Hello to all of you and welcome to my making of Rhodos. In this making of I will show you my way of working and I will tell you something about the progress and some techniques that I used for the image. I created the image with 3dsmax, Vray and photoshop. I hope that it will be useful to you.

Introduction

Last summer I was with a friend of mine on a holiday on the island Rhodos, Greece. I was never been there before and I must say, it’s a beautiful island. Great nature and of course typical Greece architecture. No matter where I am, I am always looking around me to absurd everything I see. It’s a non stop progress. Do I see something what I can use for any project at home? And at some point in my vacation there it was. A nice building on top of a hill. It was not only the building but the environment and the lighting that inspired me. I liked it, maybe you don’t but that’s okay. So at that point I decided to take pictures of the building so I could study them at home. Normally I always do a lot of research on the Internet but now I had already the pictures I needed so I could skip that part.

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In this tutorial I will take you through my process of designing a character based on a rough character brief.

- a halo on top of his head
- he is old, has only his left eye, has long hair
- stitches for eyebrows and his mouth is stitched closed
- a necklace that has the letter “m”
- he carries some type of spear

Introduction:

This picture was a research piece for a feature-length 3d movie, People of the Elephant.  This film tells the story mentioned in a holy book, taking place between the year 570 and 571, of our time.  It tells the story of a King in the south of Arabia who took 60,000 troops and 13 elephants, and set his army to destroy the holy city of Mecca.  All of this was in the purpose of re-routing the pilgrimage and commerce of the Arabs towards San’a, the capital of Yemen, where he built a magnificent Cathedral.  When the King gave the order to attack, a cloud of birds appeared in the sky.  The birds stoned the aggressors with thousands of little stones and thus defeated the troops of the Yemen King. (Production by Sigma Technologies, Morocco)

The Brief:

The purpose of the brief was to make a large view of the cathedral during the night-time, and the whole scene was to be bathed in moonlight.

Sketches:

At first, I chose a landscape format of 5906 by 2835 pixels as a basis for the matte painting.  I always work in a large format to have more detail, which is, at the same time, perfect for an impression on a proposal.  I made a quick sketch using several different brushes.  These brushes were either customised by me, made from tutorials, or were just already existing in Photoshop.  All the while I was using a graphics tablet, which is necessary for this kind of precise work (sketching and matte painting).

Background:

So, I started with the sky, concentrating especially on the clouds, with the brush opacity at 50% .  Afterwards, I painted the ground with a dark colour, followed by the moon and finally the cathedral, with a brush opacity of 50% to build up different layers of colour.  I then lit up the centre of the picture so that the eye of the spectator would be attracted to the moon and the cathedral .  To add volume and value, I put touches of light coloured paint on the cathedral and the clouds.  With small brush touches, I also painted in the houses, and I created a fog to add atmosphere to the whole scene.  And finally, to reinforce the composition, I drew a rock in the foreground of the scene, on one side, to achieve some depth and to make it more dynamic.  Based on the sketch, I then started the matte painting.

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Introduction:

I was asked to do this video that highlights Mudbox 2009’s features as a painting and texturing application, in relation to other similar apps such as BodyPaint and ZBrush, by Dave Cardwell at Autodesk. It gives an overview of what I personally consider its strong points. It shows the creation of the textures for an environmental piece (at x2 speed), and while it doesn’t cover every feature, it does provide – in one place – the ‘high points’ of Mudbox’s texturing capabilities.

Software Used: VRay and Maya

Hi everyone!

My name is Dennis and I just got my hands on the “VRay For Maya” demo! A friend asked if I could explain the basics, so here is a very simple tutorial.

First of all, if you haven’t already then get “VRay For Maya” from ChaosGroup (http://www.chaosgroup.com – you have to create an account). Then just install it; simple as that!

To load the plug-in, go to Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager. Then scroll down until you find “vrayformaya” and check both Loaded and Auto Load and press “close”

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I’ve always been fascinated by smoke, and have experimented a lot with it. So in this tutorial, I explain how to create realistic smoke, make it into a brush and use it for type. Let’s light up our vector cigarettes and get started smokin’!

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Whether or not you’re a Steampunk fan, this two part tutorial is sure to test your knowledge on Illustrator, Cinema 4D and Photoshop. In the first half, we’re going to customize a Blackletter font and create 3D text with vector shapes. There’s lots to do, so let’s start with the first part of this two-part series!

Introduction

In this type treatment, I sought to bring together a Blackletter font with the alluring Steampunk Style. A quick search on the net about the movement will show a well defined style and a few dominant leitmotifs. Raging steam engines, whistling exhausts and shiny metals are the norm, so in keeping with the guidelines, I created this illustration.

Be sure to check out one of our other Steampunk tutorials on Psdtuts+, How to Create a Steampunk Style Illustration in Photoshop for great inspiration and some traditional Steampunk gadgetry!

PART 1

PART 2

Liquavista’s been kicking around in the shadows for years now, and while its stuff has largely been viewed as vaporware, the video waiting for you just past the break changes everything. The company has today revealed three new e-reader display technologies that it’s working on, and all three of ‘em are in prototype form ready to wow. LiquavistaBright aims to speed up page refreshes on e-book readers and add support for video playback, and considering just how awful web browsing is on existing e-ink displays, we can hardly wait to surf on this stuff. It’s also toiling away on a LiquavistaColor screen, which is exactly what you think it is. Finally, there’s the elusive LiquavistaVivid, which is planned for “product implementation” throughout 2010 and 2011. Hit the read link if you’re down for looking into the future, and be sure to tell PixelQi its main competition has just come out in a big way.

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After posting images for years online, Hong was published in EXOTIQUE 2, then EXOTIQUE 4. He now triumphs with ‘Xing Tain’ in a double page spread in EXOTIQUE 5. Stay tuned for the release dates.

Hi there, I am so very glad to share my process of creating ‘Xing Tain’ work here. This original concept character is come from an ancient Chinese myth. When I read about him in a book, the brave warrior was defeated in battle and had his head cut off by the enemy. But his anger turns his nipples into his eyes. He stands up and continues to fight. He was symbolized as a brave, tough soldier who never gives up and of course, he was a tragic hero.

I thought the description was incredible, interesting, and I started to do more research on the Web, trying to gather enough information to represent this character in a painting.

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