Tutorial Monster

8/8/2019 Tutorial Monster

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The creation of The Malesquis: an insight intothe evolution of a beast. By John Kearney

MONSTERCREATIONS

Photoshop

Photoshop

June 200680

Workshops

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his article will provide you

with a walkthrough of my

experiences during the

creation of this project. I hope

that you pick up some useful tips and

find it entertaining and informative.

First, I assess what is required and set

a few targets. Im being asked to paint a

striking monster, which immediately

gives me the main focus of the painting.

My design has to be solid, unique, andconvincing enough to clearly visualise

its movement. I want it to look stylish

and be able to captivate the v iewers

imaginations. Lastly, I want to place it in

a setting of some peripheral interest and

create a composition with visual impact.

Its good to be ambitious! I realise that

this is no easy task, and that preparation

will aid in making my goals a reality. The

first task is to come up with a scenario.

Even a basic story will give a design

purpose and direction. I normallyscribble down some ideas that will be

John KearneyCOUNTRY: UK

CLIENTS: Konami, Sky,

ITV, Empire Interactive

John has over

seven years

experience as

a 3D graphic

artist in thevideo games industry. He

is currently freelancing

on various projects.

www.brushsize.com

DVD AssetsThe files you need

are on the DVD

FILES: Hunt_of_the_

Malesquis_1-5.psd

FOLDERS:

Full screenshots

SOFTWARE:

Photoshop CS2 (Demo)

Tused throughout the project as a source

of inspiration and guidance.

My beast will be from a breed of alien

creatures called The Malesquis. They can

only be found on one planet, a barren

and desolate place called Arrazine. This

world is a hostile environment. Its a

deadly battlefield for warriors and

hunters brave or stupid enough to enter

its domain. The deadly Malesquis are

thus a prize trophy for those wishing tobetter their reputation and wealth.

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1 The Malesquis conceptIve been given landscape

dimensions, which influences mydecision to go with a quadruped rather

than a biped. The monster has to be the

main focus, and I feel a biped would have

made the composition potentially

problematic. Using my story line, Im able

to get a feel for the kind of beast that

would work well in a harsh habitat. I

think the perfect mix would include

armoured shells, mobile limbs for

climbing rocks, an impressive arsenal

of weapons for attack, and a few

vulnerabilities, indicating that adeptwarriors would be able to challenge them.

2 Gathering referencematerial for inspirationI write a quick list of insects, animals, and

anything else that might provide useful

eye candy. Then I go about searching for

some reference, both on the internet and

in my book collection. I end up witha folder packed with numerous

photographs. Included are scorpions,

turtles, crabs, earwigs, wasps, rams, and

even seashells! Many thoughts begin to

flood my mind, so I take advantage of

them by knocking out some incredibly

crude and rudimentary sketches. The

purpose of this is to begin to get my ideas

down on paper. I dont worry too much

about the quality of my initial thumbnail

sketches; they are just mental notes,

which are there to be built upon.

3 Selecting anddeveloping a sketchUsually, I take quite a lot of time to

develop my chosen sketch. This time, I

feel impulsive and eager to get straight

into Photoshop. I choose a thumbnail

that is barely enough to start with, scan

it in, and get straight to work. I quickly

create rough landscape dimensions for

my canvas and then begin adding to the

pencil sketch, digitally. I know the pose

has to be fairly strong and clear enough

to show off the design, so I get stuck in

with some basic, loose shapes. A roughimpression of the caves is introduced so

that the environment is indicated for

compositional purposes. If ideas are

flowing, its usually a good idea to go with

them and capitalise on the inspiration.

4 Canvas set-upI carefully review the dynamics

of the creature and think more about

composition. I also make mental notes of

places where I could add the hunters and

then rotate, crop and scale the image tohalf of my intended final resolution. I do

this for two reasons: I know that I will

eventually refine and detail the whole

picture once all the basics are in place

this is the stage where the resolution

matters. Secondly, I want to use

Photoshop quickly during my initial

sketching. Once I reach a basic milestone,

I begin to think about brushes that I

might need during later stages.

Straightlines

Shift+click(PCandMa

c)

Havetroubledrawingstr

aight

lines?HolddownShiftan

d

clickatthepointwherey

ou

want thelinetoend.

Etvoila!

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5Brush management

Texture is always important to me.

More often than not, I prefer to manually

draw a lot of it rather than use large

brushes; it can make things look linear

and samey. You can define contour and

shape much better with smaller brushes

that are endowed with a hint of texture.

One of my favourites that I use in 90 per

cent of my work is the Pastel Brush,

which ships with Photoshops Natural

Media Brushes. It gives me a bit of grain

and a nice shape, which I personally

prefer for painting. I supplement thiswith custom brushes that I have drawn

myself, usually with pencil on paper. You

get a lot of organic grain for free, and this

makes things look very natural.

6 Colour andtonal foundationsI consider that tones, values, contrast and

overall lighting generally take paramount

importance. Colours can be changed

incredibly easily when working digitally.

As long as I am near the mark, I dont

worry too much about having a palette

laid out. With the knowledge that new

light sources will be added at a later stage,

I proceed to paint some blue hues of

differing brightness to give me a basic

ambience and an underpainting on

which to work. Doing this provides an

effective starting point, because the

fundamental tones of the image are set.

I recommend getting rid of the white

canvas as quickly as possible.

7Lighting and colourLighting affects absolutely

everything, so consider its colour and

intensity very carefully when selecting

and mixing surface colours. Think about

the quality of light and the effect it will

have on shadows. Light can be used to

add areas of focus, add contrast, create

atmosphere, or describe form. Since my

scene is going to be set in a dark cave, I

use the foreground hunter as a source of

light via his weapon. This is planned and

absolutely necessary, otherwise the

Malesquis face will be in darkness.

