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

LAETITIA CAELIA

We previously discovered this world with ‘The Undiscovered Country‘. Laetitia Caelia, what means something like ‘joyful heaven’, demanded to be explored a little deeper though.

By exploration I mean the creative process. Originally this was an attempt at participating at this years E-On Software Environment Competition 2011. So I seriously invested a ton of time into creating a scene that looks like something. All Vue… no post work allowed. I had a really hard time being restricted to Vue alone. The resulting scene was ‘something’. But ultimately nothing with a chance to win. However… I learned a few more things when doing this scene. Especially technical aspects of Vue.

No matter how the results of the contest were, I created the pic with the plan to do my usual Photoshop stuff on it anyway. Now I know the winners were much better than my attempt. However… can’t throw all the work and render time away, right? And there was some render time. Phew. At the hottest time of the year. They should seriously consider holding that contest in the winter months. Seriously. I mean my machine was stable all the time! (Which is a true wonder!) But the temperatures it created in my room here were beyond… there’s no word for it. Evil it was. The final render took probably 40hrs.

For the weird rock formations I used Zbrush. These were fun to create. Less fun was it to import them into Vue. Very heavy models. And yeah, absolutely… I’m no modeling expert and don’t know anything about efficient modeling. These models put my machine on the edge but it worked out. Good enough for me. Like I previously said the rendering phase was a pain. In Photoshop then I had quite some fun adding additional textures. The scene already had a great depth and Photoshop helped me to push that even more. The lighting received a nice push as well. Overpainting helped me fixing and extending certain elements.

I had a real hard time finding the right color grading for it. I, in fact, have tons of test versions lying around here. Even with this final one I’m not 100% happy. At some point you have to mentally stop thinking about it though. Or you’re going George Lucas about it… never stopping to change stuff. (Stop to ruin your movies George!)

Again I imagine this picture is showing a world/planet that was just discovered and is now being explored. It must be a great feeling sitting in one of these jets there… just having fun with the environment. Diving through the canyons and enjoying the views no one has ever seen before.

A camera mapping try on this was not planned but done anyway. Quite some time that went into this too. But I refreshed my knowledge about the techniques and again learned a few new things there.

Hope you can gain some inspiration from it all.

Vue – Zbrush – Photoshop – After Effects – 5000px wide

Exploring Laetitia Caelia – 720p/Sound – Video – On Vimeo

Exploring Laetitia Caelia – 720p/Sound – Video – On Youtube

Laetitia Caelia – Quicktime/720p/Sound – Video (50mb)

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

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

“I’m 29 years old and was born on board of a colony ship that is now on its course for 75 years. It’s heading to a planet that we think is inhabitable. It must be. There is no turning back since our homeworld is dying. No, it’s not our fault. It’s just nature’s course. And our species… in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was the biggest endeavour ever taken to create the biggest colony ships to date. I’m one of 25.000 people on board of one of these ships. A lot of precious resources went into these ships. Not everyone was for it. It caused a lot of uprising. But it was important to keep the hope of our species alive. There are more ships. But all heading to different destinations.

We just now reached a good enough distance to our target planet to efficiently probe it. One of the first probes we sent took about 5 years to reach the planet. When they ship wide published the results my first thought was ‘We’re Home!’. All the readings looked perfect. There even was a photo. Man! I can’t wait to get there! It looks like paradise! It looks like heaven!”

This pic was originally a concept art commission I did a few months ago. It got rejected for reasons I can’t exactly understand… since I followed instructions from the Art Director. Weird weird thing. However. Instead of leaving this nice piece to slowly fall apart on my hdd, I decided to do something with it. Much like my ‘Hades’ duo from 2008, this is the first of two pics showing pretty much the same place. This pic was fun to do and certainly looks cool… that’s at least what I think.

Technically it’s a Vue 3d render for the base and some Photoshop to get details and atmosphere right. The weird rock formations were done with Zbrush. Experimenting with that stuff lately. Creating rocks and alien looking formations is pretty easy with Zbrush. And that’s all I’m able to do with it. It can do so much more. However. This Zbrush excursion helped me to learn a few things and will hopefully lead into some more exotic looking landscape pics in the future. We’ll see that…

for now I hope you enjoy the view as much as I do.

