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

Arnou – The Royal Palace District

This one was a commission a couple of weeks ago for New Worlds Project (rpgnewworlds.net). A site about Scifi writing and roleplaying. The site gathered some very creative folks to give life to all the ideas of the world they are trying to create and visualize. May it be environments, places, cities, races and spaceships. My mission was it to show parts of Arnou. The capital city of the Rosebourg Monarchy (Info).

I’m glad the pic works, since I tried some new approaches in regards of city creation. Especially when you have to create a picture that demands to show the size of the place. The base was created with Vue along with quite some technical difficulties. But I managed to keep these under control. A lof of painting and refining in Photoshop to make it all as moody and accurate (to the descriptions) as possible.

Arnou – Creation Process.

Hope you like what you see and check out their site (mentioned above) and facebook page.

Another shameless plug… I’m now on facebook as well. Likes and the usual “spread the word!” are always welcome and appreciated! =)

Find me here: Tigaer-Design.com Facebook Page

And now I hope you enjoy the view!

Regards

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

Plate 2

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Regards

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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Arcady’s Epiphany

Arcady, very early on, showed a huge fascination with all kinds of adventure stories. The traditional heroes and their bold undertakings to rescue a damsel in distress. Soon enough she started to think about becoming an author herself. “Someday, when I’m grown up!” She used to say. On her 12th birthday morning, her father decided to take her out into the field. Arcady had no idea what her father had in mind, but she saw him smile and his eyes shine bright like a star. “A place that always made me imagine my own adventures!”, he said. “Something inspirational!” Arcady could not resist, smiled at her dad and made herself ready for the trip. A quick breakfast and some words Arcady will never forget, when her dad said, “Time to write your own stories, darling!”.

This one was done for the 20th Exhibit of the Luminarium artgroup, created between October and December last year. The topic was ‘Adventure’ and I immediately had some ideas in my head.

Inspiration for this came from… I don’t know. Could be a mixture of things I saw in videogames and movies… as well as descriptions in books (and no, I haven’t seen Burton’s Alice yet) =). I was also playing around with Xenodream and its fractals. Its feature to export fractals to a 3d format enables creativity to fiddle around with a lot of ideas. The exported 3d fractals were easy to import into Vue. So I started to setup the scene until the almighty creative spark lit up.

Next stage was Photoshop. Again I used the Multipass options of Vue to render out additional elements to enhance the scene. A lot of work went into making everything fit and creating a nice depth. The original render already worked well but, as usual, I started to enhance the atmosphere part in Photoshop too. The plate pics for the planets were created with Vue as well. I’m not the most awesome space artist but I think the planets do look good enough. I also allowed myself to go for some really strong colours. I really wanted this to be an eyecatching pic, even in thumbnail size. Eventually I got to a point where I was rather pleased with the result.

When it comes to using fractal 3d objects then it’s highly possible you’ll see more of that in the future. =)

Hope you like what you see here. Enjoy!

The short little snippet of story is inspired by a character in Isaac Asimovs’s ‘Foundation’ books.

This pic is part of the 20th Exhibit by ‘The Luminarium Artgroup‘. A lot of great art for your inspiration! Check here.

Vue – Xenodream – Photoshop – 6000px wide

Plate 1

Plate 2

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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

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

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

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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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