I had thought to add this to one of my past listings, but it is new to all in this current form and want to share. I am re-working all of the Scenes of the book in progress, hoping to get better results from the printer. I also learned a lot since I last worked on this project, and added details that improve the scenes.
This is a composite, with the Night side on the Back (left side), then Day Transition in the middle, followed by Late afternoon on the actual cover side.
Challenging composition, that required three different scenes in one file, each with their own appropriate lighting, rim lights, etc. I got some very useful help from Claude, who wrote an addon, which allows me to quickly switch between each of the Scene Views, then renders all three, to their own folders by passes.
These became the source material for my compositing in Affinity Paint 2, with Masks to cross fade between each of the layers for the final coomposition.
About half of the pages are now done, but this Cover scene took the most time and is the most complex. Glad to be at this stage on this Scene.
For those who wonder, my first attempts were “hand-drawn,” years ago, but keeping a character ‘consistent’ was never my forte, tending to draw fresh each time. Over the years I found that by using Blender, as a tool/assistant, I could then maintain the Boy’s character throughout the process by sculpting the character, and creating all of the other elements to fill my vision. The boat on the cover appears several times in the book, is a ‘replica’ of my brother Mark’s own, complete with his logo on the sails. Growing up, I really did try to make a set of wings from a discarded refrigerator cardboard box, besides building model airplanes and attaching a sail to my bicycle, or catching the Santa Ana winds in a sheet tied to my hands and feet, so the story explores that series of memories.
Looks good, i d love to see it again when the whole book its finished
also that addon you are talking about sounds good
Yes, the Addon that Claude and I created, for this page, was crucial. It allowed me to “click” on which of the three scenes I wanted to focus on, enabling the correct associated lighting, and hidding objects that weren’t meant to be in that view, (the Moon in the Day scene). It made the complexity manageable.
Another render in the project. This is the bedtime “dreaming” scene, of planned flight adventures, for the following day to come. Elements of flying all around. I made wooden models, paper airplane, kite on the ground, and studied old photos and drawings, all in my effort to achieve flight. The room is more imagined than my childhood room, but it is re-imagined through memory and fantasy.
try also the kuwahara filter. you will get a more painterly effect that i think suits more for a book. except if you want the look like this