[Danny]

Wow..

joined the forum this morning, 30+ replies.. loads more than I expected for sure.
Anyway I would like to thank everybody for their very kind replies. I'm delighted to find out you all enjoy the image as much as you do.

Saffron, it's nice to see you here aswell. Yes I was supposed to add some graphics to your wonderfull collection in Contour. Sadly things get in the way from time to time. Stay in touch..

Loki, to clear up some confusion, I was not the one behind the graphics in Contour. All credit for that should go to Saffron. A marvellous job he's done for sure. To answer your question, I'm currently freelancing for a game project of Virgin Interactive. Before that I was lucky enough to do some freelance work on the series Walking with Dinosaurs, painting a few of the Dino's skin t-maps alongside the incredibly talented Daren Horley.

LeChuck, sorry mate.. I tried ironing out those 'wrinkles'.. but they were too damn stubborn.. wouldn't go away..

Scoop, the reason why I chose 3D for the background is that it was faster to do so and it gave me more freedom to change things at a later stage.

Spooge, Immi and Loki did a fine job on explaining the scene. However, knowing you are a Mac user, you might have problems seeing examples from it. Don't know the status of a demoscene on Mac platform (anyone?). Anyway, please let me use this place here to praise your incredible art. Your work has stunned me to the extreme and is an inspiration to me to keep on evolving my style and technique.

Leo, regarding the DOF. I personally dislike using DOF in paintings. I find that it doesn't look correct in almost all the cases in which it was used by other digital painters. I think it's more suitable for Photography as it is a natural occuring event there. If you look at the whole painting/art scene (being digital or conventional) you'll notice that DOF is something that is hardly ever used. I find it much more interesting to see all the detail going on in the background rather than simply running a fat gaussian blur over elements of the background. Besides people would have problably flamed me for it if I had done so.. The picture was drawn with large output in mind yes.

Okay some more info on the closeup images.. Both of them are zoomed in at 100%. As you can see, I have this uncontrolable urge to paint detail right down to the individual pixel. I'm sure this is my heritage of years spend pixeling. It's great if you're doing really large prints (I have a few A1 Chromalin prints lying here of the image where all the detail is PIN-sharp) but it can kinda bog you down in terms of drawing speed. It takes buckets of dedication.
I did use photographic reference for some parts of the image, the face mainly and the UZI's she's holding. I personally don't see any objections using photographic reference for areas like this, as long as scanners, digitizers and other forms of digital fakery are left aside..
If anyone has any further questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

here's the link to the images... (sorry for the jpeg artifacts);

http://www.xs4all.nl/~dang/

Cheers,
Danny

PS. Thanks Dhabih, for this great forum and your terrific artwork.. You rock!

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[email protected]

[sfr]

That face closeup really is something!! The 1K version really didn't do the face any justice. Like your "Angelic Particles", this is an image where one could spend an hour or two in zoom mode just marvelling at the detail... You're amazing Danny

About the use of DOF in painting: my understanding is that it's a historical tradition that paintings are made equally sharp all over (of course this is just relative, no painting is really 100% sharp). After all the human vision only has a small sharp spot, so the viewer can never see the painting fully sharp anyway.

It wasn't until the invention of the camera that painters awakened to consider other ways of rendering what they see; the impressionists were the first to systematically explore the use of DOF in painting. Though even before modernism, there had been some painters experimenting more or less conciously with such effects, for example Vermeer (one of my favorite painters - some say he used a primitive camera obscura as a painting aid).

Well, there's the art historical perspective on the issue anyway

Saffron / Sunflower

[micke]

Holy mother of Christ!!!!


The Close-up is wonderful!
Tell us some more what technique you used!

-Micke

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-Mikael Noguchi-

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Suite/1615/

[Darkmoon]

Wow! that is absolutely amazing! Id love to know how you did it, the skin is absolutely gorgeous and the eyes, oh the eyes hehe

Wonderful job
hope to see more!


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Darkmoon
-Seire Hirez,
-Hirez.org Staff =^..^=

[jasonN]

I said it before and I'll say it again....

Holy shit....

[Qory]

holy shit!!! Yeah, I'd like to see that picture full size... even though it would probably take me 2 hours to download and it would crash my comp about 10 times... I'd love to see it... beautiful work, man... I love the minute details, like the lips, the teeth, and the detailed reflections on the eyes... skin looks good too... holy shit...

Qory

[Leo]

Ok Danny, it's your style, your opinion.
But look here:



There is enough detailed background and it's blurry to, so you can feel a depth. Yeah, you right about DOF, it's really hardly thing to use. But sometimes it's adds the realistic touch. Anyway, good work man! These closeups just amazing!
/Leo

PS: image taken from 'The 5th Element' movie



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IN ART WE TRUST

[Loki]

Leo: if I'm not totally mistaken, then all the closer bg's were shot on DD's stage with models. Only the far away building - essentially, the 'gaps' between the models were painted.
FYI: they were painted in Matador mostly by Rachel Kelly and Martha Mack as far as I remember. The rest was finished up in compositing.
(I didn't paint any of those shots - I was busy impaling my stupid self on 'Dante's Peak' ... blergh ...)

[Loki]

oops - sorry Leo - I should read posts more carefully before I open my big mouth.
Depth of Field .. allright - yes, they had to use every trick on those shots ...
sorry again ... have a nice weekend guys

[AprilYSH]

Wow, don't throw "freelancing" in titles like "Walking with Dinosaurs", "Fifth Element" and "Dante's Peak" around. I get it, I get it, I've intruded in the land of Digi Gods.

Are any of you working on the Pern (Anne McCaffrey) tv movie series?

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http://clix.to/vanity

[soda]

DanielSan!
Nice to see you here man.

And once again you've showed us how kick ass artist you are.

But one LITTLE thing I'd like to ask you to do...

PLEASE put the whole image of Lara as its real size to net or something, I would really like to see that whole image 100% size.
And I bet that others would like to see that also.

Keep up your good work, looking forward to see more.

[immi]

Danny,

May I use the Lara pic (from now on, to be referred to as THE Lara pic) as our Picture of the Day over at 3D Palette(www.3dpalette.com) so that all the poor schmucks who havn't seen it, can?

cheers
dave


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-http://www.3dpalette.com

[n8]

F A R K ! ! ! ! !.....megod!!...the detail!!!...ARRRGH!!....cmon ppls...with me
"we want full size, we want full size!!!"
pleeeezzeeee.....u put anything of mine to shame!!!

[Mongoose]

Let me first say that you are my new god.

Now, let me move on to ask:

WHERE CAN I SEE MORE OF YOUR WORK!?#*$

Thank you for your cooperation.
/mongoose

[dennison]

argh.. the detail... the colours.. the realism.. the..
*faints*
please make the pictures in their original size available
and post more of your work

and wtf mongoose? i am not your god anymore??? screw you! :P

[DarkpathImages]

I am gobsmacked!!! That's some awesome details man.

Kyri

[CeRbErO]

Oh lord (eh. that would be Danny =)

The close up is so REAL! I believe you've working with this kind of stuff for a long time huh?
Hope to see more of your work.

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Edited by CeRbErO - http://cerbero.cjb.net

[Acryl]

Hi Danny .. nice you also found the way to this forum =D !

acryl http://www.3dpalette.com/pointnpixel