Making the Cheddar Warrior
Building this scene took up most of my spare time over three months. The reason why it took so long was because I created everything from scratch (Normally I use bits of models and scenery that I'd done before). Here's what was involved in making this image.

 



The final scene, shown here, involved a whole lot of tricks to create everything from the fur on the rodents to the lighting and reflections on the water.


 

This image was my entry in The Journey Begins 3D Challenge held at the CG Society. People entering the competition had to show some small creatures or people embarking on a great journey.

Click here to read my story about why a rat and a mouse are pushing a boat out to sea.

I modelled and rendered this scene in Cinema 4D, and then finished it off using Photoshop. Part of the reason why this project was fun was because I got to play with a lot of stuff that 3D artists enjoy: things with geeky names like depth of field, sub-surface scattering, sub-poly displacement and density maps.

But rather than lose myself in 3D jargon, I'll explain in plain English some of the steps I used to make this picture.

 

The foreground leaves
Those blurred leaves in front, at the top of the picture, were modeled and rendered in a 3D program, just like everything else. MORE...
The background tree
Because of the incredible complexity of the natural world you need to use some time-saving tricks when you create a tree. MORE...

Building a mouse
That little guy helping to push the boat into water took plenty of work too. MORE...
The hairy bits
If you want to make a realistic mouse, then you're going to have to do realistic fur. MORE...

The cheesy bits
I just couldn't get the cheese to look right. Then I remembered this thing call sub-surface scattering. MORE...
The hazy bits
3D programs often give you the option for sophisticated methods of creating fog and hazy atmospheric effects. But this way was faster to set up. MORE...

Looking into the water
Water is strange stuff. It's reflective, transparent, refractive, colourless and a whole lot more. So how do you manage that in 3D if you've got limited time? You cheat. MORE...
Sticking it all together
Compositing is sticking different bits of a picture, layered on top of each other, to make up a whole scene. Of course, I used compositing here too. MORE...

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