Winter Elk (added Step by Step)

[Tag]

After doing my Fishing Lessons image, I decided to do a series of animals. This is the second North American Wildlife image.
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1027213094rxy.jpg

[Stonecutter]

Bravo Tami!
Great Elk, and an even better snowy landscape around the Elk...Wonderful work!

:tu: :tu: :tu: :) :cool: :) :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Cricket]

I love this! :) The hoof prints came out exceptionally well too. Great work with the snow and love the elk :)

[Grub]

Ditto the coments above, really nice work! :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Fouad B.]

I confirme.. nice modeling.
Snow is so realistic! :tu:

[wenna]

wow Tami!! I really really like this! Snowy background makes me miss North Dakota! It looks soo real! And the elk is so life like too. I thought it was a vacation card when looking at the thumbprint! I just can not get enough looking at this!!!

[DLee]

This is beautiful. Everything is first class... (other than the antlers... they bother me a bit) But the rest is breathtakingly good. ~s~

[Ron Harris]

outstanding job Tami!!!!!! My animals always turn into monsters...

[DeeVee]

Tam's your and artist of exceptional talent. This image is superb! I really like it a lot.
Congratulations.
I can see this image on a North American Christmas card !
:tu: :tu: :tu: :) :tu: :tu: :tu:

[DMerchen]

Excellent image, I especially like the snowy background. I am ready for some winter! :D

[Vikki]

Absolutely stunning! This is very beautiful! I live in snow and elk country and this is like looking out my window in winter!

:tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Belleski]

Looks like a Christmas card in July!!!
Beautiful image, love the fur on the Elk, and the snow looks great! :cool:

[Northstarr]

I can't believe this isn't a photgraph!! Everything is so realistic. Absolutely awesome work!!! I love it!! It looks like home!

:tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :)

[Slosh]

After your bears, I'm not surprised this elk turned out so beautifully done. Your modeling is perfect, especially the body and legs. Great antlers, too. The only thing I think I would nitpic is the head. It's just a tiny bit too large in proportion to the rest of the body. Of course, I live in Florida and have never seen an elk in person, only on TV, so don't listen to me.

[juandel]

absolutely superb, Tami!!! great job on modelling/texturing the deer and the best znow i have seen so far... love them snowcovered branches and the light shining through that awesome tree in the topright corner :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: and so on to no end - this series gonna be one of my favorite collections! :D

- juandel

[DM]

Really great image, wonderful modelling on the elk and excellent landscaping. :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:
Dave

[Tag]

Thank you all for your kind comments!

The snow for this was a modified toy plastic material applied to a plane and the 3D brush was used for details.
I also used the 3D brush for the elk fur. I don't quite trust my fiberbrush abilities to put fur on an animal with it. I made an alpha of a fur patch using a photo of my dog. I used the alpha with texture master for the bears in Fishing Lessons, but applied it using the 3D brush for this one.
The elk was done with done several photos as reference. The legs looked a bit thin and the head a bit large to me too as I was doing them, but actually seem to be about right. The photos varied a little (different breeds?) and the result is a combination of them.

Thanks again and if anyone is interested I can post more information on how I did the image.

[Flycatcher]

Damn! :mad: My idea for my next painting was going to be a snow scene. I thought, that's something I haven't seen on the Forum, then this afternoon... :)

Well, I'm certainly not in a hurry to put myself up in competition with this. I love everything about it and particularly the little details like the very realistic way you've caught the footprints and the little mounds of snow around the feet, the way the light filters through the trees at the top right corner... I could go on. Great stuff. :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[WushuGuy]

Great image Tag :tu: :tu:
And I for one would be really interested in more info about how you did the snow on the trees. Really, really good work.

Jim
The Wushu Guy :D

[Tag]

Thank you all once again for your comments.
Here's a step by step of how I did the image. Hope you find it helpful.
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1027308855eiv.jpg
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1027308878wsw.jpg

[Zoid]

Wow! The snow is wonderful! and you live in California? Your methods and explanations are very enlightening. Thanks :cool:

[jelee]

This is great work and nice use of Ztools.
I especially like the tree created with the snake hook brush, very convincing! All your animal modeling has been great to look at as well.
Look forward to the next in your series.
jelee

[filament9]

Nicely done. Your walkthrough was very interesting.

[juandel]

:tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: step by step, Tami, you have made absolutely fantastico use of the 3d-brush! was the lighteffect to the top right done with shading-enhancer or is this a lil fog there? love it!

- juandel

[Tag]

Flycatcher, I'd love to see more snowy images. I live on the central coast of California, where the weather is 60 - 70 degrees and foggy all year round. Snow isn't something that I see often :D
I know that snow can stick and clump, but that it's also affected by gravity and used that as a guideline when placing the snow.

Juandel, I had planned on using fog for the lighting in the upper corner, and even made an alpha for it. I also wanted fog for the background trees. I rendered the image with fog on the background trees. Then I exported the image and applied it as a texture to a new image. I turned the lighting alpha into a stencil and used yellow-white flat material with a simple brush (rgb only) to paint the lighting using the stencil as a guide. I also used the shading enhacer to touch up the shadows on the elk at that point.

[Flycatcher]

Thanks for the step-by-step, Tami.

I don't see that much of the white stuff in my part of England either- just a few days maybe every 4 or 5 years. Now rain, that's a different story. :D