Making the Cheddar Warrior - the foreground leaves
I wanted to give the impression that you were catching a glimpse of the scene through a foreground of gum leaves. To get the right effect the gum leaves needed to be out of focus, just like they would in a photograph, and the sunlight would be shining through them, making them look like they were softly glowing.


Modelling the branch
The branch was modelled in Cinema 4D. The resulting object can be rotated to any angle inside in the computer


Sprouting leaves
Gum leaves tend to curve down to make a distinctive shape. Here I've modelled a leaf, and then duplicated it a few times.


Rendering the leaves
Here's the branch of leaves after the computer has rendered it. It's starting to look realistic now. In the next step I'm going to start degrading the image in order to make it look even more realistic


SSS
SSS stands for 'sub-surface scattering'. What does that mean? It means the effect of light hitting an object from behind and scattering through the object beneath its surface.

Sub-surface scattering is what gives things like human skin and many other things their 'inner glow'.

To make it look like the light is illuminating these leaves I've enhanced the colours in Photoshop


Degrading it further
It seems strange, to go to all the effort of creating a nice 3D picture of some leaves, and then to blur it so much you have trouble recognising it. But that's what I've done here. This branch is now ready to add to the scene.

Making the Cheddar Warrior
The background tree
Making a mouse
The hairy bits
The cheesy bits
The hazy bits
Looking through the water
Sticking it all together

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