Frostbite....

Hi all! Here with another image created for fun called, "Frostbite..." This one was a bit of an accident gone right. I wanted to create a dragon theme image, mountains, snow,.... But when I started getting camera angles for my model, the wings kept getting in the way. Sooo, I took a shot focused on the face, and started painting.

As always, the model was rendered inside DAZ Studio. The model was of the Wyvern, an older model sold by DAZ3D. Old enough that the skin/texture I used to bring it to life was one I actually created and sold at DAZ for the model. Yup, that's my very own winter dragon texture job for the model, created a few years back. Thought it would be fun to revisit the work, so I came up with the image above.

This was a fun one. I started with the basic pose, camera, lighting and render work I usually do, then took it to my image editor (Pixelmator) and proceeded painting with some Photoshop brushes. The gif below shows the whole process.

I start with the main render and duplicate it a few times into layers. I then play with the colour and opacity of the different layers to get the effect I wanted. I began using smoke brushes to remove parts of the body for a ghostly effect, while using a black/blurred layer in the back to create depth. Once the body was right, I began using smoke, dry ice, and ash effects to produce a materializing creature from the cold mist, integrating suttle blues, greys, and full on whites.

It can be a lengthy process, but I think it came out pretty good. Hope you like it, and thanks for stopping by. Let me know what you think,.... Maybe a wall print in the future if I see interest. Anyway, have a great day!

If for any reason you cannot see the breakdown gif, please go to: Frostbite