#Unless it's artistic license on the part of the painters

[indifferent-century]

James Clark Ross // Rings Worn in Portraits

[muthur9000]

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As part of our creatives series, Wayne Haag answers some questions on Science fiction and fantasy, also giving us some insight into his work.

Clara Fei-Fei: My first encounter with your work was for The Fifth Element (which I LOVE). I always wondered what sort of design requirements did you have to meet for the movie? Did you speak to Luc Besson about what he wanted?

Wayne Haag: As a matte painter I didn’t have to meet any design requirements, that was all taken care of by the concept designers.. who were Jean-Claude Mézières and Moebius, among others. I just had to paint to their designs. Within the scope of the matte painting itself, there are mini design problems or choices and those I discussed with my supervisors and Luc a few times for the various matte painting shots I worked on.

CF: What’s your favourite Scifi movie? 

WH: Alien with Empire Strikes Back a very very close second. I know Star Wars isn’t strictly science fiction, more fantasy but for me, it’s about a sense of wonder and they both have it. I still have every Marvel Star Wars comic btw.

CF: Wow awesome! And who is your favourite character from any Scifi movie/comic/game?

Favourite character… I don’t have a favourite actually… If pushed I’d have to say Luke Skywalker, he’s the archetypal hero we all relate to.

CF: If you could enhance your body using robotics, what abilities would you choose?

WH: Eyes… Mine are going! Visibility into a much larger part of the EM spectrum – IR, UV, X-ray etc, zoom capability, heads-up display – data overlay, distance measurement, image capture…

CF: What inspired you to pursue work in concept art? For anyone wanting to pursue the same line of work, where do you suggest they start?

WH: I had always wanted to be an artist, always wanted to make images. It was never an option to not be an artist. This has encompassed professional photography, matte painting, illustration for publishing, concept art, mural painting, oil painting. Start drawing and painting, nothing more to it than that. Learn what you need to be a competent illustrator and the rest will follow.

CF: Could you give me an idea of what it’s like during production? What sort of guidelines you are given and what’s your average turn around time for the work you have done?

WH: That’s a large question. Every production is different, the vibe is different, some are relaxed some are stressful. It’s why I prefer to work from home mostly. Gigs like Alien you have to be there every day in house which is fine, can’t be a hermit all the time! Guidelines are simple – make this scene/shot look awesome – There’s the script, here’s the director’s brief now paint something that fulfils that brief. Don’t care how you do it, just get there.

Turn around time can vary from several (6 to 8) quick paintings in an afternoon to an evolving painting over several weeks. Not continuous of course, but bigger paintings I might have 3 or 4 days, it may sit around for a bit when you finally get feedback and you jump back onto that painting and off it goes into the cycle again. Some finish quickly and get approved just as quickly and you never see it again. Some hang around like bad smells!

CF: What is your favourite piece you ever created?

WH: One of my oil paintings, titled Sky Burial #2. It encapsulated everything I love about sci-fi, sense of wonder, mystery, story, history, spaceship wrecks, the desert.

SKY BURIAL #2

CF: What variant of the Xenomorph is your favourite? 

WH: The original.. because you didn’t see much of it. It was the implied cold-blooded violence that was scary, not so much the beast itself – which was scary as hell in its own right, I just preferred the implicit horror.

CF: I really loved Daniels cabin in the Covenant, what work did you do on that?

WH: The design for Daniel’s cabin evolved quite a lot for many months. A couple of concept artists had started the process, set designers etc, all working towards the final. My contribution was to bring the design language in from the other interior sets Steve Burg had designed and made it feel more modular like you would find on a ship. Then it was a matter of painting a couple of frames that illustrated the lighting and mood, which is my main area of interest.

  Daniels Cabin on the Covenant

White Room

CF: I read that the white room is inspired by 2001, what aspects of the movie did you consider when creating this set?

WH: Firstly, no one concept artists create ‘the set’, it really is an army of people that have some contribution at some point along the way, from top to bottom. The overall layout was inspired by a physical location in Sydney that they wanted to use but could not, so the decision was made to build the set at Fox. I had plans for the location and built that in 3D to scale. Then as I mentioned above, I paint the scene up for lighting, mood and composition, ie. camera position and lens choice. (which was used by Ridley on the day of the shoot).

No references to 2001 were used, not by me anyway. I approach each painting/set as a real place and try to work out how I would shoot it if I were really there, what kind of lighting situation, time of day, weather, season etc etc. Unless the director specifically references another movie, I go with my own references and ideas that I think to fulfil the script/story.

  Before

After

CF: What work did you do on the mothership in The Crossing and Alien: Covenant? What other aspects of the engineer city did you work on?

WH: I didn’t do any design work on the Mother Juggernaut, that was all Steve Messing. As we all have access to the 3D resources, I used the model he built simply as a prop within the greater scene. Again, setting up composition, lighting, mood. Although I did build the city and surrounds in 3D as one big model to scale so that everyone could see how shots would look if you were standing in the plaza. The 3D allows me to place human figures in the correct relative scale to a known real-world camera and the renders provide a basis with which to paint on.

My model of the plaza was based on Steve Messing’s original plaza layout. As the set designers finalised buildings and sets, I would incorporate them into my huge Maya file, kind of like a master file. Then I’d place 3D cameras around matching pov’s Ridley wanted.

Like all film designs, they grow, evolve and change. The final city you see in the film is quite a bit different from the city I built, so the VFX guys had further developed the city layout as per Ridley’s ongoing massaging.

  Image converted using ifftoany

Image converted using ifftoany

CF: What was the inspiration for the shower scene?

WH: T&A as far as I can tell…

CF: (lol)

CF: Do you have a list of the art pieces you infused into the movie?

WH: Not really, when you’re working on a film you don’t have time to immerse yourself in the art references and meaning, least I don’t anyway. All art choices are Ridley’s, I just create the scene as if it were really there and I shot it with a camera. The decision to not use the Francis Bacon triptych in the white room was solely due to licensing costs, nothing more than that. The Bacon estate wanted too much money. The Bugatti chair was also a licensed design and the prop was to be destroyed in front of lawyers once shooting wrapped.

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CF: What pieces of yours made it the final film? Was there anything that didn’t?

WH: What pieces had an influence you should ask, concept art never makes it into the film per se, it is a tool for solving creative visual, technical, financial problems. How will this set look? How big will it be? How much VFX will be needed for that shot, how will the DP light the set etc?

It’s an internal document that hopefully answers the director’s, art director’s and production designer’s questions. If not, try something else, or remove things from the artwork. For example, I had two statues out front of the Cathedral and was asked to remove them from the piece. If that artwork had been disseminated throughout the production, someone may have assumed those statues were to be made and start spending money making them!

There are several paintings I did that you can see as shots in the film, they aren’t exact, but the overall compositions had been faithfully translated.

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CF: What would you say has been your favourite project to work on?

WH: Fifth Element, The Wolverine, Alien Covenant, three best projects of my career.

CF: What is it like working on a large scale production such as Alien compared to smaller scale ones?

WH: Depends on who you’re working with and answering to directly, i.e. production designer. Some large-scale projects are overly corporate and anal, smaller ones are creatively easy going. It can also be the reverse too! Alien was super creative, very easy going (hard work, long hours but no BS!). Great people all around. Some tv commercial gigs can be a giant PITA, some smaller directors can sometimes want to prove themselves by having too much attitude and want to override your ideas, big directors like Ridley don’t have those insecurities and are therefore great to work with.

CF: Congratulations on winning the award for your work on Alien: Covenant.

WH: Thank you!

CF: Is there anything you are working on currently?

WH: I just finished working on a pitch project for Pixar and as I write this, doing concepts for a Chinese comedy film shot here in Australia.

CF: In future what sort of opportunities would you like to be involved in?

WH: Well I currently work freelance, for the most part, I teach part-time (at Production Art Department PAD http://www.productionartdepartment.com ), I’m starting to put out video tutorials of how to paint etc and I need to get my arse into gear and get back to oil painting my own project. As far as the future is concerned, I’d like more time to paint my own work.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions, I look forward to having you on Yutani Podcast soon.

  Creatives: Wayne Haag As part of our creatives series, Wayne Haag answers some questions on Science fiction and fantasy, also giving us some insight into his work.

