New Jerusalem – The Temple Mount

The Temple Mount or Mount Moriah or also known as The Nobel Sanctuary by Muslims is significant to Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is a place where great prophets had walked upon to bring just to the world. Yet bloody battles were fought just to win this piece of sacred ground. The conflict is still on-going and looks like it will be for thousand of years to come. It has gone through many transformations through out the centuries. It is impossible to imagine how it will look like in the third millennium.

In Palestine 3000 A.D. I visualize the Temple Mount is the only structure that survives the catastrophic war 500 years prior. What is left is al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock standing over a decayed ground. Some may disagree with my perspective  but it is a fiction that need not to be rationalized. It is just my expression. The Temple Mount will be used as a backdrop in the scene where the caravan of slaves enter New Jerusalem.

Backdrops are important in movies so as in graphic novels. It place the characters in a proper environment to add mood to the story. Blank backgrounds may be an easy and quick way to churn a graphic novel but it may end up like a newspaper cartoon strip. Palestine 3000 A.D. is not one of those.

For the backdrop of New Jerusalem I used a reference from a painting shown above by an artist David Roberts that was painted in 1839. I wanted a different view of the Temple Mount compared to what is commonly seen today. The southern view is the best angle to show al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock in close proximity. Though I have a 3D model of the Temple Mount from Google Earth but not all of my works use a 3d reference especially if there is no need for it.

This is a quick pencil sketch I did which I focused more on the decayed ground. I used many references from photos of cliffs and canyons for the rock texture while retaining the flow that I wanted. As for the building structures I make it more stylize to fit the whole design balance. The hole on the ground is meant to portray a screaming or a crying expression. It is a sign of my own displeasure against any kind of excavation works under the holy site.

The pencil sketch was then imported into Manga Studio EX to be traced over with blue lines. The perspective and rulers tools help to make perspective drawing much easier compared to the traditional method. The snap to the perspective and ruler tools though may sound digital but it still allow the artist to retain the traditional strokes. It really help when you are drawing with a Wacom tablet where accuracy can be difficult to achieve because you are not drawing directly on the screen unlike using the Cintiq.

The shadow areas were indicated on a different layer. But it is just a guide because I always do some changes when I render the real shadows. A mask area was added using the outline of the drawing. This was done to make it easier to insert a background on the bottom layer. This is not part of Manga Studio EX features but it is a practice of cel animators while working in a digital format for an easier composition.

The sky background was added using a previous work that I have done. With a bit of Photoshop filter it blends nicely with the foreground. Most of the sky backgrounds will be like this for Palestine 3000 A.D. It is dark and gloomy. It is a depressing environment that I hope I will never experience in my lifetime.The splatter brush stroke was added to add to the rage.

The final drawing is used for the Palestine 3000 A.D. blog header and also the header for the welcome page at Facebook. The layout will probably be different for the graphic novel. But the expressions that I have mention will still remain.

 

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The Making of a Hero

It has been a tradition for most figure artists to have some kind  of reference to draw figures. Either by using a real life model or a wooden mannequin like the one on the right. The tradition probably started during the early figure drawing classes. But tradition can be broken because it is still possible to draw a figure without using any references by understanding the principal of human anatomy. But if you want to breathe a personality into the figure then references are a must. Our imagination do have limitation in portraying reality. On the other hand a wooden mannequin do not have a real personality. It is good just for poses. It is a John or Jane Doe of the art world.

When I was writing the script for Palestine 3000 A.D. I have already build up the personality of each character in my mind. Personalities that I could describe verbally. But visually I was not so settled yet even though I have collected many references. Studios usually audition for models in this kind of situation where they can look at various angles and check out the posing skills of the models. For this project I need around 20 models. I certainly do not have a budget for that. Nobody is really interested to fund a project like this. It is not a fantasy story that entertains the everyday family. Palestine 3000 A.D. is a metaphor about a reality that most people like to look away. 

Wealth is not necessary about money. It is also can be of knowledge and experiences. My years of experience in 3D animation  is a big asset for me. All the CG tools are at my disposal. I can have all the models I want at no cost and they are available 24/7. But 3D models nowadays are too surrealistic. It is not the kind of character that you will see walking in downtown West Bank or Gaza. They are just great for a display on shops’ windows. To get into the reality I have to go to Palestine. The instant flight is by Google.

