I consider this cottage as being a real challenge. Apart from the fact that it needed 12 different textures, I had to keep in mind the chromatic range I have to stick to. I knew from the start the roof is going to be blue, so I set for having textures based on the red colour for the rest of my cottage.  Red and blue seemed to be a nice mix, but the thing that really bothered me was the arch of the door. Initially, this was blue, but I felt like I put it too much in the background, when I really wanted it to be in the lime lights. I decided eventually to set the colour a little bit to green, so that the crystals draw the attention. The texture had so much impact on me that I decided to apply it more than once and the pillars were made in the perfect shape to do so. The loops of the pillar were all covered in crystal and so were the extrusions which link together its body and the base.

Initially, I wanted to create a cottage made out of sweets but I abandoned this idea as soon as I realised my concept is not going to work unless I hand paint all of my textures. I still wasn't discouraged, but after my first texture (which took me a lot of time, as it's incredibly hard to make sweets actually look delicious!), I decided to give up this idea for a more practical one, which is depicted by the rendering above.

As this is the cottage of a forest creature (I was thinking about a midget sprite, to be honest :D), I have never wanted to lose this fictional aspect of it, so my colours needs to be bright and bold. I found some of the textures on the blogs of different artists (Ulrick Wery, Justin Mesner, Lazaruz), but I was still needed to paint behind them with brighter shades than the actual texture and set them on "Hard Light", in order to give them this cartoony look I craved so much for.

My first approach in Zbrush was via Ian, my alien, which I had to provide textures for. As I have never liked to be chaotic when it comes to concepts, I started to do some research on my chromatic range. In nature, the colours of the creatures are strongly related to their environment, so a background had to be provided for my alien as well, so that there is no discrepancy in his appearance. 

As a kid, my favourite animation was Finding Nemo and I still remember how mesmerized I was by its colours, all of those coral reefs which shared the shades of the fish and of the entire marine life presented there. This is why I decided to create an aquatic alien, a mixture between a reptile and a fish.

I started my research by looking for my palette of colours and obviously, the first step was a dive into what I treasured most as a kid when it comes to animation. The Art of Finding Nemo can be found online (such a blessing!) and I took some screenshots in order to point out my main chromatic reference. 

Diving further into the marine life, I discovered Alexander Semenov, a marine biologist and underwater photographer, whose photos had a huge impact on my idea of Ian. Once again, I was stunned by how diverse and unique the sea life can be and I will use it as a reference more often from now on. 

This is a series of pictures that really drew my attention and inspired me to colour and texture Ian. I used the colours of the Bubble Coral as the main tone, I added the red shade of the Pygmy Seahorse where the pieces of the cranium come together and behind those three bags on the sides of his neck, I opted for five colours (red, blue, green, yellow and purple), inspired by the Giant Squid (in order to inspire danger, as it is suggested in the marine environment by the usage of complementary colours). As Ian was way too blue, even for an aquatic alien, I decided to add some purple and violet, inspired by the Sea Anemone, on his face and under his jaw, just to break the silence of the blue shade. The final touches were inspired by the jellyfish Cyanea Capillata (I used its shades especially on the neck, with a soft brush).

As far as the main textures are concerned, I used scales and reptilian skin, together with a coral component photographed in macro mode.

Originally, I would have liked to make him a flying creature, covering him in feathers, but quickly abandoned the idea when I realised there would have been a large discrepancy between the model and the textures. In spite of this, I kept the feathers texture at the back of his neck because it looks interesting fits the whole chromatic mood (and it's very hard to figure out what that texture actually is).

Finally, this is what resulted from all my research:

P.S: Even though I opted for 2 different types of textures for the eyes in Zbrush, when uploading the Normal Map in Marmoset, I noticed the eyes got a little bit awkward, so I had to settle for a single texture, which is the hand painted one :D. Anyway, I reckon Ian looks a lot better now.

My intention for this crate was to create my own texture, starting from scratch, but I found a very nice cartoony wood pattern which I decided to improve eventually. The crate was created for a game or a level that is set in a carnival atmosphere, as it contains fireworks (I thought that it would be nice for some of those crates to be set on fire, at some point, to distract people attending the carnival).

