The Art Of Roberto Campus

Photoshop Tutorial: Bioshock Videogame Digital Painting

roberto — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 22:08:18 +0000

In this walkthrough I explain how I used Photoshop and a Wacom Tablet to paint a character from the new videogame Bioshock for GamePro Magazine. This walkthrough gives you an overview on how to use textures in a digital painting. Enjoy!

I painted this piece over line art by Joe Ng (another artist on the UDON team) for the August 2007 issue of GamePro Magazine. This piece required extensive use of textures because of the rusty metal elements on the character’s suit. I used Photoshop 7 and a Wacom Intuos tablet. My favorite tablet is the Wacom Intuos 3 6×8. See my tutorial on choosing the right graphic tablet.

Step 1 - Line Art

This was the easiest part: I just opened the file and there it was! Great line art from my fellow UDON artist Joe Ng.

Step 2 - Flats

A fairly complicated piece like this one, requiring several different textures, calls for an extra step in the process: Flats. As explained in my previous tutorial on how paint a Wonder Woman pin up, flatting is a technique borrowed from the comic book industry. In simple terms, each area is filled with a base color (metal, belts, clothing, etc.) to serve as a basis for the following coloring steps. I usually flat using different layers, one for each element of the figure. For example, in this case, I add all the metal parts in their own layer (see the yellow-ish areas in the image above); one layer for the clothing (the grey areas) and so on.

Step 3 - Textures

Textures are what makes this piece in the end. The trick here is to add several different kinds of textures and to have them applied to only certain areas (i.e. the helmet). A simple way to achieve this is as follows:

Create a new layer (let’s call it “my texture” for simplicity) above the layer you want to apply the texture to.
Open a texture image and copy and paste it into the “my texture” layer.
Set the texture layer blend mode to Overlay.
Now you can see through and how the texture looks as applied on the layer below.
Change the texture layer opacity as needed. I usually have it at 20% or less.
Move the texture around to make sure you find the best fit.
Assuming you have a flat of the area you want to apply the texture on already on its own layer, select its transparency.
Select the texture layer.
Add a layer mask: Layers –> Add Layer Mask –> Reveal Selection

Now the texture covers only the area that is supposed to. Using a layer mask gives you flexibility. It’s much better than simply deleting the area of the texture you don’t want to show because if you do so, you can’t go back and move the texture around later on and make adjustments.

Step 4 - Shadows

Once happy with the textures, I painted the shadows on the figures using an adjustment layer set on multiply. See my Wonder Woman tutorial for details on this technique. The shadows layer is above all other layers in this case. See a detail below:

Step 5 - Details

In this stage I refined the character, added more shadows and details. I left highlights for the next step.

Step 6 - Highlights

This is where I really had fun! I like to paint highlights at the end. It usually is the most satisfying part of the process. Usually, adding highlights and incidental light really brings my paintings to life.

For highlights, I add a new layer above all others and paint the details in, usually zoomed in at 200%. I used several rusty metal custom made brushes I created earlier and some I had to create specifically for this piece. See close-up below to see the results:

Let me know if you liked this :)

New GamePro Magazine Cover Painting

roberto — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 02:51:46 +0000

I had the honor to paint the cover for GamePro again recently. It’s out now, the August 2007 issue, featuring 3 characters from super well known videogames: Assassin’s Creed, MGS and Metroid Prime. The line art art was drawn by Joe Ng (another UDON artist).

Check out the high resolution version here on the UDON’s deviant art page: http://udoncrew.deviantart.com/art/Gamepro-Cover-Trio-59716006

And here’s a link to the entry in my gallery. If you like it or have bought the magazine, leave a comment :)

Roberto

Downloads : Rusty Metal Yellow Paint Texture

roberto — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 02:35:12 +0000

This texture is the first of a long series of metallic textures I will be posting on my site for download. Some time ago I took tons of pictures of heavy construction equipment (bulldozers, excavators, etc) at a construction site nearby. It was the perfect place to get close-ups photos of gritty metallic surfaces. Pure texture heaven : dirty, scratched and rusty surfaces just waiting to be captured!

I made this texture pretty seamless. To use in Photoshop, open the file. Then do a “Select All”. Then do “Edit –> Define Pattern” and voila’ you are now ready to fill any empty layer with this texture (use the paint bucket tool set on pattern for that).

Note: You have my permission to download this texture and use it in your artwork only. Leave a comment and let me know if you do. It’s always nice to hear my work is appreciated.

Here it is (click on the download link below to download the full size texture file):

Enjoy!

Photoshop Tutorial: Wonder Woman Pin Up Digital Painting

roberto — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:27:24 +0000

In this Photoshop tutorial I will show how I used Photoshop and a Wacom Tablet to create a digital illustration of a voluptuous Wonder Woman pin up. The tutorial reveals one of my digital painting techniques with a step by step walk through including images for each stage and layer settings. Enjoy!

Introduction:

Wonder Woman is an iconic figure in the comic book world. She is an amazon princess called “Diana” after a Greek goddess (Artemis). One of the most recognized characters in the pantheon (pardon the pun) of the DC Comics universe. Wonder Woman first appeared in the early 1940s and since then has been a favorite of millions of fans on comics, tv series (Linda Carter anyone?) and cartoons. I created this pieces as an homage to the character. I chose to paint her in a pin-up pose because I am also a big fan of the pin up genre and I loved the chance to portray Wonder Woman in a way that is seldom done.

Step 1 : Sketch

This is where your knowledge of anatomy and the human form come into play. The female body is especially hard to draw realistically, so for this sketch I shot some reference photos of a model. There is no shame in using reference, especially in the illustration field (where it is the norm). With the photos aside, I proceeded to draw the pose from scratch, paying attention to proportions, anatomy (you can see a hint of bone structure and muscles in my sketch). A good way to get good at drawing the female body is to draw from life and from photos as often as you can. Learn how each part correlates to the rest and what the proportions are in relation to arms, body, head, legs, etc. With practice it is possible to become very proficient.

