Project Cosmos

[Tovette]

Okay new update!

I've tweaked his palette a lot and added some more color to help with the 'mass' of the head and make it a bit more solid. I also started playing with the cloak, adding folds and whatnot. He's almost done I think; just a tad more stuff to do and I'll call him done.

[Freak]

You done a great Job Nate

[backstept]

man that looks awesome

what type of brushes do you use? would I be able to get a similar result with the default hard round brushes set to a very low opacity?
what do your layers look like?

[Ice-Dragon]

Outstanding work as always Nate

[Tovette]

Originally Posted by backstept

man that looks awesome

what type of brushes do you use? would I be able to get a similar result with the default hard round brushes set to a very low opacity?
what do your layers look like?

I mostly use a hard round brush, a feathered round brush and a textured brush. I do paint with my brushes set to about 50% opacity and with pressure falloff turned on so the less pressure I apply to the wacom table the more transparent the brush stroke becomes. Also, I use the smudge tool- alot. It's a bit of an under used tool in my opinion but with textured brushes you can get great mixes and interesting gradients with it.

As for layers, I usually start with a black drawing on a grey background. I use grey because it is a neutral color and it will compliment whatever color palette I use- black and white backgrounds will not. In fact straight black or white backgrounds can actually bias your color palette.

Anywho, after I get a sketch I like and go next to a grayscale rendering of the subject in a seperate layer under the line art layer. I never paint directly on the default background later in Photoshop.

Once I get a grayscale rendering the way I want- and its level of polish can vary greatly- I then flatten down the line art and the greyscale and then set the layer properties to hardlight as multiply just darkens everything too much and doesn't allow for color play.

I then make a new layer below the greyscale one and with a feathered brush, I start losely throwing down flat colors with a textured or hard round brush to get the base idea of what the local color of the surface will be. After that I then grab a complimentary color in the same temperature range and select a feathered brush at 50% with color dodge on. I also turn off air brushing. These colors will basically be a simple set up for where the primary light in the scene will be coming from and to lay down a blue print as to how I'm going to render out the forms of the subject. I usually paint with at least 3 lights in a scene, just like in 3D- a fill light, a bounce light, and a primary light. The primary light and bounce light are usually opposing colors that compliment eachother like blue and red, for example.

After I get that down I then start to render out the forms losely on the same layer under the greyscale but with color dodge off now, as I just sample the colors that I've laid out. Once I get a rough idea of what I painting down, I then make a new layer above the greyscale layer and start painting on top of everything. Eventually I'll merge the three layers together to keep things simple and continue to paint.

A simple rule to remember with digital painting is that if you use a soft brush too much you'll get a mushy painting and if you use a hard brush you'll get a faceted, hard rendering. You have to balance out the two.

Hope that helps.

[bbzwbbzw]

Thanks for sharing your work flow Nate, I for one can't wait to give it a go!

[Tovette]

All done!!



There are still some races left on the galaxy map that I gotta fix up but I think I'll take some time this weekend to start on another Belkuri military uniform.

[somacruz145]

Now that looks bada** Are you going to do the rest of him ?

[Freak]

Very Nice Nate, you done a bang up job with this one!

[Tovette]

Originally Posted by somacruz145

Now that looks bada** Are you going to do the rest of him ?

yes eventually there will be full body renders of the aliens.