Blog - Matt Leese Creative Studio

Zenirith at the Gala

Matt Leese — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 22:28:00 +0000

I’ve again updated the artwork for my D&D character to show how she looked while attending a formal, fancy gala event. Eyes up here…

Also take a look at her first year look and second year look.

Zanotta William Couch

Matt Leese — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 02:01:32 +0000

I’ve developed this lovely 3D couch with decorative pillows and throw blanket after receiving guidance from yet anther tutorial provided by Blender Guru. The biggest takeaway from this project was learning how to use the cloth simulator and cloth sculpting tools to emulate soft fabric materials.

Textures provided by Poliigon

Zenirith, Prismari Student

Matt Leese — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 01:50:39 +0000

I’ve developed updated artwork to represent my D&D character having entered 2nd year at the Strixhaven School of Mages. She selected to enter the Prismari College, which is focused on expression, creativity, and the arts. Along with robes that match the college red and blue color motif, she also got a Coiling Grasp tattoo, a haircut, and the slightest bit of confidence expressed on her face.

Click here to see the original for comparison.

Coffee Cup

Matt Leese — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 01:24:00 +0000

This is from another tutorial provided by Blender Guru in which I learned about using transparent materials and making realistic static liquid. I decided to take things further and add bubbles/foam to the surface of the coffee, which ended up taking multiple tries and a combination of two different methods before I was satisfied with the result. Huge props to Bad Normals for his tutorial on making realistic foam in Blender.

Wood, condensation, and surface imperfection textures provided by Poliigon | HDR provided by Poly Haven

Mastercraft Shop Wooden Geometric Ceiling Light

Matt Leese — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 01:59:00 +0000

My sister got this ceiling light from Mastercraft Shop on Etsy and I thought it was pretty neat, so I decided to model it. What I thought was going to be pretty easy actually turned out to present a few unique challenges that I worked through and learned from, including the importance of topology flow even in simple objects, creating texture variation in duplicate objects, and a little help creating my own light bulb based on a tutorial from Blender Guru. The official images of the light on the Etsy shop are actually slightly different from the actual product, which is what I sought to capture.

Wood texture provided by Poliigon | HDR provided by hdrlabs.com

Søborg Chair

Matt Leese — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 02:38:31 +0000

A 3D model of the Søborg Chair by Fredericia Furniture, completed as practice using Blender from this tutorial series by Blender Guru on YouTube. I’m starting to get the hang of this a bit more and proud of the fact that I was mostly staying ever so slightly ahead of the tutorial in terms of correctly guessing what steps I should take next and how to do them. This time around, I found things easier than the anvil, mostly because I didn’t have to do any sculpting or baking normals, but there were still a few interesting challenges and valuable lessons learned.

Wood texture provided by Poliigon

Anvil

Matt Leese — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 16:13:59 +0000

This is from another tutorial provided by Blender Guru in which I learned intermediate fundamentals with modeling, UV unwrapping, sculpting, bump maps/baking normals, and texturing.

Honestly, producing this object was much more challenging than the donut I had made previously and despite how great it turned out in the end, I know there is plenty of things I could improve through more practice and learning the seemingly endless features of Blender and other 3D software. I’d say my biggest struggle was with baking the normals of my high-poly sculpted mesh to the low-poly mesh. It may not be evident, but there are visible creases along the UV seams that I don’t really know how best to fix despite trying multiple recommended tricks and much frustration.

Still, for the purpose of completing a tutorial, I am quite pleased with the results.

Metal texture provided by Poliigon | HDR provided by hdrlabs.com

3D Donut

Matt Leese — Fri, 27 May 2022 15:45:49 +0000

I’m trying to get back into 3D modeling again and decided to run through a tutorial on YouTube to create a donut in Blender as a way of getting up to speed. Blender Guru did an excellent job with his Blender 3.0 Beginner Donut Tutorial, despite there being a LOT of complicated features to figure out in Blender just to create something seemingly so simple. I think with a bit more practice, I can hopefully start getting the hang of it because there is a lot I’d like to try doing with this amazing software.

In the process of following along, I ended up created two versions, one for a static rendered image and one for a fun animation.

