Behind the Scenes: Reaven Rave

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

Hiya, my title is Michael Hickman and I’m a 14-year-old dwelling within the US. I’m from Las Vegas, Nevada. I began utilizing Blender once I was 11 years outdated, after discovering a free instrument that allowed me to customise the software program to my liking. Earlier than then, I used Autodesk merchandise on the age of eight for CAD modeling, which I believed appeared horrible on the time.

Via utilizing Blender, I discovered similarities with polygonal modeling in different applications and was in a position to rapidly get a primary understanding of the software program. I continued to be taught and enhance my expertise by creating one thing new in Blender each week. I swap between realism and stylization in my work, and whereas I get pleasure from each, I discover that stylized artwork has a playfulness that’s not current in every other medium. I now use Blender and Krita for all my work and sometimes use Houdini for simulation.

INSPIRATION

My work is impressed by kids’s e-book illustrations. I am keen on the lovable and simplistic designs of the animals with their corresponding environments. The facial options in quite a lot of my works are a combination of various cute and kawaii arts that I discover on Pinterest, blended collectively to get my outcome.

PROCESS

My course of largely begins with mapping out a baseline for my work. I then add extra complexity and develop a character for the characters. To do that, I ask myself questions similar to: “The place are the ravens situated?” “What season are they in?” “What’s the climate?” This helps me to determine a baseline for my work.

MODELING

Modeling is pretty easy, utilizing a dice with a subdivision-surface to make its form spherical. This makes the item extra malleable and simpler to control.

The shrubs and grass are manufactured from a NURBS curve with subdivided cubes as leaves. I modeled the hat and raven utilizing primary shaping in sculpt mode with the elastic deform instrument. I intention for a glance that’s not too sharp or too clean, however good to make the piece look passable.

TEXTURING

For texturing, I make the most of a photograph of fingerprints, which I exploit at a low bump worth to create distortion on the mesh. Then, I’ve a noise node blended with a Voronoi node on the roughness to present a picket distinction and develop physicality within the texture. This creates a pleasant sheen that appears like you possibly can contact the mannequin itself. The grasses and shrubs use a coloration ramp node with an object information node to create randomness within the number of crops obtainable, producing extra distinction blended with complementary quantity shaders to generate ambiance.

COLOR SCRIPT AND DETAILS

I created a coloration palette via utilizing saturation and distinction inside Blender’s viewport, and I ran via renditions of the scene to see which of them stand out and seize the viewer’s eye. That is probably the most very important a part of my work, the place I exploit the MVP (Minimal Viable Product) methodology to push out one of the best work within the shortest time period. The small print are profound at this stage, the place I zoom in on particular areas to seize any attainable flat areas.

Fundamental coloration script draft with an thought of colours going via renditions.

LIGHTING

For lighting, I exploit a quantity blended with a Nishita sky and at last, combine it with a key mild to create a profound focus for the whole piece. This grabs the viewer’s consideration and enhances the textures of the atmosphere.

Lighting and atmosphere take a look at 1: