Detailed textures are critical to Kool’s work. As well
as the wooden beetle, he also creates animals that
look like they’re made of paper, and has rendered
himself in soft puppet form. He explains: “I started
by sketching the concept in Photoshop. Once I was
happy with the design, I created the mesh in Maya
and then spent a long time in Photoshop getting the
felt texture looking convincing.”KOOLLIKESTOCHALLENGEHIMSELF TO CREATE
A VARIETY OF DIFFERENT CG MATERIALSMATERIALS MATTER
TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE
06
IN AND OUT OF FOCUS
I then used a Lens Blur using the Z-depth pass as a layer mask.
This created a depth of field effect and really enhanced the realism of the piece.
The Lens Blur gives me a lot of control over the blur amount and focal depth.05
SHARPEN UP
Once I had taken the render files back into Photoshop, I then started
by using a Smart Sharpen filter on the render to make those details sing.07
SHINE A LIGHT
To bring the lighting up, I duplicated and merged all layers (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E) and set this to Screen.
I set the opacity quite low, but I find that this lightens up the details of the image without blowing out the details.08
WARM IT UP
To finish, I once again duplicated and
merged all the layers (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E) and set this
to Overlay at 15% Opacity. This really helps deepen
the colours and pop the highlights.