Grand prize winner in the latest CGSociety challange "spectacular" ! story It was just another silent, peaceful day in Babylon, the center of all cultures, 5,500 years ago when all of a sudden, clouds strangely started to gather over the Tower of Babel. Most people kept at their daily business, not even realizing that the very existence of the tower had angered God. The first to realize what was happening were the animals. They sensed something was wrong and begun panicking slightly before there were even signs of the chaos that was about to hit the tower. After a short while the sky started to shape in an unnatural way, being very bright on one side and dark on the other. This was in fact a revelation of God himself. At this point most people still didn't know what was going on and while some stood shocked and terrified, others were fascinated by the spectacular view. Some people still kept at their daily occupations ignoring all the signs. Moments later, the ground which the tower was built upon started trembling, increasingly shaking the very foundations of the tower. Thats the point when this image takes place - just about the last second the Tower of Babylon stood tall, when it just started cracking up (the lower stories beared the highest pressure) and a few moments before it collapsed and changed the face of human history forever. While watching helplessly as mankinds' greatest creation began crumbling into nothing more than bricks and dust the confusion just got much greater as God started to spread different languages among the cultures resulting in anger and forever separating mankind into many groups. [disclaimer] I did a lot of research about this story and about the tower design before I even began working on it. I've tried to keep things generally authentic but also to give them my own twist. A few notes about the symbolism in this piece - Peace - I think the whole concept of Babylon, the city where all the cultures lived together speaking the same language and worked together for a shared goal, is the strongest symbol of peace. When you think about it, This was the last time mankind ever lived in peace. Advances/Innovation - The Tower of Babylon was probably one of mankinds greatest creations. It probably seemed impossible to create a few years before the construction begun, same as things and achievements we make today seemed impossible yesterday. I think this tower is a symbol of mankinds will to always push his boundaries and break the limits (even as far as to reach the height of God and maybe beyond it). God - The bible is filled with stories about how mankind angered God and got punished for it but also were forgiven for their sins. I've tried to symbolize that in the sky and in the lighting: one side of the sky is dark and raging while the other is warm and "hopeful". The general lighting setup is the same - cold from one side and warm from the other. The end result of this story is the same: God was angry, but he decided to only shake the ground around the tower itself to bring it down and not to harm people who were far enough from it.