Zenirith, Tiefling Sorcerer

Matt Leese — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 01:07:00 +0000

As part of a recently-started Dungeons & Dragons campaign, I opted to do a detailed rendering of my character. She’s a Tiefling Sorcerer with Draconic Origin, specifically blue dragons, which accounts for the blue scales she has on her skin and a bit of a proficiency with lightning-based spells. This is my first finished piece using the Procreate app on my iPad, rendered in between watching episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

~40 hours | Procreate

Click here to see her updated look.

COVID-19 Awareness Ribbon

Matt Leese — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 23:46:00 +0000

A friend of mine mentioned that his cousin was looking to get a COVID-19 awareness ribbon designed that looked like toilet paper and then get it printed on T-shirts with some of the proceeds going to fund medical research for the virus. I personally don’t want to capitalize on this epidemic and so I did the design for free.

What do you think? Humorous? In good taste? Too soon?

Michigan Comic Con 2019

Matt Leese — Wed, 01 May 2019 19:49:00 +0000

I will be exhibiting my art prints for sale at the Michigan Comic Con in Detroit, MI from Friday, August 16th until Sunday, August 18th. Find me in Artist Alley to say hi and pick up one of my prints.

Cobo Center (Hall C) [Map]

Friday, August 16, 2019 | 12:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Saturday, August 17, 2019 | 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Sunday, August 18, 2019 | 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Really Cool Comic Con 2019

Matt Leese — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 19:56:00 +0000

I will be exhibiting my art prints for sale at the Really Cool Comic Con in Howell, MI on Saturday, July 20th. Find me in Artist Alley to say hi and pick up one of my prints.

Hartland Community Center [Map]

Saturday, July 20, 2019
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Skia: Twili Hexblade Warlock

Matt Leese — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 21:24:00 +0000

A client reached out to me after seeing my Larien: Twili Rogue piece being sold on my Etsy page and requesting that I develop an illustration in a similar style for a character in a Legend of Zelda-based D&D tabletop game. It had honestly been a while since I had done such a piece and took him up on the offer. Apart from having a basic character drawing and description, he gave me some details about a dungeon they had recently explored and a particular Like-Like creature they had encountered. Being a hexblade warlock, Skia used a fatal blow sword drawing attack using her blade that bore a strange resemblance to Ghirahim’s sword.

Winged Notary Logo

Matt Leese — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 20:30:00 +0000

Here’s another logo I just did for a client’s mobile notary service. She is quite the fan of birds, particularly parrots, so I worked that into the design to help provide a feeling of swift mobility.

I’ve included some of the variations for this logo. Which is your favorite?

Hush 2018 Ad

Matt Leese — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 20:39:00 +0000

Another year of working with the folks at Hush Haunted Attraction to develop what both they and I consider some of my best work for them yet. This year’s theme really allowed me to use some neat photography to compose a creepy scene complete with haunted cabin, gnarled trees, cemetery, fog, and underground bunker. It was a bit of a rush job but I had a fun time working on it.

hushhauntedattractions.com

Sponge SFX Logo

Matt Leese — Fri, 04 May 2018 20:43:00 +0000

I have had some fun developing a logo for my friend and fellow creative, Zelda Flanagan. What do you think?

Check out her website here: www.spongesfx.com

Edit: Please see Zelda’s new site, Project Worldbuilder

Project HEAL Event Flyer

Matt Leese — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 20:51:00 +0000

I volunteered to help a friend with an event flyer. It took a few iterations to match with the client’s wishes for accurate representation, but the overall concept remained virtually the same from the first draft. The organization, called Project HEAL, helps provide access to healing for all people with eating disorders. Check out their website here: theprojectheal.org

Hush Advertising 2016

Matt Leese — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 20:55:00 +0000

The last few months have been devoted to various projects to Hush Haunted Attraction and the various other attractions the organization is creating for the 2016 year. The latest images still in the works are some major edits to some photos that need some zombification, warts, gore, and spookiness.

Hush Haunted Attraction Ad 2015

Matt Leese — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 21:03:00 +0000

I just completed putting together an ad for Hush Haunted Attraction for Fear Finder magazine. I'll be posting it as soon as it's been published and I get the all-clear. It was a very fun project that I got to work on with my friend who works with the owners of the attraction. I can't wait to see the commercial he comes up with!

New Website!

Matt Leese — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 20:29:00 +0000

I'm excited to start using Squarespace to show off my website!

To view all blog posts prior to this one, visit my Blogspot page.