Create a sci-fi environment

Francesco Corvino lets us in on his art process for creating environment concepts for the film industry

Concept art made easy, with Francesco Corvino.

Sci-fi is a genre that’s very much in vogue in Hollywood right now, and I certainly enjoy creating futuristic environments for the film and TV industries. Done well, such settings are capable of transporting the viewer into the future and leaving a lasting impression on them. I love the reaction of people when they come across surprising environments, unexpected designs and exotic landscapes.

I often like to envisage how life could adapt to new and unpredictable environmental conditions, and how architecture would develop accordingly. For this image I imagine a world where the surface has become radioactive, and human beings are forced to live in gigantic towers. I consider how this city would function, how people would travel between towers – whether via gigantic highways or by modules that detach from one tower’s supports and fly to another location, becoming part of another human hive. I imagine a flat and desolate landscape, with noxious vapours rising from the ground, which serves as a dramatic backdrop to the massive silhouettes of the towers.