TIGAER-DESIGN.COM_.v5

Unexpectedly I managed to make it into the final selection of E-On Software’s ’3D Environment Competition 2012′. Due to the rules of the contest I did not release the picture on any site but will do once the contest is over. That includes Wallpapers of course. All the finalists have some really nice work and surely deliver a hard competition. If you’re interested to take a peek… just follow the link. Winners will be announced on January 10th. Wish me luck! And of course a good luck from me to all finalists!

3D Environment Competition 2012: Finalists

Regards

Yet again I have to announce something that makes me proud. For the past year I sat down and created a neat little art book. This book contains 9 of my personal portfolio favourites on a very high quality 30×30 cm / 12×12 inches paper. All of them on two-page spreads. So basically 60cm wide. That gives some amazing detail! Additionally it’s packaged in a very well produced and manufactured binding. For details feel free to check this page. There you can find all necessary info about the book as well as detailed photos.

Check The Preview – Here

Buy The Book – Here

Regards

Good question! The last couple of weeks I was really busy with all sorts of things. That left me a little hanging when it comes to new pictures or personal projects. Soon will be the next ‘The Luminarium’ artpack release and that’s when I can present something new too. I can also say that there will be more than only that. Until then I have some more boring movie reviews. If you have any feedback to whatever you see on the site… just shoot! Very appreciated!

So yeah… stay tuned… check in from time to time…! New stuff, inspiration and wallpapers soon! Promised!

Regards

Today we have a nice interview for the 3D Art Direct Magazine. Paul Bussey and Mickey Mills invited me to do one and therefore a thanks to them. The magazine is pretty much what the title says. In this issue the mag covers some nice examples of 3d fantasy art as well as interviews for the respective artists. Some good inspiration to find there.

Buy the Magazine here for only £3.95.

Regards

LAKE FIREFLY

This picture was a submission for ‘The Luminarium‘ Artgroup. Their topic was ‘Asylum‘. My interpretation of the meaning can pretty much be seen in this picture. It’s a more peaceful approach. Here we have two people on a field trip to find some peace. But the environment looks a little different don’t you think? Of course I wanted to put in a little Fantasy/Scifi component. So our two friends here are either in the future on a distant planet or in an alternate universe. But that’s a taste thing. =D

Technically this picture was the first one I created with the Vue10 release. The random rock creator works really nice and is a good addition to the tool. The huge wing like mountain thingies were created with XenoDream. A very interesting tool that I might explore a little more in fhe future. Of course a lot of post work with Photoshop again. I even played around with creating some alien looking trees there. Maybe that was the christmas spirit coming through a bit. Just a little bit. =D This may also be the last piece of art for 2011 and I think it gives a nice conclusion with its mood.

Vue – Photoshop – 5000px wide

Print Detail
Plates and Parts

Regards

A few weeks ago I got asked to write a short tutorial on how to insert/replace sky elements in pictures. No matter if photo or painting. It was on rather short notice and a tight deadline. Especially when there were other things planned already. Nonetheless I sat down and tried myself on it. I used the render plate I had from my “Hadley’s Hope” project. So it ultimately became sort of an alternative take on my original project. I worked pretty rough though since there wasn’t much time for a too detailed approach. Anyways… the short tutorial in the magazine covers how to place a nice sky, that complements the cityscape, into the scene. It’s partly manipulated with photos and partly painted. I had a more photo manipulated approach at first but the magazine requested more painted parts. I hope I managed to cover the basics about it. At this point I also have to thank Adam Smith who had the bad luck to edit my gibberish. =D He was quite a help.

Advanced Photoshop Issue #90 is available now! Check it out!

Regards

It’s time for a short plug of my Science Fiction Calendar 2011. This time the included collection of art mainly focusses on SciFi pieces. Among them are personal favourites and awarded pieces like ‘Red Canyon’, ‘Phoenix Rising’, ‘Hadley’s Hope’ and ‘Gates To Elysium’. There are also some new pics in there I released this year.

