Category Archives: Headline

Steampunk – CG CHALLENGE XXIII

Check out the winners of the CG CHALLENGE XXII by CGSOCIETY, themed Steampunk (you know I like steampunk, right?), Video & Image category.

VIDEO

Team Entry Video – Master Award ‘EMET’
Bonsaininja Studio ITALYCGChallenge XXI - Steampunk.jpg

Artist comments: “Our piece was inspired by the legend of the Golem, telling the story of Rabbi Loew, who created an animated being entirely from inanimate matter to defend the Prague ghetto and we decided to produce a trailer out of it for the CGChallenge.”
Judge’s comments:
 Anthony Lucas: Epic. Masterful technical achievement.
Simon Dominic: I feel like I just stepped out of the cinema.
Philip Straub: Outfreakinstanding!
Michael Dashow: The composting and editing were really impressive. Lovely opening shot!

Launch the video : ‘EMET’ VIDEO page

Team Entry Video Excellence Award ‘Atlantis – Inconvenient Truth’

skitched-20090227-180823.jpg

Martin Koehler (arcaneg), Christian Stadach (cmdrpi), Simon Prager (SimonDarmstadt) and Christopher Hempel (Xr4t3d) GERMANY

Artist comments: ‘Working on the project was quite hard, because actually none of us had enough time for it. But we took the time besides our other projects, because this was lots of fun and really worth it. The idea and story changed many times. To get the project ready in time we worked day and night in the last week, and really: “day and night”.’
Judge’s comments
 Anthony Lucas: Some great design. Good idea. Where the animation is patchy the concept makes up for it.
Simon Dominic: Wow, this is slick, with a brilliantly conceived theme too.
Philip Straub: Extremely professional on every level. Top marks from me.
Michael Dashow: Beautiful rendering, design, and camerawork.
Launch the video: ‘Atlantis – Inconvenient Truth’ VIDEO

Individual Video Master Award ‘Hemlock’skitched-20090227-180856.jpg Tyson Ibele (ivanisavich)
NEW ZEALAND
Artist comments: This year’s contest was a lot of fun, especially since the competition was very close due to the large number of high-quality entries. I felt very inspired the whole way through watching other peoples’ progress, and that’s what kept me driven to finish my entry on time. This challenge theme allowed for a lot of creativity, and since I’ve wanted to do a film set in the steampunk universe for a while now, it was a perfect motivator. Thanks to everyone who offered me encouragement and critique during the production of Hemlock, and congrats to the other winners and entrants!
Judge’s comments
 Anthony Lucas: Great execution. Fantastic mood. Is the steampunk robot a victim of the well? Marvellously animated.
Simon Dominic: What a great story with superb delivery.
Michael Dashow: What a great mood set throughout the entire piece. The lighting, camera-work, and sound were wonderfully effective, and the ending was terrific. Easily the most thoroughly-executed story of the bunch. Great work overall!
Grzegorz Jonkajtys: Great storytelling and directing skills, not to mention excellent lighting and animation.

Launch the video: ‘Hemlock’ VIDEO

Individual Video Excellence Award ‘Ulysses’ Dreams’
 Marc Mordelet (visionmaster2)
skitched-20090227-180934.jpgFRANCE
Artists comments: “I had a great fun testing some shots I had in mind, and this challenge gave me the opportunity to question myself about my work process. Especially after I submitted my video, when i saw the works of the other people (especially Tyson Ibele), and after a long discussion with a friend, this evidence came to me : I need to step up to the next level, and make a short movie.”
Judges comments:
 Anthony Lucas: Fantastic concept, modeling and lighting. Great design and animation. Great stuff!
Simon Dominic: Completely mental, I LOVE it!
Philip Straub: A unique, bizarre, and creative vision.
Michael Dashow: I loved the clever use of fonts in the robot’s body – very stylish (as was the rest of this film.)

Launch the video: ‘Ulysses’ Dreams’ VIDEO

IMAGES

Image (Individual) Master Awardskitched-20090227-181015.jpg ‘Steamnocchio’
Fabricio Moraes (fabmoraes)
BRAZIL
Artist comments: “WOOOOOOW!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!!! I felt so great and could never imagine I could possibly win this competition, actually I still can’t believe it. I got inspired by so many great artists, and I was very well supported by my wife, family and friends. I am very excited, really!Sorry if words are missing, but is so difficult to describe how great I am feeling now.”
Judge’s comments:
Brajan: I love this one, the expression on Geppettos’s face is priceless 🙂 Excellent steampunk image!
Leigh: This image just totally nails the steampunk theme. The technical quality is simply fantastic too.

