CREATING WITHOUT FIRE
by Clifford Brotherton
WHAT’S INSIDE
A SKULLS NOOSE
A SKULLS NOOSE
OUT OF THE SMOKE
WIND & BONES
FURY OF GRACE
SMOKIN’ EM
SILKY MIST
MAN’S MACHINE
POLITICAL PURGATORY
GRACE AMIDST FIRE
CANISTER OF DISASTER
THE LION RUN
DEMON SMOKE
BLUE BIRD
A SKULLS NOOSE “Do the bones of the dead ever wonder, “So, just how in the hell did I end up at the end of that?”” This is one of those illustrations where the bulk of the work was completed during the posing and rendering phase. To both the skull and the rope I applied a gold and silver texture designed to show glossy upon rendering, which is very time consuming, due to the need for each pixel calculation to render with realistic depth and quality. The render took close to an hour to complete. From there in the postwork, I set the scene with a black background and added smoke using a yellow foreground color, after which I created three copies to apply depth. For the eyes, I used a star brush and added layer style blending options to give it the glow appearance, and created a copy, thus one for each eye.
FURY OF GRACE
FURY OF GRACE “There is no better way to employ smoke, than as to signify the sound and fury of a woman.� The Fury of Grace required creating bits of graffiti, and bellowing smoke, and with Grace (3D Model) layering these items in Photoshop. Whereas I created multiple copies of Grace (to be use for this segment only) and using a clipping mask, I attached them in different locations around the graffiti to give the appearance of Grace being a part of that graffiti. Next I created a layer mask over the folder in which the multiple copies of Grace I intended to use as the main character resided, and with this mask etched out the portions of Grace I needed for the illustration, and also added a cracked brush to create the cracked appearance, and from there I used a smoke brush pattern created prior to this and applied it to the scene with a photo filter added to give it a unique coloring.
MAN’S MACHINE
MANS MACHINE “We are defined by it, we move in it, its strength or its elegance which dictates to the world a mere fraction of the inner workings of who man is through that which transports him.” The 3D model for this illustration was the Hellfire, with the road beneath it, was solo render, with the background mountains rendered separately. This creation required taking the Hellfire original and creating five different copies within a file, each with their own blending mode option, in order to get
the depth of shadows I thought I needed, and then I brought in a ready set of brush lights to create the sparks, as well as smoke brushes for the back tires to create the tire and road contact. I then cut out a piece of the front and back tires and processed them through a spinning blur filter to give the wheels the appearance of motion, and then created another layer of the Hellfire and use the motion blur filter to give the entire care a sense of motion. As a final touch, I took a burnt red overlay, and placed it as the top layer and used a blending option to create the dark red night scene of the illustration.
CANISTER OF DISASTER
CANISTER OF DISASTER “Funny how something so small, can do so much.” This 3D landscape and the smoke canister, with its outer-world background were rendered separately. Once placed into Photoshop, I made multiple copies of each for depth and shadow effect, where I then added my smoke affect to the canister and added several copies of it to a folder and applied a photo filter to alter the smokes color. I then added a smoke layer that filled the sky, and made several copies of in within a folder and used a blending mode on several of the copies to get them to mix appropriately with the mountains in the background.
DEMON SMOKE
DEMON SMOKE “The dark places that often look ominous, often are…” This was a time-consuming endeavor, which required setting up the scene, staging the props within, and then altering their individual surface textures that I believed would help me achieve the look I was looking for in the postwork within Photoshop and then inputting the lighting for the scene was the final step before rending. The postwork required making three copies and adjusting their blending modes to create the ominous feel, and using my smoke brushes to input that aspect into the scene, after which I used an adjustment layer to give the smoke a different color.
OUT OF THE SMOKE
OUT OF THE SMOKE “Mankind has been tested abrasively, time and again, often with its own stupidity, but through each inferno, the human race rises again, smarter, stronger, wiser.” The 3D model is half man half machine, was morphed into a part machine, part glass figure, part man, and rendered using Iray, a high-performance, global illumination rendering process. The robot was then placed into Photoshop with several copies within a folder each with its own blending mode added to it. I made a cloud of smoke for the right side and duplicated that creation and flipped it vertically to place on the left side and put those two halves of smoke into a folder that I then made a copy of. The second copy of smoke was moved down the layer hierarchy so that it was behind John. At this time, a blending mode was added to the top layer of smoke that allowed the top smoke to fill in around John and mix with the bottom layer of smoke behind him. I then added several previously made glow lights and placed them strategically within the layer hierarchy so that their presence was noticeable but not overbearing, after which I put an adjustment layer at the top of all other layers and added a photo filter to manipulate the illustrations color.
SMOKIN’ EM
SMOKIN’ EM “The willingness to be the best requires years of determination, hours of preparation, and the gumption to say, “I smoked yo’ ass.”” The runner is s stock character that I revamped for this illustration, putting her in a workout outfit and posing her in her athletic stride for this scene. In the postwork, I put in a black background with the foreground bucket and used a smoke brush to trail behind her, that I then put a mask over to control where the smoke appeared. I then created another layer and added a preset engraver screen where I then added a mask to control where this screen appeared within the scene.
