dhamesvarastudio

[dhamesvarastudio]

LORD NRSIMHA APPEARS FROM THE PILLAR

Here is our first little animation follow-up of Sri Sri Prahlada-Nrsimha 3d project - Lord Nrsimhadeva's appearance from a pillar in Hiranyakashipu's assembly hall!

Character rigging animation is no small thing to learn and master, especially if the character has 4 arms and is wearing as many ornaments as Lord Nrsimhadeva! So we are just taking our first baby steps here. However, ar the same time we wish to create and share some Krishna conscious projects.

Srila Prabhupada stated in a letter to Satsvarupa regarding artists learning good techniques:

"My Guru Maharaja used to say that in a foreign land where you cannot speak the language with the natives very nicely, what do you do when there is a fire in your house just to get their help? In such emergency one has to express himself somehow or other to his foreign friends and get their help to extinguish the fire. But if he wants to learn the language first and then talk with the foreign friends to get help, then everything in the meantime would be finished. Similarly, if we have to learn and then paint, it will be a long term affair. But immediately we want so many pictures for all of our books, so all the artists may always be engaged in painting works and that painting itself will gradually teach them how to make things nice.(..)

If all the artists are always engaged in painting that will satisfy me and that will gradually make them experienced for making good paintings."

(Letter to Satsvarupa, 21st Apr 1970)

In this spirit, we hope that our learning projects, even though lacking technical perfection, would bring pleasure to the Lord and His devotees, and that by doing more and more such projects we would master all the required techniques.

Credits:

Text&plot based on Śrīmad Bhāgavatam Canto 7, Chapter 8, retrieved from Vedabase.io

Music: Gustav Mahler Symphony no. 2, Allergro Maestoso, performed by DuPage Symphony Orchestra, licenced under CC 3.0, retrieved from imslp.org

Sound effects from zapsplat.com

Procedural Snake skin texture on Lord Ananta is adjusted from Sc'les procedural texture, courtesy of Simon Thommes

https://simon-thommes.com/scles-procedural-scales-shader-blender

Everything else made from scratch fully with Blender 2.91/2.92 at @dhamesvara.studio, rendered in Cycles, mostly 64 samples.

#nrsimha #blenderanimation #narasimha #vishnu #prahlada #incarnation #lion #3danimation #savior #harekrishna #nrisimha #purana #bhagavatam #pillar #palace #india #Prabhupada #blender #blender3d #blendercharacter #cgi #weapons #3dcharacter #blenderart #ornaments #gold #marble #explosion #angry #beautiful

[dhamesvarastudio]

It's been another exciting month here at our little studio. We've continued learning and practicing new CGI skills, but, more importantly, working on a project for our favorite festival - the appearance of Lord Nrsimhadeva! This project has turned out way too large to fit in a single post or two though!

This 3d scene is an illustration to an ancient history from Puranas, the scriptures of India. There was once a demoniac king named Hiranyakashipu who subjugated and terrorized the whole universe. He had a benediction that he couldn't be killed by any man or animal, by any weapons, couldn't die during the day or night, neither indoors  nor outside etc. He had a 5-year old son, Prahlada, who had become devoted to the Supreme Lord, outraging his atheistic father. Hiranyakashipu harassed and tried to murder his son in various ways, attempting to make him give up his faith, but Prahlada would not swerve and was always protected by the Lord. Finally, the Lord appeared as half-man, half-lion and killed the demon during dusk (which is neither night nor day), with His nails (which were not weapons), on the threshold of the palace (which was neither indoors nor outside). After that the Lord sat on the king's throne, and Prahlada offered Him many prayers. After the death of his father, Prahlada was installed as the king.

"Although I was born in a demoniac family, I may without a doubt offer prayers to the Lord with full endeavor, as far as my intelligence allows. Anyone who has been forced by ignorance to enter the material world may be purified of material life if he offers prayers to the Lord and hears the Lord’s glories."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 7.9.12)

First of our final renders, shared here, started emerging at the dusk on the auspicious day of Lord Nrsimhadeva's advent! But it is just the beginning, so stay tuned in for more! Other 3d illustrations and little animations glorifying the Man-Lion incarnation and His pure devotee Bhakta Prahlada are well on their way! Make sure to subscribe to not miss anything 🙂

Credit: Snake skin texture on Lord Ananta is adjusted from Sc'les procedural texture, courtesy of Simon Thommes

https://simon-thommes.com/scles-procedural-scales-shader-blender

Everything else made from scratch fully with Blender 2.91 at @dhamesvara.studio, rendered in Cycles, 128-512 samples.

