How I do it
How I Do It
This page shows you how I go about creating my visions of some of those artefacts. Most are for my own edification but some do find their way onto my covers.
My favourite 3d modelling tool is called Blender and, at the time of writing, it is available as FREE software. It is not the only tool (I could cite ten others that are ostensibly more powerful or more costly) nor is it particularly intuitive (Some claim that 3d modelling is no more difficult than shaping something in play-dough and painting it). However, I have found the effort required to learn enough about blender for it to create what I want was worth expending.
There are also a myriad of other pieces of software, some free, some not, which can be used to create 2d artwork. These can be used in conjunction with each other to produce some really wonderful effects that can be added on top of the three dimensional models. I use these particularly for creating diagrams, textures and backgrounds.Blender can create some really fantastic scenes, animations and effects
but what I will show you here is the kind of simple model that is enough for my purposes. If you want to do some 3d modelling of your own then there are tens of thousands of pages and you-tube videos on line that will help. First of all you need to start with a bit of learning; 3d objects are made up of simple shapes; cubes, spheres cylinders planes etc...etc all joined together.
I’m not going to go into how you do this here; it would take too long. There are thousands of web tutorials that will show you how to create, slice, stretch, move, rotate and colour in such objects. I’m going to assume you already know how to do this.
Making a believable object builds on this foundation. As an example, this is how I created the portable solunarium first used in the Crystal Entanglement. It isn’t featured as an illustration anywhere (Except here on the website) and I created it for my own purposes so I would have an idea what it would look like, how it would have to be used, how big was it, how heavy was it? where would you have to position it so that it would work? ...etc. etc.
I started with the basic concept; a real world object called the mirascope. This contraption creates a three dimensional image that seems to float in the air above the device. The image is intangible but looks quite real from certain angles. A mirascope is basically a pair of concave mirrors of similar focal length placed one on the other with concave faces facing inwards. A central hole is cut in the upper mirror and a real object is placed in the centre of the lower mirror viz:
So we have the basic shape: a flat discus-like solid. However, the solunarium captures light from the sun and so we can’t have a real object in the lower mirror. We must create an image of the sun there. That will need lenses around the upper mirror and a slightly bigger lower mirror to capture the light from them.
Now the arrangement needs to pointed in the right direction so a pair of gimbals ( azimuth and attitude) will suffice
and the whole thing can be mounted on a rotating disc so that it can follow the sun. This is achieved by the clockwork in the base. Add some legs and something to stand it on and we are just about done.
Now we can colour the thing in to make it more realistic. A great benefit of computers over paintbrushes and paper is that you can choose colours like ‘Glass’ or ‘Crackled Brass’ (These are quite difficult to achieve with paint but straightforward with digital)
And there you have it.
And there you have it.
