#squiggly 3D: mixed media project

[sc-squiggly3d]

2D LIGHTING IN 3D ART ♻️ JUNKSCAPS

This is another test I did while working on my last mixed media project. Recently, I’ve been experimenting more with Marmoset Toolbag in order to achieve my mix of 2D and 3D art. I tested it out on an asset from a previous project: Junkscraps.

Still one of my personal favourite projects til this date since it best captures the graphical/illustrative style I want to go with for my 3D art.

I learned that you can export your animations (i.e turntable, camera, etc) from Marmoset as an image sequence for compositing in other programs. Not only that, I also learned that I can render out render passes from Marmoset as an image sequence.

For this test, I rendered out a Base Colour/Albedo, Shadow and Highlight Pass of my turntable animation and compiled everything in Photoshop. It took some further experimentation to get the correct blending modes but this is the end results I got.

I’m very, very happy with how this turned out because, if you didn’t know any better, this could easily pass for 2D art when in actuality, it’s all 3D.

I hope to do more projects where I can incorporate what I learnt from this test but will see how things go.

~SC (2024)

[artoflittlemisssquiggles]

CAFE MARSHMILLE ☕ DTIYS CHALLENGE

*screams from the mountains* FINALLY! It is done!!!

A DTIYS Challenge that took this squiggle meister way too long to complete cause I just had to be EXTRA and be like “Oh why don’t I turn this into a cool mixed media project that has both 2D and 3D in the artwork. I’ve been wanting to do that for sooo long so why not try it with this? Wouldn’t that be swell?”

So after a hot couple of weeks, here it is. The fruit of my labour. I don’t actually think anyone will really notice (or…even care) that this is supposed to be a digital mixed media. But hey, at least I finished it! So HUZZAH for me!

Like I said, my main objective for this piece was to create an illustration that combined my digital art skills with my 3D modeling skills where the end result would feature an art with 2D and 3D elements as well as a stylized 3D prop project.  Something I can also share over on my 3D art blog.

This meant that I had to make my 3D models match the style of my drawing of Marshmilla (the featured character) which, for those of you who have seen some of 3D work, is a style that I really love. I’ve been wanting to marry my 2D with my 3D skills for a long while and this is my first step towards that personal goal.

In case you couldn’t tell, all the props in this piece are 3D models while I drew the character. Speaking of which, the character in question is named Marshmilla.

Marshmilla and her wonderful Cafe Marshmille belong to the very talented Sonia Stegemann. I’ve been following her work a lot lately over on her Instagram page. She actually held an official DTIYS challenge before with the same character but I didn’t get a chance to do that one. This design of Cafe Marshmilla is actually from her personal redraw challenge and I loved the design so much (along with the cafe props) that I asked Sonia if I could draw this version of Marshmilla in my style and she gave me the ok.

Didn’t tell her I was also going to 3D model her cafe prop designs though XD So, for what it’s worth, I hope she likes my rendition of her designs. As always with these challenges, I hope I did the original justice and you folks like my take on it.

Enjoy ya’ll!

~LittleMissSquiggles (2024)

[littlemisssquiggles]

LittleMissSquiggles’ Summary of Art 2023

Honestly folks, I don't got much to say about this year. This might just be my shortest art summary to date since I don't have much to comment on this year's events.

2023 was a general mix of highs and lows but overall, not a bad year. You could say that this was the year I was more work-oriented.

I focused more on work especially during the early half of this year, between January and July and therefore didn't spend much time on personal projects; specifically 3D. That being said, I did end up getting back up to my art. Since I've been more focused on 3D for the past two years, I chose this year to get back into my 2D art doing illustrative work since I missed it.

More than that, I took this year to spend some well needed time improving my drawing skills, using tools and techniques from my 3D workflow in an attempt to improve my illustrative work and needless to say, I think it worked out great, even if the end results wasn't much.

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Some squiggly good accomplishments I achieved in 2023:

Started the year employed and while I had to juggle two job opportunities which had its fair share of ups and downs in more ways than one, at least it allowed me the chance to earn the funds I needed to obtain my new workstation: a Lenovo Ideacentre 5 Gaming PC.

Learned about the almighty power of networking and remote desktops thanks to my contract job which allowed to me to transform my current setup into one that fully connects and maximizes the full use of all the devises in my arsenal. Basically I figured out how to connect my previous laptop to my new PC so now I work with a setup where my laptop acts as a third monitor for my PC while I'm able to access all my files from my laptop from my PC. Ontop of that, I also learnt how to connect my PC to my Ipad Mini, not just for transferring files for art but for also using it as a proxy computer device to remote into my main PC workstation. This may not seem like a big deal to most but for someone who didn't know a thing about most of this stuff up until this year, it makes a huge difference to this squiggle meister.

Gained a new four-legged member to the squiggle meister family household. A playfully mischievous yet adorable Husky-mix pup fittingly named Alaska or the "Wee Las" as I like to call her.

Experimented a lot with my art this year and while I may not have shared all of the fruits of my labour to social media, I have been making quite a few strides. ---- I spent the last couple of years pushing my social media presence and while I have benefitted from it from time to time, I missed out on just taking some time to myself; getting back to indulging in other activities that brought me joy; particularly the ones that involve truly honing my craft.