[davidcampiti]

GLASS HOUSE GRAPHICS SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Any artist, inker, letterer, colorist, or painter submitting work to Glass House Graphics, a reminder what we need:

* NO LINKS -- I have no time to wade through your depository of sketches or images unrelated to the work you want me to see.

* INSTEAD -- Send to us a .pdf of your work (with your name on the file). Or send to me .jpgs with your name as part of every file name. For example: 1.jpg or Art.jpg or Hulk.jpg tells me nothing, and I won't be able to find your sample on my computer later. But something like BillyOlsonHulkPencilSamples1of6.jpg tells me the artist's name, the project, what services he's showing, whether or not the pages are published, which page it is, and how many pages are in the sequence. All helpful information.

* ART -- if you're looking for work as a comics artist, submit sequential (panel-to-panel) storytelling pages of recognizable characters. Our website (http://www.glasshousegraphics.com/index.php/submissions/tryout-samples) has plenty of sample scripts if you need them. I only need six to 10 pages to show me how well you handle storytelling, faces, body language/character performance, etc. Only send a couple of cover-type illustrations. NO pinups, no sketches.

* INKS -- Inking jobs are tough to get unless you do exemplary work, because so many books are drawn digitally or pencils are finessed in Photoshop. Show copies of the pencils you inked for comparison, and send large enough samples that we can study your line work.

* LETTERING -- The better job you do making the work look organic, from balloon shapes to spacing/kerning, logos, SFX, etc., the better. Bad computer lettering won't get you anywhere.

* COLORING/PAINTING -- Show sequentials. Only show me covers if you're a magnificent cover painter.

* ALSO -- Don't pester me. You don't need to follow up on Messenger asking me if I've looked at it yet. How will you know I've reviewed it? I've written back to you. It may be that I've looked at it and want feedback from my managers or even a client whose views I trust....and those responses take time.  When I do respond, don't abuse my time with 20 emails of questions asking me what I mean by "You work is not at a level I can sell to my clients." If your work was close enough or I thought I could coach you, I'd have said that. If I ask you if you have any other styles, that's exactly what I mean: Do you have any other styles? Some artists work in multiple styles, some more sellable to contemporary clients than others. Some can even draw cartoony licensing work on-model, which can be quite lucrative.

Ultimately, understand that I don't HAVE to review your work. EVER. Particularly if you're not 100% ready to get jobs right now. I've coached and guided thousands of artists in my long history in comics, and I've done it because I want to help artists be the best they can be. But I only have so much time per day to do reviews, because I have a company to run and a full roster of artists whose livelihoods are depending on me.

Of course, if you want to HIRE me to give you that much attention and to teach you one-on-one, I can do that, too.

[snarkysim]

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Legacy

A modified Differences in the Family Tree challenge.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Legacy (MBDTL) is a challenge for The Sims 4. It’s named after Kanye West’s 2010 album of almost the same name (please don’t sue me). There’s no deep reason for this; I was just trying to look for quotes to match each generation’s theme and I came across one of Kanye’s lyrics that perfectly encapsulated the Performer/Musician generation. “I am God’s vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.” That inspired me to use more of Kanye’s amusing quotes -- sometimes brilliant, and sometimes head-scratching -- for all 15(!) generations. Don’t worry. You can always play a condensed version of this challenge if the thought of 15 generations makes you sweat. Like the original DITFT legacy challenge, there are a number of objectives. I’ve incorporated a number of objectives from the original challenge, but I’ve come up with tons of new ones! Everything from skills, careers, and aspirations down to midlife crises and Sunday dinner traditions. If you’re curious, click below the cut and prepare yourself for the longest text post of your life.

BASIC CONCEPT

The full version of this legacy challenge can be played for a full 15 generations. Each generation has a theme with its matching career(s), aspiration(s), objectives, and Kanye West quote. In the original form of the challenge created by ArrowLeaf, generations were completed in a specified order, which is still totally fine. However, generations can also be played in random order, and it’ll be up to you to make sense of it for your game/story. To determine the theme and corresponding objectives for each generation, use Google’s random number generator. Or just google ‘random number generator’ and it’s the first thing that pops up under the search field. Allow it to randomly select a number between 1 and 15. The first number generated will correspond to the type of generation played for the legacy founder. Once the founder has a child, the player may randomly generate the next number in order to start preparing for the next generation’s objectives. If the same number is generated within a legacy, the player may choose to use the consecutive number or roll again. 

The condensed version of the challenge can either be played as a 10-legacy or 5-legacy challenge (for those of us with less success completing legacy-style gameplay). Similar to the full version, it can be played in order, starting at any point on the list, or through the random generation of numbers. 

 NOMADIC GAMEPLAY OR CLASSIC LEGACY CHALLENGE RULES 

Once a theme is chosen for the first generation, create a character and move them into whatever lot or pre-built house you want as long as there are no money cheats involved. There are optional objectives that will make this choice more favourable to the challenge. 

 You may also choose to play according to classic Legacy Challenge rules, where you choose the largest lot in the the chosen neighbourhood and purchase the Knight of Octagon table decoration costing $8200 and place it in the family inventory. If you are choosing a 64x64 lot, you can buy two Points of Enmity for $2100 and one Von-Windenburg’s Trap for $2000. Place those three items in the family inventory. Either way, the challenge must begin with the sim having $1800. 

 RULES (ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN)

Have fun and don’t take anything too seriously, including these rules. No money, mood, motive, or skills cheats. Story progression mods are allowed, but nothing that gives your household an advantage over any other sim in its community. 

Life span set to normal 

Randomly generated traits for heirs unless there is a specified trait they must have for their generation. Use a random trait and aspiration generator for this one. 

 Randomly generated traits and aspirations for known non-heirs. If you’re unsure about which of the children will be heir, you can choose the traits up until they become teens. 

 Choose the heir by any means you want (e.g., random, firstborn, matriarchy, popular vote, etc.) Try to stick to one succession law for the entire legacy. 

Spouses can have jobs and teens can have part-time jobs. 

 When moving sims into the family, you may not keep any funds they bring in with them 

The next generation starts when the heir chosen hits YA. At this point, other family members, including parents, can be moved out; or the heir can move and get a place of their own. If the heir moves to a different lot, he/she cannot take any family funds with them. 

 If you are keeping the legacy within the largest lot in the neighbourhood, the family must stay and build on that lot throughout the legacy. 

THE GENERATIONS:

 GENERATION ONE - THE CREATOR 

“If I were to write my title like going through the airport and you have to put down what you do? I would literally write ‘creative genius’ except for two reasons: Sometimes it takes too long to write that and sometimes I spell the word ‘genius’ wrong. The irony.” 

You begin with a blank slate. Weave together the origin story of your legacy by stringing words along the page, or brushing paints across the canvas. You’re not starting out with much in your pocket, but that’s okay, because there’s never been a time in history when it’s been this cool to be a poor, hungry hipster. 

 OBJECTIVES: 

Have and complete a Creative Aspiration 

Master the writing and/or painting skill 

If the sim chooses to be a writer, join the Author career branch and reach level 10 

If the sim chooses to be an artist, join the Artist career branch and reach level 10 

Write at least 10 books and/or paint at least 5 masterpieces 

Keep at least 5 books in your household’s bookshelves and/or display at least 5 paintings in your house 

Marry, woohoo, have at least two kids 

Go to an Arts Centre, Museum, or Library once a week 

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Get 10,000 in book royalties 

Sell 10,000 in paintings 

Be good friends with all members of the immediate family 

Influence at least one child/teen to reach level 5 in painting and/or writing skill before they age up to YA 

Complete two murals 

Decorate an entire wall of your house with a collage of original paintings 

Write at least one book of each genre/type

Provide original titles to all of your books 

If your sim is experiencing an extreme emotion while in the household lot, they must start an emotional painting or start a book in the specialized genre 

Build a painter’s studio or a writer’s office on your lot 

GENERATION TWO - THE PERFORMER 

“I am God’s vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.” 

Self-expression has been deeply ingrained in your psyche since the moment you came clawing out into this world, screaming death metal out of the womb. It’s pushed you into pursuing a musical dream that has yet to be explored. You’re not exactly sure about the fame and notoriety, but you’d sacrifice your privacy for a chance to play your song. 

