Hello there, earlier this year I made a 3D model of a dragon. It is loosely based on a drawing of Smaug that J.R.R. Tolkien made when he was writing “The Hobbit” and medieval Welsh dragons. Welsh Smaug style Wooden Dragon by Christine on Sketchfab First I did some research by making drawing and painting studies. I also used some of this research to help when I made some custom… Source ..read more

This is a step by step overview of the process for making a heightmap (or displacement map) from a 2D image without using AI based tools. I’ve made a video to accompany this article. I am also working on another project that I will record and document as a time-lapse one day. The intended aim is to create a normal map and then a height map from a 2D image that can then be used… Source ..read more

This article accompanies two videos I’ve made which may be useful if you are interested in making Bas relief images using 3D models. In the two videos I discuss three methods of making alpha images using 3D models and compare the results at the end. It may be helpful to watch the videos before reading this article but I’ve tried to include some useful information here as well. Source ..read more

Continuing from my last article I will write about what else I did on my break. I was using Curvy 3D and Blender with a mouse because I didn’t have access to my normal computer and tablet at home. I made some rough 3D fairy models and posed them with Mixamo. I rendered them out using Eevee because Cycles was slow on the laptop (needs a graphics card). Mixamo is fun for seeing… Source ..read more

Recently I went to the French countryside with my parents. I helped my dad with a few things but it was peaceful aside from the cockerel crowing all night and a cat giving birth to kittens one night above my bedroom. I got ill with a flu or something in the last week which was a bit annoying but I’m over it now and it gave me an excuse to watch the special features of the Matrix. I set up an… Source ..read more

There have been a lot of developments with Howler 2024 recently but one of the coolest is the ability to render geometry and use it for making animated brushes. It supports .obj files. Howler is a unique program for digital painting, animation and VFX, it has many interesting features that I haven’t seen in other digital art software, painting using 3D renders is one of them. Source ..read more

I own a copy of ZBrush 2022 so I’ve been using it to do more 3D sculpting lately. It keeps me busy and lets me explore my 2D sketch ideas in 3D. (I’ve tried using Blender for this sometimes and it is a lot better than it used to be for sculpting but my computer still gets on better with ZBrush for 3D sculpting). I’ve wanted to create some sea creatures and sea monsters for a while so this… Source ..read more

Non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) is a style of 3D art which is sometimes combined with 2D techniques to make it look like different art mediums rather than purely computer generated, photographic or hyper realistic looking images. Many 3D NPR styles are influenced by traditional art mediums such as ink drawing and hand painting. Cell shaded comic book art or toon styles are very popular as… Source ..read more

This will be the last in a three part article on what I did during a short break to the Countryside of France. In my last article I wrote about some base meshes for various fairys. In the final week of my break I made some base meshes for animals including a horse skeleton; a camel; a giraffe; an Asian and African Elephant; a Rhino; a Polar Bear; a Tiger and a Gorilla. I made all of the base… Source ..read more

This is a selection of personal notes on some of the technical aspects I’ve made over time using a program called 3D Coat. 3D Coat is for sculpting and painting 3D models. I mainly use it for painting models at the moment although I would like to use the sculpting tools more. Because the program changes with each new version (menus have been moved around, UI has been changed etc. Source ..read more