#nrsimha #nrisimha #narasimha #vishnu #prahlada #incarnation #lion #avatara #savior #harekrishna #hindu #purana #bhagavatam #pillar #palace #india #Prabhupada #blender #blender3d #blendercharacter #cgi #cg #3dcharacter #blenderart #ornaments #gold #marble #3ddesign #3dinterior #beautiful

[dhamesvarastudio]

Our first 3d characters are here! And They are none other than the propagators of Yuga-dharma, Sri Krishna Caitanya and Sri Nityananda Prabhu!

Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda, who are non-different from Sri Krishna and Sri Balarama, or Lord Ramachandra and Sri Lakshmana, appeared in Navadvipa, West Bengal in the 15th century to propagate the universal religion of this age, the congregational chanting of the Holy Names. They were both uncommonly beautiful, as evidenced from such descriptions as:

"The Lord’s charming looks easily overshadowed the attractiveness of millions of cupids. I am at a loss to find the appropriate similes to describe the beauty of the Lord, yet I venture to do so by His mercy alone. Otherwise, who would dare to attempt such an impossible task? He glowed like a mountain of gold, His body being smeared with sandal paste sometimes looked like the rising full moon. His curly dark tresses were decorated with fragrant malati garlands; a sweet smile clung intimately to His lips that could surely win the hearts of all the muses. Sandalwood tilaka with a red dot of vermilion clearly adorned His beautiful broad forehead. Chanting the name of Hari, He raised His arms up in the sky and danced. The knee-length flower garland around His neck swayed with each movement. His upraised arms glistened like fine tapering pillars of gold..."

(Sri Caitanya Bhagavata, Madhya-khanda, Ch.23)

Just as it is not possible to fully describe the Lord's beauty, it is also not possible to adequately replicate it in art. All we can do is pray and try humbly and sincerely. I can't say I was fully happy with the degree of refinement for Their faces, but had to stop somewhere and be satisfied with this first project before moving on! The facial features will be more refined when designing expressions and rigging the face.

ajanu-lambita-bhujau kanakavadatau

sankirtanaikapitarau kamalayataksau

visvambharau dvija-varau yuga-dharma-palau

vande  jagat priya-karau karunavatarau

"I offer my respectful obeisances unto Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri  Nityananda Prabhu, whose arms extend down to Their knees, who have  golden yellow complexions*, and who inaugurated the congregational  chanting of the holy names of the Lord. Their eyes resemble the petals of a lotus flower; They are the maintainers of the living entities, the best of the brahmanas, the protectors of religious principles for this age, the benefactors of the universe, and the most merciful of all incarnations."

(Sri Caitanya Bhagavata, Adi-khanda, Chapter One, verse 1)

(*Lord Nityananda is sometimes described as having reddish-golden complexion, and sometimes as white. He is probably both, as He desires, but here we have opted for a whitish hue, as it seems to be more familiar with devotees.)

Srila Prabhupada once instructed his artists that "Paintings should be like the Deities, formal and worshipful."(Letter to Madhudvisa, 8 Dec 1973) Striving to adopt this mood, we have endeavored to make these models inspired by the bodily features and expressions of temple Deities, as well as descriptions found in scriptures. Let us know your thoughts on how successful we have been! We will surely keep working to improve.

Big shoutouts and many thanks to Julien Kaspar IG @julienkaspart for the Stylized Character Creation course on Blender Cloud and Dikko IG @dikko_art for the Modeling for Animation series on YouTube! Sincerely, without you guys we wouldn't be anywhere near completing our characters. We will keep learning and benefitting from your tutorials in the future! We also used numerous other tutorials for small details, they are saved in our 'Reference' playlist on YouTube.

Made from scratch fully in Blender 2.91. Posed with Mixamo, as we are just about to start learning rigging, hence deformations are not perfect. Rendered in Cycles, 256 samples. Polygon count per character (without clothes and decorations) 7,300.  Estimated time taken to create Them in 3d - at least 70-80  hours (learning curve included). Landscape is also ours made from scratch, but not much refined as the main focus was the characters.

What's next for our 3d study? Well, more elaborate texturing, facial expressions, rigging and animation! What could be more exciting that animating the Supreme Animators of the world!

#characterdesign #3dcharacter #blender3d #nityananda #dancing #blendercharacter #mixamo #originalcharacter #harekrishna #mahaprabhu #mayapur #westbengal #sankirtana #vaishnava #krishna #iskcon #blenderart #beautiful #garland #navadvipa #nabadwip #divine #incarnation #god #chanting #nitai #gauranitai #3dlandscape #cg #blenderstart