INTRODUCTION
My identify is Kamila Stankiewicz. I’m from Poland and I work professionally as an illustrator. I principally illustrate books for kids and younger individuals, and till 2021, I had nothing to do with 3D.
Along with consuming cinnamon rolls, I like to create, draw, paint, learn, be taught, and uncover new methods to switch concepts, desires, and tales into visible language. I draw each at work and in my free time. My favourite strategies are watercolor, gouache, and digital portray, however I’m turning into more and more within the 3D world.
I’ve been working as a full-time illustrator since 2009, primarily illustrating books, comics, and animation for kids and younger individuals, however I welcome new challenges. I hope to at some point illustrate my very own tales, of which there are loads!
I’ve approached Blender thrice over the course of ten years. Twice, I didn’t get by means of the fundamentals, however the third time it clicked, because of the cult ‘donut tutorial‘ by Andrew Worth. I proceed to discover this system in my spare time, principally at nights.
INSPIRATION
With each new 3D challenge, I attempt to be taught one thing new. On this case, I used to be all in favour of creating hand-painted textures and studying the way to use the BPainter add-on.
The inspiration got here from considered one of my illustrations, “Greatest Good friend Eternally,” which was painted in Infinite Painter. It depicts a somewhat uncommon friendship blossoming in a graveyard between a lonely ghost and a stone angel statue.
The illustration had cool potential, as there was a narrative spelled out in it and the characters, already within the 2D model, had a easy, stylized look.
MODELING
I skipped the sculpting part for the faces and went straight into modeling. Each characters have somewhat easy shapes, so I believed it might be simpler this fashion.
As a 2D artist, I assumed sculpting can be essentially the most attention-grabbing half for me, however surprisingly, I discovered that I take pleasure in modeling extra. Moreover, skipping the retopology half is all the time a plus.
The ghost woman mannequin consists of separate elements: the physique with an elongated tail, eyes, hair, and caftan. The stone angel consists of: the determine, kaftan, hair, eyes, robe, and wings. I notably loved creating the angel’s hair and giving it a sharper edge with the Curve Brush (curve technique). I deliberate to animate each fashions, so I created them within the ‘A-pose’.
TEXTURING
Subsequent, I moved on to the UV unwrapping stage and created separate textures for each characters utilizing BPainter, a paid add-on.
I used to be desperate to learn the way the add-on’s layer system works, because it makes portray on a mannequin extra much like portray in a graphics program, whereas additionally permitting the usage of varied properties of PBR supplies, similar to glowing eyes and ghost hair.
I admit that it took me a while to get aware of this add-on, but it surely was price it.
POSING
I used the free add-on Rigify to pose the fashions.
In each instances, I eliminated the leg bones. For the angel, it was less complicated, because it remained stationary from the waist down. The ghost’s tail needed to wrap across the statue, so I created further bones for it and turned them into flexible bones.
This was my first time working with this kind of bone, so it took me lots of time and a few nerves. However, one other merchandise on my checklist of issues to be taught in Blender was crossed off!
SCENE
As soon as the characters had been posed, I created the remainder of the scene- the grass utilizing the particle system, low poly graves with my previous and current nicknames (do not ask, it is in all probability one thing for a psychiatrist to deal with); and all these little particulars which give the scene a little bit of taste and environment: fireflies (glowing spheres), a bit of crow, bats, a whimsical fence manufactured from mushrooms and crops (not too many to keep away from distraction), a background with a watercolor texture, a crooked moon and a few stars, and snow (utilizing the particle system).
A really cool process was including fog to the scene by making a dice and giving it a quantity materials. By adjusting the values within the nodes, I used to be capable of simply create the fog animation.
LIGHTING
The lighting on this scene represents the 2 major characters. The blue, chilly mild represents the lifeless woman and her paranormality, sense of coldness, and loneliness. The nice and cozy mild coming from the candle symbolizes life and heat, and the concept somebody nonetheless remembers her. Each level lights illuminate the figures from beneath to offer them a spooky look.
Extra space lights are used to light up the graves from behind, creating rim lights to convey out their silhouettes.
ANIMATION
The final process was a small animation displaying the interplay between the 2 heroines (and the truth that each will not be very sensible ;), permitting you to expertise the environment of the cemetery on a chilly winter night time. This stage was the longest and undoubtedly wants refinement, however at this level, my expertise on this space don’t enable me to do it higher.
Nonetheless, I hope I used to be capable of convey the story I had in thoughts whereas portray this illustration. I’ll save studying the intricacies of animation for future initiatives!
BEST FRIENDS FOREVER
Extra renders:
Right here is the animation:
You too can see the brief TikTok from the method.
Thanks for studying my article and have a pleasant day!
Concerning the Artist
Kamila Stankiewicz, a youngsters’s illustrator and a 3d artist from Poland.
