I'm currently working on a 3D cityscape. I was inspired after Siggraph to tackle an environment with more 3D elements. The concept here is a near-future city, based on Vancouver. I chose the plate because of the nice specular highlights on the buildings, and the hazy look of the mountains, giving that great sense of depth. I also liked the aerial perspective, which I thought would work well for some dramatic mega structures in the foreground.

As I continue to work on this piece, I have come to realize that I'm not taking full advantage of this 3d set up I have. I have still been treating the camera move as though I have a 2d matte painting. So, in the coming weeks, I will keep playing with not only the camera but also the lighting, and work towards making this a more dynamic piece.
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This is the plate photo. Something about the lighting struck me right away.
​I created a concept sketch and quickly pieced together a rough model for one of the FG buildings. The concept helped to get down some ideas for unique architecture that might exist in the city. I also extended the background mountains and started considering the kind of sky that might be there.
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I created proxy models to flesh out the city and get an idea of the general layout and lighting. I realized that the scale was a bit off (the buildings were generally too large), so I made some adjustments before moving forward with texturing.
This is one of the test renders once I got all the models in. The overall look is still very CG, so there will be renders made of the FG, MG, and BG to do paintovers and tweaking in Photoshop. 
I created more detailed models for placement near the shot camera. I knew that I wouldn't be able to single-handedly model every building in the city, so I turned to Esri City Engine to generate most of the other buildings. Click on the images to see a larger version.