I started with the tree. Shapes were combined and lofted bit by bit.
step 1 of 25
step 2 of 25
The leg of the tree as the loft builds up.
step 3 of 25
The points and positions of the spline shapes were tweaked as needed.
step 4 of 25
Until I got one leg made entirely by spline modelling.
step 5 of 25
The tree's second leg was made following exactly the same procedure.
step 6 of 25
Once I got the hang of it, it was quite fast and also fun.
step 7 of 25
Arms were added in exactly the same way. Having the joints show didn't matter because it is after all a tree.
step 8 of 25
The tree with its lofted arms.
step 9 of 25
Here's a look at the list of all the shapes used. Naming them saved a lot of trouble when I needed to go back and move or reshape them later.
step 10 of 25
Made a leaf using a spline.
step 11 of 25
Added branches also by lofting shapes and placed them strategically around the arms of the tree character. Added a cloner object to make copies of the leaf and a random effector to disperse the copies.
step 12 of 25
Just repeated the last step for both sides.
step 13 of 25
Okay, so basically did the very same thing for all the other characters. Here's water.
step 14 of 25
Water after it's been lofted. Note that you can't really separate the legs when making a full character in this way, but it worked for this idea.
step 15 of 25
Here's earth.
step 16 of 25
Earth after lofting.
step 17 of 25
Air or wind. It didn't need legs (Thank God!)
step 18 of 25
Air again after lofting.
step 19 of 25
And finally fire, for which I decided to depict and personify the sun and it's nourishing heat.
step 20 of 25
The sun after lofting. I didn't want any detail beyond the upper body, I kind of just wanted it to fade off irregularly. I later stretched and pulled the points of the last loft spline to get this effect.
step 21 of 25
I positioned all five characters so that it would look like the tree is reaching out to the warmth of the sun (as plants do) and the other four were converging and moving around it in exaggerated dance-like motions. The tree is supposed to be in a ballet-like posture.
step 22 of 25
I added the ground and a water puddle also using basic spline modelling as well as some supporting details like the trail of the wind, the water's hair, small rocks around the outstretched earth character and extra flying leaves. This was all simply done using the same technique as with the leaves, i.e. applying a cloner object and random effector to extruded splines. Very simple, but the file was getting heavy.
step 23 of 25
sources used for this step:step 24 of 25
I generated an alpha channel for the leaf by removing it's background in Photoshop.
step 25 of 25
The camera was set. Four lights were added with the strongest one positioned next to the sun and casting an orange light. Fog was added to the environment and the background was created using a gradient with noise and a starfield (which is barely visible). And if you've actually made it to the end of this SBS, you deserve a prize. Phew!
Final result
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