Kitbash Halo Frigate work in progress

A test over two lunchtimes, SketchUp, Keyshot, Blender and Photoshop.

Ok so first things first, usually in my head I have a basic idea of what I want to do, in this case I wanted to experiment with some direct lighting so I figure I will make some sort of scary corridor with light coming through a door.

Now I am doing this at lunchtime at work so time is against me, time to break into some kitbashing sets. I picked up a really great one from Chtazi on Art Station he has some killer packs and quite reasonably priced too.

I quickly assemble the scene in about 15 mins using a mix of bought assets and ones I have made myself to make a room with some test tube type things.

The Hazmat guys I find on the 3D warehouse and the aliens on some 3D printing website. They are very simple but thats fine I will paint in any details I need later in Photoshop.

So the good thing about Keyshot is that you can just import SketchUp files direct and everything is grouped etc. The scene is only lit here so you can see, but in actuality there is no IBL it is completely dark. The scene is lit by two planes acting as emitters, a large red light above and a white light behind the door.

https://ibb.co/7jqh64v

Now the Aliens look strangely placed but it's fine as i've already chosen my camera so anything not in view doesn't matter. What is not shown here is that I created a large plane to make a roof, this stopped any light from the plane behind the door bleeding in from above.

https://ibb.co/Y8KFqV6

I add in my materials, mainly everything is a matte black with glass on the test tubes. I add in a cracked glass material as texture map on the cylinders.

https://ibb.co/9cz1hdv

I did the first render as normal and it came out like this:

https://ibb.co/3Wt81gp

It's a bit cartoony so I added in some volumetric fog, takes a lot longer to render, about 3 hours in this case:

https://ibb.co/XJV8SD6

Then in Photoshop I start adding in some overlays, an Outer Glow on the door area for some more light: https://ibb.co/72BcNVw

Adjusting the contrast on the Alien hidden between the tanks: https://ibb.co/R7KjLSr

Adjust the curves on the tank things to make them stand out a bit more (curves): https://ibb.co/CKWKNTS

Paint in the detail on the Alien closest to the camera: https://ibb.co/RHRwSJK

Paint out the red light in the roof: https://ibb.co/XyHKRpv

Paint in one layer for some smoke (screen set to 20%) and dust (lighten set to 20%): https://ibb.co/Y3Fr4BG

Then its all done: https://ibb.co/D9XJW9R

Not including rendering time, it was about 1 hour to build, setup and paint over. If I did not use a set I bought it would be about one long day to model everything.

What an amazing time I had in LA at Max this year. Thanks for the Adobe 3D and Substance teams for inviting me out to present and a big thanks to Nvidia who loaned me one awesome RTX4000 Boxx laptop to do it on.

We are really looking forward to working more and more with Substance at Volvo and cant wait to get stuck in!

I was lucky to be invited by Beijing Design Week and the SketchUp team to speak at an event in Beijing this weekend. Not only did I get to give a presentation on Sci-fi Design but also be on a panel discussion with some extremely talented Chinese and Japanese designers including Professor Min Wang, Design Director of the Beijing Olympics! 

And some aviation keep points I got to ride in both a 747-800 and A380!!

Here are some images of the finished Power Loader 

Here is an update of my Powerloader with placeholders removed and starting to get its Volvo yellow color scheme.

Ive been working on a project to replicate the NASA Powerloader by Jason Hazelroth over the summer break. This is quite a complicated model so hopefully I will learn a few things along the way.

It's not often that I get to show any work from my actual job but happy to be able to share this truck striping I made with my two colleagues Nigel Atterbury and Fredrik Folkestad.

Volvo Trucks is one of the main sponsors of Sweden Rock and this year we produced a special one off truck to be displayed at the festival. The concept was to visualise the 'sound' of the truck itself and turn that into a unique design.

Image property of Volvo Trucks Sverige/Volvo Group

Image property of Volvo Trucks Sverige/Volvo Group

You can read more about it on the Volvo Trucks website.

Really happy to have been included in 'Nuthin but Mech' this month so looks like its back to drawing some mechs to celebrate! http://nuthinbutmech.blogspot.com/

Quick overpaint using Rustam Shaykhlislamov's aka @rustshake https://www.artstation.com/ixlrlxi excellent Pingusson Unibloc Rat Racer 334  SketchUp model.