Over the last couple of years I have developed a process using Photoshop to create 'Photo Real' work based on initial 2D sketches and artwork. I used this approach while working on a pre-school animation project called 'Treasure Tree' that I created with Cat Little. Since that project is still in development I cannot show any of the artwork here which is very frustrating considering the amount of work completed since 2012.
However, I recently found an artist named Aaron Blaise who has samples of artwork and tutorials that showed a similar process to mine. Using his process as inspiration I went about creating a test piece, Pan, seen above. The process involves roughly 16 steps from sketch through to painting, texturing and faux lighting.
I've created a progression video so that you can see the process step by step. I've not followed it exactly, going back and reworking certain sections or adjusting mistakes but the below list is the basic pipeline I used as a guide.
- Sketch
- Refined Sketch
- Local Colour
- Shadow
- Main Light
- Deep Shadows
- Reflected Light
- Secondary Light
- Highlights
- Texture
- Eye
- Background Layer
- Blurring (Depth of Field)
- Atmosphere
- Burned Light
- Overlay Texture
I'll continue to work and test this process with future pieces. My main criticism with the 'Pan' piece is the lack of contrast and strong modelling on the face early on that left the face feeling to flat by the end of the artwork.