I hope to maintain this type of vibe moving forward towards the new year.

Even if my social media activity won't be as frequent as previous years, I do hope that those who have been following and supporting me and my work over years still continue to do so, even if it's to simply just check in from time to time.

To conclude my post, as always, I'm wishing everyone all the very, very best in their respective lives and daily endevours for the upcoming new year.

Let see what we got in store for 2024! Happy New Year folks!

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♦  PREVIOUS ART SUMMARIES  ♦

2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

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LittleMissSquiggles (2023)

[artoflittlemisssquiggles]

FANCY CUP O' TEA ☕ CAFE MARSHMILLE

This was a little test I created during my progress on my Cafe Marshmilla project posted yesterday.

Turntable animation was created in Marmoset Toolbag and the entire video was composited and rendered using Photoshop.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2024)

[sc-squiggly3d]

“The Green Trees”

I know it's been quite some time since this squiggly 3D wizard made a new post on here and there is a good reason for that. 

As I've been more focused on work these days with my current job, I decided to take a break from personal 3D projects; instead investing my newfound free time to take a second stab at learning Unreal Engine (particularly Version 4.26 since that’s the one that works best for me).

The last time I worked with UE4, I was forced to begrudgingly abandon it due to trouble with the program running on my current computer. Since then, I've upgraded my laptop a bit---it's not much but it's enough to make UE4 run a bit more smoothly for me. 

Because of this, I decided to resume learning UE4 as I would very much love to use it in my workflow.

While I am in no ways an environment painter, having come from an illustrative background, it has been a (long time) goal of mine to marry my digital art skills with my 3D modeling; using 3D as a tool for design in my work; particularly when it comes to props and environments. Here are some screenshots from a UE4 test scene that I recently made in addition to some art that I created from said test scene.  They're not much but I am quite proud of how they turned out and wished to share them on here. ---

Tools Used: Maya 2020.4 | Treeit | Clip Studio Paint Pro | Photoshop 2021 | Unreal Engine 4.26 

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~SC (2022)

[sc-squiggly3d]

“Cauldron” 

... Double, double toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble...

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I've been cooking up this mini side project in the background in between working on my main projects so I'm extremely glad to finally call it complete after all this time. 

This is yet another experimental piece based on an original concept by 2D Artist: Natalia Theli. 

If you wish to see more of Natalia's amazing work, please check out her full portfolio over on Artstation:

I first discovered this concept over on Pinterest and couldn't resist using it to experiment with a few new techniques that I've been meaning to try out in my 3D workflow. 

Techniques such as:

Using Zbrush more in my process. I don’t usually use Zbrush much in my personal projects; however since I’ve been working more with it for my current freelance gig, I’ve truly come to see the value of incorporating it into the stylized texture creation process and now I’m inspired to try to use it more in my own work.

Creating hand-painting textures using the new Adobe Substance 3D Painter as an upgrade from my previous 2021 version of Substance Painter.

And lastly, applying 2D animated effects over renders of my 3D models in Photoshop to create my first mixed media piece, blending 3D with 2D.

As a creative who came from a 2D illustrative background as digital artist before delving into 3D art, you can say that lately I've found myself being drawn into playing around with ways that I can marry both aspects of my style.

It is for this reason why I enjoy art and mediums that combine 3D and 2D elements together. It's why I found movies and series such as RWBY, Into the Spiderverse, Klaus, The Dragon Prince, and the recent Arcane all so fascinating. Each, in their own way, have transcended what one can truly achieve when you combine 3D and 2D together to create something so masterful and beautiful that perfectly encapsulates the appeal of both styles.

Not like I'm saying that this is squiggly 3D wizard is planning to make the next Arcane. Not in the slightest. However I've always been an ambitious lil squiggle meister, never afraid to try something new in the name of creativity even it means stepping out of my comfort zone for a bit or working with something I'm no master of.

To be fair, it has been donkey years since I've flexed my 2D animation skills since I honestly fell out of love with practicing 2D animation since I finished animation school back in 2012. 

Nonetheless, despite not counting myself as an animator, I've still retained an interest in the style and doing this mini experiment was a nice little refresher. 

I mean...sure...it ain't anything too mind-blowing and fancy compared to the more seasoned 2D animation beasts of the world. However; for what's it worth, this lil assignment definitely sold the effect I wanted to capture.

Not saying that I'll be working strictly with 2D animation in my 3D works moving forward. I'm more saying, it's definitely another form of stylized art that I definitely wouldn't mind dabbling with from time to time. 

I mean, after all; as someone with digital illustration, 2D animation and 3D modeling and texturing under her belt, if I can seriously discover new and cool ways to utilize these skills together to create something cool in the name of art then why not, am I right? XD 

Overall, the end results of this mini project proved more promising than I anticipated and on that note, I can't wait to hopefully play around with this type of art style again down the line. 

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Tools Used: Maya 2020.4 | Zbrush 2022 | Adobe Substance 3D Painter | Photoshop CC 2018 | Marmoset Toolbag 4

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~SC (2022)