Process: Shading Templates

This is a custom shading reference for clothing folds and shadows; it hasn't been applied to any actual pieces of clothing yet.

I don't even want to say how very, very LONG this took. The program in the top screenshots is AvPainter, supposedly a program that lets you paint directly on the 3-D model. However, the controls are so horrifically shoddy that it's much nicer to do the painting in Photoshop. Thus the bottom screenshots. That's what the flat texture looks like (they're each 1024 square, I moved them around and overlaid to save space.)

This means that every minute or so I have to save the image file and flatten the layers into a .tga, go to AvPainter, open up the textures and layers window, and re-open the .tga (there's no refresh feature). This gets especially frustrating when it comes to matching up "seams", which are the breaks that separate the top from the bottom, the front from the back, and the torso from the arms. You practically have to do it a few pixels at a time.... on a 1024 pixel square image for the top and bottom each. It was literally days before I finished all the seam matching and shading.

There has GOT to be a better way to do this.

ANyway, as you can see I've completed a basic shading template for both a regular-length shirt and a tunic-length top. I also have rudimentary shading for something resembling leggings; I'll make a pants version later.  These shading templates will be used to make the design process for future outfits hopefully a little easier for me, so that I can focus less on matching up the same shading seams over and over again, and more on making quality original designs.

Cheers!
~Gryph
GryphonWings Designs

Sneak Peek: Feather Collection (GW Brand Identity Exploration)

Upon seeing the name of my shop, some people have asked me, "So uh.... do you make wings?" I admit, the name of the line can sometimes be misleading. I named the store after my avatar name, as most designers do; but my av name isn't something ordinary like Lucy or Cassandra (it's GryphElyse Wingtips, which just happened to work out perfectly to a phrase that made sense). Then again, I never intended GryphonWings designs to be ordinary!

Still, I've recently realized that GW has a collection of designs that, while lovely, are somewhat "confused" as a whole - e.g. no common theme, and nothing immediately recognizable to the brand identity. There really is no GryphonWings "style", besides the visual elements of Photoshop painting and shading. So I decided to work on a series that could be immediately recognizable to residents as "Oh, that's a GryphonWings design." This series will cover a variety of clothing styles but is held together by a few elements and motifs:

- Natural elements like raw leather
- The color gold (black and gold, brown and gold)
- Feathers, both prim and painted (pretty!)
- Variations on the new GW art logo, a silhouette gryphon in flight (see sketchbook excerpt)

Not every piece will have every element. I'm somewhat mixing the Feather Collection with the Altitude series because they just go so very well together; any item from the Feather Collection with raw leather and/or prim feathers in it may also be featured in the Altitude series. Who wants the Altitude Boots with some prim flexi feathers? I do! :D On the to-do list.

Dying with curiosity? Here's a sketchbook excerpt with PRETTY! (Click for full view - large.)

Ohmigod isn't that gryphon awesome? I'll be doing up a nice clean silhouette in Photoshop and putting together a texture with alpha so I can "paint" it on the wall of the store somewhere. It'll certainly be going on a few clothing items, and gift boxes, and and and... *falls over out of breath*

Note to my loyal customers, present and future: I am planning to offer the cowl-neck top (middle - gold feather motif) and jeans in the black-and-gold color set FREE, as a way for me to express my undying love for you all! I'm also considering having the asymmetrical buckle top free, as well. Updates on that. These will not be "freebie" quality, but actual QUALITY GIFTS to you, the customer, because I genuinely do appreciate you guys. I do it all for you. <3

Currently, my progress in all this is very... early. I'm working on a broad shading template that I can apply to a number of different clothing items to speed up the design process so I can get stuff to YOU faster. Screenshot:

As you can see I use AvPainter when I need to work on both top and bottom meshes at once; for some reason I can't get my precious Modo to separate the UVs correctly. AvPainter's painting tools are somewhat... disappointing... so I really only use it to match up the waist seam and draw basic elements. What you see above is the product of a little shadow baking in ZBrush and then a LOT of painting and tweaking in Photoshop and AvPainter. It's not even quite finished yet; plus, for each separate piece of clothing I apply it to, I'll do a lot of tweaking. For example, the cowl-neck I'll be starting on next will be hip-length (jacket layer yay!) so I'll be adjusting the leg shading around there, adding folds, etc.

