ADOBE MAGAZINE FOR CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS

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digital imaging wonders new interactive spaces talent for good awakening the web
stunning art, Surprising techniques designing public spectacles 7 posters that provoke online originality from Uniqlock
 ADOBE MAGAZINE FOR CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS
1

The play of imagination can take an infinite variety of shapes. You 2

can see it in concept designer Scott Robertson’s otherworldly land- 3

scape illustrations. You can find it in the radical process behind archi- 4

tectural illustrator Robert Frank’s traditional work. Or in the detailed 5

complexity of George Gruel’s landscape lighting renderings. And it 6

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boldly presents itself in the hyperreal scientific images created by
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Nicole Ottawa and Oliver Meckes.
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These artists have styles all their own, and yet they’re bound by a
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common spirit of experimentation. They play with media, with pro-
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cess, with techniques, with art itself. And through this creative trial THE VISIONARY
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and error, they’ve each gained their share of artistic enlighten- According to Scott Robertson, the work of a concept designer is to
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ment—and digital imaging insight. “show the rest of us visions of places and things we’ve never seen
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before.” Robertson should know. Working with clients as esoteric
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as Kestrel bikes and as ubiquitous as Universal Studios, Robertson’s
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industrial and concept designs have been giving shape to imagination
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for over 17 years.
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Sometimes, the designs are a reflection of his own unbridled ideas.
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More often, they reflect a well-researched client need, as in the case
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of the collectible cards Robertson recently designed for the Swype-
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out Online Battle Racing game. The cards feature phantasmagoric
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racecars that swoosh across asphalt in ribbons of metallic color, as
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if they were plucked directly from a 9-year-old boy’s dreams. And, in
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fact, they were. Kids in focus groups were shown car designs with
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various proportions for wheelbase, overall body width and height.
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“They told us which cars were the coolest,” says Robertson, who
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used their opinions to shape his designs. Learn more about how he
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created the cars.
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Many of Robertson’s precise renderings start as loose marker sketches.
See the original image.
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But target audience approval and carefully detailed parameters are
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all part of the game—especially on industrial design projects, which
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often have strict engineering and functionality requirements. And
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within this melding of project limitations and conceptual possibilities,
Robertson often finds the sweet spot for his creativity. “When you
understand the parameters of a project, it frees you up,” he says.
“You know where you can push the boundaries.”

digital imaging wonders new interactive spaces talent for good awakening the web
stunning art, Surprising techniques designing public spectacles 7 posters that provoke online originality from Uniqlock
 ADOBE MAGAZINE FOR CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS
1

TRADITION AND TECHNOLOGY 2

Robertson’s industrial and concept designs look as much like objects of art as items of commerce. 3

His artistic expertise stems from a well-honed background in traditional media combined 4

with a skillful use of digital tools like Google SketchUp, Autodesk Maya, Wacom tablets, Modo, 5

and Adobe® Photoshop® CS3. 6

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Robertson typically starts with hand-drawn designs, which are all scanned into the computer and
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brought into Photoshop at some point during his process. The actual digital turning point depends
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on the medium. “Monochromatic renderings can sometimes be done just as fast with markers,”
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he says. “But when I’m doing color renderings, I go straight to Photoshop.” Once there, Robertson
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paints special effects into the renderings using a wide array of custom brushes. He also relies on
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Clipping Path Layers, which allow him to easily paint gradations, such as reflected light, on top of
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a shape. And while he relies on the technology to create precise renderings, his creative joy
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typically comes early in the design process, when he’s sketching on paper, with a trusty marker
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in hand. Learn how to create your own custom brushes.
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1234
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Race car renderings for Hot Wheels and Swypeout. 27

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“When you understand a 30

project’s parameters, it frees 31

you up. You know where you

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can push the boundaries.” 34

—Scott Robertson 35

1234

Race creatures for Alien Race, Robertson’s next Concept bike designed for Robertson’s
Design Studio Press book, available in July 2008. Concept Design 1 book.

digital imaging wonders new interactive spaces talent for good awakening the web
stunning art, Surprising techniques designing public spectacles 7 posters that provoke online originality from Uniqlock
 ADOBE MAGAZINE FOR CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS
1

THE POET SOPHISTICATION AND SUBTLETY 2

For architectural illustrator Robert Frank, every step of the process The trick is to get a traditional look while enjoying the benefits of an 3

is digital—even his earliest rough concepts. But you’d never know all-digital workflow. Frank’s secret? Custom styles in Adobe Photo- 4

it by looking at his work. His illustrations all feature a soft, painterly shop CS3. To create them, he draws textures by hand and paints on 5

style, as if they were created on canvas with watercolors. While watercolor paper. Then he scans this artwork into his computer and 6

