I have been thinking about what kind of environment I want to do for the Advanced Visual Effects ICA.
First I had no ideas at all, but I had thumbnailed an environment for my DC3 assignment, which I chose to set this short visual effects demonstration in.
I did a quick paint over to set the mood.
This one has warmer colours:

But this one looks (in my opinion) better, as volcanic rocks tend to look colder and blueish:

I’ll probably scrap the one to the bottom left. Maybe I’ll just keep the one to the top right, and make another one for the interior, saving me lots and lots of time.
The way I’m going to solve this is to camera project matte paintings over 3D architecture, and make the interior solely 3D (no matte paintings): I don’t know yet.
I have also been thinking about moving it away from a volcano, and make it inside a “regular” mountain. I will have the same architecture as above, but with different colours, and no volcano elements.
The interior should have a blueish green glow, and maybe have some candles on an altar in the middle of the room. Minas Morgul from The Lord of the Rings is my inspiration for that glow.