TIGAER-DESIGN.COM_.v5 – Digital Art by Christian Hecker

Echoes

With this one we have another more experimental piece. After doing my Arcady’s Epiphany piece I still wanted to do something with the fractal 3d object I made with Xenodream. The Scifi nut that I am, it went into that realm again. The initial idea to the pic came when I had a sleepless night. You know these nights, when too many things go around in your head. The first pic I had in my head was just a hole in the ground with some structure in the middle of it. Later then came the idea making the structure some sort of scientific expedition, looking for something or investigating weird rock formations. I even started to write a short story but decided to post it later on my site. That story really needs polishing and who knows if I can find the time for it.

From a technical viewpoint this one was a monster. Sometimes I wonder how my computer manages to handle the stuff I throw at it. The pic was created through several separate Vue scene files. Basically separate files for the building and landscape. And one big file that contained all objects and was used for the render. The big one had 3gb size in the end. That’s huge even for my standards. A separate cloud pass (took almost 44hrs to render) was rendered to enhance the atmosphere on the surface. This pic was also the first one where I heavily used 3d lights directly in the scene. Normally I tend to add this stuff via Photoshop. First testrenders indicated that it wouldn’t work for this one and the look I was going for. The terrain was created with Worldmachine and did a nice job with the overall detail. Speaking of detail… there is a crazy load of it in there. I don’t know what was going on with me. Especially considering how painful it can be to implement certain details. I even tracked down the font that was used on the USS Sulaco in the movie Aliens. I wanted that for the names of my stations as well. Check out the print detail preview on the bottom of the post to see what I mean. Crazy, right? Last but not least of course Photoshop was used to basically pimp up the render with some postwork, effects and slight overpainting here and there.

6000×2739 – Vue – Photoshop – Xenodream – Worldmachine

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Room With A View

This one earned a special place in my heart. I wanted to try myself on something new. Well, not entirely new… but at least something different. I was always a fan of these clean and nice looking architectural visualization artworks. These artworks always have a certain look and especially a great lighting going on. I also wanted to have a picture that earned some merits before it even got officially published on my site or art communities. So I submitted it as an entry for Volume 11 of the Ballistic Publishing Expose artbook series. I expected other submissions to make it into the book but not really this one. Especially since it’s my first serious try in doing something like it. Dear lord… a lot of work and revisions went into this picture before I was somewhat happy with it.

I started to play with vector import in Vue quite some time ago. Soon after creating ‘Halcyon Awaits’, (which used a lot of vector imported shapes) I thought that the technique would also wonderfully work to play around with some clean cut scifi architecture design. Yet again I had to go through quite learning curve to get the results I wanted. And all that by going the most efficient way possible. I did not model all of the contents in the scene. I used models from DAZ and Archive3D.net. A lot of the models needed additional texturing which ate a lot of time. The result however was completely worth it. The flat itself is created with vector shapes and Vue’s Texttool. It’s funny what interesting results it can give you. It’s really fun to play with.

In the end it turned out that the pic got selected for inclusion into Expose Vol. 11. That blew me away. Very unexpected and an amazing motivational boost. I did something right. And to make good things better… it even got selected for inclusion into the next d’artiste: Matte Painting 3 book as well. At that point I was flattened. And that’s why this particular pic is very special for me.

If there is a particular story for it? Well. Lets just say it’s a wonderful friday morning. A glorious weekend ahead. A good motivation to welcome the last workday of the week! Fresh clean morning air in the room and soft warm sunlight on the skin to welcome you to a new day.

6571×3000 – Vue – Photoshop

The artwork on:
Deviantart – Artstation – Drawcrowd – CGSociety

Plate 1

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Point Sentinel

In the early days, when I started to understand that I may be able to create some really neat pictures, I had my sources for inspiration and motivation. Like everyone who is trying to get somewhere in a certain field. There was and still is a guy I look up to. Even if we kinda lost contact. But anyway. The guy I’m talking about is Gary Tonge. Very kind and good person. Many of his works inspired me. But there was always that one piece he did, I wanted to pay homage to. Trying my own version of the idea. That piece was ‘Sentinel‘. It is a very simple picture. No detail where is doesn’t need to be. Well packaged. Yes, my version is very different. But still… the creative spark came from Gary Tonge’s Sentinel.

What can be said about the creation process. Lets just get one thing out of the way. Yes. The waterfall was a pain to create! I don’t have a lot of waterfall textures and had to use what I had. A ton of work went into that detail. All the integration and overpainting, to make it sit well in the render. took some good time. The landscape was created with Worldmachine. The overall scene was done with Vue. A mixture of standard and procedural terrains.

For the creation of the building I used my lame 3d skills to get some shapes done. Basically a lot of vector import going on. Also reused certain elements from previous projects. The detail I wanted to have from the beginning were the sails. I always wanted to do something with that kind of element. Don’t ask me what the purpose of it is. Maybe it’s also able to collect energy from the sunlight. Much like solar panels. Ultimately it doesn’t matter. It looks cool enough to justify its appearance. =D

For quite some time I had the picture pretty much done. But whenever I looked at it I felt it did not look done yet. I was wondering why and took me a hile to think about what I could do to make it work. After a long time leaving the pic behind, I decided to work something out for the foreground. I felt that I found the right trail for a solution. It still took me a while to find the right setup with the cave like rock formations. These finally built the right frame to make the picture work.

