Gare's non-Xara Art

[Gare]

I just did a 700 page document for the past two months, and needed to get something like this out of my system.

;)

I painted the flames in after rendering the scene. Look at a photo of a candle flame sometime, do a Google search; you'll discover that they are easier to paint convincingly than you'd imagine.

[wizard509]

They look pretty good Gare.

[Gare]

Thanks, Larry. You are a very talented physical painter, so I think you understand intuitively that photorealism depends a lot on interesting and correct lighting. The composition is actually just a bunch of cylinders, but it's the color and lighting that adds the illusion that it's a photo.

My Best,
Gary

[wizard509]

Yeah I understand that Gare. Wish I were as good with Graphics on the computer as I was doing my stuff by hand. Oh well, I try anyway and usually I like what I do.

[Gare]

Well, it's a relief that the MRI reveals no tumors or embolisms, but they did say some WD-40 regularly would keep the old wheels spinning.

I should be ready to resume my duties on Xara Xone is about two weeks.

[wizard509]

I think I could use some of that, just how do you go about getting it on the gears?

[Gare]

I was knocked out at the time, Larry, but I think they put them in through my ear, fairly non-invasive, easier that excavating my skull, and Titanium is supposed to be very bio-compatible. Let's see if I can become one of The Avengers now: Tick-Tock-Man.

Seriously, the whole fake X-Ray was done using Poser for the epidermis and the bones, then I designed gears in C4D, brought all the pieces into modo 501 which has a shader that simulates this sort of X-ray texture, render, post, done, Larry masks a funny comment.

My Best,

Gary

[Gare]

[Albacore]

I did a candle with flame years back in Pro 5 and then a few months later in Illy as I wanted to use it in Christmas card. He states modestly "I thought it worked" and it didn't take that long once I had the colours. I find in most of my work, when I was really drawing, that choosing the right colours was the hardest part of drawing the actual line part is just mechanical.

[Gare]

Ah, yes, back to post #261. Yes, color evaluation is a tricky thing, and a lot of times before I begin an illustration, I ask myself, "Is this a color-based composition, with minimal geometry, or is it geometric with very little regard to colors?"

Sometimes its both, but I don't believe I have the skills and mental processing maturity to consistently do both.

You want a more photorealistic illustrations, you first consider the light source in a room. What I did with the LUM candles was deliberately make it a room tone scene and then had the audacity to try to light the candles realistically. After all, you light candles in a dim room, very little lighting, right?

What I did for this scene is render it with light sources to illuminate the candles, but not flames themselves. Then I did an online search for "flames", studied them, and was eventually able to draw them to my satisfaction. Perhaps three pieces and I'll dig them up and post them when I get a chance (I'm still in a coma afet producing the October Xara Xone vid).

I'm going to write a tutorial someday soon called "tracing isn't cheating". I went (over the course of 40 years) from tracing over photos, to understanding what I was tracing, how it made real world sense, and eventually I still use resource material, but don't trace, however if you trace a photo you took yourself, it is hardly "cheating", in fact, I don't know what "cheating" is relative to artwork. In a sense, anyone who uses a calculating machine that can provide information for you about a scene that would take you weeks to mentally calculate is...a time-saver, not a cheating device.

QED, anyone who uses QuickBooks to do their taxes is "cheating"!

Learn the true gist of good photography, study it and see why it provokes what it does, and then embrace what you've discovered and use it in your own work.

My Best,

Gary