Photoshop Technique: I created a new image. I left the background layer white. Added a new empty layer on top and renamed it “sketch”. I sketched the drawing on the “sketch” layer with a small brush with low opacity. To paint this sketch, I used Photoshop 7 and a Wacom Intuos tablet. My favorite tablet is the Wacom Intuos 3 6×8. See my tutorial on choosing the right graphic tablet.

Tip: While sketching, flip your drawing horizontally once in a while. It will help you find problem areas. Flipping your drawing might help you see where proportions are incorrect. Use Edit –> Transform –> Flip Horizontal.

Step 2: Line Art

The goal of this step is to obtain a pretty good line art drawing. You can’t move to the next stage unless the line art is done properly. It will save you time and headaches later. I referenced Wonder Woman’s costume from several images I found on the web, but kinda changed it a bit to make it fit my vision for it. In other words, I made sure that our heroine would appear sexier and …ehmm.. well “stacked” as to say :)

Photoshop Technique: I added a new empty layer above the “sketch” layer and named it “line art”. I set the opacity of the “sketch” layer to 15% to make it barely visible. I then drew the finalized line art on the “line art” layer with a small brush. Once the line art drawing was finished I turned off the sketch layer.

Tip: At this stage is very useful to zoom in closer, at least 200%.

Step 3: Flats

Flatting is a technique borrowed from the comic book industry. Each area is filled with the base color (skin, clothes, hair, etc.) to serve as a basis for the following coloring steps. Flats are essential when coloring comics especially and I like to use the same technique to paint digital illustrations. You will see later how having flats gives you great control over each part of the painting. Flats allow you to apply adjustments selectively to each part without touching the rest.

Photoshop Technique: I added a new layer under the line art layer and called it “skin”. I created a selection that covered the figure completely and filled it with a base skin color. Above this layer, I created another empty layer and called it “metal”. I proceeded to outline a selection of all the metal accessories on the body of Wonder Woman and filled it with a yellowish gold color. This will allow me to paint inside the metal parts only. I stacked this layer above the skin layer (hold the ALT key and click on the line between layers to do this). I did the same thing for the “clothes” layer. See the layer screen capture to see the layers at this point.

Tip: Instead of using the selection tool to define the flats area you can use the pen tool (press “P” on the keyboard). Lately, I have been using this method more and more often. It’s a bit slower but you end up with perfect shapes that very precisely follow the line art outlines.

Step 4: Chiaroscuro (light and dark)

This is where the fun beings and the true power of this techniques shines! Photoshop 7 (or 6?) introduced adjustment layers and fill layers. To paint the shadows in, I use another trick borrowed from my comic coloring arsenal. Instead of actually painting directly on the flats, I paint in the mask of a fill layer set on multiply. This is extremely versatile because you can add, modify, smooth and paint as much as you want on this layer. Areas where the layer opacity is visible darkens whatever is on the layers below (in this case: skin, clothes and metal elements). It is easier to understand this technique if you refer to the layer setup screen shot. It is at this stage that my Wonder Woman’s voluptuous female body started to become more tri-dimensional.

Photoshop Technique: I created a new Fill layer (called “dark”) above the flats layers, but below the line art layer. I also stacked this layer inside the base flats layer “skin” so that this layer content’s would show only inside the area of the flat layer below. I set the “dark” layer mode to Multiply. Using a medium opacity smooth brush I painted in the shadows. I switched between the brush tool and the smudge tool continuously until I got the result I was looking for.

Tip: While you paint in a fill layer or an adjustment layer you are only actually working on the layer mask. Using white and black you define the layer opacity. White pixels are visible, black pixels are transparent. While you paint on this layer using the brush tool, you can use the “X” key shortcut on the keyboard to switch between black and white so you can add or remove opacity as needed. Also use the smudge tool often (“R” key shortcut) to blend in your brush strokes. This is a technique borrowed from my traditional oil painting background.

Step 5: Finalizing the chiaroscuro (darker shadows)

At this point it’s all about volume and shapes. My sexy Wonder Woman’s body needed darker areas to further refine her shapely curves ;) Some areas needed highlights also.

Photoshop Technique: I created another Fill layer (called “darker”) above the original “dark” layer. I also stacked this layer inside the base “skin” flats layer. Again, the “darker” blending mode is set to Multiply. Here I painted additional shadows where needed. Using another layer for darker shadows gives me extra control. At this stage I also added 2 adjustment layers to enhance the figure’s contrast and saturation. First, I created a new Curves adjustment layer above the shadows layers and changed the curve profile so to add more red tones to the highlights and more blue in the darker areas. This simple step usually helps achieve a natural flesh tone look. I also added a Color Balance adjustment layer and did some additional tweaking. Finally, I added some incidental light highlights on the left side of the figure. To do this I added a new empty layer below the line art layer and painted a light blue halo near the edge using a smooth brush.

Tip: Adding incidental light usually helps enhance the tri-dimensionality of a figure considerably.

Step 6: Details

The final step is where the details and final adjustments are made. This is where I finalized her face, the metal elements and the whip.

Photoshop Technique: First, I linked all the layers (from the skin layer to the line art layer) and merged them together into a single layer. I duplicated this layer and then zoomed in to paint details using a medium opacity pressure sensitive brush with smooth edges. While painting, once again, I switched to the smudge tool to blend in brush strokes. To enhance the highlights I used the Dodge tool in small areas where a bright spot was needed. Use the dodge tool sparingly though.