It always creates a fuzzy feeling seeing these worlds on paper. Somehow it makes you want to explore these places even more deeply. Must be a good thing huh? =) So, if you don’t believe in the end of the world in 2012… BUY IT! =D

Enough talk!

For a preview of the Calendar please check here:
Sci-Fi Calendar 2012 Preview

You can buy this calendar on deviantart for:
$27.95 -> Find it here: Sci-Fi Calendar 2012

Regards

Databases can be a b*tch. Now yesterday my provider decided to do a php update on their servers. That didn’t run as smooth as it should have. So on the updated database were quite a few posts missing on my site. Gladly not too many. I was able to recover all of them and hope it all works again. Since the database is updated I may even try to update my wordpress. Couldn’t switch to version 3 yet because my old database wasn’t uptodate. Now with the new one running it shouldn’t be a problem anymore. At least one positive thing out of that useless trouble the last two days.

UPDATE: WordPress upgrade to version 3.2.1 was successful. Site is now uptodate and fully operational again.

Regards

I’m proud to say that i’m, unexpectedly, one of the winners of the contest. I always was a big fan of the look and design of EvE Online. For years i wanted to try it out and last year i did it. I did not regret it. Even if i learned that it can eat your life away. That’s why i’m currently taking a break from it. So much to see there… so much to do and sooooo much to learn there. It’s a lot of fun. Now when i created my ship design i haven’t played a lot of the game. Only a few tiny glimpses of how big it really is. So i did not have a real feel for the different races and designs yet. Nonetheless i wanted to try myself on it. And so i did. I must admit though that i did not expect AT ALL to win anything… seeing all these great submissions that were posted to the contest. When the confirmation mail came in i almost deleted it, thinking it was spam. Luckily i took a closer look.

With my entry (above) the following designs managed to win:

Alexey M (Winner of the Grand Prize) – Mentor Battlecruiser

Eric A – Oblivion Battlecruiser

Shawn N – Amarr Command Ship Battlecruiser

Eric A – Serval Battlecruiser

Beside my congratulations to the other winning designers i want to mention the 40 designs that made it into the final round of voting. I urge you to check them out if you’re a Scifi fan. All of them look really really cool! Find them HERE.

Technically i created the basic ship design and shape with help of ZBrush. Still a lot to learn there. In Photoshop i added texture and details to the hull. When it comes to EvE specific design then i would say it’s a Caldari or Gallente ship. The background of the pic is one of my Vue scenes. I haven’t released that pic yet. It’s collecting dust here somewhere on my HD.

Regards

STRANGE NEWS

Project name for this one was ‘assimilated’ until i found a title i had to use for this one. Now imagine mankind will make it some day… and meet other lifeforms (in peace!). How would a technological mix would visually break down the look of a city, that shares human as well as alien technology in its architecture? Of course this is all speculative and imaginary. The title i used is actually a 16min song that followed me through the making of this picture. “…And you will know us by the trail of dead” – Album: Tao Of The Dead. Awesome piece of music. My recommendation.

Now this one is a perfect example of a painter who has no idea what he’s doing. He’s letting guide himself from what the pic tells him. Excited like a little kid playing hide and seek. Well i basically just sat down and played with brushes and Photoshop. This time i used a plate i shot a few years ago in Berlin. I always knew this material could be useful someday. Now i finally found use for it. I’m pretty surprised what came off of it. Since pretty much nothing of the actual plate is left. Looking back at what i did so far, this pic surely has a unique approach and feel to it.

I think i got a little inspired by the style of concept guys like Sparth or Syd Mead. Everything Photoshop this time. No Vue or 3d elements in here. Well… not exactly. I created some brushes off of some of my scifi Vue buildings. That worked not bad here. The basic pic was done after 2 or 3 days. A lot of time went into (pretty much unnecessary) fine tuning. I had the time and used it to polish certain areas a little more than others. Just for fun.

I personally would say it’s one of my best pics. Really enjoyed making it. Hope you enjoy the view too!

Photoshop – 5000px wide – 1 week

Print Detail (Large File)

Progress/Plate (Large File)

Wallpapers: 1920×1200 – 1680×1050

Regards