What does an artist specializing in digital painting need? Computer graphics as art.

If you don’t have the opportunity to spend at least several years on careful and painstaking learning to draw, and then thoroughly master the editor’s capabilities, and you still want to draw... Perhaps these tips for beginners will help you at least avoid mind-blowing pictures and save a lot of time in stepping on a rake.

I’ll say right away - you still need to learn the basics! But if you don't have the time or opportunity, then you have two options: don't draw at all or learn as you go. If you chose the latter, then feel free to read on.

Remember that everything that is forbidden to you, of course, can be used, but this should be done only when you understand what to do with it, otherwise the bumps from the rake will grow, but there will be no result.

TIP 1. Standard brushes in the form of grass, stars and other nonsense are bad for you for the next few months of working with your tablet and Photoshop.

This is evil, at least until you realize that you can do just fine without them. In the meantime, we strictly remember that during the first months of your close communication with the tablet, your only brush should be... a standard round hard brush. Okay, it can be square, rectangular, or whatever shape it is. Solid. Not soft.

A soft brush, of course, is also useful, but for starters it’s best to forget about it, or if you decide to paint a little with it, do it in small doses and leave the hard brush as a priority for now. Over the course of a couple of years, I heard so many phrases like “if only someone told me this” that I was definitely convinced that it was correct. this advice. So - trust me! Or kill it.

Many artists eventually make (or borrow from others) their own basic brushes. They usually have jagged edges to aid blending. But for you all this is completely unnecessary now. Forget about all these brushes that are full of them on the Internet. Learn to master the round hard one at least a little, and only then make it more difficult.

If the desire to use other brushes is too great, go to Photoshop and delete all the brushes except for the hard round one... okay, also soft, and forget all the known ways of creating brushes. For a while, of course.

Do you urgently need grass, leaves and butterflies? So what's the deal? Draw!

TIP 2. Your first drawing, or the next one if you have already drawn, should not be your favorite cat, dog, brother, sister, mom, dad, but... a tonal stretch.

And... no, not to practice pen pressure and straight lines, but to learn how to make smooth transitions. Most novice artists suffer from the fact that they simply do not know how to mix colors and smooth out planes. And, of course, the simplest and fastest solution is to use a soft brush, and this, in turn, leads to terrible results, which then lead particularly weak-hearted artists to psychological trauma. Okay, that last one is a joke, but the fact remains. Therefore, before you start drawing, whether it is desirable or not, you definitely need to learn one simple but incredibly useful technique.

So from this:

We will get this:

Well, we'll deal with color later.

So, the most optimal and successful way to mix colors and create a smooth transition is to use a hard brush, as it allows you to create many transitions and maintain the “clarity” of the drawing, which gives it life. A soft brush allows you to make seemingly smoother transitions:

But such smoothness is rarely beneficial. It is good for creating the overall volume of the background, but whatever one may say, if you look closely, you can see that there remains a feeling of blur, and when this method is used in a drawing, for example, a portrait of your sister, then everything looks even worse.

Of course, it's up to you to decide which option you like best and, ideally, you should be able to use both, but you need to know when to use a soft brush and when not to. In the meantime, we still don’t know this well - the most the best option listen to smart aunts and uncles whom I shake like ripe tree, and do as they say.

So let's start our stretching.

In order to do such a simple stretch, you need to arm yourself with a hard round brush. Personally, for the basic brush, I prefer to turn off the pressure response of the pen, which would determine the thickness of the line, but the response to transparency is just that. But this is not for everyone. I believe anyone can make friends with Photoshop settings if they are not too lazy. And I will talk about something else.

1. So, take black and paint half of our drawing with it. Well, or approximately the part that in your opinion will be... a shadow.

2. Now we take and lower the Opacity (Opacity) and Flow (Pressure) parameters of the brush (they are located at the top of the menu) to approximately 40-50%. How less value Opacity - the more transparent our color will be and if we draw a line, then the bottom layer of color will also be visible through it. In fact, Opacity can be compared to the density of paint. The higher the value, the higher the hiding power. The Flow value determines the density of the "flow". Roughly speaking, by combining these two parameters you can achieve different effects from the brush without getting into its other settings. But let's get back to our sheep.

