Messages

Thanks Woolly,

The imperfections were added in Zbrush but as you mentioned it's not going overboard that helps. I find producing game art versus comic art always messes with my head. In games it's often about tiny details and  attaining some level of realism where comic art for me anyway is better when it's looser, less refined and more dynamic.

That sums up my art process constant contradiction depending on my mindset at the time.

I am tempted to tackle a Mega City environment piece someday. I liked the Dredd game at the time. It'll be good to see Mega City in the Unreal Engine. It'll also be a rather large project though.

For a change I thought I'd share some of my 3d art that I'm finishing off an a personal project which I wanted to improve the quality of but instead I rebuilt it all 

Dang missed out on a cool theme this month. Some ingenious pieces in there.

My votes are :

1- Andy Lambert - Tara-Tara Terror
2- Allistermac - Satanus
3- James Newell - Flowers

Thanks Darren, I owe that one to mimikeke. I may reduce the effect a little but it works great.

Nice work Simon you've been busy   I'm calling it a day on my MPH fan art piece I may add in some texture but I'd imagine it'll largely go unnoticed.

I've played around with sketchup briefly. I've used Maya the most with Max coming in second. I also have used Zbrush and mudbox a lot but Maya is fine for general blocking out of locations and props.

You could always try Blender it's a free modelling software that is pretty good. I found it less intuitive to use than Maya but maybe that's due to me using that too much.

Blender can be found here: 

http://www.blender.org/


Other software to consider :

http://www.sketchup.com/

http://pixologic.com/sculptris/

http://www.123dapp.com/

Another great collection of work. Votes are

1. Andy Lambert3 - King Mongrol
2. Neil McClements - Shakara/Pinhead
3. Dommi Kerley - Dreddless Horseman

HM's for:

mimikeke - Dredd v Aliens ,
Nic Freeman - Ro-Jaws ,
Steven Austin - Dredd vs The Thing ,
allistermac - Anderson v Freddy ,

One thing I can advise on is getting in to 3d so if you have any questions PM me I'd be happy to help. That goes for anyone interested really.

Hi Jon,

I had the same crisis of conscience also but realised I wouldn't hesitate trying new approaches in my day job as the end result more often than not is better. For now I'm using all my various skills and not forcing myself to stick to one.

The scene you described is perfect for the use of 3d. You can solely focus on action flow and consistency over limiting your creativity by avoiding difficult shots.

Thanks for the welding comments. Just a detail I picked from reference shots of the bridge. Research helps.

Hi,

Both awesome suggestions. Thanks Steve and mimikeke

Line thickening / tapering : I'll do a little of this but currently was mainly focused on line weight defined by light / shade and not by distance. There's a bit of tapering happening on the line work of the cable they're running on I felt it can at times go against "accurate" lighting.

Faded BG : Definitely a good call I was messing with colour holds on the bridges line work and this hint at aerial perspective last night. Will update soon enough.

I was aiming to finish this image ASAP but The Order 1886 dropped in my lap earlier so it's a distraction 

Thanks Steve, here are the inks currently. I'm going to get the colouring started and see where I end up.

Hi amines2058,

For this piece I used Maya but you can use any 3d program really. The program choice comes from what you want to get out of it.

The workflow was as follows:

- Roughs and thumbnails to define my idea
- In Maya I produced the bridge blockout very simple no major details
- Setup the lighting to work with my desired composition
- Rendered an image out that matched the dimensions in pixels of my Manga Studio file.
- Then did the same as you and I used it as a layer and drew over it.
- The characters were drawn freehand to match the bridge perspective but were still based on the original   
  thumbnail.
- From here it's pencils, inks and colours as normal.

I know 3d software can assist more by rendering out different details in layers. For example

- Initial lighting pass
- Finer texture detail
- Flat shader applied to the model to generate instant colour flats for all 3d elements
- An outline shader to even provide first pass inks.
- An ambient occlusion render to give ambient lighting information.

All these elements can be used as masks and or as a base for colouring. My next project, a short comic will be using all these methods to hopefully improve my speed and also be flexible.

I've seen many uses for 3d in comics and I'm not a huge fan for the most part as it never gels well with the hand drawn work alongside it. My recent images have all been experiments in finding that nice middle ground where it all works.

I feel the pay off will come when doing sequentials as the consistency will be perfect but also if all the above passes are rendered out production time will be decreased a lot.

The usefulness of 3d art vs just drawing it also comes down to how quick you can create the models vs drawing.

Thanks Steve, this one used a 3d model blockout for the bridge which was matched to my initial sketch to suit the perspective. The characters were then adjusted to fit the 3d model by redrawing them accurately to fit on the bridge. I found this easier based off the 3d model as it gave me a clearer view of the scene in 3d space.

Recently I'm trying to mix my skillsets using 3d and 2d to make producing images quicker but also allowing more time for art and creative choices.

Currently trying something non 2000AD related to challenge myself.

Congrats to all those standing tall in places 1-5 in a month full of great entries.