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

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

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

A little while ago i got asked from Eric Shafer to do a short interview. Again i thought ‘why not’! Eric has just posted the article on his site. Basically talking about how i came to all this arty stuff. Surely an interesting read.

Check Here – Awesome Interview!

Thanks Eric!

Regards

Christmas over, hopefully happy and cheerful for everyone, there is one last thing left to round this year 2010 up. Eversince we crossed the line to year 2000 all new years numbers sound like from a SciFi movie. Now it’s 2011 and the two thousand still sounds odd in my ears. However! 2010 is over and i guess we all take our share of experiences from that year into the next one. I hope mine will come handy and i hope yours will come handy to you too. Nothing shall be without a reason. Even if that’s a dream sometimes. The year 2010 for me has had its uppers and downers. I think i can be happy about how a few things turned out for me and the people i like. So my hope is that the happiness will continue to grow. Therefor lets face this new year with enthusiasm and an iron will to make it all even better than last year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Regards

DeviantPrints has a limited time free worldwide economy shipping action until the 15th of december. Head over to my store and find some real hq prints of my work. May it be for yourself or a present for christmas! Digital Art, Photography, Abstract and Fractals… i’m sure there’s something for everyone’s taste. The free shipping is valid as soon as you spend $10 or more on a product. Quite a cool offer i wouldn’t miss! From my experience the shipping and print quality is pretty exceptional. Worth a look.

Regards