Design Competition - Healing Art

The contest I chose is The Healing Power of Art. I realize that my work may not exactly be what the contest is intended, as I am assuming they want more spiritual and perhaps religious art, but I chose to do something that closely relates to what my peace was. When my son was born 6 months ago, he had many problems and was in NICU for a week. The stress and anxiety I felt during that time was difficult, the most difficult days of my life, and the only solace I felt was to stand in the empty nursery that my newborn son had yet to come home to.

This is what I call "The Night Before"

I began by tracing the outline of a rug that I was modeling in 3d. I created a simple teddy bear rug design that I would eventually apply in the 3d software. This teddy bear design is my own, created with the elliptical tools in Illustrator.

 I then opened this up in Photoshop, and filled in the colors and used the FX function to add a more rug-like texture.

 I then traced a train image in Illustrator, which will serve as a decorate wall hanging in my nursery.

 Again, I opened this up in Photoshop and filled in the colors. In Photoshop, I also created a blue and white stripe wallpaper, and also created a cherry wood texture using a photograph I took of my coffee table.









This is my preliminary nursery, note the train decoration and the teddy bear rug. It is intentionally dark, and the only light is the light coming in from through the window.

I will be using Illustrator and Photoshop to add a few more things, such as patterns for bedding, more decorations, crown moulding, curtains, etc. I may also add a lamp and end table, as well as a few more baby toys.

Live Album Cover, Part II

So I decided to change the album a bit, to redesign one of my favorite Live albums, The Dolphins Cry, and mix it up with the Secret Samadhi recreation.









I first removed the background of the photo of the band in Photoshop.

 This is a screenshot also, of my dolphin that was rendered in 3ds Max Studio.

As seen in the last blog post, this was my preliminary recreation. I started with this.

I hid all the layers, and added a solid black layer covering half the page. I also hid the mask(that was created in Illustrator), and the text "Secret Samadhi"

I then layered the image of the group, and re-added the mask. The mask was recolored to a light gray, and the image of the group was given an inner shadow.

Finally, I added the text "The Dolphins Cry", and added the image of the dolphin over the middle of the album cover.

Finally, I changed the opacity of the dolphin to 50%, and added a glow effect to the dolphin.

Rough Draft of Album

This is the original image which I worked with.
One of my favorite bands, Live. This is their original album cover.

In this rough draft please note that I am only RECREATING the album cover. I will make changes later on, or I may even scrap this entirely and do something else. 

I traced this image in Illustrator using the live trace tool. Then opened it up in Photoshop to fill in the rest.

Here, I expanded the canvas, and filled the the mask with a solid black color











 
Next, I filled the background with a charcoal color.

Here, I added typesetting, and the red line over the "I" is used with the shape tool.

 Album Cover, recreated.

Album cover, with denim background, colored mask, and beveled typesetting.

2d Cartoon Burger, Final

I opened up Photoshop and added textures, gradients, and bevel(using the FX function via layers). The burger buns have gradients applied to them, the burger patty and lettuce have bevel/textures applied to it, and the sesame seeds on top have shadows and bevel on them. The pickle has a bevel, shadow, and textures applied to it, and the tomato slice has a gradient on the skin. The plate which the burger sits on also has a bevel/shadow applied to it.

Finally, I applied a shadow to the burger.

Recreation of Cheeseburger in Illustrator

One of the reasons I enjoy 3d so much and 2d not as much- I have problems creating images in 2d! I hope to improve my 2d skills this semester however. The first project is to recreate an image in Adobe Illustrator. So here is my first attempt.

The first image on the left side is the original image. This was a render of a simple cheeseburger that I created earlier in 3ds Max.

Here on the left is the recreation of the cheeseburger in 2d, recreated in Illustrator. This image was created using the shape tools, and was created layer by layer, beginning with the bottom half of the bun.















 


This image here is the same image with the plastic warp feature applied to it.

Diner

Currently, I am working on modeling a 50's style diner, and the image shown above is part of my scene that was rendered in 3ds Max. I hope to not only improve my skills, but to learn new techniques and create higher quality textures for my 3d work.

Maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse today, but I got bored working on my diner, and skipped over to the blue plate specials. Here is my err...interesting looking burger, inspired by a burger I had at Wendy's earlier. Maybe I'll fix the warped textures another time, but right now, my 6 month old son is calling!

Artist Statement

My name is Chris, and I am a 3d graphics hobbyist. I got into this as a hobby many years ago, after a life long love of computer games. I mainly use the software 3ds Max 2012, but have used also Maya, Cinema 4d, and a few others. My inspiration for my creations come from places I've visited, people I've met, things I've seen, and my own imagination. I have created everything from cars to pets to a ski resort to a neighborhood Italian restaurant. I find that common settings are my favorite things to create, settings such as a post office, a grocery store,your living room, etc.

3D Design is sometimes called CG(computer graphics), computer animation, or 3d modeling. Although 3d modeling can get technical and be used to recreate real life situations, 3d modeling is also just another medium like the rest of the art world. It is up to us to use as little or as much creativity. Which brings me to another point, my style of 3d modeling.

My inspiration and my style are strongly influenced by Pixar films. I particularly pay close attention to the backgrounds and scenery in Pixar films such as Ratatouille and Up. I like to describe my style as realistic but with a touch of cartoon-esque textures. All of my textures are created or edited in Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.