Loish

PROCESS VIDEO // molten - part 1

Added 2020-07-03 10:33:45 +0000 UTC

I finally managed to finish the full process of the volcano piece! It was about 12 and a half hours of total painting time, so I split it into three parts. It’s sped up to 300%, because it’s just totally unrealistic to render out 12 hours of painting! You can click on the gear button to slow the video down, or speed it up even more. This process starts with the thumbnail, you can see the full process video for creating the thumbnails here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/process-video-38084711

So here is part 1! Some notes on the process:

TRANSFORMING THE THUMBNAIL INTO A PAINTING

In order to move from the thumbnail version to a painting, I upscale the image and organize the layers by depth (background, middle and foreground). Then I start gradually detailing the layers one by one. I usually duplicate it first so I have a ‘backup version’ that I go back to if the rendering isn’t working. I try to add further detail to each area one by one. I also have my reference over on the left side to make sure I am staying on track: some reference images for the detail, and the original thumbnail so that I make sure I’m not losing the overall mood and feel of my first sketch!

COMPOSITION CHANGE

Around 44 minutes, the composition suddenly changes. This is because I showed the process of the piece to my boyfriend, and he said that I needed to try moving some stuff around. I sat down with him and shifted the elements around to create a more dramatic composition, but didn’t record that part! So when the drawing suddenly changes around that point, that is why. Basically it was just a question of selecting certain layers and resizing them, shifting them around to create more drama to the piece!

REFERENCE

In the bottom left window, you can see a file with various reference images. I use these reference images to get a sense of the finer details: the rocks and the look of the smoke. In the top left window, I have my thumbnails open. This is so that I can make sure that the image stays on track with my original idea, and that I don’t lose too much of the original composition and color scheme as I gradually add more detail!

Hope you enjoy!