Vue – Photoshop – 5000px wide

Plates and Parts

The artwork on:
Deviantart – Artstation – Drawcrowd – CGSociety

Regards

SKYHIGH

My god I cannot even tell how old this picture already is. Now I guess it’s finally time to release it into the wild. The creation of it started late 2010 and even today I did a few smaller fixes on it.

Originally I just wanted to create another futuristic cityscape picture but soon thought that I already had done quite a bit in that field. The original intention was it to create yet another different perspective on my ‘Hadley’s Hope‘ cityscape series. When I finished the city part I left it alone for quite a while. Then I dug it out for an EvE Online Spaceship contest on Deviantart for this: ship. I needed a background for the presentation of that design and the city was perfect. Naturally I did not win anything on Deviantart. Later though I submitted the same entry to pretty much the same contest, with the difference that the contest was held by the EvE Online people themselves. There it was one of the winning designs. That was a surprise. And the presentation of the design surely did its part.

Now I did not want to waste that city and do something with it. So I sat down again and tried different ideas. The one that stuck then was something I wanted to do for a while. Adding some skywalk where people could look down to the city. Something that would really create a nice feel of scale. I couldn’t exactly tell if the pic now shows a viewing plattform from a building or a ship that is approaching the city. I leave that to your imagination. However, I like the idea of a ship.

Technically I recycled the city I used in Hadley’s Hope. Nonetheless I did quite some modifications on it since we’re looking at it from a totally different point of view. Creating the atmosphere wasn’t an easy task. Especially getting the clouds right. A lot of trial and error to get things right. The clouds in the render didn’t look very good in some parts to there was some Photoshop required to make it look right. Otherwise Vue did a nice job with the lighting and atmosphere and delivered a nice plate to work from.

Last but not least I must admit that it’s again one of the scenes I would love to see for real. Slowly gliding above that massive thing of a city. Watching the smaller transporters and gliders zipping through the clouds and canyons of buildings. Very StarWarsy but I find it cool.

Vue – Photoshop – 4000px wide

Plates and Parts — Print Detail

Regards

ENDEAVOURS PART ONE

As a part of the Luminarium Artgroup I had the chance to try myself on an idea that was floating through my mind for a while now. To tell a story with pictures. Now the idea itself is old and absolutely nothing new of course. But I hadn’t done something like this before. The Luminarium topic was ‘Sequential‘. Now that could be interpreted any way you want. I chose a somewhat comic like approach. What I wanted to do right from the beginning was to show how spaceships depart from a planet surface into space. I did not know how to visualize that exactly. Soon I found that, of course, some sort of cityscape thing would be the best way to depart from. Soon enough I also had a nice little story in mind. About a guy who worked in that city. Never saw the sunlight and any joy living there and just wants to get away from there. He decides to begin a new life in the off world colonies. (You get the Blade Runner ref there? Very good! ;))

Technically it’s all done using Vue and Photoshop. In Photoshop I used several filters to achieve a certain comic like flavour. Not sure if that succeeded though. The end result was very satisfying and again I learned a few things while working on the different images.

By the end of the making process I realized that the tour from the surface into space could only be the first part of the adventure. The story needs a better finish and that’s why I decided to add a ‘Part One’ to the title. Now I cannot say when I will create the second half of the series. We’ll see when it’s done I guess. For now I’m happy with the results of part one. And maybe it’s a good thing to leave the actual destination of our two ships to the imagination of the viewers. At least for a while! =)

‘Excitement’

“Do you get that feeling too? That feeling of excitement when you know the next day will be great because you’ll be off into the holidays with the family or something? Now this is not much different. To finally leave this place, start over somewhere else and see your loved ones again. This is the first step of my endeavour and I’m so excited!”

‘Here We Go Again’

“There is surely one thing I will definitely not miss. Working in this heavy industrial environment was a pain. All day long in the shadows of these superstructure towers. Knowing there’s a warm sun… but never seeing it. I hope the colonies will offer a more peaceful working environment. It’ll be hard there too. No doubt. But it will be better! Not just because I won’t feel alone anymore.”

‘Wave Goodbye’

“That’s the dream. At least when you’re looking for it here. Living in the higher levels of these skytowers. I never was so high up but I saw pictures of the most amazing sunsets you can imagine. My dreams lie beyond these towers and this planet. Can’t wait to get there. Can’t wait to see my own sunsets.”