Tip: It is sometimes useful to keep copies of earlier stages of a layer you are painting on, just in case you feel like the painting took a wrong turn and you want to go back to a previous stage.

Final Wonder Woman Pin Up:

Check out the final version of this image in my gallery where you can see her with a background.

If you liked this tutorial you might enjoy this link: Wonder Woman stuff

New version of my gallery and fantasy art prints store!

roberto — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:11:51 +0000

This past week-end I have updated my gallery look. It now looks like the rest of my site. Feel free to browse through it and comment on the pieces that you like the most. Feedback is always appreciated.

Also, big news, I have re-launched my prints store! Now you can order prints of some of my most popular fantasy pieces through cafepress. Only $8.99 for poster prints! A steal of a deal :)

Roberto

Tutorial: Choosing the right Wacom Tablet

roberto — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 02:01:13 +0000

In this tutorial I will introduce you to the benefits and features of a Wacom Tablet. You will find this tutorial especially useful if you are planning to get a Wacom Intuos or Wacom Graphire in the near future.

Following is my graphic tablet wisdom, as collected through my 15 years as a professional illustrator:

Choosing the right Wacom tablet model and size:

Choosing a tablet model and size that best fits your needs should be your first priority. Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to figure out which one will get you the most bang for the money.

If you are a home user interested in retouching photos and creating simple graphics for personal projects, I’d go for a Graphire 4 6×8. Very affordable and it comes with great bundled software : Photoshop Elements 3 and Corel Painter Essentials 2 to mention the most useful ones. The Graphire is available is 4×5, 6×8 sizes and three colors: white, silver and metallic blue.

If you are not a professional in the world of computer graphics yet but are interested in becoming one soon or eventually, you can invest in quality instead of quantity (size). I suggest you go for an Intuos. Start with a smaller model: Wacom Intuos 3 4×6 or 6×8.

Bigger is not necessarily better. After all, you can always upgrade to a larger one later on if you need to. I prefer the smaller size tablet myself, having had a 9×12 for several years I found it too big and requiring too sweeping arm movements so I have recently down-graded to a 6×8. It works just as good as the larger one, even with a 22” monitor.

Larger size tablets are best suited for artists used to large sweeping arm motions and for CAD users and technical illustrators. As for the model, I would go for an Intuos 3. They are more expensive than the Graphire model, but come with double the pressure sensitivity, better pen, better bundled software, programmable ExpressKeys and touch strip buttons and a definitely sleeker look. The Intuos pen tablets come in 6 different sizes: 4×6, 6×8, 6×11, 9×12, 12×19, 12×12 . If you work with multiple monitors, then you might consider the 6×11 wide-format model.

Needless to say, I strongly suggest you get a Wacom Tablet if you are serious about moving your creativity to the next level. Whether you are a budding digital artist, a graphics designer looking for faster production times, a traditional illustrator looking to add digital tools to your skill set, a professional photographer equipped with a digital camera who regularly uses Photoshop to retouch and adjust photos, there is a Wacom Tablet that will fit your needs. Of course you could mouse to create digital art (heck.. I did so for many years before upgrading to a tablet myself) but with a tablet you can transfer your artistic skill to the digital realm and cut your production considerably and have more time to be creative.

Choosing a graphic editing software:

Photoshop Elements is bundled with both the Wacom Graphire and Intuos 3 models. The only difference is that the Intuos line comes with Elements 4 and the Graphire line with Elements 3. Photoshop Elements has a solid set of tools and functionality that makes it ideal to retouch and manipulate photos (the software includes most of the same layers functionality of the full version of Photoshop) and when paired with a tablet it becomes a powerful, albeit inexpensive, graphic tool. I have used it to create logos, banners and other general graphic designs.

Photoshop and Corel painter are the perfect tools to pair with a tablet. Both softwares allow you to design your own brushes where you can apply the pen pressure sensitivity, use tilt and direction controls toward several brush parameters to obtain almost endless combinations.

For more complex work that needs to be prepared for print you will need the full version of Photoshop for its support of CMYK color, incredible set of web-design features, extensive brush customization controls and much more. From direct experience, CS2 is the best version of Photoshop so far. CS 3 is coming out soon but I am not sure it’s worth the upgrade price as the new features are not a huge leap forward unless you need precision measuring tools.

Outside of the Adobe family of products, you can find Paint Shop Pro. PSP is a solid alternative to Photoshop. I know several professionals in the comic book industry who use Paint Shop Pro regularly for their work. Also, it’s price is accessible to the average home-user, so it’s definitely worth a look.

Using the tablet instead of the mouse :

It’s fairly easy to get used to using the pen in place of the mouse. In fact most of the time, I prefer to do so. But in order for that to be comfortable, stick to a smaller sized tablet or customize the tablet to use a smaller surface area so you do not need to move your arm that much to reach for menus and icons on your screen.

Also, Wacom tablets come with a very precise mouse, only disadvantage is that it only works on the tablet surface. I would keep using a regular optical mouse and relegate the mouse that comes with the tablet as a backup.

I hope you have found this introduction to Wacom Tablet useful!

Next, I will post the first of a long series of articles full of tips and tricks to get the best out of your Tablet and Photoshop.

Photoshop Tutorial : Soul Eater Fantasy Digital Painting

roberto — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:24:35 +0000

This tutorial gives a detailed explanation on how to create a digital illustration using Photoshop and only a mouse as the input device. Of course, the tutorial also applies to users who own a graphic tablet (I recommend Wacom). The tutorial was featured in the book Digital Fantasy Painting by Ilex Press.

Step 1 - The sketch

For this digital painting, I used Photoshop 6, an optical mouse on a Pentium 300Mhz with 128 MB of memory, displayed at 1024×768 resolution on a 17″ monitor.

