Matte Painting and Retouching – photoshop experiment

A bit of an experiment with some new techniques this one – I have always liked concept art for sci-fi films, like this nice mockup of a ravaged, nuclear winter environment from the latest Terminator film..

Starting off with one relatively normal image (..this was found in an old folder on my mac – if you are the owner and im using this without permission please let me know) and a folder full of other images to be used in the composite as details (stock images of skies, bits of buildings, crumbling concrete textures and stuff) I thought it would be a fun experiment to achieve the effect of the initial mushroom cloud.

Here is the starting image…

And with a bit of photoshoppery, here is the result so far…