I was looking for a specific Palestinian boy. Not the one that is crying or the one that died or the one posing their smiles for the western journalists who want to show the world that everything is alright in Palestine. Out of the thousands photos I have browse through Google I found one that looks right. He was pointing a gun at the camera. He sure got my attention. But he was just posing because his finger was not on the trigger. He might be slightly older then the character I have in mind but CG technology can do wonders in making him look younger. Most of all I like his intensity. The young hero in Palestine 3000 A.D. may be a young kid but he is a strong boy. A tribute to all the brave children of Palestine. With the magic of Photoshop I removed the revolver that was partially covering his mouth. Brightened the shadows under his eyes and symmetrise his face. He is ready for the 3D world.

I am not going to model him from scratch. That procedure is time consuming especially when there are 19 more in line. The best choice is to use a face generator software. My favourite tool for many years for posing is Poser by Smith Micro which has a face generator module called the Face Room. The problem is it is not suitable for children faces and it looks so CG. The next choice is FaceGen  by Singular Inversion. I prefer FaceGen because the result is more natural. With the PhotoFit feature it makes modelling much easier. The procedure is to use a photo to shape the face. Once I got the basic feature then I tweak it to make it look younger. It has features to adjust the age of the model  or adjust the gender. But no matter young it gets the head proportion is not big as a child.

The problem with FaceGen is it generates only heads without the body. For a full body pose I need to export it to Poser. Trying to make those two to work together is like forcing a square peg into a round hole. Usually it needs a third software to smooth things out so that it fits well on the other end. I have to use my old and trusted software 3ds Max for this job. The head proportion was adjusted in Max and also the neck joint that is going to fit onto the Poser model.

With the help of Photoshop the texture was smoothen to make the boy look younger. The hair was then added in Poser just for reference purpose. Though it may not look exactly as the reference photo I am quite happy with the adjustments. The objective was not to make a replica of the actual boy in the photo but to make it look more to the boy I have in mind while retaining the intensity of the boy in the photo.

Around 31 head models were used to make the morph targets for the expression library. What it means in 3D jargon is I can make the model do facial expressions by mixing the morph targets which can be controlled by the dials in Poser. Each dial is created whenever a new morph target is added. I can always add a new morph target or expression in the future if there is a need. It may not be perfect but it is just for reference. The real reason to have a 3D model as a reference is because of the freedom to choose various camera angles and lighting. It enhances the mood in the story. In Palestine 3000 A.D. lighting is very crucial because of the noir style that I am opting.

The whole development took around one month. But I heard some people took 2 months to make it work properly. But that does not mean the next 19 models will take another 19 months. Once the procedure is perfected the rest will be painless. Most of the models will be used for many episodes to come. It is more productive in the long run.

The final stage is the drawing board. Not the traditional drawing board but the digital drawing board. This is the year 2010 and it is ethical to save trees that is to save paper. But the real reason behind it is to work in a digital domain where I can have more choices and flexibility. Mistakes can be undone at multiple levels and creative changes can be applied without dumping the whole thing. Yet the artist is not deprived of his traditional feel and procedures.

 Thanks to Photoshop for the layers concept. But the work below was not done in Photoshop. It was done on Manga Studio EX, another Smith Micro product. It is a software for doing comics but borrowed many of the Photoshop features and added all the comic tools. The blue lines drawing is for the lines indication while the red lines which is on a different layer is for the shadows indication. It feels very much like a pencil stroke but done using a Wacom tablet. The ‘paper’ can be rotated just like a compound light table for drawing better curve strokes.

This is the stage when I detached myself from the 3D domain and fully applied my expressions in a 2D  domain where pencil and ink can make most things possible without crunching numbers or cracking my head.

 Here is the quick inking that I have done. It is a mix of digital pen and pencil spread over various layers so that future changes can be done easily. I am still developing a style but it is quite close to what I have in mind.

  I prefer to make the good guys to look more human while the villains are more stylized or caricaturized so that we could connect easily with the good guys as humans. While the Zionist villains have more off-human features. People who acted inhumanely do not deserve human features. In Palestine 3000 A.D. I am the one that decides who is the hero. For the millions who wait the hero will surely come.

 

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