This tutorial explains a method and technique especially useful when the only input tool available is a mouse and a keyboard, no graphic tablet.

This drawing was inspired by a vivid vision from a nightmare.

The first and most important step for me is to set the right mood for the illustration. I chose to use an orange background color because flesh tones can be easily rendered from it.

I then sketched the main subject on a separate layer (set on multiply) that I kept above the plain colored background.

At this stage, I used the Paintbrush tool set on normal mode with a 10% - 50% opacity black smooth brush varying in size from 5 to 80 pixels wide.

To avoid slowing down the computer during the sketching process I prefer working in low resolution (72 DPI). This way I can draw enjoying a more natural flow without having to worry about Photoshop catching up on my last stroke.

Also, I did not spend any time on details during this phase: I fully concentrated on roughing out the shapes, volume and composition.

Step 2 - Turning on the light

Sketch finished, I resized the image to a higher resolution (300 DPI). The focus shifted to refining the lighting in the sketch layer.

For this stage I employed an opacity “subtraction” technique. I relied heavily on the eraser tool (10%-30% opacity medium sized hard-edged brush) to lighten up areas that were too dark.

While sketching, I had decided that the main light source would be positioned very high above the subject, almost perpendicular to it.

The perfect place for a light source when you need it to cast strong and dramatic shadows.

I zoomed in to 200% and started working on the demon’s head. Where I felt a highlight was needed I erased pixels to reveal the orange background below.

I imagined the demon skin as being very rough and wrinkly, with many heavy folds layered on each other.

I begun defining its base texture by adding smaller highlights (with a 5 pixel wide hard-edged brush) where I felt skin creases and folds should go.

Once finished with the highlights, I was left with a very light amount of pixels on the figure layer. I planned this, because the next phase in the drawing was mostly based on smudging.

Step 3 - Details

Here is where all the rough edges disappear and the highlights blend in.

The smudge tool is the slowest Photoshop painting tool and I find its performance not to be fast enough, not even on a powerful PC. This is why I made sure to arrive to this step with the least amount of pixels to smudge.

Also, while working on this step I paid careful attention to every brush stroke so to avoid having to go back and fix areas of the drawing later on in the process.

Mostly, I used the smudge tool set to normal mode, 40% opacity and a brush size from 10 to 30 pixels wide. The goal was to blend all the highlights I had put in place before, making sure at the same time to shape all the skin folds and creases in a very organic (and twisted!) way.

After having blended the highlights in, I had to use the paintbrush tool to darken many areas. I applied short strokes of black pixels where needed and then I smudged them and shaped them to add detail to shadows that were lacking in strength. This is a technique I use when I paint in real media (oil colors on board) and I love to apply it to the digital medium.

This step was definitely the slowest part of the whole process (probably 35 hours of work, 2-3 hours a day for a few weeks).

Step 4 - Textures

Once I finished adding details and finer shadows, I decided that in order to add more realism to the main figure, I had to apply textures to it.

I started by flattening the main figure and the background layers into a single one. To create the texture, I scanned the skin on the palm of my hand at 600 DPI and saved it in Photoshop format (PSD).

I opened the new file in Photoshop and I created a seamless pattern (using the clone stamp tool to blend areas closer to the edges). I tested out the pattern to see if it would tile without a seam and when I was happy with the results I saved it as a PSD file.

Next, I went back on editing the demon illustration. I used the mask tool to create a selection that would encompass the main figure and then I saved the selection as an alpha channel (for later use).

To apply the newly created texture I used the Texturizing filter. I set its size at 150% with relief set on 10. After the filter was applied, I used the recent Photoshop feature that allows to “fade” out the last effect that was applied. I set the fade out value at 60% to reduce the strength of the texture on the main figure.

Now the skin had achieved a realistic gritty look that reminded me of elephant skin. The image was ready for the next step.

Step 5 - Final highlights

The dodge tool is my favorite tool when it comes to creating highlights on flesh. It is very helpful when used correctly.

I set the dodge tool to highlights and starting from a red-orange base, I easily brought up lighter oranges and yellow tones. I proceeded to apply the effect on all the areas that required highlights using a small brush and an exposure mostly set on 25%.

For lighting up larger areas I used the paintbrush tool set on “overlay” with a light color (yellow and white) and opacity of 10%. The overlay blending mode works really well when you need to add light to an area while at the same time avoiding drastically changing its hue (color), like the dodge tool often does.

During this step, once again, I add to darken many areas and also I colorized a few details of the subject such as the horns and teeth to give them a more yellow appearance.

I had fun adding many smaller additional details: a vast number of veins and skin folds, teeth, saliva and eyes on the heads embedded on the demon’s shoulder.

Step 6- Background and fine-tuning

The main subject was ready. All I needed now was a background and some minor foreground elements, such as the pool of liquid the demon is partially immersed in and the long stick/scepter in its tentacle’s grasp.

For the background I used 3D Studio Max to render a cave wall. The process would require a tutorial all on itself, but for simplicity I will explain the major step involved in it: I used a few rock textures I had created before. I blended them together into a seamless pattern and saved the image. I then imported it in 3D Studio and I assigned the pattern as a bump and diffuse material to an object that was illuminated by a single red light source.

The scepter in the demon’s tentacle was created in 3 steps. First I put the scepter on a separate layer (below the demon’s layer). Then a texture was applied to it using the texturizer. Finally I used the dodge tool to bring highlights up. I also drew a chain and a hanging skull on top of the scepter (this alone, took me 8 hours).

At this point, in order to blend everything together I had to have the demon on a separate layer. I went back to the demon’s layer and erased everything around its edges so to have only the demon remain. Now I loaded the rendered background image in a new layer and I moved it below the demon’s layer. I cleaned up a few stray pixels from the layers above the background and then I flattened the image.

