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

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

WIDE AWAKE

This one must be two years old now. Every now and then i worked on it and i may continue doing things on it. Who knows. I got some nice photo plates from a buddy who visited vietnam a while ago. There were a few shots that i instantly wanted to do something with. Much like this one i did for a workshop in a magazine. Check here for the before/after example.

Now where could that be? I don’t know. I see a colony/farm planet here with plenty of green and fertile areas. I personally like the result. The distance and scale comes across nicely. Technically it’s all Photoshop without any 3d (Vue) elements. Now i hope you enjoy the sight as much as i do!

6942×3356 – 300dpi – Photoshop

The artwork on:
Deviantart – Artstation – Drawcrowd – CGSociety

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

Now between Pt5 and Pt6 i took myself a longer break. Other things had higher priorities. However! Now it’s time to continue the series of Scifi movies that will forever inspire me when doing Scifi art. Again it’s a mix of classics and newer movies. As always i can recommend seeing all of the movies. But if i would have to pick absolute favs then ‘Fire In The Sky’ and ‘Quiet Earth’ have a special place in my heart.

*Not listed by favourites.

Forbidden Planet (1956)

It’s always fascinating seeing that young Leslie Nielsen in that film. This is one of the movies the words ‘Sci-Fi Classic’ were invented for. Again it’s a movie that took new visual directions. You never get to see the old alien race that once lived on that planet… but the environment they left behind suggests on so many levels how they could have looked. I, particularly, love the Matte Painting work in the underground alien factory/generator thing. They really took some stuck concepts and got a bit further with them. Who said aliens had to look humanoid? They really managed to make the aliens take shape in our heads. Instead of showing us and taking away our own imagination. A really nice movie to watch with some tea and cake on a rainy afternoon.

The Forbidden Planet on IMDb

Fire In The Sky

This is one of the most scary movies i ever saw. It actually is a movie about a guy who got abducted by aliens. The movie shows it all from the perspective of his buddies who had no other chance than to run away. To leave behind their friend. While everyone is thinking these guys murdered him. No one is believing their story. No one can find their friend for days. When he suddenly shows up again he is completely changed. Shocked. Can’t even start to explain what happened. You may ask what’s so scary about it. Well… they show the inside of the UFO. Where our guy got captured. What he lived through on that ship. They have some really cool design going on in that part of the movie. That alone makes it worth watching. But it also has that amazing atmosphere. I really like this one. And it’s after a true story.

Fire In The Sky on IMDb

Soilent Green

Another classic in my list. Somehow i love the old Charlton Heston scifi movies. I bet everyone has seen this one at least once. I really like the concept and the technical execution. Back when it was released i can imagine that the whole breakup, of what soilent green actually is, was quite an eye opener. The picture of the future we see there nowadays doens’t look too far away and could sooner or later become our actual reality. So the movie was quite ahead of its time and gets my highest recommendations.

Soilent Green on IMDb

The 5th Element

When i first went out of the theater after seeing this movie i wasn’t sure what to think of it. And i still get the same feeling when i watch the movie today. While i really really like the feeling of the movie, i also really really don’t like the french influences that found its ways into the movie. That certain kind of humour. Visually the movie is a fantastic example of how detailed you can portrait a futuristic world. So many things going on in it. And Bruce Willis kicks ass. This certainly is one of his best works. Even if he’s playing only a darker version of John McClane again. And you can never go wrong with McClane. Oh and Gary Oldman… love his evil characters.

The 5th Element on IMDb

The Black Hole (1979)

Now this one has a special place in my heart. I remember when i was young i got a cassette tape as a gift from my mom. I don’t know anymore what the occasion was. And that tape was this movie. It was weird getting that story told without the actual pictures to it. A while later i saw the movie and it really looked how i imagined it when i was listening to the tape. What really stands out is Maximilian Schell as the crazy scientist. He is so awesome in it. Of course the movie is pretty outdated now but some of the visuals are still very inspiring to me. So it definitely belongs into this list.

The Black Hole on IMDb

Quiet Earth

This is also a movie that i saw when i was very young. Probably too young to understand the movie as a whole. A few years ago i dug it out and rewatched it. Then i knew again what fascinated me so much. There are many movies like this one but there’s only a few that can capture the atmosphere that good. The story is basically that a failed experiment made all people disappear from the face of the earth. Except for one man. This man belongs to the crew of scientists who worked on that experiment. Now this man is trying to find out what went wrong. The fact that there is no one left makes him slowly go crazy. There is also something happening to the environment. Something that points to a radical change. This is a movie that you can watch for the last two minutes of the movie. Like movies you only watch for that one awesome moment that you love. The end is one of the most amazing eye openers i have ever seen. Have to watch it again soon.

Quiet Earth on IMDb

End of part 6. Like i said earlier i can easily recommend all of them. Every single one of these has visual qualities or special ideas that immediately send my imagination on a trip. Especially ‘Forbidden Planet’ does that very nicely in never showing the actual aliens. That gives your imagination a lot of room and challenges the viewer. Anyway… seek them out if you have some time! It’s worth it!

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

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

The Blaize Chronicles

I recently created a cover for a just released ebook. The plan is to release the first part for free in ebook shape. The second book is almost done writing. They created a whole universe and, of course, are still working on a lot of things on many levels. Trying to grow a fanbase. The guys behind it invested a lot of time and work into the project and still continue to do so. Since only a part of the story is told now. There is more to come! These guys have a vision.

Now i rarely write about commissions but i want to take this chance to spread the word about the book. It might be something for you if you are a SciFi fan. So give it a shot if you’re having some spare time left.

The ebook download is free and can be found here.

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