ImagineFX - Issue 179

BUILD A HOME IN

VIRTUAL REALITY

Martin Nebelong brings a world to life using Dreams, a virtual reality

video game for PlayStation 4, where anything is possible!

We live in a time where

the tools available to

artists are constantly

evolving at a rapid rate

of knots. Artificial

intelligence and machine learning

can help us in our work, and we have

virtual reality tools that enable us

walk around and work in our own

sculpts and paintings. Here, I’ll show

you how to make art on your

PlayStation 4. It’s a concept that still

sounds a little strange to me, but one

that works surprisingly well!

I first heard about the software

Dreams when I watched a developer

talk at Umbra Ignite in 2015 by Alex

Evans. Alex is the co-founder of the

Sony-owned company Media

Molecule, which made the hit title

Little Big Planet. Dreams is a

continuation of some of the ideas

present in Little Big Planet, in which

players build levels and content for

the game. Dreams expands on this

theme, with an even wider scope of

what’s possible to build in the

software. You’re basically provided

with all you need to create games,

illustrations or even full-length

movies either from scratch or with

some of the content that’s shared by

other creators. All this is packaged

into a video game-like experience

that’s very user-friendly.

If you haven’t done so already,

I recommend that you go through

and finish all the basic tutorials in

Dreams, before tackling this

workshop. I’m using Move controllers

in this tutorial, which I think work

better than the DualShocks.

1

Visualise my idea

I start out with a rough concept in

Photoshop. My idea for this piece is to build a

diorama-like environment that showcases

what a wizard’s quirky hideaway might look

like. In this case, we have a f loating rock, with

a small house and garden on it. The style of

the scene is inspired by my childhood

readings of classic European comic books

such as Asterix and The Smurfs.

2

Mocking up the scene

Time to boot up the PS4. The first thing we want to do in Dreams is to get the large shapes

right before even considering going into details. I use the basic Cube Stamp tool set to Smear

and paint in the shape of the large f loating rock. I switch between Add and Subtract by bumping

the top of the left motion sensor against the bottom of the right one.

Dreams & Photoshop

GET YOUR

RESOURCES

See page 8 now!

Martin

Nebelong

LOCATION: Denmark

Martin is a Danish

freelance artist and the

artistic director of

MasterpieceVR. He’s

made it his duty to

explore new ways of

making art... on a gaming

console for example!

https://ifxm.ag/martin-n

Artist

PROFILE

Workshops