 OBJECTIVES: 

Have and complete a Creative Aspiration 

Master at least two from the following list of skills: piano, guitar, violin, and/or singing 

Get to the top of the Entertainer career in the Musician branch 

Have at least three kids 

Get married to someone with a music lover or creative trait 

Learn all songs 

License at least two songs 

Go to a karaoke bar at least once a week 

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Play for tips at all community lots 

Attend and win three karaoke contests 

Serenade other sims or lull other sims at least once a week 

If the sim needs a shower and the current mood is either happy or confident, the sim must select ‘sing in shower’ 

 Influence at least one child/teen to play an instrument and have that child reach level 5 by the time they age up to YA 

Change your sim’s hair colour halfway into young adulthood; you may switch it back when they age up 

Get a tattoo before becoming an adult 

Have an affair with a groupie (or a stranger who just watched you perform) 

Have a child out of wedlock 

Build a music studio with one of each type of instrument in the room 

GENERATION THREE - THE STAY-AT-HOME PARENT 

“I’ve known my mom since I was zero years old. She is quite dope.” 

You’ve always wanted more stability in your life. Some would even criticize you for craving the normalcy of a nuclear family standing on a freshly mowed lawn surrounded by a white picket fence. It might be eerily traditional, but you swear it’s only because you’ve always fancied that slower pace. 

 OBJECTIVES: 

Have and complete the Super Parent, Successful Lineage, Happy Family, or Soulmate aspiration 

You must be a stay-at-home parent but you may make money at home by gardening, painting, hacking, etc. 

Try for twins until you win, or until your household has reached max capacity. If you have a mod that allows more than eight sims in a household, then you’re SOL. 

Read a story to children at least once a week 

Attend at least two children’s weddings (you may switch household in order to achieve this) 

All children and teens must have straight As before aging up No maids or butlers No divorce 

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Marry your highschool sweetheart 

Have at least five kids of your own Help kids with homework every night and assist with every kid’s school project 

Adopt at least one child 

Complete at least one parenting interaction with each child everyday until they age up to YA 

Have every child complete a child aspiration before becoming a teen 

Have every child earn at least two positive character values when aging up to YA 

Throw every child a birthday party 

 Make a sacked lunch for each child every Monday 

Have Sunday dinners with each member of the household in attendance and seated around the same dining table

GENERATION FOUR - THE ONE-PERCENT 

“If everything I did failed - which it doesn’t, it actually succeeds - just the fact that I’m willing to fail is an inspiration.” 

You know what you want and you already have plan A, B, and C on how to get what you want. You’re always rushing forward with your eyes focused on accomplishing your goals. Ambition is the first step to success and you need to act fast if you want to destroy your competition and make it to the top of the ladder. 

OBJECTIVES: 

Have and complete the Fabulously Wealthy, Mansion Baron, City Native or Renaissance Sim aspiration 

Get to level 10 in the Business and/or Politics career 

Max the charisma skill 

Max the logic skill 

Earn over 50,000 in family funds 

Get married and throw a big wedding with more than 10 guests, a caterer, mixologist, and entertainer 

Have at least one child 

Move to San Myshuno on your own and live in an apartment that needs TLC until you save enough for a nicer place; then move back into your old home when one of your parents die in order to take care of the survivor. OR Stay in your current lot and renovate the entire house or build a new extension. 

 OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Donate to charity every Wednesday and then update your social media status 

As an adult, volunteer with your family every Saturday. When you return, upload an image to social media 

Become enemies with your parent(s), particularly the previous heir, before entering your career 

Attend every festival you can unless you are at work or engaged in a social event. 

Meet at least four new people while on the festival grounds 

Successfully ask for a small loan or a donation of 1000 from a sim you just met 

Purchase a gift worth more than 500 for your children when it’s their birthdays 

Have 10 good friends 

 Have one rival from your workplace 

 Send flirty texts to someone who isn’t your spouse 

Have a midlife crisis during adulthood and either buy $20,000 worth of decorative objects and/or electronics, or have an affair with a sim younger than your spouse 

GENERATION FIVE - THE REBEL 

“The plan was to drink until the pain is over. But what’s worse, the pain or hangover?” 

Sticking it to the man has been your motto throughout childhood. You’re the true definition of chaotic neutral, representing the freedom from society’s norms and the do-gooder’s expectations. So what if you’re in a club on a Thursday? You’re only here for your girl’s birthday.

 OBJECTIVES:

Have and complete the Serial Romantic, Master Mixologist, Friend of the World, Leader of the Pack, or Party Animal aspiration 

Join the Mixologist branch of the Culinary career 

Have the noncommittal trait 

Kiss six sims 

Be the boyfriend/girlfriend to two sims then break their hearts (you can be married to one and be dating the other) 

Get married and have kid(s) 

Kill or divorce the first spouse, then get married and have kid(s) 

Throw a party (in any location) at least once a week 

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Get at least one tattoo 

Host a gold-rated house party 

Have a gold-rated date 

Go on at least 10 dates 

Public woohoo at least two times with two different sims 

Max the DJ mixing skill 

DJ at a nightclub or party on a community lot once a week 

Max the Dance skill and win three dance battles 

Accept any invitations to a nightclub or party unless it conflicts with work 

Create a club of fellow noncommittal sims and meet at least once a week at a location with a bed and a hot tub 

GENERATION SIX - THE SODBUSTER 

 “Being fresh is more important than having money.” 

 A life of vice is not for you. You’ve seen what it can do to the body, so you’ve decided to return back to the simple purity of the earth. There’s an honesty and organicness in having your hands digging in the dirt, growing food that nourishes the bowels and the soul. 

 OBJECTIVES: 

Have and complete a Nature aspiration 

 Grow a starter garden using the starter packets from the store 

Grow a garden with Blue Bells, Chrysanthemum, Daisy, Apple, grapes, Plantain, Basil, Parsley, Carrot, Mushroom, and Spinach 

Get married, but no woohoo before marriage 

Have a boy and a girl, and keep trying until you do 

Max the gardening skill 

Max the herbalism and/or fishing skill 

No gardeners 

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Complete at least one collection 

Have and maintain a bonsai tree 

Obtain and plant every type of plant 

Grow a cow plant 

Make a death flower 

Go camping in Granite Falls at least once, or go camping in your own backyard during the weekends 

Brew a herbalism concoction while on vacation at Granite Falls 

Marry a sim with the “Loves Outdoors” trait 

Unlock Sylvan Glade and the Forgotten Grotto 

Care for community lot gardens at least once a week 

GENERATION SEVEN - THE FOODIE 

 “What she order? Fish filet.” 

 Your senses are keenly attuned sights, smells, and tastes of fresh ingredients; but your passion burns in the kitchen. You might have a refined palate, but you’ll need to work on those knife skills if you want to get at the same level as the screaming chefs on TV. 

 OBJECTIVES: 

Have and complete the Master Chef aspiration 

Join the Chef branch of the Culinary career and/or open up a restaurant 

Reach level 10 as a chef and/or reach five-star restaurant ratings 

Max cooking skill 

Max gourmet cooking skill 

Always attend the Spice Festival, unless the sim is at work or already at another social event 

Receive the Chopsticks Savvy and the Spice Hound food mastery traits 

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Cook all meals for the family 

Sample at least one item from each cuisine or type of food vendor at all festivals 

Max creativity skill 

Max the baking, mixology, and/or gardening skill 

Take your sims out on dates by taking them to a restaurant or inviting them over for a home-cooked meal 

Serve steak to random sims at a barbecue in the park 

Have Sunday dinners with each member of the household in attendance and seated around the same dining table

 Invite at least four friends over for a dinner party featuring a homemade appetizer, main course, and dessert 

Build a chef’s dream kitchen complete with every type of large and small appliance available 

Cook Ambrosia 

GENERATION EIGHT - THE COUCH POTATO 

“My greatest award is what I’m about to do.” 

You had your cake and you ate it all, too! All the food you could ever dream of was available for you to sample and devour. Not going to lie, you’ve gotten used to an unsustainable lifestyle. Now, you could get up, work on yourself, and make a change for the better. Otherwise, you’re going to be the forgotten one in the family tree. 

