# week 30 of 2025 **July 13-19** ![[maojin-lee.jpg]] Concept artist [Maojin Lee](https://www.instagram.com/maojin_lee/) creates moody open worlds that have a somber melancholy feel to them. --- ## cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 was just released for Macs this week so I've been spending a lot of time exploring Night City. Such a huge chaotic world to discover. I'm a new citizen finding my way around. There are fine art photographers that have been capturing the world for quite some time now. [ThePhotoGrabber](https://thephotograbber.com/cyberpunk-2077-npc-portraits) has a whole series of NPC portraits that capture the city's inhabitants. [Dave Derbis](https://www.dave-derbis.de/gallery/cyberpunk-2077/) collected a whole series of urban landscapes back in 2021. There's a collection of Industrial objects and environments from [IndustrialFineArt.eu](https://www.industrialfineart.eu/Virtual-Photography/Cyberpunk-2077). Of course there is a Reddit for [CyberpunkPhotography](https://www.reddit.com/r/CyberpunkPhotography/) too. Finally, here's a collection of actual [concept art used for game development](https://magazine.artstation.com/2021/01/cd-projekt-red-cyberpunk-2077art-blast/). ## surreal environments [Studio Duckbill](https://live.arrival.space/profile/81986207) creates environments using photogrammetry and [gaussian splatting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_splatting) (interpolate 2D images to create 3D environments) to build explorable worlds that feel like some sort of surreal fever-dreams. Details sort of work in the middle-distance but up close feel completely chaotic, especially when you come to the edges of the scenes. Interesting what you can now do with a series of 2D photos. ![[ginzanOnsen.png]] This view is from the edge of a [Japanese onsen](https://live.arrival.space/ginzan_onsen). You can walk through the town and explore but not actually interact with anything. ## illustrated children's books [Baldwin Library of Children’s Historical Literature](https://ufdc.ufl.edu/collections/juv/results?mediatype=Book) has 10,000 illustrated books from the past several hundred years all scanned and downloadable. For me the joy is the history of illustration but writers would find good stuff here too. Added to my [[art inspiration links]] list.