Yet another gap since my last entry – but this time I’ve been productive …honest!

I’m very excited to be involved with the illustration and design of the Shadow World Player Guides.

This is the roleplaying campaign setting created by Terry Amthor for ICE‘s Rolemaster ruleset. And by Campaign Setting, I am of course talking about an entire world!!!! Basically, think of the realm of Middle Earth, with all the different cultures, lore and history and then cube it. The Shadow World is not a one continent land, it consists of 14 continents in the western hemisphere alone!

The Player Guides, as the name suggests, are to help the Players better understand the world without requiring the Game’s Master to waste playing time describing the different elements to them including the basics of time keeping (hours, days, months, seasons, years etc), climate, geography, inhabitants, magic and gods etc. It will also include a lot of location images of the various lands and places of interest.

The first one released will be the World Guide but then there’ll be a lot of more specific info dealt with in the more Regional Guides to follow including local customs, history and lore, inhabitants and any ‘local gods/spirits’ common to these places.

Here’s a taste of some of the location shots planned on being used in the Guides…

The Emerald Forest in Emer

The Quon Jungle in Emer

One of Eidolon’s Sky Ships

The Aalk Athimurl, the fortress of the Dragon Lord in Jaiman

A Navigator’s Obelisk used to summon a Navigator

These were all created using Vue Complete, a 3D landscape application. For larger versions of some of these images, take a look at the 3D Sketchpad Gallery.

I’ve managed to update my gallery which now includes several NEW categories including 3D and Vector albums!

Here’s a taster of the 3D images created in Vue Complete…

The Vœrken Mire from the roleplaying campaign setting of the Shadow World

And 2 Avatar inspired images

Go to the Gallery for the full size versions!

A boring title, I know – but this is just updates so tough!

I’m working on a Shadow World Players Guide which will have a lot of Vue landscape renders as well as some drawings. As it’s still in progress, I can’t add any images here so I have a couple of other things to show.

A Vue render trying out a technique for ‘hyperterrains’ – the name given to the creation of the unusual shaped terrains which aren’t possible in the traditional terrain creation process.

An old-school Vector in Adobe Illustrator. Some subtle object blends but mostly a line work. Michelle is the woman featured and she has a gallery here.

That’s it for now.

I thought I’d let every one know about E-on Software’s Vue product line. Vue is a 3D landscape & animation program available for both PC & Mac and it produces stunning images.

They’ve made Vue Pioneer, the core program, available for FREE so it’s definitely something you’d need to checkout!

Here’s the full image I used in the banner ads for my site; just so you know what to expect. This was created in Vue Complete but only a couple of extra modules would have been needed on top of Vue Pioneer for this image.

As always, click that image for a larger version.

The different Vue Versions

To try and counter any confusion before you go to the E-on Software’s web site, Vue comes in 3 main versions. Starting from the top they are…

• Vue xStream – This is strictly for the pros and it gives them access to all of Vue’s modelling & animation tool directly in their high-end 3D programs (Maya, 3DS Max, Cinema 4D etc).
• Vue Infinite – This is the same as Vue xStream but it’s a standalone version that you can use without the need for a separate high-end 3D program.
• Vue Complete, Vue Pro Studio, Vue Esprit and Vue Pioneer – These are the same program at it’s core – Vue Pioneer – but with different amounts of modules installed on top of that. As the name suggests, Vue Complete has all the modules installed and Vue Pioneer has none.

That’s not to say that Vue Pioneer is no good, Vue Pioneer has many features that gives you access to the powerful 3D landscape modelling. When you’re ready to take the next step, you can purchase just the modules you need if you like – you don’t need to conform to the specific modules that’d take you to Vue Esprit or the Vue Pro Studio versions.

Some of my recent additions (as well as several to come) have used Vue and I’ll be including this banner below any of my posts that have used Vue.

What’s in it for me?