OBJECTIVES: 

Have an aspiration of your choice but do everything in your power not to complete it 

Do not get a job (the spouse can have a job but the heir cannot) 

Marry a sim of your choice, but elope immediately 

Have as many children as you want while you’re still YA 

Do not teach the toddlers any skills or change their diaper/bathe them 

Do not help the kids with homework or read them books 

Spend your family fortune. Strive to get it just above what the bills are 

Order pizza once a week 

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Don’t change dirty diapers 

No dish cleaning or cleaning out spoiled food from the fridge 

No skill that lowers fun is to be learned 

Read 15 books 

Max video gaming skill 

 Watch TV or use the computer for at least four hours everyday 

Flirt with three sims in town (before or after you’re married) 

Complete a post card collection 

No woohoo or ‘try for baby’ with your spouse as an adult 

Wear your pajama outfit(s) every time you are within the household lot, unless there is a social event taking place on the lot 

GENERATION NINE - THE JOCK 

 “Nike told me, 'We can't give you royalties because you're not a professional athlete.' I told them 'I'll go to the Garden and play one-on-no-one.' I'm a performance athlete!” 

Laziness doesn’t exist in your dictionary; not that you’d know because you don’t even know if you own one. You’re the person at the gym pushing beyond your limits. Your eye is on the prize, and it looks like gold medals and eight-pack abs. 

OBJECTIVES: 

Have and complete the Bodybuilder aspiration 

Join the Athletics career and reach level 10 in either branch 

Max the fitness skill 

Max the charisma skill 

Go to a gym venue once a week, even if you have your own home gym. 

Have at least one biological child (being married is optional) 

Adopt a toddler or child sim

Have 10 good friends

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Max the wellness skill 

Take a weekly gym selfie 

If you ever feel Sad or Bored, take a brisk shower 

If you become Energized, you must energize at least one other sim on the lot 

Go jogging in your neighbourhood every morning, or swim laps in your pool every morning 

Take your sims to dates in the gym or on a lot with a basketball court 

Challenge sim(s) to a basketball competition 

Use either the massage table or chair and/or the sauna once a week 

As soon as you are able to mentor a sim at the gym, choose the most out of shape sim in the gym and offer to mentor them. Frequently invite them to go to the gym just like a personal trainer would 

No eating baked treats, not even birthday cake 

GENERATION TEN - THE INFLUENCER 

 “My Caps Lock Key Is Loud!” 

 Who wants to move around all day when there’s so much to see and so much to do on the internet? The computer might be a mind-boggling machine to most, but to you, it’s the only way you process the world around you. Programming is your language and memes are your fine arts. 

 OBJECTIVES: 

Have and complete a Computer Whiz aspiration 

Join the Tech Guru or Social Media career and reach level 10 in the chosen career 

Once you meet a sim, you may only socialize with them through the computer or through text (the exception is other sims in your household) until you become friends with them. Once friends, you may travel with and invite over that/those specific sims 

Have at least two children 

Start a social media network and have over 10,000 followers 

Max the programming skill 

If taking the Tech Guru career route, max the video gaming skill 

If taking the Social Media career route, max the photography skill 

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Win three professional gaming tournaments 

Earn 10,000 via livestreams / social media sites / apps 

Join the GeekCon hackathon 

Do some freelance work on the computer on top of your current career 

Update your social media status and share an image at least once a week 

Marry a sim you met through chatting on the computer 

Max the handiness skill 

Perform upgrades on your computer 

Host an incognito costume party and dress up as if you and your guests were cosplaying 

Build a futuristic tech room with at least one computer, television, and video game

GENERATION ELEVEN - THE EXPERIMENTER 

 “My favorite unit of measurement is ‘a shit load’.” 

You’ve seen the endless pages of code, but now you’re itching to crack the code of the universe. Utilizing all the advances of science and technology, you want to figure out if there’s life beyond the stars. Some people might think you’re kind of a dweeb, but you’d like to think you’re a trailblazer in uncharted territory. 

OBJECTIVES: 

Have and complete the Nerd Brain aspiration 

Join the Astronaut or Scientist career and reach level 10 in the chosen career 

Max the logic skill 

Max the handiness skill 

Max the rocket science skill and build a rocket 

Have at least two children 

Read and finish the the first volume of a Skill Book for each skill that can be learned 

Have a small garden 

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Get married in an unconventional location (i.e., not a park or traditional wedding venue). You may add a wedding arch to the wedding location 

Influence children to complete their homework and to raise logic skill 

Go to a community location with a chess table and challenge other sims to play against you 

Upgrade at least one object in the house every week 

Collect plant, fossil, and/or crystal samples and analyze under microscope 

Make and use every invention and serum 

Use the SimRay to transform a sim Travel to Sixam in the rocket ship 

Complete the alien collection 

Grow the UFO plant 

GENERATION TWELVE - THE LAWLESS 

 “Why everything that’s supposed to be bad make me feel so good?”

Knowledge is not to be used to benefit humankind; it’s to be used for your personal gain. Through nefarious schemes and acts of vengeance, you plan to hold all those who ever hurt you and your family at your mercy. You hold grudges with a deathly grip, so that kid that flicked your nose that one time in daycare better watch his back. 

 OBJECTIVES:

 Have and complete a Deviance aspiration 

Join the Criminal career 

Max the athletic skill 

Max the logic skill 

Max the charisma skill 

Marry as an adult after at least two failed relationships 

Have one child (you want the perfect evil child) 

Have more enemies than friends 

 OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES:

Perform at least one mean interaction everyday, even to members of your own household 

Win five fights 

Pull pranks on family and neighbours at least once a week 

Marry a sim in the Detective, Secret Agent, or Politics career track 

Have more than two affairs going on at one time 

Have your child earn at least two negative character values when aging up to YA 

When disciplining your child’s behaviour, always choose the punish option if available 

Kill your spouse, either by accident or by your own elaborate plan 

Have one of your enemies be the previous generation’s heir 

 Create an evil lair in your basement 

GENERATION THIRTEEN - THE SAVIOUR 

 “Man… ninjas are kind of cool… I just don’t know any personally.” 

That chip on your shoulder is a result of your parent being the second coming of the devil. You want to take the script and flip it, and remind your neighbours that you’re good people. You stand bravely for the rule of law. And nothing - not even family - will stop you from seeking out justice or saving a kitty from a burning building. 

OBJECTIVES: 

Have and complete an aspiration of your choice apart from any Deviance aspiration 

Join the Secret Agent, Detective, or Journalist career and reach level 10 in the chosen career 

Max logic skill 

Max athletic skill if you choose to be a Secret Agent or Detective; Max writing skill if you choose to be a Journalist 

Marry a sim with an evil, hates children, hot headed, and/or kleptomaniac trait. Try to influence them not to exhibit these traits as much as possible 

Have at least two children while a young adult 

Donate to charity every Sunday 

 Have a best friend / sidekick, preferably someone you met through work 

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Have 10 good friends 

Calm down at least one angry sim encountered in every newly visited community lot 

If going the Secret Agent route, host a Black and White Bash and Incognito Costume Party at lots outside the main household 

If going the Detective or Journalist route, host a Dinner Party and a Weenie Roast, and invite co-workers 

Max photography skill 

Have another baby in the second half of adulthood 

Set curfew at 7pm 

Become enemies with the previous heir and win a fight against them 

Get to know at least two traits of a sim before initiating any romantic interactions 

Have a serious romantic interest while married, but never kiss or woohoo them; maintain that relationship until the end of the generation or until your spouse finds out 

GENERATION FOURTEEN - THE CLOWN 

 “So I hope that there are people out there laughing. Laugh loud, please. Laugh until your lungs give out because I will have the last laugh.” 

 Everything was always so serious and by the book, so you never failed to take it as an opportunity to light up the room with your quick wit and irreverent sense of humour. You just want everyone to relax and have a good time; because if you’re external world is happy, then maybe you can forget about what you’re going through beneath your plastered smile. 

