[nws]Digital art thread: WANNA ASIMO A THAT ASS

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > [nws]Digital art thread: WANNA ASIMO A THAT ASS

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

snucks posted:

This is the horrifying age we live in.

QFT

So, in the ten years I lived in Los Angeles, I took a LOT of photos . . . and a lot of those photos were of art. Sometimes I would see my reflection in the framed glass. That inspired me to make this "Gallery Selfie" out of some of the pics.

Full res here.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2015 01:26

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 21:38

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Really silly photoshop demo I did recently.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2016 22:11

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Frown Town posted:

Saw Danish Girl. Procrastinating/recharging from work tasks that are making me lose my mind. Working on getting likenesses still.. liquify tool is God.

This is fantastic!
Can you share some of your workflow? Tips?

Here is a quick flyer I did for my friend's event in Fresno.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2016 00:02

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Frown Town posted:

Sure! Sadly I flattened many layers so I don't have great visual representation of any of this (maybe will re-visit and put something together when I'm less crunched for time).. I use Photoshop, but same concepts can be used in whatever digital painting program you've got.

Typical/ideal process, if I have a decent idea of what I'm getting myself into (not necessarily the case with this one):
1. Sketch layer - sloppy line work, just to get shapes and compositions in place
2. Underpaint layer, underneath sketch layer - usually pick a darker, more muted version of whatever the midtone of object in question would be
3. Background layer, underneath Underpaint layer - background wash of color, defines stuff like lighting info (Underpaint + BG layers usually happen around the same time
4. Once underpaint/BG feel good, I start basic detailing on a layer above Underpaint layer. That can be any number of layers, including screen/softlight layers for highlights, some multiply/overlay layers for shadows; this is the step where I paint the gently caress out of everything but don't have a very scientific way of describing this process.. Basically I define midtones, highlights, and shadows to create voluminous shapes in some order that makes sense. This is also the part where I'll typically start with a softer round brush, then finish/tighten up/polish with a harder round brush. And I'll merge/flatten a lot here whenever I feel the layers are getting unmanageable.
5. When basic detailing feels good, I may create an additional detail layer for stuff like freckles, eyelashes, etc: usually will hide my sloppy sketch layer at this point or clean it up to become linework
6. If anything is a bit off proportion wise, I may flatten major areas and use Liquify tool to massage stuff into place.. then adjust, clean up, and hand paint in any areas of liquify slop.
7. Finishing/color adjustments/etc any effects that sit on top of everything. I'll usually have a bit of curves and/or contrast adjustments

This stuff happens a bit organically because I rarely have a solid idea of how I want something to look going in, so I may decide to color adjust halfway through, flatten stuff, hide things, nuke things, etc till I have a better idea what I'm going for. I absolutely know there's a more efficient way to work than how I normally do. There's a somewhat crucial step I inevitably seem to skip in personal work, which is thumbnailing to get a decent idea of targets for composition/light source/color choice/etc. I recommend thumbnail sketches if you're trying to complete a finished illustration or get feedback from a client before you really get invested in any one direction - recently I've just been loving around and doodling stuff with the end goal being to just relieve stress and explore ideas without much pressure to create anything cohesive.. but if I were actually practicing a technique, or prepping stuff to sell/taking commissions/etc, I'd approach it more logically and with more process than I typically do in the interest of saving time in the long run.

When I really don't know where I'm going (for sketches and stuff), stuff tends to end up all on one layer and it's a simple round brush all the way to give me the freedom to cut stuff up with lasso tool, liquify, rearrange pieces till I'm happy. If I'm going for a more cel-shaded look, the process gets more clear - I'll have an additional step where I clean up sketch lines/"ink" stuff.. and will block out all colors solidly, then use clipping masks/preserve transparency/etc to shade. When painting, I usually work dark to light.. but that changes when it comes to cel-shaded looks: I will typically work from midtones first, then shadows, then highlights.

