Behind the Scenes: Cowboys & Dinosaurs

INTRODUCTION

Hello, my name is Benji Aubone, and I am from Argentina but currently live in Spain. I have been dedicated to 2D and 3D art for more than 20 years. I specialize in character designing,  and like to mix 2D and 3D styles. I have been using Blender for 11 years and I am very happy with the amazing tools it offers.

INSPIRATION

I once heard that we have to look for inspiration within ourselves, and my heart loves dinosaurs and science fiction. I worked at a natural sciences museum in Argentina to better document myself and make  more realistic dinosaurs. There is a rule called 70x30: 70% realistic and 30% fantasy, for I like my illustrations to have little touches of fantasy.

PROCESS

The main program I used is Blender, for the creation of textures I used Gimp, and for touch-ups and background design, it’s Krita.

MODELING

For the dinosaurs and the man, I did some basic modeling in Blender. After that, the main modeling tool I used was the subdivision surface modifier, nothing too complex, just simple modeling.

SHADER

I used flat colors for the characters but I touched up the textures in Blender. This is the shader that gave the 2D aspect to the characters.

OUTLINER

I used this tool to simulate the drawn edges of the characters.

FINAL STAGE

In the final stage, I designed the background in Krita, and treated the settings as one character but it took me more time than the creation. Nonetheless, the result is very satisfactory.

And that was all! Below are the final renders and an animation of the models.

RENDER - Cowboys & Dinosaurs

Thank you for reading the article. You can check out some of my work on my social media accounts. Have a wonderful day!

About the Artist                       

Benji Aubone is a freelance artist who specializes in 3D and 2D character designing.