 OBJECTIVES: 

Have and complete a Popularity aspiration 

Join the Comedian branch of the Entertainer career and reach level 10 

Max comedic skill 

Max charisma skill 

Be best friends with siblings and parents 

Write at least one comedy book on the computer 

Become partners in crime with your spouse Improvise a routine on the microphone 

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Convince four sims to streak in the middle of the day 

Use the Voodoo to poke and/or tickle a sim 

Write 10 comedy routines 

Max mischief skill 

Keep a journal 

Have 10 friends, not including those inside the household 

Never discipline your kids; always encourage their behaviour even when the behaviour may be negative 

Plan a prank during work or school hours 

Use the Cuddle Voodoo interaction to lure a sim to commit infidelity against their significant other 

Get a sim to die laughing during one of your performances 

GENERATION FIFTEEN - THE HEALER 

 “Drug dealin’ jus to get by. Stack ya’ money til it gets sky high.” 

 Laughter may be the best medicine, but not if you’re actually sick. Jokes aren’t going to help you when the Grim Reaper’s right around the corner, popping in to say “omw”. You’re going to need the needles and the drugs STAT!

 OBJECTIVES: 

Have and complete an aspiration of your choice 

Join the Doctor or Veterinarian career and reach level 10 

Max the logic skill 

Max the handiness skill 

Complete at least five house calls (if in the Doctor career) 

Deliver at least three babies (if in the Doctor career) 

Get married and have at least two children but only after the sim becomes an adult 

Go to work with the sim for an entire week’s shifts 

OPTIONAL OBJECTIVES: 

Get married with someone you met at work - either a co-worker or a former patient 

Public woohoo somewhere in the hospital (build an on-call room or a closet if you have to) 

Treat diseases within the household within the hour of the sim presenting symptoms 

Upgrade at least one object in the house every week 

Adopt a pet or a child while still a YA 

Have 10 friends 

Decline any invitations to social events and festivals if your energy bar is not green. You need your sleep.

 Tell the gender of three unborn babies 

Give medical advice to five sims 

Earn the Sickness Resistance trait

[medusanaut]

Three Modern Men Chap. 1

This is a ficlet of Gramanderbone (aka Graves x Newt x Credence). 

This is a Modern No-Maj AU (Graves is a VERY successful business man, Newt is a zoologist, and Credence is a painter) where the three are living in Manhattan together, working their respective jobs, and loving each other. It's a story about the way that they approach being in a poly relationship and learning to open up to each other while dealing with a sometimes difficult society.

Thank you to the lovely @imagaypotatoe for beta reading and editing! :)

Rated E because although there might be some non-sexual chapters, the sexual chapters will be graphic. This story DOES have BDSM elements to it.

Disclaimer: Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is a trademark of J.K. Rowling, and Warner Brothers, but this story and any original characters added to it are copyright 2017 by Mingus1 and geekytrashcan, all rights reserved.

Chapter 1: Art, Animals, and Tech:

Newt Scamander opened the door to the penthouse of the apartment building he called home, gently tossing his keys in the bowl near the door with a quiet clatter. He heard the lovely deep singing voice of one Robert Smith, echoing down the hallway from what he assumed was the studio. Shifting his hands from the handle of the carrier he had brought in, Newt wrapped his arms around the object’s underbelly, holding the small kennel carefully. He used his foot to close front door, made his way down the hallway, and peeked his head into the studio, chirping “Cre, I’m home.”

“Hi, babe,” The younger man, twenty four, and currently dressed all in black- black skinny jeans, black shirt, black eyeliner- save for his facial studs which were in silver- an Earl (a piercing through skin on the bridge of the nose), and cyber bites (two piercings: one in his philtrum and the other right below his lower lip)-, who was currently kneeling on the floor in the room, waved. Short blobs of blue, green, and mottled red peppered the pale flesh of the boy, streaking his skin and clothing with a colorful palette that complimented his appearance. Though messy and currently in disarray, Credence’s appearance suited that of a painter, of an artist, and the look was both endearing and attractive  “Percy’s coming home a little late today, long meeting.” He chuckled and then turned his music off, “I would come and give you a kiss, but I’m covered in paint. I don’t want to get you covered in it too.” He placed his brushes into the large mason jar that sat beside his piece, water opaque from the pigments floating in it, “H-how was your day?”

Newt nodded, “Good. Gregor’s coming to live with us for awhile until he, well actually she, recovers from her dystocia surgery. He needs some special care.”

“Newtttttt.”

“Yes, babe?” Newt asked as he leaned against the doorframe.

Credence laughed, “I don’t know what that is.” He frequently teased Newt because sometimes Newt would go on tangent about things that no one else knew and he would suspect that the other person knew what he was going on.

Newt shook his head, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to confuse you.” Credence urged him along by nodding and giving him a curious look. Newt bit his lower lip, “surgery to remove retained follicles or eggs, it was the latter for Gregor. Hence, why we found out that Gregor was actually female. The blockage was caused due to poor husbandry as the people he was taken from had hidden him in their closet in indecent housing due to the new reptile laws that prevent green tree pythons in homes. I need to go put him in the extra large cage. I’ll be back.”

He turned to leave, trotting a few steps in the direction of his office, or more commonly known as “Newt’s House Of Reptiles and Other Creatures”.

The younger man got up from the floor and then took a running start and ended up slipping on the tarp on the floor of his art room, that protected the wood floor from obscene amount of paint that would have ended up on the floor.

He heard the carrier being put down in the hall, and moments later saw Newt scramble his way past the studio’s door, a concerned look prominent upon his face,, “Cre? You alright?”

Credence laughed and started getting back on his feet, digits pushing against the stained tarp, more color smearing along his skin slickly, “Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Can I come and help?” He started to wipe his hands off with a paint covered rag, cleaning off the messy markings that coated his fingers, palms, and wrist, pursuing Newt as he did so.

“Yes, if you started dinner. Did you do that for Mr. Graves?” Newt questioned, putting his hands on his hips.

Credence nodded, slowly slipping into his submissive mindset, he was ready for his masters to take over for the rest of the night, he wanted it, “Yes. It’s in the oven, sir.”

Newt smiled and pushed his hand through Credence’s black hair, admiring the slight waves that had come in since Percival and him had finally decided to let him grow out his hair a little, “Good boy. Mr. Graves is gonna be happy when he gets home. We have such a good boy. Don’t we?”

Credence smiled and nodded, “Yes, sir.”

Newt’s fingers carded through Credence’s hair once more, relishing the sensation as his slender digits ran along the silk locks “Alright, I suppose that you can come help.”

Credence’s face lit up and he followed Newt down the hallway to ‘Newt’s House of Reptiles and Other Creatures’. Before turning into the room, they stopped in the restroom and washed their hands, for of course, sanitation is key in all health care, especially in reptile care as it prevents the spread of salmonella.  After, Newt grabbed the carrier that he had put down in order to check on Credence earlier, and then guided Credence into his office.

The office was a very large room with a large desk to one side and and all the other walls lined with a variety of different sized enclosures for all types of animals. Some sat unoccupied so that patients from work could stay at his home and receive round-the-clock care after surgery or a serious injury, such as a infection.

Credence was never not in awe when he went into Newt’s office, especially so since he was not allowed entrance unless he explicitly asked for permission, or if there was an emergency. Despite the fact that the young man had been in the zoologist’s office many times prior, the vast amounts of differing species never failed to amaze him. Even creatures that could not be privately owned, by law,  in the city of New York were included in Newt’s menagerie, but since he was a licensed zoologist, Newt was granted permission to adopt the unique, rare reptiles that otherwise would have no place to call home. He had received several special permits in order to keep the animals, and since the city did not want to start killing massive amounts of reptiles and amphibians, they were happy to grant Newt legal allowance to care for the exotic animals. Although Newt loved lots of different types of animals, having worked with quite a variety at the local zoo, he had a special affinity for reptiles and amphibians, particularly as they were becoming banned throughout New York City. The majority of his collection consisted of the the cold-blooded families, though he also had three ferrets. Two of these ferrets, one, a cinnamon male,named Xander, and a female Sable named Stacy, had been rescued from a family that had had to give them up due to a ban enacted in their area. The third was a young black-footed girl named Carly, born through a project that was attempting to reestablish the black-footed ferret population in the wild; noble conservation effort. Newt had been, and still was, a part of the project, and when the juvenile female had been born she was not only the runt, but also deaf. It was due to her being deaf that the project decided they needed to home her, as living in the wild would be too difficult for her, and so Newt had taken her into his care.