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other illustrators use digital tools to create exacting, photorealistic brings it into the Photoshop CS3 Layer Styles dialog box, where it
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renderings, Frank uses technology to “convey the poetry and becomes the basis for his custom styles.
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atmosphere of each project.”
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Frank’s illustrations have a crisp, computerized look at first. They
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His style harkens back to the pre-digital days of architectural start as form•Z wireframes, with initial renderings and line drawings
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illustrations done in watercolor, charcoal, pen, and ink. When digital created in Adobe® Illustrator®. The shift backwards, from technol-
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rendering stormed the architectural world in the early 90s, this ogy to tradition, happens later in the process, when the illustrations
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hand-drawn style became almost as obsolete as the drafting table. are imported into Photoshop. Frank paints every element of his
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But even as paintbrushes were replaced by pixels, the old-guard rendering on a separate layer, uses the Photocopy and Smart Blur
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art forms retained their relevance. “I think people started to miss filters to make the line work less crisp, and then applies his custom
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the warmer look of traditional media,” says Frank. “And today, the styles to give the work a softer, watercolor look. “I can use the
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direction seems to be turning back to a hand-drawn style.” Gradient tools to create a perfect sky,” says Frank. “And then I can
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run it through one of my custom styles and it breaks it up a little; it
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gives it that imperfection.” Visit the Photoshop page on Adobe Bridge
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Home to find out more about his technique.
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And this is where the true artistry happens. “It’s all about experi-
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menting,” says Frank, who never uses the standard watercolor filter
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in his illustrations. “It looks canned,” he says. “But I can use the With an experimental combination of
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Texturizer with the Sandstone filter and create a hand-painted effect Photoshop CS3 filters and custom styles,
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that looks really natural. You have to go beyond the basic techniques.” Frank creates a hand-painted effect.
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“It’s all about experimenting. 32

You have to go beyond the basic 33

techniques.”
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12345
—Robert Frank
Frank’s illustrations have a crisp, computerized look at first. See what happens next.

digital imaging wonders new interactive spaces talent for good awakening the web
stunning art, Surprising techniques designing public spectacles 7 posters that provoke online originality from Uniqlock
 ADOBE MAGAZINE FOR CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS
1

THE REALIST 2

A background in traditional art also informs the work of landscape 3

lighting illustrator George Gruel. But in his industry, realism is king. 4

“We can’t sell clients something that won’t work,” says Gruel. 5

“I can make a front walkway look beautiful in Photoshop, but if it 6

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can’t realistically be lit that way, then no one’s happy.”
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“I can make a front walk-

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Staying true to this goal of visual accuracy requires a keen under-
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standing of the distinct effects of light on objects. And plants. “It’s all
about subtleties. It’s about understanding how light filters through a way look beautiful in 11

Magnolia with brown on the back of its leaves.” Such details can’t be Photoshop, but if it can’t 12

realistically be lit that way,

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rendered accurately in 3D CAD, the tool of choice for many in the
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landscape lighting industry. “CAD just looks fake,” says Gruel, who
uses Adobe Photoshop to create ultra-realistic nighttime lighting then no one’s happy.” 15

mock-ups from ordinary daytime photos. —George Gruel 16

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LIGHT AND LAYERS
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After removing any harsh shadows from the original image, Gruel lays
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a warm yellow photo filter over the image to replicate the slight yellow
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tint of incandescent light. He then creates a layer of black and lays it
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over the image to create the nighttime scene. From there, Gruel can
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mask individual landscape features in the image and use tools like the
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Channel Mixer and the Color Range selection tool to adjust contrast
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and paint the light, leaf by leaf if necessary. Learn more about Gruel’s
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technique.
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“Sometimes, to get it right, I’ll have more than 100 layers,” says Gruel.
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“I’ll have to add shadows that weren’t in the original image, or change
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shadows that were side-lit in daytime to show what they’re going to
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look like when they’re down-lit at night,” says Gruel. “The creativity of
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my work is in nuances like these. I paint with light.”
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Gruel meticulously paints his nighttime landscape scenes in Photoshop.

