Digital Art Zone

More about the commercial illustration in next post - First an Introduction:
Also see thread: “Making Real-Life Figurines”

I’ve done illustration and paintings for publications, books, magazines (all digital now) for over 40 years and I really dig 3D art and modeling.
This thread shows some images and a few techniques of how-I-do it.
I am by no means an expert, so if anyone has a better way, please show and tell.
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To learn more about what I do and who I’ve done it for click on the links in my address line at the bottom of the posts. 
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I’m working on products (figurines and novelty gifts) for the mass retail market
Go to http://issuu.com/nateowens/docs/licensingconcepts?mode=window&backgroundColor;=#222222
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NEXT: Examples using 3D in some of my illustration projects for publications and clients
Scroll Down for more like

+ Sci-Fi art using a posing robot
+ How Hexagon Saved the Day
+ Using Poser to set up an illustration
+ Money Sharks - A business illustration using Hexagon and Carrara
+ A chained heart - Illustration for an article on bad relationships

“Time Eternal” illustration for an article discussing different aspects, concepts on time

Hey Nate, good to see you here, will be interesting too see your work

Gedd - 16 July 2012 12:36 PM

Hey Nate, good to see you here, will be interesting too see your work

  Thanks… hope I can contribute something useful, if no more than an idea of a different way to use some of the tools

Hexagon Saved My Bacon!

The Augusta National - where the Masters Golf Tournament is played…

My assignment was to do interior cut-aways of the clubhouse, trophy room, library and dining room and some other facilities
That place is very private and usually allows no cameras, but for this I took along a photographer and we took quick shots around inside each room and I took some notes… then back to the studio.

If I’d done this in a conventional drawing and the perspective was off or anything lert out or changed it would have been a disaster.
I modeled every stick of furniture, every chair, table cabinet and trophy case in Hexagon and that worked out the perspective as well as providing art that could be rotated and viewed from any angle… then I rendered in Carrara did some photoshop tricks so it would look more like a pencil architects drawing instead of a hard surface typical 3D job. Client liked it and it was later picked up by a publisher of a golf magazine in the UK

The library and some of the items in the room, and some details of Eisenhower’s desk and other things

Poser… Great asset for an illustration as a guide

This illustration was for an article about a dad and his son going over some old family letters
Didn’t want a hard slick looking 3D render for this client, so set the poses up in Poser, modeled and rendered the pen using Hexagon and Carrara, did some drawing in PhotoShop, a little filtering and touches with Painter and came out with a winner

In the old days, they used wooden manikins for posing or took photos - Poser is cheaper and much faster

Carrara and Hexagon Rule!

Illustration for a business story on protecting your savings and wise handling of money
Some 3D goodness and some Photoshopping and done… ready for next assignment

Sometimes 3D is just part of the solution…

I modeled the sleigh in this painting for a Leanin’ Tree Christmas card so I could get the angle and details right, and painted the scene using Photoshop and Corel Painter.
Having the ability to model some things, rotate them and get the perspective right is a huge time saver.
Commercial work is all about moving along and meeting deadlines

Hexagon/Carrara at work

Working out how to wrap the chain around the heart for this project was doable in Hexagon.
A challenge - but using the paths and edit path functions did the trick
Rendering in Carrara

A Figurine Project - Hexagon/Carrara

This one was experimental.
Had a service bureau do the ZCorp 3D print and then had the mold made from that for resin castings
(No photo of the resin castings… they were bronze color)

Bob Dylan meets Hexagon
The Bob was doing a concert in a nearby city and I was commissioned to do a cover for this entertainment magazine.
I decided to do a 3D caricature of the icon, so used Hexagon to do the modeling and Carrara for the render

“Downsizing” layoffs said diplomatically
A quick stylized Carrara illustration for a business article on job cuts… simple

Poser and the pose-able Robot
This is no bone crusher but a useful robot I modeled with the body parts replacing body elements in Poser
He’s been pretty handy, from an illustration for a business article about job hunting in the hi-tech field to a few sci-fi paintings
“The Commuter” - A canvas print
“High-Tech Job Market” - illustration
“Do Androids Dream?” - A canvas print

Close Encounters of Some Kind
I was living in Florida near Cape Kennedy on the space coast and did a few illustrations about the NASA missions and other projects
This was a cover for a magazine about SETI - the world wide network of antennas and computers Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Some Poser, some Carrara and some Photoshop

What can I say…...............?

Amazing!!

Just go to show, how the software can be made to work for the professionals.