So, with the selected black color we paint halfway White color. Moreover, this must be done in one movement, without lifting the pen. If you tear it off, the previous stroke will cover the one already drawn and mixing will occur where we do not need it. Now we take the new resulting color with a pipette and paint it half black. As a result, we will end up with something like this:

3. Next we reduce the diameter of the brush, well, I think it’s clear why? And we take the resulting color on the left (on white) and paint it halfway white, and then do the same with black. And we end up with something like this:

4. I think it’s clear, what do we do next? We start going from left to right or from right to left (whichever is more convenient for you) and, taking a color, paint half of the adjacent one. Then we take the remaining piece of the unpainted color and paint the next piece halfway, etc. Basically, we actually did some kind of stretching.

It is crooked in places, but I did it solely as an example of the technique.

5. Now we reduce the Opacity to 15-30% - this depends on personal priorities, I, for example, usually use within 20% or more if the pressure mode of the brush pen is working, and continue to do the same. Again and again. In general, this lesson is made solely for training. As a result, you yourself will figure out how best to create transitions. What pressure to choose, how to apply colors. And this will just help you understand. You are unlikely to pervert yourself like this, but sometimes this will be necessary.

As a result, we will end up with something like this:

Once you understand this simple task, I advise you in the future to try to translate Opacity and Flow to pen pressure. And learn to work this way. Firstly, this will at least reduce your time for constant distractions to change parameters, and secondly, you will learn to more subtly manipulate pressure during the drawing process, which in itself is already cool!

Now let's discuss color stretching. Everything here is essentially the same. You can just stretch it in two ways. More precisely not so. The method is still the same, but the actions are slightly different and the result... different.

Option 1. Transition from one color to another, bypassing intermediate colors. This method is similar to b/w one-to-one stretching.

However, it is not very good for cases where colors are far apart on the color wheel. And, as you can see, the color at the point of mixing “falls” into gray, which is sometimes not very good for the drawing and can lead to “dirt” in the future, but it can be convenient for the background, where the colors should be less saturated than the foreground plan.

Option 2. Transition from one color to another through intermediate colors in the color wheel. Here the essence is the same, but we add colors that are between our two main ones. I won't explain what it is color circle and what does the intermediate color mean? Read color theory and you will find a lot useful information. Over time, you will learn to add several at once intermediate colors during the mixing process. In fact, this is how drawing happens - by adding and mixing different colors. Discovered America, right? But now we'll try to do it in a simple way so that you understand how it all works.

So first we divide our drawing in half into Yellow and Purple. Then open the palette and take a color somewhere in the middle between these colors, and with Opacity 50% paint half yellow and half purple. Voila and we get two intermediate colors.

Now comes the fun part! Open the palette and use the eyedropper to go over the entire stretch. First on the first, and then on the second. Is it really interesting? We follow the same range, BUT in the second case the colors are more saturated and bright. And that's great, right? By adding an intermediate color, we made our stretching more vibrant and it wasn't difficult at all.

Remember this and your drawings will immediately become more vibrant. This, of course, is difficult to implement right away, but over time you will get the hang of it and everything will work out. The main thing to remember is this when you draw.

One aspiring artist asked me to make a video of stretching because simple steps was not enough for him. It was his first time holding a pen in his hands and he had never worked with Photoshop. I recorded a short video that shows how I did these stretches. It's very simple, but this type of pen training is actually very useful, especially when working with color. It would be great if you set the Opacity and Flow to pen pressure when executing. By the way, in this case you won’t have to lower these parameters too low. This can be seen in the video. I use 50% Opacity almost all the time.

Duration: 8 lessons, 2-3 hours each

Cost: 3900 rub.

An extensive course in computer drawing, from which you will learn the principles of digital drawing and gain the necessary skills to create 2D graphics and implement ideas for computer games. During the training you will draw your own original character, playing space, objects and more.

For whom:
The course will be useful for beginning CG artists, graphic designers and traditional artists who are looking to expand their skills and explore new possibilities in drawing. In other words, this course will be useful to artists in any field of digital drawing.

Peculiarities:
Similar courses in drawing studios in Moscow and St. Petersburg cost 20-30 thousand rubles. plus train tickets, accommodation and meals. Not everyone can afford such a pleasure, plus you need to carve out a few days for the trip.

With our course, you will receive the same amount of knowledge, but at a minimal price and in a schedule convenient for you.

Advantages:
- the lowest price;
- video recordings of all lessons;
- step-by-step system training;
- Feedback from the teacher;
- analysis of homework;
- individual approach;
- assistance with organizing a portfolio.

The video course is designed for 2 months, one lesson per week + homework, a total of 8 step-by-step lessons for 2-3 hours and 7 homework. For each homework you will receive a detailed video analysis from the teacher.

You can study lessons and complete assignments at a time convenient for you.

To take the course you will need a computer, internet, Graphics tablet and graphic Photoshop editor.

For a main group of 10 people - 3900 rubles (cost in an additional group - 8000 rubles). Self-study 2900 rub.

Result / will know, be able to

• You will master basic digital drawing skills, the principles of creating 2D computer graphics, and learn how to bring ideas to life in a high-quality manner. This amount of knowledge will give you a great advantage in developing your skills as a CG artist. Also, your portfolio will contain high-quality works, which will certainly help you in future employment.

Program

Includes:

1. PREPARATION. Theory, pre-production, setting up Photoshop, tablet, brushes, creating a palette and much more.
2. CONCEPT. We look for references, draw sketches.
3. CHARACTER. Let's look at the entire character creation process.
4. SUBJECT. We will develop an inventory for your character.
5. BUILDING. Let's look at the principles of construction, shadows, volume and more.
6. LOCATION. We create a playing space - trees, stones, various textures.
7. INTERFACE. We'll draw icons and buttons, work with fonts, touch on usability and much more.
8. CONCLUSION. Let's sum up the results and prepare the work for the portfolio.

Write about irrelevant information.

Visual effects and computer graphics have become an integral part of our lives. Today anyone can study the mysterious and Magic world post-production and become an expert in this field. The tips below will help you level up your VFX and CGI knowledge.

This is fairly obvious advice, but beginners very often ignore it. The habit of looking and analyzing should become part of the work process or training. After watching a movie with the cool visual effects, review it again, but not as a viewer, but as a specialist. Try to find mistakes and problems, there are actually a lot of them. Analyze how the frame was created, how it was lit, and why it was done that way.

Copy

Try to repeat frames from your favorite films or videos. Of course, a cool team of artists worked on creating one cool shot. But I am sure that most of the shots can be recreated with a minimum budget. The task is to create something similar with a minimum budget and maximum quality. Remember, you are doing this in your own best interest. professional development. As a result, these works will fit perfectly into the portfolio, and they can be published on behance.

Who am I?

When you watch Hollywood's acclaimed CGI blockbuster, remember that a team of professionals worked on every frame. Each team member did one highly specialized job. One group modeled while another lit the models, some painted the environments, some animated the characters, and some did the compositing, blurring the line between reality and the CG world. If everyone did everything, the result would be disastrous.

Therefore, it is important to decide what your soul is about. What are you willing to do for 10-12 hours a day without regretting a single second spent on work? You can choose several directions for yourself, but it is important to highlight the primary ones and, if possible, tighten up the rest.

Learn the Basics

Being a highly specialized expert is important, but you need to understand the entire process of creating a visual piece. If your job is to rig characters, then you need to understand and know how those characters were modeled, how best to light them, and how they will be composed with the footage. Basic knowledge in each of these areas will give you a huge boost to development.

Chat and meet experts

Go to CG and film related events. Of course, there are very few of them in the CIS, but when they happen, real visual effects sharks gather there.

It's never too late to learn or how to save a few years

A few years ago, it was believed that only a select few could become a VFX artist. In fact, that's how it was. Only the most diligent and persistent could find the valuable information they needed and spend hours studying programs through trial and error. Now everything is exactly the opposite. There is so much information that you could spend your entire life watching tutorials alone. But you won't get that far.

The only one the right way There will be training from professionals. Only under the supervision of a master will a student conquer the heights of the CGI industry.

The only question is where to go to study?

There is only one answer here - to the best masters of your business. For example, take studio courses TerminalFX, just look at them portfolio to understand how cool the teachers work there.
The money spent on training will pay off tens, if not thousands of times. The field of computer graphics is only gaining momentum and specialists are always needed here.

Well, for inspiration, a selection of cool showreels and breakdowns. I really hope to one day see your work in the showreels of these cool studios:

How are special effects for films created? What is digital painting? What do CG and CGI mean? We will answer these questions in this two-part article. And besides, here you will find addresses of websites on the topic and videos about creating special effects for films.

The article turned out to be so long that I had to divide it into two parts to make it easier to read. The first part is devoted to theory and special effects, and the second digital painting and graphics.

In general, most of the resources on the Internet related to the creation of special effects and digital painting are of foreign origin. This is due to the fact that in Russia this area is still developing. That is why Russian blockbusters with beautiful special effects have appeared quite recently. It is worth mentioning Timur Bekmambetov, who gave impetus to modern Russian blockbusters (for which many thanks to him).

Concept

"CG" translates to "computer graphics". However, as a rule, this concept has a slightly different meaning. After all, the concept of “computer graphics” covers almost any field of activity where graphics are created by or with the help of a computer. However, the word “CG” specifically implies the creation of either special effects for video, or digital painting, or the creation of graphics for various interactive presentations and video games.

True, special effects in movies are usually called "CGI" ( computer- generated imagery , literally "computer-generated images"). Although, in principle, there are no special differences between CG and CGI.

And now the most interesting...

Special effects in cinema

Once upon a time, special effects were very primitive, but also innovative. Usually, the essence of special effects was to skillfully erase safety ropes, etc. from the frame to make everything look exciting and more interesting. All this happened in the days of silent films.

Later, when there was a need for various movie monsters, there was a need for corresponding special effects. Of course, if you need to create a humanoid or Bigfoot, then the actor simply applied makeup or put on a costume. However, creating something more complex caused big problems for directors.

To add bizarrely shaped creatures to movies, filmmakers came up with stop-motion animation. Those. a plasticine model of the creature was made, and then photographed many times, while its body pose was slightly changed. And then, if you quickly scrolled through such photographs (30 frames per second), it looked like the creature was moving. Although it looked ridiculous, the directors managed to make it quite interesting.

It was stop-motion animation that changed everything (even modern special effects are made according to the same principle). However, even in our time, some cartoons are made using frame-by-frame animation, because such cartoons look unique and interesting.

And then came the era of information and computerization...
Then the film industry realized that it was possible to render special effects using a computer. Moreover, characters and various creatures can also be drawn directly on the computer and transferred to film during editing. Then the first films with “embedded” characters appeared.

However, with this came problems. Due to the fact that such characters were superimposed on the tape after filming, the actors had to show all their acting skills to interact with such an “invisible partner”.

When Steve Jobs created Pixar, he wanted to create a cartoon made and drawn entirely using a computer. This is how the Toy Story series was born.

Contemporary cinema not far from the basics used by the forefathers of special effects. Only the plasticine creatures were replaced by creatures completely made in graphic editors. However, there are a couple of techniques and tricks that modern directors actively use...

ChromaKey

Pronounced "chroma kay" though correct pronunciation should be "lame ki". The idea is simple: the actor is filmed against the backdrop of a green or blue cloth (rear screen), and after that the canvas is replaced with an image. Those. you can shoot almost an entire film in one pavilion, where main character travels around the planet (by the way, this is how the film Resident Evil 4 was created).

To project the desired image well onto the rear screen, you need to use a monotonous soft color, and therefore either green or blue are usually used.

MotionCapture

This means "motion capture". Special sensors (white balls or cubes, etc.) are attached to a real actor, and then all his movements are analyzed on a computer. Those. an actor fully dressed in a suit of sensors makes some movements, and then this animation data is transferred to a computer character. This way the computer character moves just like a human (smoothly and physically correctly).
And sometimes, motion capture is used locally, for example, to add something computer-generated to a real actor (computer makeup, if you like).

3D graphic editors

Without them, you cannot make a single voluminous monster or creature, or build the whole city. To add, say, King Kong, you need to first model him. This is done in three-dimensional graphic editors, and the process is more like creating a sculpture. You need not only to be able to handle such programs, but also to know the basics of anatomy, composition, etc. As a rule, such people are also called artists, since the principle of work is almost the same.

Usually, a primitive model of the character is first made in order to understand how he will behave in the frame, how much space he will occupy, and how the actors should interact with him. And then a high-quality model is made for installation.

The skill of modern special effects creators is amazing. Fully simulated actors are already being created - of course, why pay a real actor when you can make your own, who will neither be capricious nor get sick.

In the following image you can see actor Jeff Bridges from the movie Tron: Legacy. On the left is the real Jeff Bridges, and on the right is his artificial young copy (which was created on a computer). Amazing, isn't it...

Filmmakers have many more clever ideas for using computer technology in cinema. Who knows, maybe tomorrow this article will have to be updated - new technologies for producing special effects will appear. Now special effects and artificial computer characters indistinguishable from reality, and what will happen next...

At the end I want to show you a few short videos about the creation of special effects in some films.

A documentary about the unprofitability of CG graphics in cinema as a business. The company that drew Life of PI went bankrupt two weeks before they won an OSCAR for it. Over the past 10 years, 21 prominent effects studios in Hollywood have closed. Despite the fact that CG is traditionally an industry where people work day and night without days off (like video production, by the way) and without guarantees - almost everyone is hired individually for the duration of the project and constantly changes jobs, often leaving their families for months and years . Almost the entire American CG industry is dying due to the fact that tax breaks were made in Canada (as well as for gamers, by the way - that’s why Ubisoft does almost everything there). As a result, artists are constantly moving from country to country, where there are benefits and the industry is booming.

Overall, the film is about the fact that it's time to change the business model - CG artists are the same filmmakers as everyone else and should receive a percentage of the film's income or an hourly wage (like camera operators, etc.) because, like any creative activity, it is difficult to calculate in advance. Most studios force contractors to work at a fixed price - they say, we pay you 10 million and let us fulfill all our whims. Well, then it started - the director changed his mind, they decided to reshoot the scene, redo it, throw it out altogether and replace it with another - CG people do this work for free. The studio bears the losses and cannot do anything about it.
In 2013, the film's characters did work in two films nominated for an OSCAR, Life of Pi won. Former employees gathered to demonstrate outside the ceremony. When the staff are already off stage closed studio tried to talk about the fact that the company that did this work had a problem - they were drowned out by music from “Jaws.” In addition, Ang Lee, when thanking everyone from the stage for their participation in the film, listed everyone except the CG artists who in this case made 70% of the film.
As a result, the entire CG community was simply beside themselves. In protest, artists began to put green screens on their Facebook avatars and publish real stills from films without CG. Now the entire VFX industry is trying to develop general policy on working with Hollywood.



In principle, we at FXA are very, very familiar with all these problems, even though we are not talking about CG. Description of problems with customers and changes in plans - 100%.

On March 3, a massive demonstration of VFX artists against major studios will take place in Hollywood. At the same time, a lobby is being created to change legislation. In general, big companies are accused of pitting governments against each other, forcing them to fight among themselves by increasingly increasing benefits for films at the expense of taxpayers, while they themselves make money by setting box office records.