I’ve been playing with Blender for more than a decade now, and I can say that I know my way around the interface rather well, but I never really finished any project.
Until I decided to take a radically new approach, and here is the result…
Blender can do 2D pretty well on it’s own… And I love how Cycles handles the shadows!
As the title states, it’s called The Witnesses.
Does this look professional to you guys?
Hope you like it!
Comments and criticism welcome…
Cheers!
PS: If you zoom-in on the border of the frame, you’ll notice it’s made out of tiny pistols!
PPS: I initially wanted to post a lossless version of the image, but the PNG file was 8 megs, so this is the JPEG version…
PPPS: Here’s the project’s page on ArtStation, just in case.
Sorry about the deleted posts… I started answering each one of you guys individually, but then the forum suggested I should group my answers, so that’s why…
@PierreSchiller: Hey! You mean like projecting it on the side of a building? I had’nt thought of that but why not?..
I was rather aiming for illustration work or something, for book covers or any sort of narrative/informative work really…
Plus, I don’t know if I can animate it… This is not grease pencil, it’s all vector (100% Bézier curves), so I’m not sure how I would animate just the handles…
@ShaunBlender: I know what you mean, but here’s my rationale about that: I love paper cutout art, but it’s generally very “cutesy” and filled with “swans and unicorns” and what not…
So I wanted something to counter balance that… It’s a bit like 3D animation almost being limited to pretty talking animals, when the medium can do so much more… This paper cutout style (even though it’s totally digital here) can do anything, not just princesses in magical settings… I’m sure one can make an entire comic book like this, so that’s why I went a bit over board with the red gun… To add an element of Rock ‘n’ Roll to an otherwise thematically very tame medium…
I really like that layered papercut effect and the choice of colors. It looks really good - plus, in 3D you’re not forced to have every bit of paper attached to something, floating part are okay.
I think a backlight could be a good idea (maybe not for this image, but in case you decide to do another ), a bit like those stuff.
I actually am planning on doing a backlit scene at some point… I was thinking of something that would look like the cover art of Riven, an old but beautiful video game…
It’ll allow me to clarify certain aspects of what I’m trying to do… I’m not aiming for realistic paper cut renders… I’m trying to see what I can do with a medium that has it’s roots in paper crafts!
I did experiment with the solidify modifier early on, and that’s not what I’m looking for… But there is a bevel effect on every curve (sorry no, the little bugs and the clover leaves don’t have it)… It’s subtle, but it’s there… You can best view it on the right vertical chain, when it meets the night sky… It’s quite visible.
And I’m pretty sure I’ll never use textures either… This constraint forced me to be resourceful with the shading of the moon for example…
As for the red gun, I did explain my motivations behind my departure from palette consistency, but I can totally understand that it looks out of place… That was my point! Take a look at the album art for this Broken Bells record… I honestly think it does work! But you have the right to disagree!
