Wednesday 15 April 2009

The 3rd dimension















Here’s a charming, steampunkish 3D model that Leo built to use as reference when drawing. He also found a 3D model of the Orient Express online that has been extremely handy for the last few Mirabilis episodes.

It was the post about the Royal Mythological Society
Flying Fish that reminded me about this, though in fact the model you see here was built for another strip that Leo wrote called Deep Sea Star. Unlike the Fish, this vehicle does go underwater. See more in his book on digital cartoons.

Leo actually isn’t that keen on working in 3D although, as you can see from these images and the
Fangleworths robots, the Lightwave models have the same uniquely characterful touch that you see in his regular drawings. I find 3D interesting because you can experiment with camera position and lens. Too many comic strips use only a human-eye lens, which quickly gets boring to an audience raised on movies. But it is like moving a mountain of sugar with a tea-spoon - we used to develop animated shows for TV, and you can spend a whole week just to get a few seconds of footage.

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