What I was aiming for now was to join all the elements into a harmonious whole. I adjusted the image levels and colorized it until I obtained a more uniform feel and tone.

Painter Tutorial: Lord Of The Rings Characters Portraits

roberto — Tue, 29 May 2007 02:51:37 +0000

This tutorial explains the technique I used to paint portraits of 2 characters from the Lord Of The Rings movie using Corel Painter. The tutorial highlight: settings for the painbrush tool as used in this image shows you how to obtain a painterly style in your digital paintings using Corel Painter.

Step 1

This is a quick painting execise. I picked these characters because I am a big fan of the movie and book. As a reference, I used a frame of the movie’s DVD put on pause.

Anyway, this tutorial text is almost exactly the same as the one in my digital painting tutorial, since the technique is the same.

Here it goes:

I lookd at the subjects for a minute or two, trying to absorb it’s shapes, volume, colors and mood. After this brief time, I started loosely sketching the main shapes with a large brush with a 60% opacity.

I used a limited amount of colors, mostly the predominant colors in the subject. Very important at this stage, is to get all the shapes and volume right (or almost) before moving to any detail work.

Tool settings:

Step 2

Light and dark: With a smaller brush, and a very low opacity setting, I concentrate on capturing the subject’s lighter areas. After the larger lighter areas are set in place, I might switch to an even lighter color and use it to sketch some of the brigthest highlights. Then, I move to the darkest areas.

Blending: Now, I switch to the brushes tool. This tool enables me to obtain a very realistic blending of the strokes. Also, I like its feel and its dynamics. It takes time to blend colors with the brushes tool, but I make sure each stroke is well placed. Concentration and proper control of the stylus pressure are the key.

Tool settings for light and dark areas:
Tool settings for blending:

Step 3 (Final)

Final details and highlights. Anyway, using a smaller brush, I refined all the areas that needed more detail, especially the main features, such as the characters heads and clothes. At this final stage, I added highlights, especially in the eye and lips areas.

If you liked this tutorial, you might enjoy this link: Lord Of The Rings Stuff

Photoshop and Painter Tutorial: Monkey VS Robot

roberto — Fri, 25 May 2007 00:50:19 +0000

This tutorial explains how I used Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom Tablet to create a digital illustration for the Shadowfist Trading Card Game featuring a cybernetic monkey fighting against a robot. This tutorial also appeared on the the book Digital Fantasy Painting Workshop by Ilex Press.

Step 1 : The sketch

This illustration was done for a trading card game. I was required to paint an action scene, a fight, between a cybernetic monkey and a robot (not a modern looking one, but one closer to the ones from the old sci-fi movies from the ’50s).

This sketch was done using the Brushes tool on Corel Painter 7 and a Wacom Intuos 2 Tablet. Usually, I try to sketch as fast as I can, only concentrating on shapes, light and shadow, pose and action.

One factor to consider during the sketching process is that if you stop too often to THINK, rationalize, analize what you are sketching from your imagination, you may interfere with your right emisphere while it is hard at work, attempting to translate the image in your mind’s eye to your hand and then the paper/screen. Let it be an automatic process. Just let it flow.

Tool setting

Step 2 - Painting

This is the main stage where I paint the foreground elements. Still using the Painter “Brushes” tool and a medium opacity setting, I concentrate on reshaping all the forms to their final position and dimensions. I work on the lighting. At this point, I may use reference pictures for refining the way the light and shadow would play on the various parts of the subjects.

The robot was done completely from imagination, it consists of simple shapes and as such it was not too difficult to imagine how it would react to the light sources. Notice the yellow highlights added at this stage, I was already planning to add the electric sparks later on.

During this part of the process, I used a brush of various sizes, with smaller and more carefully positioned strokes.

Step 3 - Details and Background

At this point, I imported the image into Photoshop. Using the smudge tool (with very low opacity) I blended the brush strokes on the robot to give it a smoother metallic look.

Then, I used the dodge tool to add higlights to some areas that were still too dark, especially on the monkey’s arms and head and also on the robot’s right arm. I find the dodge tool very useful to get highlights in place quickly.

This technique is especially useful because time is a rare commodity for the commercial illustrator, especially when working on multiple projects. I then moved to add a bit more detail on the moneky’s fur by using the smudge tool with a small brush.

The smudge tool is extremely handy when working on hair, fur and any other flowing curved shapes, especially if you have a pressure sensitive tablet and stylus.

The background was then added using the regular paintbrush tool with a medium opacity and 0% hardness brush.

Step 4 - Effects and adjustments

Now that the painting was finished, I moved on to add various effects.

The first step, was to add the electric sparks. I painted them on a separate layer and then applied an “Outer Glow” effect.

I then moved on to soften the bright areas of the image (this is an effect I usually add to all my artwork). It goes as follows: I flattened the image to a single layer called “art”, I then duplicated the “art” layer and called it “glow”. I then applied a “Gaussian Blur” with a large radius effect to the “glow” layer, obtaining a very blurred image.

Now, I set the “glow” layer blending option to “Lighten” and lowered its opacity to 20%. Now, with the original layer showing through, the image highlights look softer and more natural.

Then I flattened the image again and then adjusted its brightness and luminosity using the “Levels” tool. As a finishing touch, the signature logo was added (it is large because the artwork would be very small on the trading card, and I wanted the logo to be still seen clearly).

Finished Image

Photoshop Tutorial : Howling Digital Painting

roberto — Thu, 17 May 2007 23:50:07 +0000

This Photoshop and Wacom Tablet tutorial originally published in the Digital Fantasy Painting Workshop book by Ilex Press, explains how I created the Howling digital painting illustration. The image features an angry demon ripping the heart off his victim’s chest (beware: nudity). The tutorials provides detailed instructions on the Photoshop brush settings I used to paint the image. This tutorial explains, in particular, how to quickly achieve flesh tones using Adjustment layers.