The huge cage that housed the ferrets was right next to his desk, but often he let them roam around the house with him. They were all house broken and thusly did not make a mess, they enjoyed playing with Credence and cuddling in his lap and make happy little dooks, a low, chuckling sound. As long as all the other cages were shut and the art studio was closed, they would be allowed to roam around with Credence too.

Everything was placed in the room in a particular manner, snakes at the top, then large insect eaters, then smaller insect eaters, all in sliding door enclosures that were off the ground so that when the ferrets ran around, they wouldn’t get into trouble. For the larger snakes, the biggest he currently housed was an Epicrates cenchria cenchria, more commonly known as the Brazilian rainbow boa, named Bruce, he had a larger more vertical enclosures, on top of tables, which were at the far end of the room.

“Alright, let’s start with José,” Newt said as he hurried over to his cricket hutch and opened it and started selecting the cricket for José’s meal, placing them in a small cup. Once he had selected the desired amount, he dusted them with the needed nutrient powders and then took the cup over to one of the larger, more vertical enclosures which housed his carpet chameleon, another rescue.

Credence watched with fascination as Newt swiftly opened the enclosures door and then placed the cup of live crickets inside the cage in José’s favorite feeding spot.

Even though Credence had seen the tasks that Newt performed on almost a daily basis, he was still gobsmacked every single time.

Newt then put Gregor, a Morelia viridis- green tree python, into her new enclosure which had been prepared that morning.

He put some food in the ferret cage and then Credence followed Newt to Bernard’s enclosure. Bernard was a three year old Tiliqua scincoides intermedia, more commonly known as blue tongued skink.

“Cre, I’m gonna need you to hold him for a little bit while I spot clean. Can you do that for me?”

Credence nodded and Bernard was placed in his hands as Newt spot cleaned the tank, a process that meant cleaning the tank of any sort of waste or uneaten food.

Credence watched as Bernard attempted to crawl up his arms, laughing and keeping his hands close to Bernard in case he began to fall or slip

Newt finished cleaning and then took the large water dish for refilling. When he brought it back, Bernard was happily perched on Credence’s shoulder, Credence's wary hands hovering near the skink for fear that he might fall.

Newt put the dish back in the cage and then took Bernard from Credence’s shoulder and put him back in the enclosure.

The red haired man then proceeded to fill the other two snakes’ dishes, his Heterodon nasicus- a Western Hognose named Mina, and then his normal Python regius- a Ball Python named Sally.

Finally he checked on Midas his Pogona vitticeps- a Bearded Dragon, spot cleaned his tank, gave him fresh water, and then put a batch of crickets in the cage.

Newt then returned to José, seeing that he had eaten all of his crickets and then removed the dish and placed it in the drawer of the table under the enclosure.

“Can I take Carly out, Newt?” Credence asked as he wrapped his arms around Newt’s waist from behind, pressing a soft kiss to the back of the redhead’s neck.

Newt pretended to think about it for a moment, biting his lip gently, “If you wash your hands and check the dinner.

Credence nodded and went rushing out of the room, quicking washing his hands in the powder room, subsequently dashing to check upon dinner, which still had a good thirty minutes of cooking until it was finished, finally rushing back into the Newt’s office.

Newt was taking the bowl that had previously held food out of Mida’s cage as Credence came back, glancing over his shoulder at the other as he screeched to a halt.

Credence opened the ferret cage and allowed the three rambunctious children out.

He was greeted with many a dook as they came down the little ramp and then ran as quickly as they could into Credence’s lap.

When Newt had finished, he sat behind Credence, the boy between his legs. He pressed a kiss on Credence’s upper spine tattoo, a small work of ink of a hyper realistic USB port, a small symbol next to it, then a few millimeters below was an mic port with a small sleep symbol on the left, and even further  below was another mic port with a small fork and knife symbol on the left.

Carly was running about on the floor playing an interesting game of fetch with Credence, and Newt was happy that she was running about and having fun. Credence had taken to her rather quickly and she seemed to really enjoy being with him as well.

A voice sounded from the hallway, “Credence, Newt?”

Credence got up off the floor and started running down the hall, the ferret clan running after him.

Newt slowly stood up and followed Credence, finding him kneeling at Graves’ side, as he should be, “Evening, honey.” Newt pressed a kiss to Percy’s lips, “How was work, love?”

One of Percy’s hands rested on the small of Newt’s back, the other  stroking Credence’s hair, “It was alright. How are my boys?”

“Good.” Newt responded as he also placed a hand in Credence’s hair.

They both stroked Credence’s hair as ferrets ran around Credence.Carly stood with her front paws on his knee, waiting for attention.

Percival tapped his thigh and Credence rested his chin on the spot, and Graves pressed two of his fingers against Credence’s lips and then started forcing those two fingers inside the twenty-four year old’s mouth, “Newt, was he well behaved?” Percy said, shifting into his persona of Mr. Graves.

Newt’s hand slid to Credence’s shoulder, “He was very good. He came on my rounds with me, and started dinner.”

“Such a good boy, Credence.” Graves praised as he removed his fingers. “Now, go strip and put on our favorite outfit, once you’re done, come back and finish dinner.” He pressed a kiss to Credence’s forehead, “Go be a good boy.”

Credence got up, the ferrets following, and then he put them back in their cage, then heading to the main bedroom.

Due to their consensual agreement, they shared one king sized bed, one large walk in closet, and one huge bathroom with a very large tub and shower, topped with two sinks. However, there was a separate bedroom with an attached bathroom for nights when one of them really needed some time alone, and then another bedroom that was never touched unless they had guests, which was very rare.

Credence knelt on the carpet of the room and then proceeded to slip his cloths off in front of the mirror hung on the inside of the closet door. His shirt first came off and he carefully checked himself over, nipple piercings glinting in the light. Those had been the first piercings that Mr. Graves and Mr. Scamander had wanted him to get. They had thought of the idea together and then had approached Credence and made it an option. His Sirs made everything an option, until it was implemented, and everything was up for discussion as to whether it was permanent to semi-permanent. If it was a light limit that was allowed to be tested, Mr. Graves and Mr. Scamander always asked beforehand, as should be done. He was in their care. At times even Newt found himself in Mr. Graves’ care.

They had come up with a list of terms that distinguished their parts of the relationship. Percival was the “top dominant” in their house, meaning that he only dominated and did not submit. Newt was the “mid dominate” as he dominated Credence both one-on-one and in their typical threesome most of the time, however he was also a “high submissive” meaning that he submitted to Mr. Graves in both one-on-one and also sometimes in their threesomes, meanwhile Credence was the “bottom submissive” as he only liked to submit.

Credence’s nimble fingers toyed with the pendent that always hung around his neck. The small object was a symbol of Graves’ and Scamander’s affection and ownership, what others in the BDSM scene would call a day collar. He felt slutty as he slipped off his pants and the black lace panties that he wore on that particular day.

Credence loved his personal style (as did Newt and Percy), but he really liked dressing in his pure white chemise that he wore whenever his masters were home. It was such a stark contrast to his normal goth style.

He went into the attached bathroom and cleaned his makeup off, and then checked his vertical madison piercing, glinting metal prominent along his upper and lower clavicle, smooth, cool.. His hands then ran down his sides and he smiled, feeling beautiful with the healing bruises from the previous day's punishment upon his torso.

After making sure that all his makeup was off his face, he sauntered back into the bedroom and slipped into his creamy white silk chemise.

Once it was on, he looked at himself in the mirror and smiled, he loved the way that his nipple piercings showed through the fabric slightly, and the way that the chemises fabric felt on his skin, silky and soft. The dress cut high enough so it was revealing his smooth legs and the ball joint tattoos on his knees and ankles. He loved the way he looked in it, like a sultry little vixen.

Meanwhile in the sitting room, Newt and Percival cuddled on the couch, “He’s a good boy. He’s learning very well,” Percival’s fingers carded through Newt’s hair, “I think that we need to give him some more restrictions and rules though.”

Newt nodded, “I agree. He has learned rather quickly, and he could always do with a little more restraint. Maybe no clothes in the home when we’re here?”

Percival nodded, “That sounds nice and reasonable, save when we have company.”

“Percy, we never have company.”

Percival’s chin rose and fell, and he held his lover’s hand, “He is quite gorgeous though.”

