Tiberium Riparius

"Containing mutagenic and terraforming properties, tiberium is an extraterrestrial crystalline mineral that entered the Tiber River ecosytem by means of interstellar meteor during the mid 1990's. Due to its unique ability to absorb precious minerals from the ground into its crystal structure, the discovery of this strange compound immediately sparked an economic arms race to both understand and utilize tiberium. Needless to say, the possibilities of this new resource are virtually infinite.

In their haste to harvest, study, and purify tiberium, humans overlooked the tremendously destructive side of said resource. Economic struggle escalated to armed conflict -- The First and Second Tiberium Wars were amongst the bloodiest in mankind's history. All the while, tiberium continued to spread. Town to town, country to country, continent to continent. With its spread came vast ecological impact. On a individual scale, tiberium is capable of causing horrendous genetic defects and deviations, often resulting in grotesque mutation. Completely new organisms began to rise from such exposure, aptly name "Tiberium Lifeforms." On a much grander scale, tiberium began changing the planet with a possible intent of terraforming. By this year, 2045, the atmosphere is becoming more and more toxic daily, even changing the hue of upper-atmosphere cloud formations. It is estimated that, if the tiberium spread is not halted, the Earth will not be fit to support human life in a matter of years. With such unique properties, combined with the knowledge of its growth and spread, many argue that tiberium is in fact an extraterrestrial organism. This classification, Tiberium Riparius, is the most common form of tiberium, easily recognized by its green crystal structure."


My goodness, I've made a piece of fan-art. While I don't plan on this becoming a habit, I did enjoy celebrating one of the best, and sometimes cheesiest, real time strategy games around: Command and Conquer. Now, I don't agree with war or the glorifying of it by computer games, but I'm capable of seperating fiction from reality and in all honesty, this game is addictive. I'm gonna try to make one more piece, probably another (but wholy different) landscape. The crystals were modeled in maya and imported to Vue from there on out. It took about a day to render, but I think that's amazing on behalf of Vue given the fact that the raw image is much larger and there were tens of thousands of crystals for the rendering engine to deal with (Refraction, relflection, and indirect lighting take a long time).

If anyone's interested, Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is gonna be released soon!