Image Excellence Award ‘BaktoFairy’

‘skitched-20090227-181050.jpg
Laurent Pierlot (sato)
USA
Artist comments: “It is a great honor for me to get the Excellence prize, especially considering the quality of the works that have been submitted for the contest.When I saw that the subject for the contest was Steampunk, I just couldn’t help myself. I really appreciated the feedbacks I got in the WIP forum.It was really hard for me to finish that picture, I’m working full time so it was only possible with the patience of my family on the weekends and late nights.”
Judge’s comments:
Brajan: this image looks great even as as a thumbnail. Excellent design for a creepy steampunk setting!
Oh, and check out the special category winners too!

[From CGSociety News Archive]

Making of a Cyborg in 20 steps with Photoshop

I thought it would be cool to show you step by step how I created the image Steampunk Cyborgs in Hong Kong.

Basically it was quite simple and quick to make, since I’ve not used 3D renderings, it took about 2 hours.

34.jpg

Ok, here it is, let’s start!

(If you are interested, there’s a video version too!)

1.jpg

This is the original picture, I just adjusted the colors in Adobe Lightroom.

Step 1

2.jpg

I searched on Internet for a ‘ship engine’, and I found this steampunkish thing. Actually, at the beginning I wasn’t too sure to create steampunk cyborgs (I was more a cyberpunk man, let’s say..), but as soon as I found this image I decided to go in that direction. One important thing was to find images with the right perspective, since I needed to mix them with the original picture.

Anyway, I dragged the image of the engine in the document and adjusted the colors using Match Color in Photoshop.

Step 2

3.jpg

I moved the engine overlapping the face of the man in the middle and started working on the mask.

4.jpg

It takes some time to mask correctly the object. Just try to follow the lines and the shape of the object you are masking.

Step 3

5.jpg

Ok, another engine here..

Step 4

6.jpg

Now let’s work on the man on the left. The color of the engine doesn’t match the background, so I need again the Match Color.

7.jpg

Now it’s much better.

Step 5

8.jpg

It’s time to mask the object.

9.jpg

Here we go. I also lighten up the engine to show better the mechanical parts.

Step 6

10.jpg

Another engine from Internet and again, Match Color to match the object color to the background image.

Step 7

11.jpg

Let’s move in on the back of the man on the right. Looks like the device used by the Ghostbusters!

Step 8

Now it’s time to work on the mask.13.jpg

Here we go.

Step 9

14.jpg

Another engine.. match color.. and let’s move it.

Step 10

15.jpg

Some masking..

16.jpg

Step 11

17.jpg

Yeah.. again.. Steampunkish Overkill!

Step 12

18.jpg

Let’s move it and do some masking..

19.jpg

Pretty satisfied with the masking. Now the cyborg on the left has some weird mechanical device on his head and a cool respirator!

Step 13

20.jpg

Let’s add some shadows below the mechanical parts to enhance the 3D volume of the objects. I created a 50% gray overlay mode layer between the background and the robotic parts and painted it with the Burn Tool.

Step 14

21.jpg

This time I used a black brush, very soft, on a layer (Multiply mode) in front of all the other layers and painted some shadows.

Step 15

22.jpg

New Layer and Command + Alt + Shift + E (I think Command is Ctrl on windows but I’m not sure) to create a snapshot flattening all the layers in a single layer. Now I applied some blur..

And masked this layer!23.jpg

I used a radial gradient to mask the blurred level. I centered the gradient on the table. This help to focus the scene on the three cyborgs slightly blurring the background.

Step 16

24.jpg

Let’s load some dirty textures and apply them to the cyborgs (you know, steampunk cyborgs don’t like to take shower).

You can see the texture on the red jacked, the hand, and on the ghostbuster device.

26.jpg

Step 17

27.jpg

Let’s desaturate a little the image.

Step 18

28.jpg

Oh God photoshop crashed! Ok, just kidding. I created a layer and filled it with this color.. then I set it on Overlay Mode.29.jpg

Step 19

30.jpg

Let’s add some contrast…

Step 20

31.jpg

Don’t you want some smoke in the image? So, with a brush on a new layer paint some brush (very low opacity!)

Step 20 + the dirty textures

33.jpg

Now let’s add the famous Dirty dusty texture I made! Remember, screen mode this time!

(oh, and another secret texture on the top of the image.. I’ll release it soon anyway)

34.jpg

That’s all!

Dusty Textures

intro

If you’ve noticed some dust, hair and dirty things on my pictures, like this, this, and this, and yes this one too, well, I can tell you I don’t like so much to clean home and even my computer desktop is a mess. Besides that.. I love grain, dust and those dirty picturessss.

So, anyway, today I’m feeling extremely generous and I’ll give you some dirtness. Three textures I made, to give your photographs a dusty and analogic feeling… to turn this kind of shots:

orig1

into this..

dusted

Just place one of the texture on a layer in front of you picture using the Screen overlay mode.. adjust the levels and the opacity to adjust the effect!

Download the dirty texture 1

Download the dirty texture 2

Download the dirty texture 3