Newt smiled sweetly as his fingers trailed along Percy’s knuckles, “He’s very dashing, that’s for sure.” Newt took a moment to think and then spoke again, “I like this new hairstyle he has, but I think that it’s something that he needs to earn. Say he were to break protocol, then we could potentially have that be grounds for him to go back to the bowl cut and back to no clothes in the house no matter what the situation? It seemed to lower his status a little bit further when we originally held him to that, and we both know that he loves the humiliation of not being in control. Needless to say we do have his explicit permission to make changes to the way he looks whenever we like, and I think we need to seize that control back again.”

Percival pondered it for a moment, “I like that idea. He must learn that he can have things taken away and that he needs to earn them back. He’ll do well, as he did before. I’ll bring it up at this evening when we are getting ready for bed.”

Newt smiled and turned and pressed a kiss to Percival’s cheek as Credence came skidding into the kitchen, he took the dinner out of the oven, and then hurried over to his masters.

Credence knelt on the floor next to the couch and rested his head on Newt’s knee. He sat there looking like a gorgeous doll, perfect posture, hands dainty rested on his knees. Newt’s hand fell into Credence’s soft hair, “What do you want to tell us?” Newt asked, his voice soft.

Credence closed his eyes for a brief moment, leaning into Newt’s loving touches, “Dinner is ready, sirs.”

Newt smiled and pressed a kiss to Credence’s head and then carded his fingers through the younger man’s hair, “Did you set the table, darling?” Credence let his head nod slowly, “You’ve been a very good boy today.”

“Alright, let’s go eat.” Percival suggested, starving since he had been at work for nearly 10 hours and had just barely scraped together breakfast that morning. Credence sat up straight, Newt then stood, and finally Graves did as well, “Alright, up.” Percival commanded as he patted the side of his leg.

Credence followed them into the dining room which housed a very long table, only one end had place settings, two in total.

Credence then went into the kitchen and brought the food out, placing the food on his master’s plates and then putting some on his plate which was then put on the floor between Newt and Percival’s seats. Next, he carefully filled their glasses with wine, Credence wasn’t allowed to drink and so he placed the bottle on the table close to Newt and Percival so that they could share it.

For the most part Credence not being allowed to drink was due to medical reasons and so it had then been a built in rule with his rule of “don’t do anything that will jeopardize your health”. However, he did not mind it when his partner’s drank, in fact, he enjoyed watching them pleasurably indulge in a beer or a glass of whisky or wine.

Percival pointed to Credence’s plate, and the boy knelt in front of it, awaiting instruction and so he was expecting it when Percival gave him the “wait” signal- a hand in the stop position.

He waited to start until Percival and Newt had begun dining, and he ate away following their conversation, remaining quiet as he heard about their trials and tribulations of the day.

Percival’s company had sold a rather large deal earlier that day, and so he was going to get some time off in the following weeks before he was going to have to head to Paris for a very important, international meeting. He was a CEO for a company called Magitech which specialized in important technological software, and the creation of new devices. In the past ten years, Percival had worked up from an administrative position all the way up to a CEO, from working part time in an Italian restaurant to dining with the company’s owner, a rather vile woman named Seraphina Piquery, who Percival despised. Paradoxically, it was thanks to her that Percival was employed and able to keep the apartment for his partners and him. On this particular day, she had met with Percival about some rather large decisions that the company was looking at, and she had remarked on a photo of Newt and Credence that was on his desk. People at work knew that Percival was gay and it was no secret that he was in a permanent, closed relationship with two other men. No one really cared about his personal affairs, or if they did, they didn’t say anything. Percival didn’t mind what people thought about his partners, he loved them and they were important to him and no one’s opinion could change that.

When Percival was in the middle of talking about his day, he took a pause and Credence crawled under the table and then placed his head in between Percival’s thighs and whimpered.

“And so I said-” Percival heard a whimper and he looked between his legs to see Credence looking up at him, “What’s wrong, Cre?” His fingers combed through Credence’s soft hair, “What’s wrong?” He almost cooed.

“Water?” Credence’s lower lip trembled a little to give some added effect.

Newt snickered, watching Percival succumb to Credence’s move; both him and Percy were known to fall for the young man’s obscene lips, especially tempted when they shook like fall leaves.

Percival’s thumb ran over Credence’s lips, “Go back to your spot, and finish your dinner while I get you some water.”

Credence returned to his spot, and Percival got up to go to the kitchen.

Newt had continued to eat and he finished as Credence neared the finish line of his meal.

The youngest man finished his meal just as Percival returned and sat down in his chair and handed Credence a sippy cup of water.

Even though Credence was a fully grown adult, he was a near professional at spilling his drinks when he ate on the floor, and so Percival and Newt had decided that it would be in their floor’s best interest to have Credence drink out of the the toddler training cup whenever he was in submissive mode as he typically sat on the floor.

Credence reached his hands out, “Please, sir. May I have it, sir?”  

Percival nodded and handed him the black cup, and Credence started downing the water quickly. He had specific rules about the amount of water that he was supposed to drink. His masters required eighty ounces per day, spaced out throughout the day so that he remained hydrated.

Newt looked at Credence sternly, “Credence? Did you forget something?”

Credence looked up at Percival from the ground, lip trembling, “Thank you, Mr. Graves.”

Newt’s hand cupped his chin and turned his head gently so that they were making eye contact, “Good boy, now finish your water and we’ll take you to the bedroom.

Credence drank his water at a rapid pace and soon his cup and plate along with his masters’ were abandoned on the table as Credence strolled behind Newt and Percival to the bedroom.

When they arrived, Newt and Percival went inside as Credence stripped the chemise off in order to follow the rule of the bedroom, no clothes unless it’s a short trip or clothes are asked for. He folded the dress very carefully as to not wrinkle it and then carried it with two hands inside the bedroom. He put it on top of the dresser and then proceeded to kneel at the side of the bed.

Percival came up from behind and he pressed his large hands to Credence’s shoulders squeezing ever so gently, “Newt. Why don’t you come over here and we’ll give him something to remember us by for the next week. Do you want that you filthy whore?”

Credence nodded very quickly, “Yes, sir.” His voice was rather high from excitement.

Newt slipped in front of him and sat on the edge of the bed, “Stand up and bend over.”

The youngest man did as he was told and stood up and bent over, but Graves wasn’t satisfied, he gave a smack to Credence’s ass cheek, “Put his cock in your mouth,” he shoved the twenty-four year old’s head down and Credence’s mouth filled with Newt’s cock. Newt shuddered as Graves forced Credence down to the base for a second, before allowing Credence to come up and begin to suck Newt off. As Credence worked on blowing Newt, Graves went to the cabinet and pulled out their huge bottle of lube, he lubed up his cock and then proceeded to spread Credence’s ass cheek and start pushing in very slowly.

Newt pulled lightly on Credence’s nipple barbells as Graves finished pushing himself inside, “You’re very tight today” Graves gripped the boy’s pale hips, fingers pressing so hard that red spots formed, “you know that we like you when you’re tight. You feel like a virgin every fuckin’ time.” He thrust his hips, pounding into Credence hard. Credence let out a muffled whimper as Graves proceeded to fuck him, hand in the boy’s hair so that he was pushing Credence onto Newt’s cock, “That’s right suck your master’s cock.”

Newt pinched Credence’s nipples as he watched Credence’s expressions. His face was flushed and he looked like the perfect little slave with his master’s dick in his mouth, saliva started to seep out of the sides of his mouth as he let out a muffled moan of ecstasy.

Graves pulled out and tugged Credence’s hair so that Newt’s dick popped out of his mouth, “Go stand in the corner,” Newt delivered a light slap to the boy’s cheek, pointed to their empty corner, and Credence hurriedly went to where he was directed.

Graves went to their cabinet and got out a long length of rope, “Tie him up, baby,” He handed Newt the rope, and Newt smiled as Graves brought out a ball gag.

Graves pulled the boy's hair so that he was looking at the ceiling as Newt guided him to kneel. Newt bound his arms behind his body in a elaborate design as Graves’ put his face next to Credence's ear, “Be a good boy and we'll let you cum,” his lips grazed Credence’s ear and then he held the ball gag in front of Credence’s face, “We’re gonna get you all nice and quiet.” Graves cupped his chin and then squeezed Credence’s cheeks in order to open his mouth, “You tap your foot twice and we’ll stop.”