POLITICAL PURGATORY
POLITICAL PURGATORY “When politicians are responsible for the deaths of their constituents and benefit from their treacherous ways, what price must they pay for their selfish ambitions and political corruption when they find themselves in the land of the dead? Their death is repeated over, and over, and over, and over…”
The Purgator y character is a stock Transform Tool to skew the objects in character. This illustration is an effect a way were one angled off the table driven illustration, in that I only need- and appear to be dripping, and the ed two copies of the Purgator y Man, other so that it appeared to spread with one copy using only the man across the table, and the blood on and the chair he’s sitting in where the sleeved to look as if it had moved I used a blending mode and placed with rushing speed. him above the blood brushes, and the The blood par ts on the Purgator y second copy of the man, the chair, Man were blood brushes using the and the table below. I used blood blending mode option so that they brushes, one for the dripping blood each appeared to blend in with their that used a blending mode option to perspective locations. create the realistic look of dripping The ghost people where simple from the table and the second blood stock figures bunched together with splatter on the table, as well as the a layer style blending option to give blood on the Purgator y Man’s sleeve, them their darkened glowing where in each case I used the Free appearance, and I lowered both
the opacity and fill to give them their ghostly appearance. The lighting on the Purgator y Man was mainly established during the rendering por tion, while the lighting in the scene was created by using the lasso tool, were I marked out a section, filled it with white and used the Gaussian blur to soften it a bit. I used a black background and a smoke brush to create the ground level smoke and more defined smoke brush to create the gun smoke.
THE LION’S RUN
THE LIONS RUN “The swift and powerful King of The Beast moves with the determination of one on a mission.” This creation required a single render, with staged lighting and a color filter, and the development of a solo image with smoke that I manipulated with layer style blending options that I laid over a black background, which I used as both an overlay and background image, where in-between I used a smoke brush with a layer mask and with a brush to mark out areas of use.
BLUE BIRD
BLUE BIRD “Blue represents depth and stability, and it symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and Gods resting place, heaven.” This creation required that before rendering, I had to put glow shaders on the main character, tediously separating different parts with different shaders. I had to create three layers, with two of them set in a blending mode. I then created two smoke layers below, and made a copy of one and positioned it as an above layer, and created two additional layers, one below, and one above, with the one above I used the puppet warp tool to alter the shape of the smoke so that it appeared to trail behind the main character, I then used the blending mode to adjust the color of the smoke to get the streaks running through it. I then used a glow brush and blending modes for the upper light.
WIND & BONES
WIND & BONES “When beauty is present, even the eyes of the dead, with a sparkle in their empty skull eye sockets, cannot help but gaze upon her. She is indeed beautiful enough to rouse the faint essence of the dead.” This creation required a single render, with a key, fill, and back lighting setup. I used a black and brown with a blending mode background, and smoke brushes with a layer style blending mode to create the smoke around the main character, and used a skull brush that I placed as both a background and foreground layer with the foreground brush set with a blending mode to blend around the character. I then used a glow brush and accented it with blending mode option to make the eyes of the skull glow.
SILKY MIST
SILKY MIST “A woman’s beauty is like a mist, that glides and floats about, lovely and mysteriously wonderful.” Silky was posed and surfaced with a soft texture and rendered with her garment which had to be designed from a sheet of fabric slightly opaque to reveal just enough virtuousness. I rendered a hat separately since I needed to have the two images work independently during the post-render phase. In the postwork phase she was copied only three times with various blending modes. I used a smoke brush to add the smoke and then put a mask over Silky and used that same smoke brush to remove bits of Silky to give her the appearance of being one with the smoke. I laid the hat atop Silky and with a mask I removed parts of it to reveal the layers beneath.
GRACE AMIDST FIRE
GRACE AMIDST FIRE “Grace is the elegance, beauty, and smoothness of form or movement that extinguishes the most hostile inferno.� Grace required only a single render. I then used three copies of this to garner the needed color value by using the blending mode on two of them. I added a black background and used an additional layer and a star brush to create the stars. From there I used two portable network graphic (PNG) fire images at the base, and then added my smoke brushes around the main
image, at the forefront and back, with a special smoke brush at the tip of each wing to create the flapping motion and use the smudge tool to give the smoke a sense of motion. At the top of all my layers I added a red overlay and a blending mode option to give the entire image its overall analogous value sense.
TERMINOLOGY DEFINITIONS
TERMINOLOGY DEFINITIONS
Stock Character – Used as a main character and in graphic novels and ads Stock Figure – Used only in supporting roles in graphic novels and ads. Rendering - Is the 3D computer graphics process of automatically converting 3D wire frame models into 2D images with 3D photorealistic effects or non-photorealistic rendering on a computer. Rendering is the final process of creating the actual 2D image or animation from the prepared scene. This can be compared to taking a photo or filming the scene after the setup is finished in real life. Blending Mode - Photoshop and Elements allow for layer blend modes that change the way layers react with each other. Some of them you will use in every day work. If you have a photo that is too dark, for example, many times a quick fix is to duplicate the photo layer in the layers palette and change the duplicate layer mode to Screen. Fill or Adjustment Layer - An adjustment layer applies color and tonal adjustments to your image without permanently changing pixel values. For example, rather than making a Levels or Curves adjustment directly to your image, you can create a Levels or Curves adjustment layer. Copy or Layer - In graphics software, a layer is the term used to describe the different levels at which you can place an object or image file. In the program you can stack, merge or define layers when creating a digital image. Vector Mask - A vector mask is a resolution independent path that clips out the contents of the layer. Free Transform Tool – Used for scaling, skewing, and rotating objects. IRAY - a high-performance, global illumination rendering technology that generates imagery by simulating the physical behavior of light interaction with surfaces and volumes. Images are progressively refined to provide full global illumination-including caustics, sun studies, and luminance distributions.
THE 3D RENDER IS ONLY THE BEGINNING