So yeah… thanks Gary for the inspiration. It just took almost 10yrs to get this homage done. :D

6000×2715 – Worldmachine – Vue – Photoshop

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Halcyon Awaits

Here we have a picture that resulted from an actually different picture idea. Originally I wanted to go for a more fantasy like approach and create something with a big fortress. I cannot exactly say what specifically happened but it turned into a Scifi pic. Although you can see parts of the original idea in the setup of the final picture. What we see here is intended to be some kind of holiday resort. A place where people go to have some fun, find peace and enjoy nature a bit. Even though I leave interpreations, about what this place really is, open to the viewer. It’s certainly a nice panorama of nature and technology.

Technically speaking it’s my Vue & Photoshop mixture again. This time though I attacked the creation of mountains with Worldmachine. A great tool for creating terrains, and sometimes easier to handle than Vue, when it comes to achieving a certain look. For the structures I used a bunch of models and reworked them to my needs. Among them a couple of Stonemason objects which you can buy on DAZ3d.com. These give you a great starting ground for your ideas. I also want to mention Sebastien Hue who created a model after a concept I did. I used that model for the small flyers, zipping about on the right. The bridge objects I mainly created with Vector and the Text Tool in Vue. It may sound strange but hey, it worked. =) Overall the creation process was tedious but fun.

This pic also made it into last year’s E-On Software Environment Competition finals. Even though it did not win anything, I still think that’s a great thing, and worth to mention. =)

Vue – Photoshop – 5000px wide

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FOUNDATION

What we have here is a picture that I would consider a quickie. A mashup of my earlier Scifi cityscape pictures. It still took a while to get it done but the general composition was set very early on and kept throughout the making. Normally I tend to sometimes drastically change elements of a picture even within the making. Always depending on how good things work out. Sometimes you have to work out things and look at them, to fully understand if something in a picture works or not. Had not to do this hassle for this one. Instead I did a lot of finetuning, especially in the front parts. The city I kept rather basic without investing too much time and detail on it. Just wanted to keep the background more rough. Slammed some textures and lights on it. Does the job and creates enough depth for what I wanted. Something that works really nice is the sense of business that a city like this would generate I think.

Technically it’s, as usual, Vue to create me a base picture to work on. In Photoshop I added quite a load of textures and made them fit somewhat nicely within the scene. I added masses of lights to suggest even more detail. The lights required some time to place them good in the scene. Then I tried to add a little more depth with some atmospheric glow and haze. Overall it works good enough for what I had in mind for the picture.

The docked ship in front was originally a concept drawing I did a while ago. My french Luminarium colleague Sebastien Hue managed to create a nice 3d model from my rough drawing. So a big thanks to him! Pay him a visit here. You’ll see some variations of that ship in future works soon, that’s for sure.

6000 wide – Vue – Photoshop

Regards

THE ELLENSHAW CORRIDOR

This one could be seen as a sister project to my ‘From Here I Can Almost See The Stars‘. I basically used the same city scene, along with a few changes. Originally the picture was created to work out some material, I could use for chapters on a German workshop DVD (more info), I got invited to do. The energy spheres and ship engine trails for example. I previously used energy spheres, as a detail in my work, and really liked how it turned out. On the other hand I wanted to experiment with a darker toned atmosphere. Work with harder contrasts. Which turned out rather good in this picture.

You could say it’s another generic scifi cityscape scene. Nonetheless I hope the lighting and perspective is at least something that stands out in this one. As usual I used Vue to create a base of operation. Several separated renders helped me to get in all the elements I wanted. A lot of Photoshop then helped to get in the details, that make this picture look alive.

It does look like a place you can easily get lost in. And our guy there is probably thinking the same. But I’m sure he knows his ways around this place.

5000 wide – Vue – Photoshop

If the German language is in your skillset, here is some info about the workshop.

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Creation History

The artwork on:
Deviantart – Artstation – Drawcrowd – CGSociety

Regards

THE MOEBIUS PASSAGE

This is a picture I started a long time ago. It started as a little experiment and turned into something bigger than I intended. I also wanted to use this picture for a little training exercise, working in that format/aspect ratio. I haven’t done so in quite a while. I must admit that I did myself hard finding a good enough composition. First when I played around with tilted camera views I found a suitable setup. That made the pic come to life for me. Added quite a nice and dynamic feel.

Technically it’s less a digital matte painting approach than a digital painting style. I did not want to strangle myself with trying to go as photoreal as possible. I just wanted to play with this one. Again the layout of the scene was done with Vue. In Photoshop I reworked quite some parts and added textures here and there. The overpainting was fun to do. Additional renders helped to implement more ships and the foreground elements. I really enjoy the view here but I doubt it is something for people with fear of heights.