Random tips:
-Paint and draw from observation to build a solid foundation for how stuff should look; then painting from imagination becomes much easier. Photo references are a good place to start, but nothing beats painting from life.
-Separate your background and foreground layers!! This is for your future sanity.
-Clipping masks are God if you're working by blocking in solid colors; so is preserve transparency. Great for cel-shaded styles.
-Liquify tool is God for nailing down facial features/tweaking proportions... if you don't mind flattening layers for painting.
-Smudge tool is nice for blending; you can add a bit of scatter to it to make it behave more organically/less obvious that you're smudge tooling stuff
-I use Coolorus plugin for Photoshop, which is a much nicer color wheel (similar to Painter) that has been transformative for my digital painting
-Eyedropper tool is good for blending/picking colors
-Pay attention to lighting and color selection: straight black is not often found in real shadows (usually some off-shoot of blue or whatever, but that depends on the color of the light source) and will muddy/dull a painting; which could be the artist's intent, but something to be aware of if you're going for something more vibrant feeling
-Gradient maps are very handy for bringing grayscale/bw sketch to a colorful thing whose shadows aren't gross and muddied

That's all the general knowledge I can impart off the top of my head. If you have any specific requests, happy to answer them

Thanks so much for this! So much good advice!!

Lately, I have been designing tattoos for people. The original drawings are from a sketchbook recently lost. Now I am working on painting over the scanned drawings but am wondering if there are specific techniques for creating tattoos in photoshop. As in - stick to line drawings vs. the airbrush or paintbrush?.... I am not sure if there any rules for this as tattoo artists just basically copy the image they are given. Hatching lines too close together seems to be a bad idea however. Anyone have experience creating tattoos in photoshop???

# ¿ Feb 20, 2016 20:52

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Flyer design mockup that the band is now considering for an album cover instead.

EDIT: A few slight tweaks. Put the moons up in the corner.

Since it might actually end up as an album cover, C&C is very much needed.

Animated GIF progress here:

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Mar 8, 2016

# ¿ Mar 7, 2016 14:44

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Humboldt Squid posted:

There's tons of basic digital painting tutorials on Deviantart, pintrest, tumblr etc. that will go over that.
really the best way to figure all that out is by experimentation, but
layer basics
layer mask tutorial
layer style tutorial
brush tool tutorial
why your painting doesn't look like the cover of ImagineFX

Good old hard round and soft round are all the brushes you really need to start out with, but a directional chalk textured brush of some kind is great for sketching too - download lots of brushpacks and play around with them to find brushes you like.

Thanks for this!

# ¿ Mar 9, 2016 03:13

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Is that Orko from He Man?

Here is another flyer prototype but I liked the first one much better.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2016 05:14

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Scribblehatch posted:

Non...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjPF3AwVPM4

Oh right. Completely forgot about Final Fantasy. Used to play that on my NES... or SNES... can't remember.

Anybody else tried out polybrush?

It is a lot of fun! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4_h1FTiQ_g

...also free for the time being!

# ¿ Mar 11, 2016 23:12

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

moonraker posted:

Nice work looks great

Thanks but it is my least favorite of the 3 mockups I have made.

Turned my drawing into a 3rd flyer mockup.

Not really sure if it is working. Especially not sure about the smoke element.

Help please!! I feel like I suck at graphic design. Font will be fixed soon.

All three in order here. Definitely like the 1rst and 3rd best.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Mar 15, 2016

# ¿ Mar 15, 2016 20:51

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Crossposted from the 3d thread and draw every day thread. This was a class demo which I wanted to finish up outside of class.

The hand drawn reference on the right is the starting point:

Some toon shading tests:

Here is a keyshot render.

and the final result so far.

Still not entirely happy with it so C&C is welcome.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Jul 1, 2016

# ¿ Jul 1, 2016 04:38

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Point clouds can be beautiful.
https://vimeo.com/183507561

# ¿ Sep 25, 2016 02:27

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

What magic is this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU-6jATa2Q8

Seriously though... I am trying to follow his process and my mind is melting.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2016 20:43

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Do you guys have any favorite tutorials for creating digital concept art?

