@Sub: I've thought about making more videos but I honestly don't know what I'd put in them, I'd prefer there be some kind of point as I really want to avoid making videos that are just 5 mins of painting at 12x speed with a dubstep soundtrack.
I also considered livestreaming in hopes that maybe working in front of other people would compel me to be more aware of workflow problems but I dunno about that yet.
Anyway some more things
Some sci fi stuff
thumbnail that this design started as (changed a lot obviously):
Funny you mention that cause I actually thought the pattern/hood combo made it look a bit like darth maul :U Just with the lines on the hood instead of the face.
Anyway updated, changed some stuff, fixed some stuff, now with rear view
Funny you mention that cause I actually thought the pattern/hood combo made it look a bit like darth maul :U Just with the lines on the hood instead of the face.
Anyway updated, changed some stuff, fixed some stuff, now with rear view
Looooove the rhythm you have going on in the arms, really great concept. You should model it. :-D
Thanks everybody! And yeah poop I'ma model it. My to-be-modeled list is seriously backlogged at the moment but I'm going to get through them all this summer.
OH MY GOD that character. I wish there was a futuristic AC game with that guy as the protaganist and you design everything in the game. lol. Love it man
Do you think you can share a little bit of your process of how it goes from a black figure to knowing how like the kneepads look or whatever? How the chestplate looks? Is there a lot of reference hunting until you hit something that inspires you to make a detail or a shape or just pure imagination or what?
@Naugat: Thank you! I do have a blog but theres less in it than this thread 'cause I delete stuff often.
xk0be: There's pretty much no ref hunting for stuff like this. If I were going to make something more realistic or if it needed to be in a specific theme (like "Warcraft universe") I'd probably farm up ref like crazy but for things like this where it doesn't really need to make sense or fit in anywhere specific other than maybe my own work I usually just wing it with whatever I can think of while painting.
I don't really know what anything is going to look like from the thumbnail. The most important thing about the thumbnail is the silhouette which I always try to keep, everything else can and probably will change. From that thumbnail I only kept the hood, mask, vest, and shoulders. I wouldn't say its pure imagination as if I have a picture in my head or something, about the only thing I know I have nailed when I start is the silhouette, I make up most of the stuff as I go as it's needed and I don't really get clear pictures in my head of how stuff looks.
The whole process is kinda organic, and is mainly trial and error. The thumbnail is a starting point, I usually try to use a lot of the original shapes in it to start with but if they aren't working I throw them out; Like initially the thumbnail had some indicator of thigh plates, but when I painted them they looked like shit so I changed it to just pants, but just having pants looked boring so I gave him some satchels on one side (I see pouches and shit as lazy design a lot of times but hey evrybody needs carrying space, how else do you going to carry around packs of skittles?)
If you compare these two (1, 2) images on this page you can sort of see the evolution of that. They're both nearly finished but #1 was an earlier version, his belt just didn't seem like it had enough going on so I threw a dagger on there, it also helped make the character a bit more asymmetrical. Also if you look at his shinplates, they got simplified because I felt the pattern was just too busy and didn't flow well at all.
When it comes to the patterns and shapes and stuff I have I guess predictable habits when I make shapes, I tend to put hard straight edges and curves together and they usually always meet at a sharp angular point. I rarely ever us a line transition with a curve. How you use shapes really defines a lot about your characters, if you use really curvy shapes, especially in the silhouette your character will look very organic and pretty neutral/nonthreatening usually. Nobody is intimidated by the pillsbury dough boy. Spiky sharp shapes look more aggressive.
Here's a picture of the chest in progress...
On the left side you can see the old version (I painted half at a time), where I was trying to figure out the pattern and on the right you can see where the top half of the chest plate ended up, while still trying to experiment with the bottom half. Again, this was basically trial and error, I spent a while just experimenting with patterns.