First, the model of the crate: I made a square in Maya, which I extruded, rescaled the extruded part and then intruded it. I duplicated it five times and then arranged the faces so that they form a cube. I took care to align the edges and I merged a couple of vertexes (the ones in the corners) so that I have no blank spaces.

I made the UVs for one face (as the others will have the exact same UVs) and made a UV Snapshot in order to bring them in Photoshop. I found my main texture and I removed the watermark from it, using Clone Stamp Tool and Patch Tool. It looked a little awkward at first, but I managed to correct that by painting some lines in that area. For that, I used Eyedropper Tool and I had set my opacity at about 50 before I started painting. Some lines were emphasized, in order to draw the attention to them and not to my lines. Patch Tool was used in some areas to create some cracks (for example, I took some cracks from the last plank of the texture and put them on the first one, adjusting the size, so it doesn't look similar). I ended up adding some shades, especially in the corners, so that the crate would look a little used. 

I used different kind of planks for the borders and changed their contrast in order to fit the other planks. A little distortion was needed, but it turned out that perspective works a lot better for me in this case. The pins were a little out of their place, but with Patch Tool, that has been fixed very easily.

The last thing to do was to make them look like crates which contain exclusively fireworks, so I added some markings to emphasize this. Eventually, for the sake of clarity, I added some text as well.

"The sight filled the northern sky; the immensity of it was scarcely conceivable. As if from Heaven itself, great curtains of delicate light hung and trembled. Pale green and rose-pink, and as transparent as the most fragile fabric, and at the bottom edge a profound fiery crimson like the fires of Hell, they swung and shimmered loosely with more grace than the most skillful dancer." Philip Pullman - The Golden Compass

My first try of a photo manipulation was what I could call a failure. I tried to vandalize a kitchen having in mind an apocalyptic setting. I found out that I'm not that keen on depicting disasters, so I decided to change the background. As I have always been so fascinated by the Northern Lights (especially because I know there is little chance to actually see them in the foreseeable future), I decided to focus on them in my scene. 

[During one of my holidays, I attended to a photography exhibition hold by students and I remember that one had just came back from Alaska and he took truly majestic photos of the Northern Lights. The thing that really struck me was ]

This is the original photography, taken by Jason Row:



I wanted something simple, that might allow me to play a little more in the scenery. I found this picture very appealing, as the close-up is not different from the background and I could make striking differences.

Every time I am looking for photos with the North Pole, Alaska or Greenland, I expect to see massive shots with Aurora Borealis, which this is not the case. I decided to meet my own expectations by adding some beautiful sky lights. The support picture for that was this one, taken by James Percy:

I selected the most important part of the sky, copied and pasted it on my layer, I reduced its opacity by 25% and chose 'Hard Light' as its blend mode. Eventually, I selected Image>Adjustments >Brightness/Contrast and played with the values until everything seemed alright to me (I especially set a high contrast value, around 90%, I believe). I did the exact same thing with photo's Levels (Image>Adjustments>Levels), as I really wanted to emphasize the sky as much as possible. I came out with this:

I thought that it would be a great idea to keep the mountains in the horizon from the original photo, as they bring some kind of personality to my landscape. I also increased the contrast's value of the original picture, because the discrepancy between it and the sky was way too obvious.

The next step was to bring in some fantasy-like assets. As I have large areas of water, my mind sets on the idea of a boat. It seemed a little too boring at the beginning, but I managed to pull it out of ordinary by putting the boat in a glass bottle. Both of the layers were set to 'Hard Light' in the blend mode. 

Following this concept, some origami written boats were added on the water. The fact that they are written is closely related to the cliche of a message in a bottle, which was replaced with a ship in a bottle. As there was no important note in there, I decided it should be on the origami boats. They were duplicated and suffered a change of perspective (Ctrl+T>Right Click>Perspective) and their layers were also set on 'Hard Light'.

