Behind the Scenes: Greatest Associates Eternally

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

My identify is Kamila Stankiewicz. I’m from Poland and I work professionally as an illustrator. I principally illustrate books for kids and younger folks, and till 2021, I had nothing to do with 3D.

Along with consuming cinnamon rolls, I like to create, draw, paint, learn, study, and uncover new methods to switch concepts, desires, and tales into visible language. I draw each at work and in my free time. My favourite strategies are watercolor, gouache, and digital portray, however I’m turning into more and more within the 3D world.

I’ve been working as a full-time illustrator since 2009, primarily illustrating books, comics, and animation for kids and younger folks, however I welcome new challenges. I hope to sooner or later illustrate my very own tales, of which there are loads!

I’ve approached Blender 3 times over the course of ten years. Twice, I did not get by way of the fundamentals, however the third time it clicked, because of the cult ‘donut tutorial‘ by Andrew Worth. I proceed to discover this system in my spare time, principally at nights.

INSPIRATION

With each new 3D mission, I attempt to study one thing new. On this case, I used to be interested by creating hand-painted textures and studying easy methods to use the BPainter add-on.

The inspiration got here from one among my illustrations, “Greatest Good friend Eternally,” which was painted in Infinite Painter. It depicts a relatively uncommon friendship blossoming in a graveyard between a lonely ghost and a stone angel statue.

The illustration had cool potential, as there was a narrative spelled out in it and the characters, already within the 2D model, had a easy, stylized look.

MODELING

I skipped the sculpting section for the faces and went straight into modeling. Each characters have relatively easy shapes, so I believed it could be simpler this fashion.

As a 2D artist, I believed sculpting could be essentially the most attention-grabbing half for me, however surprisingly, I discovered that I get pleasure from modeling extra. Moreover, skipping the retopology half is at all times a plus.

The ghost lady mannequin consists of separate elements: the physique with an elongated tail, eyes, hair, and caftan. The stone angel consists of: the determine, kaftan, hair, eyes, robe, and wings. I notably loved creating the angel’s hair and giving it a sharper edge with the Curve Brush (curve technique). I deliberate to animate each fashions, so I created them within the ‘A-pose’.

TEXTURING

Subsequent, I moved on to the UV unwrapping stage and created separate textures for each characters utilizing BPainter, a paid add-on.

I used to be desperate to learn the way the add-on’s layer system works, because it makes portray on a mannequin extra much like portray in a graphics program, whereas additionally permitting the usage of numerous properties of PBR supplies, equivalent to glowing eyes and ghost hair.

I admit that it took me a while to get accustomed to this add-on, but it surely was price it.

POSING

I used the free add-on Rigify to pose the fashions.

In each instances, I eliminated the leg bones. For the angel, it was easier, because it remained stationary from the waist down. The ghost’s tail needed to wrap across the statue, so I created additional bones for it and turned them into flexible bones.

This was my first time working with any such bone, so it took me loads of time and a few nerves. However, one other merchandise on my record of issues to study in Blender was crossed off!

SCENE

As soon as the characters have been posed, I created the remainder of the scene- the grass utilizing the particle system, low poly graves with my previous and current nicknames (do not ask, it is in all probability one thing for a psychiatrist to deal with); and all these little particulars which give the scene a little bit of taste and ambiance: fireflies (glowing spheres), a little bit crow, bats, a whimsical fence fabricated from mushrooms and crops (not too many to keep away from distraction), a background with a watercolor texture, a crooked moon and a few stars, and snow (utilizing the particle system).

A really cool activity was including fog to the scene by making a dice and giving it a quantity materials. By adjusting the values within the nodes, I used to be in a position to simply create the fog animation.

LIGHTING

The lighting on this scene represents the 2 predominant characters. The blue, chilly mild represents the useless lady and her paranormality, sense of coldness, and loneliness. The nice and cozy mild coming from the candle symbolizes life and heat, and the concept somebody nonetheless remembers her. Each level lights illuminate the figures from under to present them a spooky look.

Extra space lights are used to light up the graves from behind, creating rim lights to convey out their silhouettes.

ANIMATION

The final activity was a small animation exhibiting the interplay between the 2 heroines (and the truth that each usually are not very good ;), permitting you to expertise the ambiance of the cemetery on a chilly winter night time. This stage was the longest and undoubtedly wants refinement, however at this level, my expertise on this space don’t enable me to do it higher.

Nonetheless, I hope I used to be in a position to convey the story I had in thoughts whereas portray this illustration. I’ll save studying the intricacies of animation for future initiatives!