Taron's little gallery

Ah, I was just going to ask how you colored that beast with the rifle club. Looks very painted, and just the right amount of gritty bristly like a quick traditional piece. Indeed I would love to see a video of you making something like that. Valuable both as a Verve demo and for art inspiration in general. I think it would make a great youtube clip! Probably more so than some of the wilder features since this will (probably quickly) produce something that looks familiar and useful, instead of going out on an alien limb for people without clearly showing why it's useful (like if you'd just swirl heavy bumpy fluid everywhere )

I do appreciate the direct feel of working with a single tool for sketching, so I'll probably try this method at some point.

[Taron]

Oh, I'd recommend you try it immediately, because I'm quite sure you'll enjoy it!
I was thinking about working on some features to support this kind of drawing a bit more, too. Not to mention that it makes me want to start the proper brush-editor I've got planned. But even now you can already get quite far. Mixing up "averaging" (shift+control) and "smudging" (shift) can really give you practically all you'd want from this sort of drawing. It's a bit weird to consider the material build-up, because you see it only up until alpha would be at 100%, yet, it quickly goes higher than that. If you then "average"...well...you can imagine what happens then; 200% and 0% average to 100%... but as you take opacity down a notch you won't run into that confusion easily.

I just did some completely different kind of doodles that are super fun and quite unique to Verve, which certainly would make a perfect opening demo for it. It happens to involve some wacky swirling around of fluids, but only as a start-up process. After that it's about "Bob Ross" like methods of creating water and shrubs, quickly turning anything into quite an attractive landscape shot of sorts or a stage for characters you might want to hook into it.

Oh, i could post those experiments...duh!
...the idea of such a demo would not be making a masterpiece, but introducing a really fun technique. That's not to say you wouldn't use it on a masterpiece, of course.

silywater02.jpg (246.83 KiB) Viewed 10674 times

silywater03.jpg (218.34 KiB) Viewed 10674 times

Mmm. I remember having a lot of fun with simple horizontal streaks in water reflections back a few years ago when I was painting a decent batch of landscapes in one of my own apps. It's a nice quick effect that looks surprisingly real (because it kind of is) and it's usually also pretty easy to control.

What stood out for me especially about that creature though was how distinct, solid and multichromatic it looks with those hard black outlines/shadows and varying skin hues inside. I guess the same goes for that fragment of an eye with brown skin posted just before it. Many other pictures tend to remain either mostly a single hue or some colors mixed together but still in a "plastic CGI" presentation when there's nothing cutting them off from the environment.

I know some of that is due to quick doodling and not bothering with excessive details, but you say this method with the black-on-color layers is also quick, so it looks to me like it has this more direct way of producing a gritty real material look, which is something that would be impressive to show off. Yeah, I should certainly try it myself.

The "instant landscape" toybox workflow you indicated might be more fun for those less patient or experienced in rendering though. I won't complain if you make videos of both

[Taron]

Yeah, you know, you don't want to scare off everybody with your own drawing skills, if there is an alternative reason to really enjoy a paint software. I'd be happy to inspire people, who really just want to play with paint a bit and explore their creativity that way, while at the same time I sure am hoping to supply serious artists with a new way of doing their thing.
Sometimes, when a demo is too loaded with artistic talent, the features vanish behind the show itself, you know...and since I'm such a truly outstanding beacon of artistic brilliance... LOL... well, nah, I just mean, I'd like to put Verve in the foreground first. Anyone with decent senses should recognize the potential.
Reality is; I don't know what I'm doing anyway.

But, yeah, with special technique clips the stuff gets really exciting, of course.

As for the "plastic CGI" presentation... aren't you a peach!

You know me!

[Taron]

...and it's my privilege, too!

Here's another Daily Sketch...

The Dancer

[Taron]

A few more daily sketches...

[Taron]

Here's a tiny spoiler...

grid_demo.jpg (242.54 KiB) Viewed 10659 times

If you download the current version, you get a perspective grid function, hidden in hotkeys thus far. I'll see that I get at interface matters for that and other existing features.
A quick run down of the grid at the moment...
[g] toggles visibility of the grid

Editing the grid:
[Ctrl]+[g] toggles editing of the grid
[LMB] dragging controls opactiy (can go positive and negative)
[Alt] + [LMB] free rotation
[Alt] + [RMB] horizontal rotation
[Alt] + [Shift] + [LMB] drag horizontal and vertical position of the grid along current rotation axis
[Alt] + [Ctrl] + [LMB] drag horizontal and depth position along current rotation axis
[Shift] + [LMB] drag horizontal and vertical camera axis
[Ctrl] + [LMB] drag horizontal and depth camera axis

Mousewheel controls amount of subdivisions of the grid box
[Shift] + Mousewheel controls lens distortion
[Ctrl] + Mousewheel controls field of view

That's all for now.

[Taron]

And a new daily sketch. There's a danger that I get too hooked to the grid, though... ...it is truly fun!

[Taron]

Just a fun study on "how NOT to do anatomy"!
...hence:"alien"
(updated version)

alien03.jpg (245.26 KiB) Viewed 10649 times