Usually the OP posts resources in these kinds of threads but I don't see that here.

Photoshop is incredibly powerful and there is staggering amount of information out there. Where do I even begin??

# ¿ Oct 16, 2016 20:43

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

GreatJob posted:

I uh, usually just type into Google whatever I want to know and it's often small, specific things...Usually just typography effects like turning letters into honey, making my own leather texture, stuff like that.

Software tutorials are one thing. I believe it's also helpful to experiment with real media concurrently and understand where and how computers can save you time and energy (ctrl + z being a start, but not the be-all, end-all). Oil painting and collage play into things that Photoshop does well, while I found watercolors to be super useful in learning how to create vectors in Illustrator. A lot of the planning and build-up of illustrations with real media lend themselves neatly to techniques that save time on the computer too, and result in consistent stylization and polish at the end.

I knew about Ctrl +Z but it isn't so much the basics I need. More like intermediate to advanced I think. Although Photoshop has changed a LOT over the years, I am very familiar with the basics of how the software works. I am somewhat mystified by "Wootha's" advanced use of adjustment layers for concept art however. Maybe I am just still really fuzzy on what each adjustment layer is capable of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU-6jATa2Q8

Also confused about when to photobash or when to paint. Christian Lorenz Scherur makes photobashing look like painting and I would like to be able to seamlessly integrate photos as easily as he does.
Then there is the question of when to paint vs. when to photobash (?)

gmc9987: I am specifically looking for photoshop tutorials in creating concept art landscapes. That Bioshock stuff is pretty amazing!

# ¿ Oct 17, 2016 00:13

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

"So many show their teeth these days". #inktober zombie.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2016 08:50

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

C & C requested.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2016 11:04

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Thanks. I added that last because the stones looked far too plain with nothing on them. Definitely need to work on the lettering.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Nov 11, 2016

# ¿ Nov 11, 2016 19:12

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Design for album cover.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2017 06:08

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Another go at album art.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Jan 30, 2017

# ¿ Jan 30, 2017 05:27

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

# ¿ Feb 15, 2017 10:43

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Sucks to lose layers but I think it forces you to be a much better painter.

Can you tell me how you use the smudge brush? Do you modify the brush in some way or use the defaults?

Anthony Jones had a custom smudge brush I loved years ago but I have never been able to replicate the results and I know it was something relatively simple. Right now my photoshop painting looks like bad marker drawings because there isn't enough blending.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2017 21:10

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Elsa posted:

Hey it occurred to me that I didn't answer this completely. And it's easy to do a GifCam demo real quick

This is using Kylebrush.com brushes and smudge tools.

So I try to keep like, some texture and some edges while also capturing the diffusion that happens around the edge of a specular.

Thank you soooo much for this. I was on the fence about the Kyle brush pack but you have sold me.

Here is some content. Not sure if I posted the final here.

Thinking about doing a second one in anticipation of Vol 2.

Here is the actual album if anyone is interested.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 23:42

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Revisiting an old project and trying to learn Marvelous Designer for the jacket. So far it is very difficult to get the results I want. Leather jacket ended up looking more like the puffy pirate shirt from Seinfeld. Ugh.

Concept here.

Quick stab at adding the monowheel.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2017 21:12

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Went back and worked on an old sketch again.

I sometimes wonder how much 2d concept work is necessary before just jumping into 3d. Like... am I just reworking the 2d stuff when I know I should be spending time just doing it right in 3d?

When does prototyping become procrastinating?

# ¿ Aug 17, 2017 03:49

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

It's a workflow thing I am trying to figure out. Some people "sketch" in zbrush and skip the 2d part completely. For other people, they spend a long time designing in 2d before going moving on to a 3d version. Or some just use a mood / reference board vs. 2d concept art painting. Hell - more and more people are starting in zbrush and then painting over that for the final image.

Good example of going from a 2d illustration to a 3d model. Design by Craola.

Why am I tweaking a painting, when I can make the model and then move a light?

