Wednesday, August 31, 2011

CG art ... spirit of place



It's a safe bet you didn't expect to see me again before September, but I'm sneaking in with a matter of hours to spare, at least on this side of the dateline. August was a very, very hard month for me, on many fronts -- work and health being the two big issues. But I'm verrrrry close to out of that particular wood, and am dying to get back to some artwork.

As I said in my previous post, I've been shopping for all kinds of items while things went berserk. Hairdos, costumes, skinmaps, sets, props, brushes, all manner of goodies...

I had expected to be able to render a new set today, but when I unpacked it I discovered that it was short of a baker's dozen of its textures. Ten diffuse maps and some bump maps were missing, so it literally refuses to render and look decent. I've dropped a line to the designer, and with any luck I'll get the missing files through soon, and then you'll see something very interesting.

In the meantime -- here's Michael 4 wearing his new shirt, new pants, new boots! The pants are great, and tomorrow I'll be showing off some renders which will display them to their best. Today's renders are now "quick" as such, but "abbreviated." I wanted to do at least half a dozen, but time ran out. I'll write the post about the new togs tomorrow -- tell you what they are, where they're from, where to get 'em.

So I call this theme "spirit of place," and if you have a look at The Winged Avenger, which I uploaded a couple of weeks ago -- it's the same set, but here's where it gets interesting. It's 5000 years later. The winged avenger ... archangel, perhaps? Dragonslayer, maybe? Then along come a pair of archeology students who are also a little bit "fey," as they call it -- they have the gift of the second sight. They can feel the "spirit of place" of this ancient location.

And there's something going on here.

Now, I'm not saying it'll be the end of the world as we know it, but --

That archangel isn't far away, and he's hanging around for a reason! Most humans would never be aware of him (and his quarry), but these two are part Irish, part gypsy, and they're psychic. The avenger shows his beautiful face, and they'll see him.

Anyone for a threesome?!

More soon...

Jade, August 31