When I was in the last stages of the creative process I heard that the fabulous Jean Giraud aka Moebius passed away. I admit that I don’t know too much about the person, but I can clearly see how his art influenced tons of Scifi movies. And me… well I’m influenced by these movies. That’s for sure. So I did not have a title for the pic and decided to dedicate this one to Jean Giraud. His art will definitely live on and keep the memory alive.

5000×3333 – 300dpi – Vue – Photoshop

The artwork on:
Deviantart – Artstation – Drawcrowd – CGSociety

Wallpaper Pack contains two wallpaper versions in 1920×1200 and 1680×1050.

Regards

ANCIENT MEMORIES

Holy cow, it’s been a while! Over the past weeks and months I was quite busy and did not have much time. Enough whining! Yes, here we have a new one. Finally. This one was actually done for the latest exhibit of The Luminarium. Its topic was ‘Gaia’, which makes it pretty much a nature theme. I also combined the creation process with a video workshop, that might be interesting for especially the germans. I’m not explaining the whole creation process… but how to implement atmosphere and certain elements into the scene. But more on that later.

I always wanted to try myself on a, by nature devoured, city. Overgrown by trees and plants of all sorts. The picture does not have a particular story. The message I wanted to get accross simply is, that we should be careful with what we do. Right now I have the feeling that mankind is straight on the edge of either ruining it all or finding a way to get it all together. Reading and watching the news says we’re closer to the fail than the success. The city in the pic is a symbol for a hard and painful learning process. Obviously there was a civilization that did not make it. But there is still hope, overall. And that’s the person. She may be a simple explorer or even more specific… an archeologist. Whatever she is, the sight of that city will fascinate her. Will make her go down and explore it. As long as someone is willing, to do the research that may help us to understand the failures of the past, there is a chance of learning. So much for the wishful thinking.

The truth is that the world, now more than ever, is filled with ignorance. But enough preachy talk.

The picture was created with Vue and heavily postworked with Photoshop. Especially within the city, a lot of overpainting and detailing happened. Several Vue renders helped me to extend the scene, even after I started with the post process. Overall the pic was fun to do. All the little details help it to come alive.

This picture is also part of The Luminarium’s 18th artpack release ‘Gaia’. Some pretty amazing and inspiring work there. Info can be found here.

4500px wide – Vue – Photoshop

If the German language is in your skillset, here is some info about the video workshop.

Vue Plate
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The artwork on:
Deviantart – Artstation – Drawcrowd – CGSociety

Regards

FROM HERE I CAN ALMOST SEE THE STARS

For a long time now I have a certain image in my head that I still/yet have to make. The picture we have here brought me a little closer to the image I have in my head. The pic I have in mind is something with a giant huge space port/dock structure. And yes, other artists already have made very awesome attempts on that. But hey, I want my own super cool space port! =D

What we have here is indeed a cool space port kind of thing and I really honestly like the result of my attempt here. I really had some fun playing with the colours. I wanted to go for colours I rarely used so far. So this pic will make a nice addition to my portfolio. I’m still undecided if we have a morning or evening scene in this pic. That’s what I leave to the viewers. Yes the scene is artistically nothing entirely new but I think it just looks sort of soothing.

Technically it’s heavy Vue work again. It started, like so often, playing around with objects and atmospheres. Originally I was thinking about creating a space scene. Then I had this great atmosphere that reacted so nicely with my objects that I couldn’t resist to make it another Scifi cityscape. The rendering happened in various steps again. First the city. Then the clouds. And last but not least the flying little ships. Throughout the Photoshop phase I continued rendering out smaller parts to replace some others I wasn’t to happy with. I still love the Multipass options in Vue. This makes it rather easy to exchange elements.

In Photoshop then happened the compositing of all the different elements Vue gave me with it’s renders. A lot of fixing, texturing and overpainting happened in the next stage. The atmosphere got some pushes too. The final result then really became a moody Scifi scene that allows the viewer to dive into.

This picture is also part of The Luminarium’s 17th artpack release ‘Illuminate IV’. Some pretty amazing and inspiring work there. Info can be found here.

I really had some fun with this one and hope you people dig the view as much as I do!

5000px wide – Vue – Photoshop

The artwork on:
Deviantart – Artstation – CGSociety

Creation Progress Plate
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TERRAGLACIES

This one is a failed experiment from 2009. I remember playing with Vue and it’s displacement options for materials. I had no specific picture in mind. I was just playing around. Then suddenly the preview render was showing me a rather cool, kinda abstract, looking landscape shape. It immediately reminded my of my 2005 ‘Astounding’ piece somehow. Then I tried to render it bigger and bam… no chance. I don’t remember the exact time Vue told me but it was astronomical. I started to try my usual workarounds but nothing helped. I guess the material and the dispacement mapping ate up all the memory and when it was full the render just crashed. I managed to get out a, for me, low quality render and worked with that one. Even if I’m not entirely happy with the result I still think the pic has a certain appeal to it. I hope you think so too! =)

Regards