Anthony Guebels is currently working as a 2D/3D artist for Ubisoft Montreal. He specialises in creating promotional artwork, used for the marketing of the different brands of the studio. A personal project, Stroll in the Swamp has been in progress for quite some time. Guebels explains how, at the beginning of his creative process, he doesn’t know exactly what the final result is going to look like.
"I have a theme, a general idea in mind, and then I start to sketch and look for references," he explains. "I tend to start working in 3D even if I know that my concept hasn’t been finalised. At this early stage I also test different light setups, basic shaders and camera angles. This helps me to refine my initial idea and adjust my direction."
Guebels spends a lot of time on the general composition of his scenes, going back and forth between 3ds Max, ZBrush and Photoshop, and doing a lot of tests in low-res until he gets something he’s satisfied with.
"I had a lot of fun designing the armour and equipment," he says. "These elements had to fit the character and tell a story all by themselves. They had to make sense, and while I was looking for references the background story of the character began to take shape."
Guebels uses V-Ray for the lighting, shaders and high-res render. He also uses render passes that enable him to reconstruct the final image in Photoshop. "Of course, I have to be satisfied with the basic beauty pass before doing any adjustment or postproduction processing," he confides. "The background and foreground elements in this picture are a mix of 3D objects with paintovers, 2D painting and matte painting."
This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 175.
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