‘Leaving The Fields Of Steel’

“Looking down into this mess of a city it looks almost peaceful. A symbol of how far mankind came the last 500 years. All the magic we are able to do now and take for granted. All these amazing achievements. But we’re sill looking for the things we’ve always been looking for. Peace, family, hope, new goals and a better life.”

‘All These Worlds Are Yours’

“I travelled into space maybe three or four times and the sight is still the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. It must be the saddest thing to work up here. Seeing this grand view but not being able to appreciate it anymore. That’ll never happen to me!”

‘Begin A New Life’

“Oh, I almost forgot that funny prickling feeling when a ship enters the space dock and shifts gravity fields. That must be how true excitement really feels! Can’t wait to get through transition and board the ship to the colonies. I hope so much this endeavour will lead me somewhere good. For me it is quite a risk. I’m sure it will! Someone is waiting there for me.”

Regards

HOME HAVEN

This one originally was a concept art commission that didn’t exactly hit the taste of the client. I maintained the rougher look but still tried to polish it up a little more for my own gallery here. It was definitely something new to try and a typical ‘learning’ project. Target was it to create a place where some sort of sea nomads find a haven. The city itself is kinda modular and able to split up to move elsewhere. I personally am not the biggest fan of the pic but i still somehow like how it turned out. No question a worthy submission for my page anyway. Hope you guys like it!

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

CRITICAL MASS

Thousand years ago we only dreamed of the magic we are able to do today. Today we dream of things that may be absolutely business as usual in another thousand years. Drawing energy from nothing… other dimensions maybe? We should only hope that things don’t excalate in all the greed for energy nowadays. If there is one constant in the universe then the fact that energy will always be needed to do amazing things. That could definitely sling back at us and break our necks. As we’ve all seen in recent events.

‘Energy’ was the topic for The Luminarium’s newest art collection release which can be found here – some really cool works among them. Especially the music that comes with the pack. I got invited to the group and thought i’d give it a try. Some very talented folks there. Be sure to check it out!

The making of the pic was pretty much business as usual. I struggled a bit with the structures and the final result may not be the best solution. However, i wanted to show some kind of a futuristic energy generator. Right from the beginning i knew i had to visualize the energy effect by using Apophysis fractals. This was fun. I also used the metablob function in Vue to create that weird mass thingie. A lot of post work in Photoshop again.

Vue – Photoshop – 4500 wide

Hope you enjoy the wallpapers!

Wallpapers: 1920×1200 – 1680×1050 – 1280×800 – 1080p – 720p

Regards

STRANDED

For quite some time now i recognized that i don’t have lots of action pics in my portfolio. By that i mean pics where is really something happening in. Usually it’s quiet vistas and sceneries. Now i managed to do a pic with some action in it and i think it’s not too bad.

The landscape Vue render i used for this pic is actually a couple of months old. A result of my canyon experiments where ‘Red Canyon‘ originated from too. I found it looked interesting right away. It just had something missing and i invested some serious thinking into what it could be. The conclusion was that the landscape alone wasn’t exactly too fascinating to reach my current standards for a project. So i left it alone a while.

A few days ago i picked it up again, trying a few new ideas. Early on i had the idea to put a person on that one cliff there. To suggest the greatness of the actual landscape. Even if that adds a lot, it wasn’t too satisfying. Then i played around with painting and added that ship. Early on it started to look right somehow and i kept on doing it. A crash landed ship, in flames and very unfortunately positioned for any survivor. A pretty desperate situation. Yet you have this amazing alien planet vista. Guess our stranded folks don’t care too much about that.

Technically the base pic was done with Vue and reworked with Photoshop again. Textures, overpainting, color correction… pretty much the usual procedure for pics i’m doing this way.

Photoshop – Vue – 5000px wide

Print Detail

Wallpapers: 1920×1200 – 1680×1050

Regards

Undiscovered

This one is probably two years old. I did this one for a colleague of mine who worked on a scifi project at the time. They needed a vista for a specific scene and i tried myself on it. Unfortunately the project got canceled. I left this piece and took parts of it to create my ‘Red Dawn‘ project. I’m sure you recognize the mountains. However, i don’t want this scene to rot on my hard drive since there went a few hrs into it. It also doesn’t look too bad either. I like the desaturated bad weather look.

I also did a short animation test. It didn’t turn out too good but why not submit this one too. =) It’s always fun to see static pics in movement. Well… that’s at least my opinion.

Test Animation 720p (ca. 9mb)

Regards