Step 1 - The sketch

The sketching was done at low resolution (72 DPI), for speed. It is important to stress that the faster the sketch is completed, the better it will be (usually true for me at least).

The best approach for me is to let the shapes flow from my hand to the screen without much interference. If I were to stop every few strokes I would loose the spontaneity that is key to a successful sketch.

I made severa sktchesl, in succession, all slightly different and all drawn on a new blank layer. I try to keep a constant brush size to avoid wasting time on sketching any details, that at this initial stage can be a distraction and could get in the way during the next phase.

Once I had a few interesting sketches separated on different layers, I compared them and picked the one I thought better conveyed the idea I had set out to illustrate.

Tool settings and notes:

When sketching in Photoshop, I use a medium hardness pressure sensitive round brush with a gray color. I prefer using this brush setting because it allows me to define shapes with clear edges with a few quick strokes.

Brushes tool settings:

Step 2 - Blocking

The blocking phase is where I concentrate on defining the volume of the figure: the way the light source (in this case a single spot light positioned above) illuminates the subjects. To achieve a high level of realism I decided to take a few reference snapshots with a digital camera. Lacking a model at the time, I posed for the pictures myself. I then imported the photos in Photoshop, desaturated them and and added a high level of contrast to maximize the highlights and shadows that I needed to refer to.

I resized the reference pictures to a small size and put them to the left of my main canvas window. I moved back on the sketch window and resized it to 300 DPI. I set the sketch layer in Multiply mode and added an empty layer below it that I filled with a black color. In this new layer, I then painted a flat shape following the edges of the sketch, using a 50% flat gray brush tip.

After the “flat” was done (this is a term borrowed from the comic industry), I proceeded to loosely build up the shadows in the the darker areas using several light strokes for each shadow. At this point, I deleted the sketch layer (but I kept a copy on a separate file). I saved all the highlights for the next step. While working on the blocking, I never zoomed in closer than 50%, to avoid falling in the trap of getting lost in time-consuming details.

Tool settings and notes:

For this stage of the process I rely on a 0% hardness (smooth edged) pressure sensitive brush set at 80% opacity. Having a pressure sensitive stylus and tablet is very useful when painting an image such as this where smooth flesh tones are prominent. Once again, I kept the brush size constant through this step until the very end where I hinted at some of the smaller details.

Brushes tool:

Step 3 - Main painting

For this stage, I zoomed in at 100% and started reshaping the anatomy to bring each muscle and visible bone structure to more exact and convincing shape and proportions. I did not spend much time blending the strokes, as the focus here was to add in highlights and lighter tones.

For the actual painting, I used a combination of short and light brush strokes while alternating between black and white brush tip colors using the x key (in order for this to work, I set up the brush foreground color as white and the background color as black).
I accentuated some shapes with darker lines, and also brought to prominence the lightest spots with a few touches of pure white.

Often, I zoomed out to get a feel on the overall look of the image. I use keyboard shortcuts constantly, to switch between colors, to undo, to zoom in and out, etc… so I keep my left hand on the keyboard at all times while painting. Doing so speeds up the

Tool settings and notes:

The brush setting I used for this stage is just about the same as the one I employed for the blocking phase, but with slightly increased spacing and opacity varying from 50% to 100%. In addition, I continously adjusted the brush size depending on the amount of detail each area required.

Brushes tool:

Step 4 - Blending/Refining

Working on the foundation set in the previous step, I now used a technique borrowed from traditional oil painting. All the rough dabs of color, especially for the highlights, that I had set before, are now blended using the smudge tool. This simulates the way I paint in Oils, where I would build the highlights by putting a small amount of white (or another color lighter than the base one) on the area I want to lighten and then blend it and shape it accordingly, using a soft bristle brush.

Applying the same method to digital painting is a breeze, especially using the smudge tool. Here I spent the largest amount of time, refining in detail every part of the image. The hardest sections to blend convingly were the large muscle groups such as legs and abdominals. Here I relied on my knowledge of anatomy, and that is a must-have requirement if you set out to portrait bodies, especially muscular ones. While blending, I switched to the paint brush tool once I an a while, whenever I needed an additional touch of white or black.

I also zoomed in, up to 300%, to work closely on the small details on the faces especially. But overall, I still wanted to maintain a somewhat painted feel, with some visible brush strokes, so I avoided blending too heavily. After the blending was completed, I used the dodge tool set on highlights to punch up some of the highlights I felt needed to be stronger, but I used this sparingly, as too much of it can make the image look over-exposed.

Tool settings and notes:

The smudge tool is the tool of choice for this step. I selected a small, medium to high opacity pressure sensitive 0% hardness round brush for the blending process. It is important to notice that I set the spacing at 30%. A lower spacing would cause the brush tool to perform really slowly and move too much “paint”.

Step 5 - Coloring

At this point, I added color to the so far still B&W painting. Using one of the most powerful features of Photoshop, Adjustment layers, I was able to experiment with different color schemes until I found the one I was looking for. An advantage of using this method is that I can change the colors at any time, without having to repaint any parts of the illustration.

Here I wanted to give the image a strong dramatic feel and I opted for a palette based on fleshy red tones, for an overall Caravaggio feel.
First, I added and Adjustment Layer: Layers–>New Adjustment Layer –>Hue/Saturation to colorize the figures. I put this above the painting layer, checked the colorize button, set the HUE to 11, the saturation to 50 and lightness to 0. The black and white figure is now colored. The colors need further manipulation though, because the flash tones are still too uniform.
Secondly, above this I added a Color balance Adjustment Layer as follows: Layers–>New Adjustment Layer –> Color balance. In the Shadows tone balance settings, I moved the color level to -9 on the Cyan slider. I left the Mid-tones sliders untouched. In the Highlights tone balance settings, I set the yellow slider on -17. This introduced a variation between the darker and lighter colors. It was still not enough.

