It’s been awhile since I’ve done a hypnosis themed animation. It’s really how I got started with digital art and for quite awhile it was all I focused on. Then I started exploring other areas, in the process learning quite a bit more about 3D modeling, there are so many things to learn.
Just as I have and still am very fascinated by hypnosis it’s been life long, I’m finding the same fascination and enjoyment with digital art, just happened to come along later in life, lots of catching up to do.
I think its time for the circle to come back around to see what I can come with in the hypnotic art arena. I’m excited!
This image was modeled and rendered completely in Cinema 4D, very little post work in Photoshop. The basic scene did not change much after the initial set up. I probably ran up to sixty test rendered until I was able to come up with an image I was happy with. All of those changes came in the lighting set up.
This final render is using a single light which is cast on the character through the window. At one point along the way I experimented with some fill lighting but preferred the more natural effect of a single light.
Through the different phases, at one point the scene was rather dark, yes the lighting was low but I speak more of the mood of the scene. I must admit that even though all of the characters in my scenes are women, they do often times reflect my own moods and feeling. Recently I have found myself waiting for news to come. There is that worry and concern, inner emotions that manifest outward. Those emotions were certainly inspiration for this piece of digital art.
(please click on the thumbnail for a full size view)
I tend to shift my focus around to different things but one that always tends to draw me back with my digital artwork is light. Of course its the root of anything visual, but I really enjoy the focus of doing different things with light.
This particular scene might be a little different than most, in that I spent very little time on the subject and extraordinary amount of time playing with the light. In the process I allowed the character and the scene to be effected by the light rather than the other way around setting the light to highlight the character.
Whether or not that ends up producing a flattering image of the character was in this case secondary to my goal, which is really about learning the craft.
I think that artist tend to gravitate to their own style, mine is certainly headed in the direction of realism. That doesn’t mean that I always strive for images to look like photographs, there is always some form of fantasy involved. Rather than getting caught up doing another NVIATWAS (naked Vicky in a temple with a sword), I enjoy the opportunity to make other actors in the scene the star.
The funny thing is where I used to be able to knock out full animations in a few hours, I seem to be getting slower, this one took almost three weeks of effort. And the results of that effort:
Click on the image to see a full size view.
Back when I bought my first 35mm SLR camera, I made an attempt to soak up as much information about how to take good photographs as I could. In one magazine I read an article that suggested the way to learn how to take great pictures was to practice taking pictures of doorknobs.
At that time nearly everyone who used photography as a form of artistic expression worked in black and white. I still love black and white photos as I feel the art has so many subtleties that are often lost in color. However I digress, I mean to be talking about doorknob photography.
The idea behind this exercise was to take a subject that is really not all that interesting or complex all by itself, and pay more attention the framing of the subject, the angle of the shot, the way light and shadows play together. A good photograph pays attention to all of these elements.
Today I was thinking back to that article and how really it does apply to the core of what becomes stunning art. Some times the special effects, the cool animation, or content itself become the focus. But really all of those elements are wasted without the perfect light or the correct point of view. It’s interesting to me now matter how complex something becomes, its always the basics that make the difference.
A 3D render created in Poser and post work in Adobe Photoshop. The skin textures were custom by me. I wanted to do something a little outside the norm for this one. It’s interesting to me that things that I’ve always thought were magic in the form of presentation are not so magic after all. Yet it is so much to create that magic.
