultimately supported by a text passage in Raising The Bar, where a scene depicts an ichthyosaur materialising right in a public pool.


Now, let me comment upon the idea of citadels coming to earth through the portal storms. Raising The Bar doesn't shed much light on this (as far as I remember), but we know that the citadels arrived a whole while after the start of the portal storms and we also know that the Combine are in possession of long-distance teleportation. I think that this is how the citadels along with all the other Combine machinery and creatures arrived, since it's a stable and controlled way of teleportation in contrast to the erratic nature of the portal storms (although it's said to be rather inefficient in comparison to the slingshot method through Xen, which the Combine want but do not possess as of now).

[Min Rizor]

To bolster Marco's criticism, there are other definitions for the word "storm" besides a natural weather occurence... these two are most relevant, and pulled from Dictionary.com:

- a heavy or sudden volley or discharge: a storm of criticism; a storm of bullets.
- a violent disturbance of affairs, as a civil, political, social, or domestic commotion.

So in other words, the portals storms likely were not literal storms of any sort and likely just a bombardment of portals (which happened to heavily effect Earth).

But as to criticism of the art piece, the composition and mood are well-emphasized and portray the citadel in a very ominous manner. :D

[clarky003]

Thanks :). I agree, you can interpret them quite a few ways.

In eli's lab there is a tiny picture of the portal storms on the bulletin board, It looks quite a bit like lightning to me, so I suppose that influenced me most here.

[blck_prod]

;) I like it to...

Fits right into HL2...

It has a sereen yet dramatic look. But mybe some more color variation and some more portals to as allready mentiond.
Can I do a little paintover???

Keep m coming plz

[Samon]

Thanks :). I agree, you can interpret them quite a few ways.

In eli's lab there is a tiny picture of the portal storms on the bulletin board, It looks quite a bit like lightning to me, so I suppose that influenced me most here.

I agree with Marco, however I still believe that whilst portals were appearing here there and everywhere, a storm was still brewing quite like in the drawing.

[clarky003]

Photobucket is now officially gay, they won't freely allow resolutions over 1024 x 768 now no matter the file size.

So I put the desktop version on imageshack.

http://img47.imageshack.us/my.php?image=portalstormlandscape1280fv8.jpg

[Samon]

Cool cakes.

[CyberPitz]

1280x1024 :(

[Tee Kyoo Em]

I have a spiffy, new desktop background. Thanks, clarky003! :D

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/5957/portalstormsew7.th.jpg (http://img243.imageshack.us/my.php?image=portalstormsew7.jpg)

[CrazyHarij]

i think something more drastic from the opposite color would work well.. just dont color dodge it

[CyberPitz]

I have a spiffy, new desktop background. Thanks, clarky003! :D

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/5957/portalstormsew7.th.jpg (http://img243.imageshack.us/my.php?image=portalstormsew7.jpg)

How did you get it to 1280? D: is that just stretched?

[Tee Kyoo Em]

He uploaded it to imageshack.us at 1280 x 1024 resolution and it's just cropped vertically to 1280 x 960 on my desktop, because I want to maintain a screen resolution with an aspect ratio of 4:3.

Click on the image at imageshack and you'll see the original.

This image has been scaled down to fit your computer screen. Click on it to show it in the original size.

[DigiQ8]

FF8 - Liberi Fatali
matchs the mood with the picture

btw <3 that pic good job!

[JNightshade]

If you make it in 1600x1200 or 1280x960 (or both), I will have your babies.

[CyberPitz]

If you make it in 1600x1200 or 1280x960 (or both), I will have your babies.

He made a 1280x1024...that should be close enough.

[EC]

I'm curious, what "genre" of image would this belong to? I love these sort of images, but I really am not sure how to search for them. As of now, yours is my BG. Very nice work.

[Danimal]

I havn't posted anything arty here for a while so I thought maybe I should.

Origionally was drawn up for inspiration on a mod idea that is on hold, lol.

Mainly done because there is alot of discussion on the portal storms, but not alot of clarity on what it actually may of looked like as far as I know.

I love you, may I father your spawn?

[ktimekiller]

Looks damned fatastic