A third modifier was added: Layers–>New Adjustment Layer –> Curves. I used this to add a hint of green to the darker tones, to vary the way the red tones played with the highlights and also to make the picture a bit lighter overall.

Additionally, in order to add more realism to the figure, I used the paintbrush tool to add even more red tones to the figure’s cheek, bleeding heart, chest wound, legs and hands. Flesh tones are hard to obtain, but this method usually allows for a quick shortcut toward achieving them.

Curves Tool Settings

Color Balance Tool Settings

Hue/Saturation Tool Settings

Final Image:

Don’t forget to check out my other photoshop tutorials and my fantasy art gallery featuring artwork I created for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Udon (Exalted), Game Pro Magazine and much more.

Eye candy: A “Lost” caricature..

roberto — Mon, 14 May 2007 22:50:59 +0000

Pardon the pun ;)

Enjoy this caricature I did today of three of the main players in season 3.

Yes, I watch Lost. I hate to admit it.

Comments are welcome!

p.s. Watch out for those bug-eyes!

Photoshop & Painter Tutorial : Mad Scientist

roberto — Fri, 11 May 2007 22:51:51 +0000

This tutorial shows how to draw create a digital illustration of a mad scientist doing a crazy experiment! I was asked to write this tutorial by CGTALK.COM for their articles section (see here). Also, this tutorial was featured on the book Digital Sci-Fi Art: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Stunning, Futuristic Images by Ilex Press.

Notes:

This illustration was part of a series of 14 images I did for a trading card game called “ShadowFist“. At the time I was also coloring pages for a comic series, thus getting these pieces done quickly was a priority. I had to lose some sleep, but it was a worthy and fun project. The card’s description called for a classic mad scientist working on some kind of gadget in his lab, with sparks and electricity all around. Given the time constraints and keeping in mind that this piece would be printed at a very small scale, less than 2 inches, I opted for a somewhat simple approach, a few foreground elements with minimal background and one or two light sources.

First thing I did, was concentrate on the description and pose a few questions, such as: what was the scientist working on? The idea of a robot came to me right away, but then I decided to go for a cyborg, since that allowed me to add a touch of gore (see the brain?) in the picture — after all, the scientist had to look crazy!

Then, I had to tackle the problem of where the sparks had to come from, and in a flash (how appropriate), I remembered a recent trip to a science museum (Cambridge, MA), where I had seen 2 huge Tesla coils produce some spectacular and loud electric sparks: I thought they would be perfect for the background. All in all, I wanted the final piece to be reminiscent of the amazing pulp magazine covers from the 40s and 50s, but with a few modern twists.

Step 1 - The sketch

Having already a pretty good idea on the elements and subject of the illustration, I moved on to the sketching phase. The sketch consisted of a few shapes and lines, very rough, with the goal of finding the right composition. After one failed attempt, where the image wasn’t interesting enough, I made a new sketch (in about 2 minutes) and gave it a somewhat slanted angle point of view in the hope that it would add a hint of action to it. In order to avoid time consuming surprises later on, I made sure to include all the elements planned for the final image during the sketching process.

Once happy with the sketch, I tucked it away until a few days later, when I re-drew it on the computer by tracing its lines over using Painter and a Wacom Tablet.

The CG sketch was a low resolution 72 DPI image, I used the pencil tool with a small brush and 100% opacity setting over a sepia background. I always sketch at low res, so everything is faster. I did not worry about cleaning up lines or details at this point.

Step 2 - Blocking

For the main blocking phase, I continued using Painter. I resized the image to 300 DPI, about 7 inches in size. I switched to the Airbrush tool with a medium sized brush and medium opacity (see “Brushes” image) setting.

Usually, I go through this phase as fast as I can, only concentrating on shapes, volume (light and shadow) and color. I try to let the process be automatic, avoiding stopping too often to THINK, rationalize and analyse what I am painting from my imagination. I picked a few base colors, I put them in a corner of the image for later reference and then I started filling up all the various areas, right over the original traced sketch (single layer flat image). Nowhere in the blocking process did I add fine details, and for this reason I usually force myself to keep using the same brush size. Then by using the color wheel to pick a lighter or darker color than the base, I painted highlights and shadows. During this stage I used the ALT key often to pick colors while I moved from area to area.

Step 3 - Painting and details

This is the main stage where I refined shapes and added details to the foreground elements. Here I concentrated on reshaping all the forms to their final position and dimensions. I switched to the Painter “Brushes” tool, a medium opacity setting (see “Brushes” image), varying brush sizes, but with regular small and more carefully positioned strokes. I soon realized that in order to achieve a higher level of realism for the face and hands of the main character, I had to rely on some reference material.

Using a cheap digital camera (an invaluable tool for the digital artist) I snapped a few pictures of my face and hands illuminated by a light source coming from below. I imported the low res photos into Painter, de-saturated them and kept them handy while I was finalizing the face and head elements.

The rest of the elements were done completely from imagination, as they mostly consist of simple shapes, it was not too difficult to imagine how the light sources would play on them.

Notice that at this stage the background and some of the foreground (the cables coming out of the scientist helmet) are not refined yet (see “Step 3″ image), I left them for the next phase, when I imported the image to Photoshop.

There isn’t much else I can say about this part of the process, besides the already mentioned technical notes, because the painting stage mainly involves the artist’s subjective ability to render objects. It is a skill that can be learned by simple practice and dedication.