Also - a quick flyer. Not sure if I like it. Might be taking the band's name too literally.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 10:35 on Aug 17, 2017

# ¿ Aug 17, 2017 05:25

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

a hole-y ghost posted:

In this case, I suggested it because your drawing is from flat profile, which won't translate well to 3D. The example you posted worked well even though it's only one view because it's from an angle. The point of my suggestion is if you're going to spend a lot of time sketching 2D stuff for it, the time might be better spent getting several 2D rough-ish sketches, all from different angles.

I totally get what you are saying. This is also what modeling sheets are for. However, if it is going to be rendered at the same angle, it shouldn't matter much. Sorta more feel like I can ideate / concept AND create the final product faster in 3d. Everything 3d except for the initial thumbnails and /or a medium sized value study. I feel like lighting and color are infinitely easier for me to create in 3d vs. repainting something over and over in the concept stage.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2017 20:55

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Would love some critique on this flyer design. Don't have much time to make fixes. Their show is the Sunday after next!

heh - wasn't happy with the envelope.

http://thelettershome.com/

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Aug 27, 2017

# ¿ Aug 27, 2017 01:48

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

coolusername posted:

It might be worth making the information (Sept 3rd etc.) more prominent, versus having the big 'The Letters home' taking up all the focus.

Yeah - I kinda hate that the name is repeated twice. Once in the lettering and once on the seal.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2017 03:28

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

My friend goes:

"Make me a tattoo design of a snake eating it's tail and make it look cool."

Several hours later...

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 07:40 on Aug 31, 2017

# ¿ Aug 31, 2017 07:13

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Little character doodle.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2017 08:32

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Sociopastry posted:

I did a thing!

e: let's try that again, without as much compression. yeesh.

This is kinda badass.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2017 01:50

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Album cover design I am playing around with.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2018 06:26

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

a hole-y ghost posted:

I think people that were in their teens and 20s at the time largely associate it with a lovely job market, high crime rate, and high drug use.
Younger people, on the other hand, associate it with a lovely job market, high crime rate, and high drug use, but neon and loving cool

Cue "vaporwave" love of all things which belong on a Trapper Keeper cover. Not that I can talk. The client for the remix album directed me to make it... 80s arcade style... hence "Console Records". Ugh.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2018 19:43

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Quick cave troll in zbrush.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2018 03:38

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Duck Party posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_86PaNHDBg&t=2s

I made a tutorial about drawing a fox.

This is awesome. Music is a little loud / mildly annoying but content is awesome overall. Thanks.

1.5 hour speed sculpt.

# ¿ Apr 7, 2018 20:35

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

I want to turn this into a photoshop painting. I have photo reference. What would you guys do other than just painting over the drawing in photoshop? I mean - are there workflows going from pencil to photoshop illustration which work better than others? Or techniques which speed up the workflow other than just putting the pencil layer on multiply to use as reference for painting layers underneath it?

# ¿ May 20, 2018 01:43

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Argue: Can you explain this a little better or point me to a video? I have never heard of this before.

# ¿ May 22, 2018 09:57

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Argue posted:

If you want to keep the line art and be able to manipulate it to your liking, rather than setting the layer to multiply, I much prefer the technique of using the image itself as a selection mask, inverting it, and filling it with black. Then you can lock transparency and change the lines to exactly the color you want without worrying about the multiplicative effect against the underlying color (although you'd still have to worry about the lines being partially transparent). I think if you follow up with painting over it you can use this method to lose the line art as well.

This one.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2018 04:13

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

Old project I brought into keyshot to play with.

Older zbrush render for comparison.

update:

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 11:52 on Jul 15, 2018

# ¿ Jul 14, 2018 09:46

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 21:38

sigma 6: Nov 27, 2004; the mirror would do well to reflect further

I know greeble covered stuff is ultra cheesy. Trying to master workflows to make it less cheesy and easier to teach. Modeled in Zbrush and rendered in Keyshot.

Earlier Zbrush render for comparison.

One more in keyshot.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Jul 29, 2018

# ¿ Jul 29, 2018 18:09

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