Soon, the need for something that would be in harmony with the lights and glass was needed. It should have been a perfect asset to the concept and have had a glossy surface. My first thought was about crystals, as they could also emphasize the idea of fantasy, of a hidden place that only the most adventurous of us could find (taking into account that there are on crystals on the surface of the Earth, they need to be dug for). It was a real struggle to find something that fits in, but the result comforts me.

 The final touch was the addition of two polar bears on the iceberg on the right side. They add a touch of life in the whole scenery and I managed not to make them capture the eye, as the intention is to focus on the Northern Lights. At first, I intended to add some polar bears from The Golden Compass film because they still remain one of the most stunning creatures I have seen, but their armor is based on golden tones and they would have come in the spotlight, as I focused on blue and silvery tones...but I guess regular polar bears make a good asset too!


As a little comparison, I end this post with both the initial photo and the manipulation:

P.S: I really really really enjoyed this! :D
P.P.S: Sorry for not posting this earlier!

I know I am supposed to post something almost everyday, but I still have to get used to being a fan of work in progress screenshots. I have improved this book everyday and I would have made this post a lot earlier if it wasn't that leaf (whose UVs were very harsh for me). After about 4 failures, I managed to arrange the UVs in a nice and tidy way and my texture looks alright now.

For the cover I used 2 leather textures (because I couldn't decide which one to choose, so I went for both of them, using 'hard light' as a layer type for the second texture, so it won't look awkwardly). I added some splashes on the back cover (I set them on 'vivid light' and then I multiplied them),  a nice pattern on the spin and I chose an elvish like font for the title. To give the title that effect, I played a little with the 'Outer Glow' and 'Drop Shadow' options from 'Bevel and Emboss' option for the layer style (fx) and of course, I picked a nice shade of yellow for it (an old gold like yellow). The book is called 'The Ultimate Book for Druids' and its content is made of types of ancient sorcery updated to the modern world. I knew from the start that the texture for the pages is going to look like they were ripped out from the book and put back together eventually.
I decided to replace the latches of the book with a leaf, as it is iconic for nature and extend the meaning to a metaphorical sense, opening the book by releasing the leaf could mean that no druid sorcery could be leashed outside the laws of nature. I was considering the fact that it could not be opened on a dark purpose, in this case the leaf growing and turning into a branch so it can better secure the book as it hides powerful sorcery that should not fall into the hands of evil. Of course, my vision would rely more on animation than on texturing (which I should focus on this year).

I really enjoyed creating this book, but most of all, I loved drawing the dragonfly and making it look alright on the main cover. I wish I could do a normal map only for my drawing, but I guess I could also use it in other projects on which it would look even better. 

As promised, here is the main concept for my book cover. It consists of a dragonfly featuring geometric shapes, as I wanted to depict the harmonic contrast between abstract geometry and bizarre perfection found in nature. I inspired myself by the geometrical tattoo art of Bicem Sinik and Okan Uckun, two artists whose work is worth searching for. 

The finished product will be an engraving on the front cover, which is why I chose not to colour it.

The book is supposed to be a handy guide for druids everywhere, detailing the many ways nature sneaks itself into their magic. The runes encasing the insect show a basic spell that allows the caster to turn into a dragonfly.

First Concept:

At first, I wanted to create a more fictional-looking book, but the 300 Tris limit forced me to change my mind. Firstly, I intended to make a hand print on the cover and 2 branches in bloom that block the book from being opened. Once a hand is put on the cover (a certain type of hand, of course, because I was thinking that this locking method is very efficient), the flowers on the branches fall off and they retreat slowly, allowing you to open the book. It would have looked a little lame, as instead of being able to create the animations, I could have only explained the concept. I started to make one branch and I haven't finished yet...moreover I have already used 846 Tris. I will try to post my sketch of the first concept here, as soon as I finish it.

Actual Concept:

I decided to make something simple, trying to rely more on the texture of the book. I created a simple book, with a little design around the spine and I tied it with a band (just because a ribbon or latches would suppose too many tris). I will post the model of the cover here, as I've already had an idea about it.