Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
The CGSociety (which you may be familiar with from their popular forum
http://www.cgtalk.com) runs regular online competitions (or challenges),
and this painting was created for their “Steampunk Myths and Legends”
challenge.
This represents a good facsimile of a commercial project: This painting project
has a set brief and a set deadline, rather than being simply an open-ended
personal exercise.
The brief here is to take a classic myth or legend and “reimagine it” in a
“Steampunk” style. The deliverable is a single image, and because I was work-
ing on it in my own time, I had about four days in which to create it.
Project Context
I am using exactly the same techniques here that I would use on a commercial
project. SketchUp is used to plan and compose my scene, and the illustra-
tion is finished using a combination of Painter and Photoshop. The planning,
design, and layout stage normally takes about 50% of the time, so I would
spend 2 days on this, and 2 days on painting the final image.
Technical Aspects
SketchUp is the perfect choice for this project because of its sheer speed. It
is simply one of the fastest modeling applications on the planet, and offers
one of the quickest ways I know to develop my design ideas. There are some
downsides to this high speed: slightly messy geometry and difficulty in
producing nice UV maps. But because I am not going to render my model in
another package, these are not of any concern to me at all.
It is also a great tool because of my background as a 2D artist. SketchUp is
the closest thing I have found to actually “drawing” in 3D. I do not have to
worry about pushing individual polygons around; I just draw the edges with
a WACOM pen, and SketchUp does the rest for me. Therefore, there is not
so much of a mental boundary between the different stages of my work.
Working in 3D requires a similar mind-set and approach to working in 2D
when SketchUp is involved.
When I used to paint manually (i.e., with paper and “hairy sticks”), the first
stage of any painting would be a black and white line drawing, usually black
ink on watercolor paper. I would then paint over the line drawing using ink
washes, and finish off the details in gouache or acrylic.
A large WACOM tablet and a copy of Painter has taken away the need to
mix colors and wash brushes (which I am very thankful for), and SketchUp
now provides me with a line drawing in perfect perspective on which
I can start laying down color. There is no need to work out vanishing
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