3D Techniques with Digital Painting – Marco Bucci

In today’s competitive world of concept art and illustration, the boundaries between 3D and 2D are becoming ever more blurred. It is often expected of 2D artists to have some degree of familiarity with 3D tools and processes. At the very least, understanding some basic 3D workflow and tools can really help you reach a higher creative potential.

This video class will teach you fundamental skills needed to integrate Blender – an industry standard, and free, 3D software – into your 2D workflow. The lectures are broken up into three chapters:

Chapter 1: Blender Essentials. Marco will introduce and explain all the 3D tools necessary to follow the tutorials. A great way to introduce yourself to the software!

Chapter 2: A project that combines elements made with basic 3D modeling, grease pencil, texturing, lighting and rendering, with digitally hand-painted 2D scenery and characters. The result is a 2D digital painting aesthetic, but with real 3D depth.

Chapter 3: A project using a modern day Hollywood ‘2.5D’ matte painting technique. Slightly more advanced 3D modeling (still suitable for beginners), combined with sophisticated camera projection mapping UV tools and digital painting to create a unique and dazzling cinematic blend of 2D and 3D.

Course features:
Great for beginner users of Blender, or beginners to 3D in general!
Course uses Blender 2.8 – the latest release of the software
Using Blender’s grease pencil as a bridge from 3D over to the realm of 2D illustration and digital painting
Preparing elements in 3D with basic UV texture mapping and rendering
Node and shader construction in Blender
Bringing your painting together in Photoshop with regular digital painting techniques. Full painting process shown, on two separate paintings, with discussions of fundamentals (light, color, value, composition, etc.) used throughout the process, as well as many other related thoughts along the way
Using digital brushwork to eliminate the sterile ‘3D look’
Using 3D ambient occlusion and shadow passes to aid painting
Using layers to help keep your process organized
Compositing elements back together for a final, striking image – all within Blender
All project files are included
Digital brushpack included