The Art of Denis Loubet

By Type:

• Cover Art
• Concept Art
• Interior Illustrations
• Animations
• Promotional
• 3D Graphics

By Company:

• Art I've done for myself
• DrawMyCharacter
• Origin Systems Inc.
• Steve Jackson Games
• Portalarium
• Daylight Productions
• Illusion Machines
• PixelMine Games
• Midnight Studios
• Genesis LPMud

• Wacom Graphics Tablets
  I got a Cintiq last year, and I haven't looked back since!
• Corel Painter 2015
  I use this program to create the raw art. Its imitation of traditional media is uncanny. I do my sketches and painting directly on the Cintiq.
• Adobe Photoshop CC
  I use this to finish my art. It's the best for color balancing, titling, and layering effects. The monthly fee helps you avoid the initial investment required by an outright purchase.
• AzPainter2 and AzDrawing
  Barely translated from the Japanese, these two small art programs pack a major punch, especially when you consider they're free! I've used AzPainter2 for inking because it has a line smoothing tool that helps prevent line wobble. That's something neither Painter nor Photoshop have.
• Sculptris
  Speaking of free, Sculptris is an awesome 3D modeling package that handles very much like clay.
• ZBrush 4R6
  What can I say, the ZRemesher feature alone is worth the price of admission in this amazing 3D software.
• 3D Studio Max
  My go-to software for 3D modeling, texturing, rigging, animating, and rendering.

The Daylight and Steve Jackson Games models were done with 3D Studio Max. This 3D software allows you to dwell on the model one triangular face at a time, and get each one exactly right.

Working on characters this low-poly is very Zen-like. Every polygon counts, and the challenge is making each silhouette as "readable" as possible. It forces you to go for a simple bold shape, which is the essence of good design. I think they have an austere beauty.

The Ogre models were not low poly! They were constructed to be 3D printed. Each panel edge was cut by hand into long inset polygons, and the surface of the model had to be one single continuous surface with nothing overlapping, and no holes. These restrictions proved to be a major headache! As exquisite as the printed versions were, the resolution of 3D printing at the time was not up to the task of making these look good. The layering was too obvious, and swamped the detail. I'd like to see high rez 3D printed versions now.

The Cashablanca heads are done at an extremely high poly count. Sculptris is a unique piece of 3D software that creates polygons on the fly as you model like it's clay. This prevents areas of high detail from "running out" of polygons.