A good sense of observation and self criticism are some of the key requirements. I can offer a trick or two though: often while you paint something, flip the canvas horizontally. By doing so, you can instantly see if anything is out of place. Additionally, zoom out until the image is much smaller then the current size you are working on, so that you can see it in its entirety, as this also helps in finding out flaws.

Once in a while, is also useful to make a copy of the current state of the artwork, de-saturate it and look at it for a few minutes, to try to discern problems with contrast and volumes.

Step 4 - Effects and final adjustments

I imported the image into Photoshop, copied the canvas layer and cut the foreground elements from the background using the eraser tool.

Now I had the foreground elements (scientist and the gadgets) separated on a layer called “FG”. I then turned off this layer, and proceeded to paint over the background on the canvas layer (that I then renamed “BG”).

Using a large simple round brush, set on normal mode, I fixed up the background colors, then refined the Tesla coil’s shape. I added a new layer on top of the BG, this new one called “Sparks”, where I painted the electric sparks using a 100% hardness brush, with a pink/bluish color. To add the glowing effect to the sparks, I added an Outer Glow effect in the layer blending options. I then merged the BG and Sparks layers together.

Now, I turned the FG layer back on to check if the new background would go well with it. Luckily enough it all fit well together. At this point, I added a new layer on top of it all, and painted the cables coming out of the scientist helmet, then I added a soft “Outer Glow” effect to them. Then I added the sparks coming out of the tools held by the scientist, using the same technique as the earlier sparks, but this time I used a light yellow color.

Now, I flattened the whole image into a new layer and noticed, that the painted highlights were not bright enough, so I switched to the Dodge tool set on highlights, which I used over all the spots that I felt needed to be brightened up and brought to prominence. I especially like to add “back” or “incidental” light sources to elements in my illustrations, so here I punched out all the edges that were illuminated by the electric sparks in the background as well as the other areas in the foreground that were illuminated by the yellow sparks.

Final Image

Tutorial : Painting a digital portrait

roberto — Thu, 10 May 2007 02:35:12 +0000

This tutorial explains my technique for creating a digital portrait. Step by step instructions on how I go about painting a face portrait using Painter. This approach also works for Photoshop. A tablet (Wacom or any other with pressure sensitivity) is a must-have requirement. Enjoy!

Step 1

First and foremost, I look at the subject for a minute or two, trying to absorb it’s shape, volume, colors and mood. After this brief time, I start drawing. The main shape is loosely sketched with a large brush with a 60% opacity. At this stage, I don’t worry too much about precision of the strokes. Mostly, I use one or two colors. I try to use the predominant color in the subject. For skin tones, I usually lay down a darker color. I like to work the highlights on this layer in the next step.

Step 2

This is the stage where I add volume to the initial flat shape. With a smaller brush, and a very low opacity setting, I concentrate on capturing the subject’s lighter areas. For this stage, I use a midrange color (in between the predominant color of the previous stage, and the color of the brightest highlights found on the subject). After the larger lighter areas are set in place, still very loosely, I might switch to an even lighter color and use it to sketch some of the highlights. No line drawings yet.

Step 3

Shadows! At this point, it is time to darken some of the areas left untouched until now. Now, I switch to the brushes tool. This tool enables me to obtain a very realistic blending of the strokes. Also, I like its feel and its dynamics. Anyway, using a smaller brush, I start drawing the main features, such as the eyes, nose, eyebrows and mouth. Again, no need to be too precise.

Step 4

Refining the shape. Now that most of the elements are in place, I have to make sure the profile is right. Having the main features sketched in place, I can judge if any of the elements shape or positioning are off. As visible in the image of this step, I redrew one of the eyes, since it was too high in the previous stage.
Refining the volume. At this point, I also finalize the light and dark areas. I don’t worry much about blending now. Before moving on to the next step, I make sure all the subject’s features are in the right place and well proportioned.

Step 5

Blending.
It takes time to blend colors with the brushes tool, but I make sure each stroke is well placed. Concentration and proper control of the stylus pressure are the key.

Final details and highlights.
At this final stage, I add highlights, especially in the eye and lips areas. For this image, I left the hair for last, since I enjoy painting hair very much and prefer to leave it for last, so that I can look forward to it while working on the other parts of the image.

Final Image

This is Cool: Totally Cool Things

roberto — Mon, 07 May 2007 17:23:35 +0000

Oh.. the fun! How many times have you found yourself pronouncing the magical words “this is cool”?

I hope often! Because moments like that should come to us in buckets.. or bucket-fulls? Anyways, here I am going to show you what made me exclaim “COOL” with gusto. It could be a movie, a song, somewhere I’ve been.. something I found online.. anything that is COOL in my opinion.

So, brace yourself for a breeze of coolness coming your way very soon… how cool is that?!

The Geek Moment: too often or never enough?

roberto — Mon, 07 May 2007 16:27:01 +0000

This is supposed to be the fun-filled, fun-bursting, fun-tastical section of my site where I come up with geek-dom related stories.. expect especially hilarious recantations of moments where I have experienced geekiness in its highest form! Like.. the day I realized I had spent too much time on my tablet because I tried to click the UNDO button to fix a mistake I made while writing on a piece of paper with a REAL pencil… or when somebody mentioned a sci-fi character from Star Wars and I happen to KNOW too much about them… even what they had for lunch during the movie shooting breaks.. or the plot twists of some obscure Star Trek episode…

But.. never fear, this is also where you will find my musings on other geeky subjects.. like role playing (which I often do illustrations for), videogames (I wish I had time to play them.. sigh), computers (after all, I am in a symbitic relationship with mine), gadgets and everything else that is remotely associated with Geekiness.

Kapla’