Added a Photoshop Brush pack of Tree Silhouettes to artstation and Gumroad, great for far away trees and super closeup trees that don't need any interior details.
http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/brushes/Soulburn_BrushAssetPack_TreeSilhouettes_1.htm
And here's a painting I did many years ago with these brushes, along with a tutorial discussing how to make your own tree brushes
http://www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/tree_brush/tree_brush.htm
Began the process of moving over my art assets to their new home on Gumroad / ArtStation marketplace. https://gumroad.com/artofsoulburn or https://www.artstation.com/artofsoulburn/store
Each pack contains a mix of previously available assets, updated assets and brand new assets. Hopefully you'll find the new stuff worth the $1-2 I'm asking for each pack.
First up is my texture pack, now with 15 brand new high res textures. Metal, Concrete, Paint, Rust, Cloth, Leather, Marble, Weathering. Check them out here http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/textures/Soulburn_TextureAssetPack_Variety_1.htm
Next is my robot material pack. If you use 3dsmax and vray, everything you need to make a good rusty and worn industrial robot. http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/materials/Soulburn_MaterialAssetPack_Robots_1.htm
Used the robot materials to do all the texturing on my "Inc The Robot"
And here's a video tutorial showing you the best way to use these materials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogqAWmFTYck
Third pack is my material variety pack, 32 materials including Concrete, Pottery, Plastic, Marble, Clay, Fabric, Leather, Glass, Metals, and Test / Utility materials. http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/materials/Soulburn_MaterialAssetPack_Variety_1.htm
And finally, once you've applied the materials to your models, you'll want some neutral lighting rigs to test out your materials for consistency. http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/env/Soulburn_EnvAssetPack_NeutralLightRig_1.htm
And here's a tutorial discussing the value of a good neutral lighting rig, and how to make your own: http://www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/neutral_lighting_rig/neutral_lighting_rig.htm
That's it for now. And I have 4 more packs of all new assets in progress of reference pictures, brushes, previs models and spaceship textures that I hope to have ready in the coming weeks.
Having now worked for almost 3 years doing concept design for games (after a 16 year film career as a digital artist), wanted to write an article about some of the differences I've noticed between concept for film vs concept for games...
People frequently ask me "Can I use an image like your Starship Hull as a texture?" The answer is no, not as is, but with some alterations they can be. For a more details, see the update to my "Painting Starship Hulls" lesson: neilblevins.com/cg_education/s
No in-person https://lightboxexpo.com/ this year unfortunately, but I'll have a virtual booth in their Online Expo along with 100s of awesome professionals in the entertainment industry. Got a sneak peek at the expo format and it looks amazing! So join us Sept 11-13th!
Welcome to the third official Megastructure Book Project Update! For those new to the project, Megastructures will be a visual encyclopedia of scifi megastructures, everything from orbiting space habitats to solar system spanning stellar engineering projects. Dyson Spheres, Ringworlds, O'Neill Cylinders, etc. Each structure will include a scientific explanation, followed by paintings and diagrams that bring the concept to life.
Since our last update 6 months ago, we have completed another 20% of the artwork, for a total of 81% artwork complete. I think we're still on task to finish all the artwork by end of 2020, with 2021 focused on layout and publishing.
Some of the latest images we've finished include the Birch Planet, Launch Loop, Worldhouse Roof, Undersea Habitat, Movable City, Seastead, Cloud City, and Dyson Sphere. I have 2 more paintings to complete myself, and our roster of guest artists have 7 paintings to complete, and then the artwork is done.
One of the steps of making a book is the "Rough Layout", where we put together a rough copy of the book to make sure we have all the art we need. The final book will be laid out by a professional, and will be fancier, may have a slightly different aspect ratio (currently slated to be a vertical format with a 2 page spread minimum for each structure), have background, etc. But I decided to include a 2 page spread from the layout rough just to give you some idea on the general format: Painting (or in some cases, 2 or 3), Diagram, and text for all 40 Megastructures. Expect it to really sing once the real layout and graphic design pass happens!
Thanks again for following along, will continue to provide updates as we go!
- Neil
Decided to take a closer look at which of my 148 CG Education tutorials were the most viewed. So took a look at the stats from the last 5 years, and have compiled this list, maybe some of these will be as helpful to you as they have been to others.
10) "Contrasts In Composition" Learn all the different ways you can use contrast of size, shape, value, etc in an image to direct the eye
http://neilblevins.com/cg_education/composition_contrasts/composition_contrasts.htm
9) An oldie but goody, "Anisotropic Reflections In The Real World", where I explain what they are, what causes them, and then shows tons of real world photos of different types
http://neilblevins.com/cg_education/aniso_ref_real_world/aniso_ref_real_world.htm
8) "Rounding The Edges", learn all about Chamfers and Fillets and how they add realism to your models!
http://neilblevins.com/cg_education/rounding_the_edges/rounding_the_edges.htm
7) Learn everything you want to know about "Reflections and Highlights" in the real world, and how to translate that knowledge to 3dsmax or your 3d program of choice
http://neilblevins.com/cg_education/reflection_highlight/reflection_highlight.htm
6) I go through my entire process for shading a hard surface model in 3dsmax. While a high quality version of this tutorial is purchasable, feel free to just watch the free version here
http://neilblevins.com/cg_education/shading_a_hard_surface_model_2016/shading_a_hard_surface_model_2016.htm
5) "Areas Of Visual Detail, Areas Of Visual Rest", a short discussion of placing detail in your image to get the most visual impact
http://neilblevins.com/cg_education/areas_of_visual_rest/areas_of_visual_rest.htm
4) "Procedural Patterns And Noises", showing all the various noises you can create in software like 3dsmax, Bercon, Darktree, Filterforge, etc
http://neilblevins.com/cg_education/procedural_noise/procedural_noise.html
3) All the different ways to add Curvature based Edge Wear to surfaces in 3dsmax. Contains extensive written and video portions
http://neilblevins.com/cg_education/vertex_map_wear/vertex_map_wear.htm
2) Kind of a surprise in the number 2 slot, a tutorial I did about the "GGX shader", showing how to use it to really make better metal materials
http://neilblevins.com/cg_education/ggx/ggx.htm
1) Here we are, the #1 slot. And the most viewed tutorial, with 3 times the views of the 2nd highest, is "Primary, Secondary, & Tertiary Shapes"! To celebrate, I recorded a brand new video for the lesson, so check it out below!
