More 3D: Tables, Snowy House

Some things I've been working on, mostly to try and figure out polycount shortcuts, and also to see what can be done with just one normal map. Hoping to get back on my much more frequent posting, sorry!

Props: Jars and Chairs

Blogger's new posting format has really grown on me. Anyway, more miscellaneous props.

Self Portrait 2

I wanted to do another self portrait, and I wanted to play with lighting, so I painted in natural lighting - I had to split it up over two mornings to get the right light.

I think the main thing I learned, as opposed to how to paint natural lighting, was that I look hella ghastly and need to get out more.

Still Life - Espresso

A quick study last night - been trying to get better at painting! Before I worked at a cafe my senior year of college, I didn't drink any coffee. Now I'm snobby about espresso and coffee. Like how on this I had to pull (make) the shot a second time when it came time to detail the crema (foam). SIGH.

Self Portrait

Back to basics.

Channels and Screenprinting

I had another one of those discoveries that reminds you exactly why Photoshop is a several-hundred dollar program. I've always believed that it's shortsighted to assume you've "learned everything you need to know" when it comes to that program... there's always a better way to do something, or a trick that you can use to make your work better, or in this case, a completely new approach that opens up tons of possibilities.

At Capt. Jerry's, most of my work is taking someone else's art into Illustrator and outputting it into film separations. The very basic explanation is that each color has its own film, so you have to keep your colors separate when you create art for screenprinting. Naturally, this doesn't work as well with digital paintings.

EXCEPT... just recently I've discovered how to properly use alpha channels for exporting selections... which prompted my coworker Ian Jackson and I to start thinking. He discovered how to properly create channels from scratch, and I painted an image in channels just to see how it would work. Basic two color.



So there's some things that need to be finessed (other than my lacking photography skills) - lightening up the layers so that when they are printed as a halftone they don't get too opaque, you can see in the red especially...

But it's pretty exciting realizing that I can digitally paint films for screenprinting. Makes me want to go all out and make a several color image - or just a baller one like the amazing Batman: Arkham City shirts. I actually have a shirt from this series, and it's just another 2 color, red and black on white - and it looks amazing. And being a screenprint, it's incredibly durable.

Ideas, ideas, ideas!

Rama Attack Study - Colored

Glowy arrow, fire arrow, phoenix arrow, celestial-right-angle arrow, and space arrow.