René Aigner's Sketchbook

[badbaddog]

Holy smokes, man! That car is awesome!
Really like the way you handled the materials. Hats off. How long did it take you to finish it?

[ReneAigner]

About 5-6 hours in total. A lot of the problems are solved in 3D (perspective, basic lighting). Then it's a matter of tweaking the materials when rendering so they're as close as possible to the target without spending too much time (no bump maps etc.) and the rest is achieved with the help of reference by overpainting.

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A bit more MOI-practice:

[ReneAigner]

Another update on the cover:

[ReneAigner]

the finalised cover:

[PurpleScissors]

The final book cover looks amazing. Well done, looking forward to see more of your works. It must be a really satisfying feeling, doing book-covers. I would like to do that one day.

[Piotr Jasielski]

Very nice sketchbook. Keep up the good work!

Do you by any chance use blender?

[ReneAigner]

Thanks a lot, Purple!
Thanks Piotr! I use MOI/MODO/Keyshot.

An over"painting" I did over on c-a.org;



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Neues ca "OP" (eher Over-Technik/Workflow)

(Original Artwork by Webster from conceptart-org)

Looking at this line-drawing, there are three things to consider:

1) you're doing this to learn how to draw in perspective. In that case, go full steam ahead, it's a pivotal skill to have.
2) you're doing this (an the subsequent painting/lighting) to learn how to make up light & colour. In that case, continue, maybe. Maybe, because tehre are more efficient ways to learn how light and colour work besides trying to make them up: paint from life & paint from reference.
3) you're doing this to learn a workflow (drawing - painting) to use professionally one day. In that case, stop and reconsider. Here's why.

Both the line-drawing and the OPs suffer from what I would call a lack of fidelity when it comes to light. This stems from the simple fact that the light (and the materials) are made up. It is absolutely possible to create artwork with accurate light, materials, perspective and so on from scratch, but it takes a long time and a lot of experience painting from life. In a professional environment, you either have tons and tons of experience doing it that way, or you won't be able to compete because you simply take too long and make too many mistakes along the way.

Your scene is composed exclusively of what are basically boxes. That is why this is such a prime example for what I want to talk about. This kind of scene, with no organic forms, is perfect to mock up in 3D, render and then overpaint.



This is what the model looks like- I didn't go for 100% accuracy, but I think it's close enough. This took about 30 minutes to model, excluding the furniture, for which i used old models of mine.

I then proceeded to light the scene in MODO (you could do the modeling in MODO as well, I use MOI because I like it better for modeling).

This is what the output looks like:



As you can see, that solves perspective, repeating patterns, basic light & shade for us, but it's not sexy at all really. the rendering is grainy (I was impatient) and it looks very sterile. So far, we're about an hour in, an hour and a half at the max.
Perhaps you're quicker constructing the scene in lines by hand (or will be one day) but consider this:

a) the model is ready made and can be viewed and rerendered from a any point of view. Your AD wants you to change the POV or focal lenght in a sketch, you've got to redo it from scratch.
b) everything is modular without constraints for moving stuff, including the lights, around.

Those two are so important in real life production work. I can't stress it enough.

Now, with a bit (really not that much!) overpainting, colour-grading & a bit of photobashing, this is what we get:



Naturally, in order to do that last step, you need to understand how light & colour work. You also need to have a basic understanding of perspective (which you already have). As I've said, the best way to learn how light & colour work is to paint from life. But if you have that knowledge, you can turn a bad rendering into a nice concept painting in no time at all. Particularily if the underlying concept doesn't require advanced modeling techniques.

So my advice is: work from life, learn perspective, and learn 3D. Especially for this subject matter, you can't beat that workflow.

Hope this helps.

[Mechanizoid]

Hey hey hey, didn't you post that video on youtube about the Power of Boxes? That video inspired me a lot to practice! Hope you add to the series soon.

