The Making of 2nd Place 2D Winner: Scylla Von Blaast
IDEATION
December 8, 2018. I already missed half of the contest. Quick, I need an idea! Let’s make a mind map, then a storytelling wheel. But first, I need some music to get in the mood. A friend of mine gave me a compilation of various international rap music. Why not?
First song, first verses:
J’ai trop de cœur et ça m’trahit
Mon âme s’froisse dans l’impérissable,
ma rage s’enflamme, cache les jerricanes
In English:
I have too much of a heart and it betrays me
My soul crumples in the imperishable,
my rage ignites, hides the jerricans
In my head I instantly get an image of a character like this:
It’s important to be confident with your base concept. I like the idea, let’s see how the Cubebrush crowd reacts. They are hyped, me too. Great! Time to move on the next step.
CHARACTER DESIGN
What will it be? Male, female, both, shapeshifter, animal?
Re-reading the contest briefing carefully I stumble upon a participant saying something along the line “This is unfair! All you have to do to win is draw a half naked woman with big tits.”
Thanks! It will be a woman, more than naked: half transparent actually.
In a nutshell, my character is a literal take on the hot bombshell blonde:
She’s a transparent wax kamikaze, with a bomb for a heart. I have my visual hook. Since design is driven by function, I have to research how the bomb explodes and refine the character design accordingly.
MOVE SET
I have no idea yet what the final illustration will look like, and I don’t want to get into random thumb-nailing. I start to conceive how she moves, mostly how she attacks.
Once again I ask my fellow Cubebrush contestants what they think about the move set.
BEHAVIOR
It will be a Femme fatale, a bit cocky and when I say “a bit” I mean “a lot”, and above all she’s badass!
I throw in all the clichés: smoking cigarettes, top model poses, cold hearted, devil may care attitude.
SKETCHES
The clock is ticking, everything is almost set up, I still need a pose.
I roughly have an idea of a film noir poster composition. Think 1947, Born to Kill by Robert Wise. Something simple, solid and expressive. I’ll go with a rather static pose, but it fits because not only can she show off those legs that go all the way up, but also, this pose captures all her nonchalant attitude: She’s getting rid of people one handedly and multi-tasking, which makes her look even more powerful.
How can I find some references for this wax top model? Around the corner from where I live, I find some thermoforming mannequins. A picture and I have a pose and texture references. Being anchored in reality is always a good thing.
Time to submit my proposals to my fellow contenders, newly promoted to producers.
The last cigarette is approved. Without further ado: Next step!
RENDERING
You know the end of the song: going over errors, fine tuning the lighting, rendering textures: wax, metal, fire, while coping with the deadline.
Here are just a few tips and tricks I used. It never occurred to me that I would need to do a making of, so I will illustrate the principle below with some nice round shapes.
Work path - to get clean shapes with brush effects
2. Right click on your layer > select pixel or alt+left click on your layer
3. Make a new layer, with selection tool activated > right click > make work path > OK
4. With pen tool activated > right click > stroke path (you can simulate brush pressure if needed) > OK
5. Rinse and repeat with the rest of your components
This is how I made the bank vault.
Vanishing Tool
---> PROCESS IMAGE GOES HERE
1. Make a perspective grid
2. Place your design in the perspective
3. Filter > Vanishing point
4. Draw some planes with the grid tool
5. Select your design > alt+click to duplicate and automatically place your design in the perspective
6. Click OK or “render grid” to get the result on your canvas.
Puppet Warp
1. Highlight the layer you want to work with
2. Edit > puppet warp
3. Add pins at the junctions of your character > move them > It’s a kind of magic
4. Play with the options > hit enter when you are done
January 5, 2019. A Last sip of coffee, seat back and relax with Bang Bang from Nancy Sinatra.
Scylla Von Blaast was born.
Check out more of Adrian's work here:
Or his interview here:
