Uploaded December 2014 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
This video talks mainly about theory of light and material values. Which is a very important thing for any artist to understand, be they a painter, or a CG artist.. even photographers understand a fair bit about these things in order to do their jobs well. The goal for you after seeing this video, is to create 30 min studies of materials. Try to create them as spheres or cubes.. something other than the form you see them as in your reference. This is to force you to try to understand the materials A.R.T. values. I try to do these studies when I get the time, and it has a big impact on my understanding of them, even if I've done that material 10 times before, I can still learn new things about it. So please, don't just do something once and say it's done.. do it many times over. Say, this week I'll do 5 studies of wood. Each day from mon-fri doing one 30 min study of wood.. and next week, metal, and then glass, and then wax, etc etc.
The importance of understanding these things, is when you wish to create things which do not exist. You may have a reference for green metalic paint, and your desire is to make a green metalic dragon.. but you don't have a photo of that.. just green paint on a car.. you need to understand the material to change it's form.
This video talks mainly about theory of light and material values. Which is a very important thing for any artist to understand, be they a painter, or a CG artist.. even photographers understand a fair bit about these things in order to do their jobs well. The goal for you after seeing this video, is to create 30 min studies of materials. Try to create them as spheres or cubes.. something other than the form you see them as in your reference. This is to force you to try to understand the materials A.R.T. values. I try to do these studies when I get the time, and it has a big impact on my understanding of them, even if I've done that material 10 times before, I can still learn new things about it. So please, don't just do something once and say it's done.. do it many times over. Say, this week I'll do 5 studies of wood. Each day from mon-fri doing one 30 min study of wood.. and next week, metal, and then glass, and then wax, etc etc.
The importance of understanding these things, is when you wish to create things which do not exist. You may have a reference for green metalic paint, and your desire is to make a green metalic dragon.. but you don't have a photo of that.. just green paint on a car.. you need to understand the material to change it's form.