Impressive sketchbook. Love the Lovecraft tentacles thing. I'll be watching. BTW, what is the lamp thing with lenses up there? It looks cool.

[ReneAigner]

Thanks Sketchosoph!

Good to hear that Sagittarius! Yes, I recorded that vid a loooong time ago (it feels like that at least). By today's standards, what with gumroad and so on, it's not great and I ramble way too much, but I'm always glad to hear people found it useful. I've been planning to do a second part about the importance of painting from life- for a long time. I hope I find the time at some point, I can't say when though :/
It's a lamp I found in a friend's apartment when I was on vacation there and I just had to recreate it(yes, i take a laptop with MOI3D on vacation :D ).

[Mechanizoid]

Thanks Sketchosoph!

Good to hear that Sagittarius! Yes, I recorded that vid a loooong time ago (it feels like that at least). By today's standards, what with gumroad and so on, it's not great and I ramble way too much, but I'm always glad to hear people found it useful. I've been planning to do a second part about the importance of painting from life- for a long time. I hope I find the time at some point, I can't say when though :/
It's a lamp I found in a friend's apartment when I was on vacation there and I just had to recreate it(yes, i take a laptop with MOI3D on vacation :D ).

What helped me most was that you showed your bad drawings. I realized making bad drawings was just a part of the process. Scott Robertson had the same effect when I saw how he handled messing up a line or something- "that's okay, I just need more practice." I look forward to any further tuts from you!

Wow, badass lamp, I want one. :D What model laptop do you carry on vacation? Pro notebook? Guess it pays to always be prepared! BTW, I notice that a lot of artists seem to have skills both with 2d and 3d art. I was always far more interested in painting than in 3d, but I'm wondering now- would you say 3d is something a modern artist should know? What is it best used for?

[ReneAigner]

/edit What the hell, I just typed a long answer. Suddenly, it's gone. Oh boy :(

Long text short: I use 3D in most of my professional work today. there's always 2D work done after and most of the time before 3D (concepting/sketching), but the hard stuff (mirroring/symmetry, repeating patterns, compley mechanical forms etc.) I do in 3D.

I'd say have a look at MOI3D for mechanical modeling , z-Brush for organic modeling and DAZ3D (free!) for poseable human mannikins to place in scenes.

[KurtJeremy]

Dude i have been following your journey for years now. your progress has been amazing i also learn alot of things in your sketchbook. im certainly looking forward for the tutorial youre going to make about the importance of painting from life. i always suck at painting from life this makes it harder for me to do them everyday. which doesnt make sense because with practice ill get better but i cant control myself because whenever i get frustrated i stop.

[ReneAigner]

Thanks Kurt, happy to hear that!



The 3D base:

[ReneAigner]

Looooong time no update. Have been extremely busy with university. Nearly finished now. Couple more final exams left. Sheeesh.

Meanwhile, here's a CD cover I did for the band October Rage:




Sketches:

[ReneAigner]

Back portion of the cover:

[DoubleThink]

nice covers, great atmosphere.

I liked that office painting too, nice lighting, and you only notice the 3D if you really look into it. nice job :)

[ReneAigner]

Thanks DoubleThink!

I'm slowly finding my way back to making art daily after almost 6 month of hiatus. Finally finished university, tool long enough. Also lost 12kg. 2016 is shaping up to be a great year Will pick up the ball with my artwork again now.

I'm not a huge fan of weapons and weaponized stuff, as I've said before, but I was brushing up my MOI knowledge with a holosight tutorial and then I was bored, so i modeled the weapon around the sight. On holiday right now with an ancient laptop, so I won't be tackling textures until I get back to my desktop at home- so, for the time being, renders without textures:

[Piotr Jasielski]

Welcome back! The weapon looks interesting. Looking forward for more of your creations.

[ReneAigner]

Thanks a lot Piotr!


Couldn't resist to throw some preliminary textures on it :D

[ReneAigner]

more MOI practice: