Hello! My name is Constantine Tvalashvili, I’m a 27 year old CG Artist & Game Developer from Tbilisi, Georgia. In recent years I have been working as a game developer (C# programming in Unity). But in my free time I do non-commercial 3D things, just for fun and joy. I’m happy to write my second Art Spotlight for the Sketchfab community! In my first article I wrote a lot about myself so I will not repeat it all here.
Doodle No.56
Let’s get straight to the point. Here is a NPR (Non Photo-Realistic) 3D scene, based on Chemical Sister’s doodle. I’ve always admired her meaningful concepts. I consider them a very good resource for creating beautiful 3D scenes. At the same time, they retain a 2D cartoon look that I love so much!
The positive feedback that our first experimental work on Sketchfab “Fishbird” had, gave us a huge motivation to do more 3D scenes. Sketchfab fits our goal perfectly. Now, because I have developed and polished a convenient workflow to do such things, it has become easier for me because they are not technically different. If you have read my previous spotlight, you may be familiar with this breakdown.
Overall the scene is made in Blender. Here’s how it looks. The “Birdbulb” standing on a spherical island, surrounded by mountains.
First of all, the main thing is to make a “Blockout” according to the reference image. Set camera orientation, FOV, object scales…
Let’s talk about the cartoonish effect. To get this, I usually use an old school method – duplicate mesh, flip all normals and push it out a little bit. It would be better to make this effect using a shader. But I think that this is the only way to get outlines on Sketchfab.
To create a tree branch, I used the Blender Skin modifier, which is a great way to create things like this. It automatically generates mesh around the edges. (Note that it only works with meshes, not splines.)
For the background, I made four different pieces of mountains. I redrew them from the background. I think that this amount is quite enough to avoid noticeable repetition.
I made four different trees this time too—simple models with texture.
Of course, the most enjoyable part of the work was texturing. Blender is very handy for 3d painting. I tried to repeat the drawing as accurately as I could.
At the end I uploaded the *.blend file directly to Sketchfab and used the simple SHADELESS lighting mode on all objects.
To achieve the frame portal effect I just set up camera limitations on zoom and rotation. PRO membership has many great features to make your work more unique.
Sketchfab
I think I’ve covered all the parts of my work and nothing was left that I could show. As an experienced Sketchfab user, I think the Sketchfab platform is developing well! I remember how they added sounds, interactive elements, various shader models, etc. It would be nice if the particle system were supported in the near future.
I want to thank the Sketchfab team and community for feedback and the attention. I hope you found this interesting and informative, feel free to contact me if you have any questions. You can find me on Twitter.
Happy Sketchfabbing!
About the author
Constantine Tvalashvili
CG Artist and Game Developer
