I have decided that my portfolio is going to have a transition from more painterly designs to a more photorealistic look. Since this is a process that is going to take time and energy, I have decided that the software I am going to familiarize myself with will be Blender, because it is free and it is seemingly being imported into the workflow of concept artists. I am currently incorporating 3D techniques to achieve this realistic look.
The interface for Blender 2.8 is much more intuitive than it was for example back in 2015, making it a lot easier to use and find the tools needed for modeling, etc. In this case I have started to model a spaceship to be rendered with materials further on, but I have included this raw render to illustrate my progress as I go. The large shape towards the right is part of the monocoque of the ship, with the cockpit soon enough being modeled and added to the interior. I have decided that I am going to model a little more “realistically” meaning that the spaceship is going to be broken down into sections, instead of creating one single large shape for the entire structure.
I kept the cylinder looking shape towards the left with a low subdivision to be able to see more or less the amount of polygons that I have been using to work with. I assume that it is going to be a lot more difficult to work with a large amount of polygons, so I will add more subdivision only when needed. My tendency will probably be to keep the amount of polygons as low as possible to avoid myself possible complications when trying to edit the shapes.
To add a little depth to the monocoque shapes I used the “Solidify” tool from the Modifier set to create the impression of the thickness of the material, instead of having it appear unrealistically flat. Even though I basically started with a cube with a low count of polygons, I slowly worked to add more subdivisions and create the impression of a very round, flat surface. I will have to consider adding a reflective texture to the surface, while also adding details of weathered paint. I don’t think that the impression I’m trying to portray as of yet is that of a very pristine and reflective surface.
A wing can be seen protruding towards the right from the main body, which still requires some work on it. I am thinking that the wing design is going to be kept simple, perhaps by making it swept back like a delta wing type. This was simply created by extruding a regular cube and then selecting the edges of the shapes to move them using the orthographic view. With the wings in place, and reflecting the other half of the missing body in place, I will have a much clearer idea of what the proportions I am going to work with will be like.
When thinking about creating more portfolio pieces for the main page, I currently have two pieces with a spaceship that are going to be replaced by photo-real versions. This I know, will take some time, but I am curious to see the result of what I am able to come up with.
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