# Buildings in Mirror's Edge



## FlamedramonX20 (Nov 8, 2009)

Just wondering, how would I go about recreating the "simple block" effect of the cityscape in Mirror's Edge in Photoshop? 

I've tried getting a photo of a cityscape, made it black and white, upped the brightness by a lot, added the "Cutout" effect and then gave it a blue saturation. 

I also tried drawing a simple cuboid as a building and gave it a blue and white gradient as well as little orange and red lines.  

If you were to do a Mirror's Edge style cityscape in Photoshop or any other application, how would you do it?


Here are examples of my attempts:


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## LotsOfNothing (Nov 9, 2009)

Better ask esurance.


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## Kangamutt (Nov 9, 2009)

Put up some links/attachments of your work so we can see what you're talking about.


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## Aden (Nov 9, 2009)

With a source photo, playing with the curves and a color overlay layer should work just fine.


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## FlamedramonX20 (Nov 9, 2009)

Kangaroo_Boy said:


> Put up some links/attachments of your work so we can see what you're talking about.









 This is my attempt at it using gradients on top of lineart.


As a simplified version of this:

http://www.zethien.com/zethien/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/21-the-city-8.jpg


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## Kangamutt (Nov 9, 2009)

I see what you're trying for. Right now, gradients shouldn't be used. It's best to start out with flat, blocked-out shadows. For the most part, the light is being blocked out on square planes. And your shading looks like the layer is under the red & yellow accents. put the shading layer over the red and yellow and turn down the opacity. The colours are right, but your biggest problem right now is the fact you don't have any perspective or a set light source. Get those set before ANYTHING, and your shadows should fall into place much easier. Another problem is that you're referencing some heavily stylized work, I suggest trying some screenshots of the game itself first. http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/845/845572/mirrors-edge-20080115102316761.jpg


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## FlamedramonX20 (Nov 9, 2009)

Kangaroo_Boy said:


> I see what you're trying for. Right now, gradients shouldn't be used. It's best to start out with flat, blocked-out shadows. For the most part, the light is being blocked out on square planes. And your shading looks like the layer is under the red & yellow accents. put the shading layer over the red and yellow and turn down the opacity. The colours are right, but your biggest problem right now is the fact you don't have any perspective or a set light source. Get those set before ANYTHING, and your shadows should fall into place much easier. Another problem is that you're referencing some heavily stylized work, I suggest trying some screenshots of the game itself first. http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/845/845572/mirrors-edge-20080115102316761.jpg




Here are my latest attempts at it.


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## ZiggyTheWolf (Nov 22, 2009)

Well aside from the coloring and all that jazz may i suggest usage of vanishing points and horizon lines which will first off even without the coloring make the image look much nicer,

As for the coloring, In my opinion the effectiveness of the mirrors edge style was due to a limited and powerful color pallete and simple base shapes but it didnt sacrifice detail, whereas in your images you forgo almost all detail in favor of just colors and if you are aiming for that much simplification may i suggest that as the image draws into the distance (See vanishing point) that it becomes more abstract as in whisps of color or else you will end up with a focus point issue. Which goes with another point, is this a background for an already existing image? because if so i'd stress even more importantly the need to make the image more abstract for you dont want the background to detract from the main part of the image and instead compliment it.

I hope anything i have said helps and of course if you need any clarification of something i have said please do ask and i'll respond.

cheers and all the best


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## krisCrash (Nov 24, 2009)

Why are you using lines when the style you want does not have lines?


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