Most people know the scary aspects of the short story "The Sandman". It was originally written by E.T.A. Hoffmann and found its way into a number of modern day adaptations. I love the concept of the Automaton Hoffmann added to the story. In this case the life like mechanical figure Olympia. In the early days of modern science, there was also an element of alchemy and magic involved to create this figure that seems so hard to distinguish from a real person.
My piece "Prepare for Takeoff" was inspired by said Olympia and with eyes playing an essential role in the story, I wanted those to have a strong presence in my artwork.
I started with the scan of a drawing I had made on glass some time ago and put the parts I wanted to keep, on their own layers.
The face needed some changes, to give it the porcelain like appearance I was looking for at first.
A quick sketch of the hair added, gave a first impression of the main composition.
At this point, the artwork seemed to develop a life of its own and I decided to follow the dialog, to where it might take me. Over the course of several days, I kept changing and adding things.
I completely redrew the body of the figure and kept adjusting the figure to her final look.
At first, I kept the moth in place only for its symbolism of a creature of the night and the dark aspects of the Sandman story.
When I work on a piece like that, unrestricted by a fixed theme, my thoughts wander. I hear something or an element in the artwork sparks another idea. So, all of a sudden it occurred to me, that the moth also represents "flight". Right away, the phrase "prepare for takeoff" popped up in my mind and I saw scenes from the movie "The Fifth Element" in front of my inner eye. I know, it wasn't equally well-received by everyone. But I love it for its crazy visual language and absurd ideas. In the case of my artwork, it inspired me to add that touch of Pop SciFi with the pink elements.
A lot of new options opened up, and for me being the typical Libra in the zodiac, it became more and more difficult to decide, which one I wanted to pursue.
In the end I wanted to give "Prepare for Takeoff" a more technical look and decided to keep all the different looks of Olympia to explore further in a piece on AsyncArt, where I plan to make all the variations available with their programmable art.
In Photoshop, I designed a background and a sort of frame, both with a more metallic appearance.
For the background, I combined a used steel material with a brushed metal effect and added the holes for the turbine like elements and the caution sign. These were to become visible with the sliding doors opening. Of course, I had to add some of my screws.
Next I created the turbines based on another drawing with machine parts I had.
The caution sign was designed in illustrator and then aged a bit in photoshop
With the photoshop file as a background, I designed the shape of the frame and the line art in Illustrator. There I also added my signature at the bottom left.
At this point I found the colors a bit too cold, and so I adjusted hue and blending options for a warmer feeling.
In a final step in photoshop, I put all the elements to be animated on their individual layers and then imported the file into aftereffects.
In Premiere I added the sounds and put it all together for the final video.
Finally, it was tokenized for my Makersplace store at https://makersplace.com/reinhardschmid/prepare-for-takeoff-1-of-1-63205/
The video "Prepare for Takeoff" can be seen
> here <
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❤
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Hole-e-shit! Forgive my offensiveness, I tried stopping me from cursing, I just wouldn't listen to myself. I'm just pretty sure this is the first time I've said that video clip is one of the coolest things I've seen here.
I see you took an extended break, I hope this means you'll be releasing more content. I encourage such behavior. Welcome back!
Cordial thanks for your strong and emotional compliment, definitely appreciate it!
As for taking a break, I just believe in quality over quantity. I will always be back, if I think I can add something of value to the platform 😎
Ohhhh so lovely to see you here (somehow I only saw you posting on Instagram, but here on hive I must have missed your posts). And it is always fascinating for me to see the process how you immerse yourself into the artwork, which decision leads to the next, how ideas and starting points (like the story of E.T.A. Hofmann) coagulate into an artwork which seems to be designed from one cast (aus einem Guss).
Amazing artwork <3
Oups, ich seh grad, dass da wohl eine Antwort irgendwo hängen geblieben ist :-/
Thanks a lot as always for your kind words. I don't post regularly, only when I think I have something new and hopefully interesting :-)
Excellent "behind the Paint Brush".
It's really enjoyable to see all the steps and reflexions that the creation of "Prepare for Takeoff" entailed. I find it fascinating and the result is impressive and engaging, we can see that it's not the result of luck but that Reinhard Schmid has a real knowledge of the medium and masters it 👏
Thank you so very much for your detailed comment and your kind words about my creative process. I love skill based art and hope I can spark other peoples interest with sharing such information.
The softness in this piece is really exquisite! I think the pink hair turned out really well. I also like the mechanical and biological feel combined together. The animation even added another dimension to the creative expression. Great job and thanks for sharing here in the community!
Ever since I read a scifi story involving cyborgs (back in the 1970s) I am fascinated by biomechanical combinations. Love bringing a static arwork to life by adding movement. Together with sound it "speaks" to even more senses :-)
Speaking to more than one sense only adds to the experience! I too love the biomechanical aspects in art and life. H.R. Giger was one of my favorite artists growing up and i also love scifi as well. Do you remember the name of your cyborg story from the 70's by chance? Great job once again! Looking forward to seeing more!
Always liked Giger too. Unfortunately I don't remember the story. It was in a collection of shorts stories, but just too long ago...
I had a feeling you would have mentioned it if you did remember! No worries. I am glad the inspiration stuck around all these years!
A wonderful master piece. I love the details and the break down here. The turbine detail itself is an artwork.
Thank you for your kind compliments. I love beauty and mechanics, and thererfore really enjoy drawing things like that turbine and play with it.
Oh my, oh my. I love the kitbashing that happened to that piece. It is great to see digital augmentation. It adds so much to the traditional piece.
Salute!
Thanks a lot, no kitbash though... all created from scratch!
This is what I mean, Kitbashing is when you create your own assets. It's used a lot in matte painting for concept art and storyboards for movies and stuff
Oh, than I am mistaken, sorry. Thought its like photobashing... use of preexisting parts... either way, thanks for stopping by and your kind words :-)
:))
Do you have the ideas for adding motion to the piece from the beginning, or it's acquired later on as you're working on it?
Its a combination of the two. Some ideas are already there from the beginnig and some develop as I work.
Wow. I love it.
Thanks a lot :-)
Awesome!
Great Job, I just Love-it!
👍🏼🤩🤩🤩👍🏼
Many thanks 🥂
Amazing! Love it! I hope I wasn't too lazy to learn photoshop! loool =D
Thank you :-) Photoshop was actually the easiest one... at least for what I use it ;-)
!LUV
Awesome, thanks a lot!
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