See the original image.

digital imaging wonders new interactive spaces talent for good awakening the web
stunning art, Surprising techniques designing public spectacles 7 posters that provoke online originality from Uniqlock
 ADOBE MAGAZINE FOR CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS
1

COMPOSITION AND COLORING Images from Science 2008: Call for Entries 2

The creative process starts before Meckes and Ottawa even put the Science and art come together in this 3

specimen in the Scanning Electron Microscope. “We adjust the international juried photography show, 4

specimen’s parts with forceps and use hairs to move the objects on a sponsored by The School of Photographic 5

specimen holder,” says Meckes, who works like a stylist to “arrange Arts & Sciences at the Rochester Institute 6

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the whole scene in microscale.” of Technology and Adobe. Submit
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scientific images from oceanography, ge-
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After a specimen has been carefully prepared, it’s placed into the ology, biology, engineering, medicine,
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Scanning Electron Microscope, where it can be observed, rotated and physics, or other related disciplines
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magnified up to 50,000 times its original size. From here, finding the before February 28, 2008. Find out more.
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right object view—or composition—is a meticulous process. “Often,
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we search for half a day to find the right angle,” says Meckes.
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Once the scan has been made, Meckes and Ottawa transfer the image
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data to their computer and import it into Photoshop, where the digital
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“Pelargonia”: A surprising—and much closer— coloring process begins. Meckes and Ottawa paint each element of the
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look at a Geranium leaf. image on a separate Alpha Channel, with some pictures needing up to
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12 channels. After coloring the different alphas in the first scan, they
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“Nature itself is art.” composite two more scans of the same object as Photoshop Layers to
create a single image with a “great impression of depth.”
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—Oliver Meckes 22

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“We use color as a creative and harmonious tool to achieve beauty,”
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says Ottawa. The duo stays true to the specimen’s original colors—
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when possible. Some bacterias are smaller than a wavelength of light,
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which means they have no color information. “With these specimens,
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THE HYPERREALISTS we are free,” says Ottawa, who uses established scientific color
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For Eye of Science duo Oliver Meckes and Nicole Ottawa, digital codes—and a touch of artistic license—to make color choices. “We try
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imaging isn’t about illustrating an alternate reality. It’s about revealing to find the right balance between scientific investigation and artistic
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a hidden one. With Ottawa’s training as a biologist and Meckes’ experi- beauty in all of our work,” says Ottawa. “Because digital imaging
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ence as a photographer, Eye of Science creates images that explore should always tell the truth.”
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everything from bacteria to botany—all while showcasing the intrinsic
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beauty of “the world beyond human vision.”
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Kimberly Grob is the editor of Adobe Magazine. “Trichia dec. var. olivacea”: A new perspective on
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In this world, a verdant, prickly hillside is actually a Geranium leaf. mold—slime mold fruiting bodies, to be exact.
And a sci-fi alien landscape is a close-up view of slime mold. “When
we put specimens under the Scanning Electron Microscope, we
discover amazing structures,” says Meckes. “Nature itself is art.” comment on this story

digital imaging wonders new interactive spaces talent for good awakening the web
stunning art, Surprising techniques designing public spectacles 7 posters that provoke online originality from Uniqlock
 ADOBE MAGAZINE FOR CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS
1

ONE
ART AND IMAGING IN A 3D WORLD 2

S D 3

IT ’ How do you create the world’s coolest collectible racecar cards?

For Scott Robertson, it started by getting inside the automotive mind
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W of the pre-teen boy. From there, the big kids started revving their en- 6

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gines—and building 3D photographic illustrations that nearly zoom
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off the cardboard.
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HERE’S HOW THEY DID IT:
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1. Conducted focus group research. We showed kids cars in different
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shapes and proportions,” says Robertson. “And we watched for the
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ones that they kept coming back to.”
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2. Made a chassis in SketchUp. Made a 3D model of the wheels and
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frame proportions. Printed an image of the chassis.
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3. Did line drawings by hand over the SketchUp chassis. Scanned
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line drawings and added values to show the transitional forms.
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4. Built 3D models in Maya. The drawings were then sent to Fuel
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Industries, a Canadian game development company, where they
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were imported into Maya. The Maya 3D model of the car was then
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built directly over Robertson’s drawing.
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5. Prestaged the 3D illustration. Fuel Industries sent turntable
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animations of each model back to Robertson’s studio for approval of
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the final design. The collectible card illustrations were prestaged in
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Maya or Modo to establish each illustration’s composition, general
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lighting, and color—as well as its specific game functions and
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weapons.
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6. Output the 3D color rendering to Adobe Photoshop. Lighting
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effects, weapons, wheel spins, and blurring techniques were all
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painted by hand in Photoshop using a variety of custom brushes
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10 Simple Photoshop Secrets created to easily indicate visual effects such as smoke and flames.
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The artists in this story share even more 7. Composite backgrounds in Photoshop. 2D backgrounds were
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tips and tricks on the Photoshop page of Adobe painted and composited into the final renderings using Photoshop.
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Bridge Home, accessible from any
Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 application. 123 “This project was really fun at the end,” says Robertson. “We got to
be photographers in a 3D world.”

digital imaging wonders new interactive spaces talent for good awakening the web
stunning art, Surprising techniques designing public spectacles 7 posters that provoke online originality from Uniqlock