It’s true that I’m altruistic …to a point.
If you make any purchase on the Cornucopia3D web site for extra modules or 3D content within the first 30 days of visiting the site, my account will be credited 10%. After that, I see nothing.

Vue Pioneer is completely free and you needn’t purchase anything at all, which means I’d get nothing …but if you do, I’d certainly appreciate it.

Following from my previous post, here’s a scene later in the day. I love the colours in this one!

(Software – Vue Pro Studio 7)

As always, click that image for a larger version.

Why am I seeing this banner?

I’ve included this banner on all blog posts that have used a Vue product. Primarily Vue Complete.

This scene looks like a small island with a tall black pillar reaching into the sky, far beyond the clouds.

There’s a reason for that – and it’s a simple reason: It’s because it IS a large pillar towering above the clouds.

(Software – Vue Pro Studio 7)

This a location in the Shadow World which is a campaign setting produced by ICE for their Rolemaster rule-set (for both Rolemaster Classic [RMC] and Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying [RMFRP] which is my favourite) that’s known as The Pillar of the Gods.

Millions of years ago, a singularity passed through the core of the planet; the pillar standing here was the molten core sucked out as the singularity exited the planet and cooling in the atmosphere.

I just liked the idea of that and needed to create an image of the pillar disappearing through the clouds. I’m trying out variations of this as we speak and I’ll upload these as well once I’m happy.

The Shadow World was the idea of Terry Kevin Amthor who must be an amazing genius to come up with a whole planet, weaving intricate and detailed backgrounds for all the peoples. I thoroughly recommend the Shadow World setting to anyone who loves to roleplay. There’s plenty of information provided so you can create adventures and fortunately for me, who’s not so good in the story creation, there’s a large amount of pre-made adventures.

I have no doubt that my inspiration in the future will be owed to the Shadow World series which means more images from me.

As always, click that image for a larger version.

Why am I seeing this banner?

I’ve included this banner on all blog posts that have used a Vue product. Primarily Vue Complete.

It was doodle time tonight and the subject was trolls! I’ve got the roleplaying bug again which means exploring the characters & creatures around the fantasy lands – watching ’24′ was not reason enough to not doodle (although it did come close)!

Tonight’s doodles were mainly about trolls but there’s been many iterations of Orcs as well which I’ll upload as soon as I’m happy with the final result of them. I’m working out the different features and stature for the goblin type variations as well – goblins, hobgoblins, lesser and greater orcs.

In the following image, I’m heading towards the pot bellied, gorilla style stature and playing around with facial expressions, body hair and armour ideas.

Hopefully, I’ll be adding some digital paintings of trolls to the gallery in the near future as well.

Once again the Bic fine biro is the weapon of choice for the doodles – it doesn’t smudge as easily as pencil does – and it gets me concentrating on each line.

Click on the image for a larger view.

It’s that time of the month again – it’s ICE’s map contest! This time it’s a lair for Kobolds (a lesser goblin type creature).

I was going to enter the old-school hand drawn map that I uploaded here – old-school map but after I added a little bit of texture to it, I just had to carry on!

Here is the opening spread describing the tactics the kobold’s would use to defend their lair and a larger map view is below that.

And here’s a close up of the textures so you can see it at it’s actual size

This is the cover illustration used for the PDF depicting the nasty trap the Kobold’s have in store for unsuspecting adventurers!

Click those images for a larger version!

Finally, I’ve added an image gallery of some of my work!

Check it out – Craig’s Sketchpad Gallery

…and ironically, this post has no pictures.

I’ll also be adding a gallery at Craig John (the Blog) which will include more of the ‘design’ projects covering both web and print work but I’ll let you know when that happens.

After deciding to leave it as an old school style map, I couldn’t help myself and I had to colour it in and add some textures.

The story so far, the initial colour and textures have been added and now I need to colour in the other elements (the wood has just been started as a sold colour but needs more textures, highlights and shadows)…

And a close up of the textures.

As usual, click on the image for a larger version.