OptimisingkeyboardshortcutsI dislike using my Intuos

touch strips and prefer

keyboard shortcuts. I

permanently have one

hand on Ctrl+Z (undo)

because it often takes

multiple tries beforehitting the correct

brushstroke. My most

used shortcuts are

dispersed around Ctrl+Z,

and I find it an

inconvenience using

square brackets to

change brush size.

Therefore, I have

remapped brush-size

shortcuts from the

square brackets to [Z]

and [X] which means my

eyes never have to leave

the screen.

PROSECRETS

8 CompositionalenhancementsStalactites and stalagmites provide ideal

contrast points against the sky and

foreground, which frame the picture and

add more interest. While painting the

ground, I try to incorporate natural

patterns that will help lead the viewerseye into the picture and create depth.

Complementary light sources often add

some colour interest. If placed correctly,

they can also provide you with the ability

to use rim lighting. This enables you to

highlight one edge, a technique often

used in film and photography for

dramatic lighting. Its most striking

when used in high contrast.

Preservetransparency/(PCandMac)PreserveTransparency

(onoroff)fortheworkinglayer.

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HSB ColourpaletteColour selection is

incredibly important

when painting. Making

sure you have the right

brightness and hue can

be time-consuming and

frustrating, especiallywhen using the default

RGB Colour Palette. Try

changing it to the HSB

Colour Palette by left

clicking the small arrow

at the top right of the

Colour Window. With a

little practice, you should

find that colour selection

becomes much more

intuitive and accurate.

PROSECRETS

9 Improving weak areasand correcting mistakesIts necessary to make some comments

regarding the organic nature of painting

fantasy artwork. Making critical decisions

on the quality of your painting is vital

every step of the way. Learning to

critically assess your work is the first step

in being able to point out problems and

make corrections. Fantasy artwork is not

like drawing a portrait. You have no real

direct reference; as a result, the paintinghas to be given a chance to evolve.

10 Character and detailconsiderationsI rarely make a proper design for character

clothing in a painting like this because

the scale means that most of the detail is

just suggestive. My initial foreground

character pose isnt working too well, so I

change it to something more dynamic.

The revised characters feet are positioned

to give the impression that they have slid,with bits of debris spewing up. The

decorative cloak adds balance to his body

position. Its important to plant the

Malesquis front legs into the ground and

to add further dust and rubble around

them. I make the landscape fairly

inhospitable by adding sharp rocks and

convey depth by drawing a few distance

layers that gradually fade into the sky.

11 ComplementaryelementsI always try to think of things that

will add decorative interest and becomplementary to the look of the

finished painting. What is

complementary? It boils down to

personal preference and artistic vision.

This is where individuality shines

through. I decide that crystal sparkles

from the rocks would work well. Partially

obscured light sources tend to create glow

effects on camera lenses, so I decide to

implement them at the back of the cave.

Doing so gives the area a cinematic feel

with a hint of mystery and atmosphere.

The area that has a rocky stepped

pathway is one of curiosity and

encourages the viewers eye to roam

around the picture. These little touchescan add a lot to a painting.

12 Adjusting dull sectionsIf an area needs a bit of life or slight

colour variation, Ill simply create a new

layer, change it to Overlay or Hard Light,

and hit this layer with hints of my desired

colours using a soft-edged brush. This

keeps the texture you have underneath

but changes the underlying colour, the

intensity of it, and adds vibrancy in the

process. I use this sparingly.

Screenmode

[F](PCandMac)

Forswitchingscreen

modesa greatwaytos

ave

yourselftime when

working awayon

yourpicture.

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13 Its bugging me!If anything is catching my eye and

annoying me, then I feel compelled to

change it. The horn crown feels a bit too

clichd and too similar to a Triceratops

for my liking. This design doesnt work

too well when I imagine the Malesquis

brought to life. If placed in a f ilm orgame, the head movement would have

looked severely restricted due to the

horns clashing into the shell. It bugged

me the whole time, so I decide to try an

alternative near the very end. It occurs to

me that the themed muscle tissue might

work well as a neck and be consistent

with the design of the limbs and tails.

The tissue suggests the neck can extend

out, increasing its manoeuvrability, and

enabling Malesquis to quickly strike with

a snap of its jaws. The result is a weirder

design, similar to a tortoise, but definitely

more threatening!

14 Adding effects andfinishing touchesMy custom brushes are used to create the

debris, dust, and little sparkles. The

debris/sparkle brush consists of noisy

smudges and dots. I adjust the Scatter

and Angle Jitter settings of the brush, so

its sprayed randomly when painting.

The dust is created with a brush that I

demonstrate how to create in my Exodus

answer in this months Q+A section (see

page 36). As a final measure, I flattened

the image and make colour corrections

using Levels dialog. At this stage, I

sometimes like to hit the image with a

few subtle glows in key places. I do this

by creating a new layer, setting the layer

mode to Colour Dodge, and painting the

blooms with a soft-edged brush.

15 SummaryIt takes a great deal of time andeffort to be able to put something down

in a way that enables others to capture

the essence of your idea or fantasy. You

need to balance technical ability with

creativity and be willing to suffer plenty

of frustration in the process. Painting a

picture is often a struggle against

yourself, but the sense of achievement

when you are finished is enough to make

you go through it all over again.

Overall, I think I manage to achievequite a few of my goals with my picture

of The Malesquis, so I am reasonably

pleased with the result! I hope this article

has inspired you, and has helped

demonstrate a workflow for creating

your own fantastical beasts from concept

to completion.

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