I know it's not really helpful but a lot of this is just me looking at something I painted and thinking "I don't like that" so I change it. Usually because the lines/shapes don't flow well, theres toomuch/not enough detail, or not enough material variety, or things just are plain uninteresting (really subjective obviously...) Balance is the most important
I don't think about colors nearly as much as I should (especially in this piece cause it was painted in grey) which is why the colors are sometimes crap.
Dunno how useful any of that info was, how I make artistic decisions is a pretty deep question and I'm not always sure how to explain :P
Love your work! I've been getting into alchemy a lot lately, your video was a huge help. I am curious how you approach your character thumbnails though, would love to see another video or step by step. Keep it up!
That was actually pretty useful and good insight. Its encouraging to know that process of trial and error is fine and is used by someone as good as you are, I seem to always assume people that do awesome stuff just have these vivid images in their head and nail it first try. Very useful post. Thank you.
damn, that guy looks awesome!
i like the red, for me it says "come and get me if you dare"
altough he looks a bit as an assassin too, with the hood and all,
but with the red he isn't gonna get much camouflage,
i may have mist it but could you tell what his backstory is ans what he is/does?
and are you gonna make him in 3D? that would be awesome!
Man, the last character design is awesome. The armor mixed with the hood/fabric is particularly cool. The color contrast is nice as well. Awesome stuff.
LuCh!: To be honest there's no real backstory. That guy was just the result of some idle practice in alchemy, starting from an ultra basic brief with no other real info, in this case "sci fi swordsman" an yea he'll get modeled soonish hopefully.
venain: Glad it was useful, I'm probably going to make another video but I feel like these things have diminishing returns.
establishing a backstory could help you choose the colors.
I see you got inspiration from samurai's, so maybe his hood colors are those of his family crest?
A backstory could also translate in damage on his armour from an old battle.
You can do some interesting stuff with it.
Looking forward to the 3d version!
Watched your video btw, cool technique to come up with interesting shapes.
Thanks for sharing!
I just wanted to thank you for making those alchemy videos. They are the reason I decided to endure the growing pains of a new program and man I'm just hooked on it, its really put some new life into my art.
Also your new sketches using the gradient shapes blows me away I learned a ton just seeing how you use the tool. I'm so very tempted to start using it but I feel I have so much to explore just using pull shapes and shapes.
Your extra work to help the community is very appreciated.
@SeanW: !! I'm glad man! It really is awesome imo so its always nice to see people give it a fair shot! Be careful with the gradient tool though, when I use it too much alchemy has trouble exporting the files So save often
Just dropping by to say I dig your stuff. Will follow with interest!
The latest character is really cool, specially the layered armor. I can see that you're overall very good with handling high contrast, something I envy in an artist.
Hot diggity! Pretty much going to say what everyone else already said. Killer stuff, very interesting about the hard brush, super helpful Alchemy video. I actually laughed out loud at the "bald, naked dudes..." part. You absolutely nailed it. I've been panicking because my design skills have fallen so far behind. I can't feed my family with bald, naked men, (or can I?...:shifty:)
Anyway, can't wait for more. Hope you stick with the yellow for sword guy.
Liking that new design, long arms + dual blades is very cool.
A small question about your studies if you dont mind- what makes you decide to do what
kind of study? im never sure whether i should be doing texture or light or to focus on this or
that and feel a bit like im drifting between them without learning so much. or is this the kind
of thing that structured school learning is for?
Really great work. Small crit: the dual swords on your front/back concept need to be switched to an opposite side. Doesn't really matter as it looks awesome, but the devil is in the details as they say.
Screw personal goals, I should just aspire to you be you. (jk) Your work is amazing! Thank you for your tips earlier on. They helped a lot!
I love your paintwork so much!
Just a quicky, I don't do a lot of illustrative type work, still not sure if that's good or bad :x I feel like I need a less intrusive signature heh
SORRY for the super delayed replies guys, like I said I try not to post to this unless I have something new to show. Don't mean to seem like I'm ignoring anybody, I greatly appreciate all the interest!
