GameArt

This image related to russian commando or Spetz Naz forces. But before anything else i need to say some things. As usual i surfed on the net and stopped at www.render.ru gallery. This is a russian website related to 3D graphics... maybe something like CG Channel. In the gallery i found neat image called "Venom". It was a poster art for the upcoming game with the same name. Can't say that i'm very inspired by 3d but the idea... it has some potential. I won't simply copy it or trace bleh... anyway here is the original source (3DS Max render):

If you're reading www.sijun.com forums you must be already knew that story. A bit later after posting at forum these guys get very hurted and started to kick my ass thinking that i just trace or overpaint their work. Not my style! So to break any illusions i've decided to write this little spotlight.

I started from blank grey file just a couple of hundreds of pixels. Using new set of brushes i quickly sketched the scene. Ow... of course i've used Painter and this set of brushes i download from Don Seegmiller's website. Never hear 'bout him? Stop playing with your cute Pickachu ^_~ and MOVE to his site! Wait... read this stuff before you fly away. Back to my painting, after playing with Don's sketch markers i put some colors over them. Also i've added some space here and there so my pict take a res of 800x500. The reason of low-res is a hardware speed.

Tip: Always try to start sketching at low-res no matter how big your painting will be. I feel comfortable at 500x500 or so. In the beginning you don't need a lot of small details - only basic big shapes AND fastest pen/mouse responce.

Following this tip (works fine both with PhotoShop and Painter) my painting becomes to look like this:

Funny eh? This wounded dude give me a lot of trouble. Look at his right leg... it's too short. I've tried to catch the right pose but can't. At last i take a mirror and look at myself falldowned on the floor :). Hehe seems funny but sometimes mirror really helps. Next i won't use sci-fi technics like poster's aircraft - only real ones. This is the reason of appearing AKC-74 and Mi-24 'Hind'. Also i pay attention to simulate realistic flashes and traces. Yes, real bullets flys very fast (average at 900-1000 m/s) so you just can't see them. But you can see their traces (depending on bullet type). I remember a scene from ForrestGump where US guys been suddenly attacked... the traces flys here and there someone get down... someone was shooted... a real battle! I wanted to create this feeling in static picture. Hope i get some.

I started to paint things like chopper and found that i need more resolution. So i resize my file to 1600x1000. Time for detailing! Someone (sure it was nil900) at forum said that the second helicopter looks a little like a copy of the first one. Nope. I mean i didn't simply copy-resize-paste the second chopper. Maybe it's because they're flying in the similar manner. Here is a little clouseup at 200% of original size:

Still didn't like them but in the final piece they are small so hope you can't see all crap :p . The process takes 'bout 2 evenings. I used standart Painter tools, no layers (ok there was layers but i flatten them in the beginning), no filters and no other crap. Oh and yes, a little note 'bout layers:

Note: When working with layers in Painter save your work in *.PSD file. RIFF format sometimes starts generating unwanted bugs and remember, only Painter can read these files. Well that's all folks... hope you'll got some ideas. Thanks for your time and good luck.