The Last Stronghold

Ronan · April 10, 2024, 4:33pm

The Last Stronghold

Hey guys!
The piece I worked last month on, for the Eternal Ascent community challenge, organized by Clint “pwnisher” Jones.

We had to create a 5sec animation based on a template of a character climbing stairs.

This piece was a tough one to put out as it came right after the Rokoko Intergalactic TV, so I was really running out of gas… But I am glad I managed to cross the finish line!

Template, Concept Art, Storyboard

Still Frames

I also did a small breakdown of the main steps of my process:

I used Blender for the most of process, with some texturing in Substance Painter and DaVinci for the post-process.

Assets used:
Imperial Guard by Egorushca
Dark Fantasy asset pack from Kitbash 3D
Medieval asset pack from Big, Medium, Small

If you want to see more, my Instagram is right below

bartv · April 12, 2024, 9:56am

I featured you on BlenderNation, have a great weekend!

Ronan · April 12, 2024, 6:02pm

Thanks a lot Bart! Hope you are doing good, wishing you a good weekend

BG_Division · April 13, 2024, 9:21am

This is insane, i think this is a fantastic art form. I watched a video with the top 100 contest entries, can’t stop watching it. I’d like to say that you and other artists did outstanding work.

Ronan · April 13, 2024, 4:07pm

Thanks a lot for your kind words! I really like the challenges, they are a great way to push yourself

Neige · April 18, 2024, 8:19pm

The lighting, especially the black/red are really good!

Ronan · April 20, 2024, 12:36pm

Thanks
The light setting is not the most complex!
The base is an HDRI that is heavily colored to give a global red tint, and bring some depth:

It is then completed with some upside down light coming from all the riffs, and a strong light from the right hand side to divide the stairs with an interesting light/shadow.

It is then finetuned with lights from the vitrails (you can also see a big blocker to shut down the light from the HDRI on the foreground)

And finally some rimlights for all the focus points (the bomb carrier, the tower itself, the cannons, and the second guy):

Hope it helps

Neige · April 20, 2024, 10:14pm

Wow, thanks for the behind the scene!