@AimBiZ: Much thanks man, sometimes I feel like I'm overdoing it with the layers of stuff haha
@Daven: All that dude needs is a hoodie and he'll be complete :0
@Sputch: HAHA thanks man. LOVE the traditional creature sculpt in your portfolio btw
@Paintforge: I have a list of stuff I think I suck at and I just kinda pick whatever I feel like doing at the time. Those were mainly color studies, the tree was for stylization, I've been planning on doing some isometric environments in a similar style so I thought it might help. I tend to think if you feel like you aren't learning much you might just be copying stuff not really studying it.
@lidfrid: It's here. I was streaming a lot but I kinda slowed down. I'll try to pick up more in the future.
@Shiniku: I'd like to model it but then I keep sayin that about all my stuff
@JinSuen: thanks and I'm glad you found my post useful, your new work is a HUGE improvement imo!
Replies
@Sub: I've thought about making more videos but I honestly don't know what I'd put in them, I'd prefer there be some kind of point as I really want to avoid making videos that are just 5 mins of painting at 12x speed with a dubstep soundtrack.
I also considered livestreaming in hopes that maybe working in front of other people would compel me to be more aware of workflow problems but I dunno about that yet.
Anyway some more things
Some sci fi stuff
thumbnail that this design started as (changed a lot obviously):
Anyway updated, changed some stuff, fixed some stuff, now with rear view
Seriously awesome work.
You just filled my inspiration folder.
Looooove the rhythm you have going on in the arms, really great concept. You should model it. :-D
Do you think you can share a little bit of your process of how it goes from a black figure to knowing how like the kneepads look or whatever? How the chestplate looks? Is there a lot of reference hunting until you hit something that inspires you to make a detail or a shape or just pure imagination or what?
Got a blog?
@Naugat: Thank you! I do have a blog but theres less in it than this thread 'cause I delete stuff often.
xk0be: There's pretty much no ref hunting for stuff like this. If I were going to make something more realistic or if it needed to be in a specific theme (like "Warcraft universe") I'd probably farm up ref like crazy but for things like this where it doesn't really need to make sense or fit in anywhere specific other than maybe my own work I usually just wing it with whatever I can think of while painting.
I don't really know what anything is going to look like from the thumbnail. The most important thing about the thumbnail is the silhouette which I always try to keep, everything else can and probably will change. From that thumbnail I only kept the hood, mask, vest, and shoulders. I wouldn't say its pure imagination as if I have a picture in my head or something, about the only thing I know I have nailed when I start is the silhouette, I make up most of the stuff as I go as it's needed and I don't really get clear pictures in my head of how stuff looks.
The whole process is kinda organic, and is mainly trial and error. The thumbnail is a starting point, I usually try to use a lot of the original shapes in it to start with but if they aren't working I throw them out; Like initially the thumbnail had some indicator of thigh plates, but when I painted them they looked like shit so I changed it to just pants, but just having pants looked boring so I gave him some satchels on one side (I see pouches and shit as lazy design a lot of times but hey evrybody needs carrying space, how else do you going to carry around packs of skittles?)
If you compare these two (1, 2) images on this page you can sort of see the evolution of that. They're both nearly finished but #1 was an earlier version, his belt just didn't seem like it had enough going on so I threw a dagger on there, it also helped make the character a bit more asymmetrical. Also if you look at his shinplates, they got simplified because I felt the pattern was just too busy and didn't flow well at all.
When it comes to the patterns and shapes and stuff I have I guess predictable habits when I make shapes, I tend to put hard straight edges and curves together and they usually always meet at a sharp angular point. I rarely ever us a line transition with a curve. How you use shapes really defines a lot about your characters, if you use really curvy shapes, especially in the silhouette your character will look very organic and pretty neutral/nonthreatening usually. Nobody is intimidated by the pillsbury dough boy. Spiky sharp shapes look more aggressive.
Here's a picture of the chest in progress...
On the left side you can see the old version (I painted half at a time), where I was trying to figure out the pattern and on the right you can see where the top half of the chest plate ended up, while still trying to experiment with the bottom half. Again, this was basically trial and error, I spent a while just experimenting with patterns.