Next step after shading is all tweaked and smoothed out is to put together a basic cowl-neck template with nice sweater-y texture and cloth shading, to which I can then apply lots of different goodies as my whim desires. I'll be experimenting with trying to get a "foil" look for cloth decals; let you know how that goes.

To-do list:

- Flesh out shading template. Add cloth folds on separate layer.

- Draw up arty gryphon-silhouette logo, as well as a few feather motifs.

- Texture up a sweater and the cowl-neck sculpt I already have.

- Liberally apply b) to c). :D

IT BEGINS!

~ GryphElyse Wingtips

GryphonWings Designs

Interlude: The Soul of Content Creation

I saw this video short, entitled World Builder, when it was featured on the SL blog Not Possible IRL. It's a beautiful representation of what Second Life content creation could - and can - be like. It's an incredibly detailed and exciting futuristic vision, and also has a heartstrings-yanking human element. I'm linking to it here as an interlude because it's related to the designer process and serves as an example of the potential of platforms like Second Life. (Also it's gorgeous.)

Word Builder

In one of the blog comments, which I couldn't phrase better: "Yup - this is the truth of building in Second Life (on a good day). And it's wrapped in the other key message, which is that we use these worlds, as we do any tools of art -- to find one another, and pull one another out of darkness, into light."

*Clears throat* Hem. Sorry for the tangent. Back to the Steampunk Virtuoso collection in the next post.

~Gryph

Process: Steampunk series

You might have noticed the new Steampunk Virtuoso collection front and center in my store. I'll post pictures and details of that in my next post, but right now I'd like to let you in on some of my designer process, sketchbook pages and all.

 It started with a vision:

A planner page, actually. Yes, I doodle in my planner in class when I should be taking notes.

This is just a quick sketch, obviously. I sketch out my ideas as a way to organize all the chaotic information flying around my head. As you might have predicted, not all of it makes its way to the final product unscathed; but the feel remains.

You might notice the second top and second pair of boots were never made; those were scrapped when I decided they were rubbish. *slashes through paper* I always have way more ideas than I have products. (Way more color combinations, too... I've recently learned the value of "less is more".)

 The last section of the page, however, has NOT been scrapped. I was originally planning to release the wintry accessories and boots as part of the Steampunk line, but somewhere during the process I realized that they weren't very steampunk as stand-alone items, so I'm working on them as a separate companion set, the Altitude series. More details on that later. So far it's just the boots that are out, but I plan to have the gloves, hat, and scarf out soon, coat to follow later.

I drew up rough drafts of the corset and chemise in a frenzy of productivity.... months ago. They sat on my hard drive for months before I finally got around to adding the final details. Lucky I waited, because in the intervening time I finally got ahold of a 3-D modeling program called Modo that allows me to make *drumroll* SCULPTIES!

Modo, I love you. <3 Sculpting AND model painting tools. Even texture baking. By the way, that's the Windows 7 release candidate... surprisingly painless.
I don't really want to tell you the obscene amount of time it took for me to do up the sculpts you see above... it was inordinate. Mainly because they're my first sculpts and I'm still learning the program. Better process next time.

Once I got my mitts on Modo, I did everything pretty much at once. For some reason I was set on finishing the boots before putting up the corset, chemise, and recently finished (incl. sculpt cuffs) leggings/trousers. Since the boots are a different category I don't know why I was in that mindset. Ohwell - they look great with the trousers anyway.

*insert frenzy of texturing, detailing, and photo-taking here*
Results to follow in next two posts.

Cheers!
~Gryph
GryphonWings Designs