I know it's not really helpful but a lot of this is just me looking at something I painted and thinking "I don't like that" so I change it. Usually because the lines/shapes don't flow well, theres toomuch/not enough detail, or not enough material variety, or things just are plain uninteresting (really subjective obviously...) Balance is the most important
I don't think about colors nearly as much as I should (especially in this piece cause it was painted in grey) which is why the colors are sometimes crap.
Dunno how useful any of that info was, how I make artistic decisions is a pretty deep question and I'm not always sure how to explain :P
i like the red, for me it says "come and get me if you dare"
altough he looks a bit as an assassin too, with the hood and all,
but with the red he isn't gonna get much camouflage,
i may have mist it but could you tell what his backstory is ans what he is/does?
and are you gonna make him in 3D? that would be awesome!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fOZjCkiDQ_M
xk0be: I hope it's okay or I'm really fucked haha
LuCh!: To be honest there's no real backstory. That guy was just the result of some idle practice in alchemy, starting from an ultra basic brief with no other real info, in this case "sci fi swordsman" an yea he'll get modeled soonish hopefully.
venain: Glad it was useful, I'm probably going to make another video but I feel like these things have diminishing returns.
MisterSande / amadarien: Much thanks guys
I see you got inspiration from samurai's, so maybe his hood colors are those of his family crest?
A backstory could also translate in damage on his armour from an old battle.
You can do some interesting stuff with it.
Looking forward to the 3d version!
Watched your video btw, cool technique to come up with interesting shapes.
Thanks for sharing!
Also your new sketches using the gradient shapes blows me away I learned a ton just seeing how you use the tool. I'm so very tempted to start using it but I feel I have so much to explore just using pull shapes and shapes.
Your extra work to help the community is very appreciated.
@Joe/Ques: Thanks guys
Sorry I don't reply very quickly, I try not to bump this unless I've got new work to put in it :P
Some boring studies & arenanet test thing
The latest character is really cool, specially the layered armor. I can see that you're overall very good with handling high contrast, something I envy in an artist.
Really awesome work man, love the sculpts and concepts
Also:
Anyway, can't wait for more. Hope you stick with the yellow for sword guy.
A small question about your studies if you dont mind- what makes you decide to do what
kind of study? im never sure whether i should be doing texture or light or to focus on this or
that and feel a bit like im drifting between them without learning so much. or is this the kind
of thing that structured school learning is for?
Im sinceriously ispired by your works...
What's your streaming channel?
Thanks!
Are you planning on modeling that? It looks like it would be very fun.
Awesome work in here.
I love your paintwork so much!
SORRY for the super delayed replies guys, like I said I try not to post to this unless I have something new to show. Don't mean to seem like I'm ignoring anybody, I greatly appreciate all the interest!
@AimBiZ: Much thanks man, sometimes I feel like I'm overdoing it with the layers of stuff haha
@Ravenslayer: thanks
@Daven: All that dude needs is a hoodie and he'll be complete :0
@Sputch: HAHA thanks man. LOVE the traditional creature sculpt in your portfolio btw
@Paintforge: I have a list of stuff I think I suck at and I just kinda pick whatever I feel like doing at the time. Those were mainly color studies, the tree was for stylization, I've been planning on doing some isometric environments in a similar style so I thought it might help. I tend to think if you feel like you aren't learning much you might just be copying stuff not really studying it.
@lidfrid: It's here. I was streaming a lot but I kinda slowed down. I'll try to pick up more in the future.
@Shiniku: I'd like to model it but then I keep sayin that about all my stuff
@JinSuen: thanks and I'm glad you found my post useful, your new work is a HUGE improvement imo!
@LuCh!: Thank you! I like this one more too :U
@CodeFather: Thanks man and likewise!! Not really related but just wanna say I love the work you guys all do at the creature atelier blog
@Pundt: glad you're giving it a shot man, hope you like alchemy as much as I do