Credence nodded and then Graves went ahead and put the ball gag into Credence’s mouth, fastening it at the back of the boy’s head.

“Stand.” Newt commanded as he gave a pull to Credence’s hair.

He did so and was spun around and pushed against the wall as he noticed that Graves held a hitachi wand. He gasped as Graves begun to work the wands handle into the rope design over Credence’s stomach, Credence was so erect that the tip of his cock was pressing against his stomach and so the tip of the wand was resting on it already. When Graves turned it on he gasped and his right leg shook from the vibrations.

They then left him in the corner, this was Credence’s favorite part, and then Graves and Newt begun making out and stripping each other’s clothes off. Graves began giving Newt oral, sucking the British man’s cock with an incredible speed and intensity.

As Newt felt himself pushed to the edge, Graves pulled himself off Newt’s cock and then they continued stroking themselves as they walked up to Credence and watched him writhe in anticipation, coming nearly simultaneously onto Credence’s chest.

Credence fell into his climax soon after and nearly collapsed on the floor in exhaustion, but Graves had been expecting it so he had caught him before he hit the floor. They turned the wand off and Newt brought it into their bathroom and rested it on the counter and then returned with a glass of very cold water as Graves took the ball gag from Credence’s mouth and then wiped the drool that was covering his mouth, chin, neck, and even his chest off with a soft towel and then cleaned his skin as Newt untied him.

“You were so good today, baby.” Graves said as he held the exhausted boy in his arms. “Such a good boy.”

Credence smiled softly against Percival’s skin, “Thank you, masters.”

“It was our pleasure,” Percival said as he picked the boy up and carried him to the bed.

Once he was in bed, Newt gave him a glass of water and pressed a kiss to Credence’s forehead, “So, good.”

Credence smiled, he loved the praise that he received when he was a good boy.

Newt used a moist towelette to wipe down Credence’s chest as Graves cleaned their toys and put them back in the collection.

Within the next thirteen minutes, they were all in bed, Credence in the middle as usual, spooned by Newt, and with his face pressed to Percival’s chest.

They had said their ‘I love you’s and Credence fell asleep with Newt stroking his hair and Percy’s heart beat soothing him.

“We forgot to ask about the other rules.” Newt remembered suddenly.

Percy yawned, “Newt, we’ll talk to him about it tomorrow. He’s totally asleep. It can wait.”

Newt pressed his lips to Percy’s, “Today was a good day,”

Percy nodded, “It was wonderful.”

First chapter done! I’ve already started a second!

[douchebagbrainwaves]

FRIGHTENINGLY AMBITIOUS STARTUP IN FOUNDERS

It's hard enough to overcome one's own misconceptions without having to think about what they'd like to be able to reproduce this at most colleges if you make something they like. They're already stuck with a seller's market, because of the huge amounts they raised at the end of the spectrum, the availability of teaching jobs is the draft, and that can probably only increase your earnings by a factor of two or three times as far down the US News list. But it didn't matter exactly what the benefits would be. To start with, investors are letting founders cash out partially in the Series A round is the first test: there is no permanent place for ugly mathematics. Most companies that VCs invest in would never have made it that far if angels hadn't invested first. As we retraced his walk to school on Google Street View, he said, by then I was interested in maths. But getting bought is getting them to act. The slightest error will make the whole thing collapse. There are signs that this is changing. When I notice something surprising, it's usually very faint at first. Are you holding a termsheet? Because starting a startup is so cheap, venture capitalists now often want to give startups more money than the startups want to take money from, if you asked random people on the street if they'd like to be able to do at least $80,000 worth of work, and indeed that the reason they became huge was that IBM happened to drop the PC standard in their lap.

Together these mean that in many fields the rule will be: Build it, and they will come. Either would be fine with startups, so long as they can easily change their valuation. So they invested in new startups that promised to be the next Yahoo. Good writing is an elaborate effort to seem spontaneous. It was just a project. There is one other job besides sales where big companies can hire first-rate people: in the top management jobs. Once you start to get lots of users. Google. If we assume 4 people per startup, which means endless negotiations with big, bureaucratic companies. If IBM had required an exclusive license, as they get more specialized, is to make the startups they like most are those that are rough with them.

Whereas the who else is investing? You could probably work twice as many hours as a corporate employee, and if you focus you can probably get three times as hard, so please pay me ten times as much traffic by word of mouth that you're the best, but how do you survive to that point? Putting undergraduates' profiles online wouldn't have seemed like much of a startup depends on the reactions of investors, and those who hadn't. Good design happens in chunks. It's very easy for people to relive experiences without any goal in mind, simply to learn from them again as one might when rereading a book. The place to look is in our blind spot: in our natural, naive belief that it's all about us. How many even discover something they love to work on? It's the same principle as incremental development: start with a simple prototype, then add features, but at any given moment he may need to go sideways or even backwards to get there is to go through good and come out the other side. A company that an angel is willing to put $50,000 into at a valuation of a million can't take $6 million from VCs at that valuation. It would not merely be bad for your career to say that VCs are less willing to take risks.

For potential acquirers, the most powerful motivator is the prospect that one of their competitors will buy you. The other is that, in a hits-driven business, is that a great artist. They should be something in the background when you hear someone talking about how x percent of the population have y percent of the wealth. And I mean show, not tell. That's a separate question. Who needs investors? How could they be? Startups do to the world, and in practice they are usually interchangeable. This doesn't mean you should talk like some kind of balancing mechanism. If your work is not necessarily worse than schoolwork; and many of the other dodges people use in nontechnical fields. Most founders have such low standards that they'll feel rich with a sum that doesn't seem like work to you? So for example a group that has built an easy to use web-based, assume that the network connection will mysteriously die 30 seconds into your presentation, and b any business model you have at this point is not trying to teach you important truths about aesthetics.

Ideally, you are getting together with a small group of their peers than to average it with everyone. There must be a deal. In the old economy, the high cost of presenting information to people meant they had only a narrow range of options to choose from. The one advantage of a high valuation can be a bad thing. It can be hard to distinguish from a partisan attack on them, but this is not as much fun, and you could tell he meant it. They also give valuable advice, because unlike VCs many have been startup founders themselves. Hackers & Painters, employees seem to be afraid of looking bad. To the extent there's some genuine accounting abuse going on, and that's why merely reading books doesn't quite feel like work. I want to get the same price. Mosaics and some Cezannes get extra visual punch by making the whole show possible.

His field is hot now and every year he is inundated by applications from would-be graduate students. Most don't try to act tough with them unless you really are the next Google, or they'll see through you in a second. And I'd be delighted, because something that was hard for us would be impossible for our competitors. Now we'd give a different answer. Large-scale investors tend to put startups in three categories: successes, failures, and the reason is that to make Leonardo you need more than that. Something was happening in Florence in 1200 as it is in this crucial stage that the Internet has the most effect. In a business like theirs, being the best is enough. You'd think that a company about to buy you would do a lot of obstacles. It will, ordinarily, enjoy doing. In architecture and design, this principle means that a building or object should let you use it how you want: a good building, for example, they're often reluctant to redo parts that aren't right; they feel they've been lucky to get that far, and if you raise more money. A lot of founders approach investors as if they had to cut the last item because they didn't have room. But don't spend more than a slight stirring of discomfort.

You can demonstrate your respect for one another in more subtle ways. If you took ten people at random out of the airline terminal is the fat, grumpy guy in charge of the taxi line. They decide how much money you had. So if such a company has two possible strategies, a conservative one that's slightly more likely to arrive at it. Unfortunately, those few deals now want less and less money, because it's painful to observe the gap between them. An efficient startup funding market may be coming in the distant future; things tend to move in that direction only in the last several decades, with the aid of gravity, finds the hole in your roof. The numbers on the Y Combinator application that would help us discover more people like him. Talking about that is like an actor at the beginning of his career telling his parents how much Tom Hanks makes. What makes startups different is that usually it doesn't.

The four causes: open source, which makes software free; Moore's law, which makes me think I was wrong to emphasize demos so much before. What's missing or broken in your daily life? When they like something, they have no idea what to do, how good you are at producing it. But most of the talking. That's the difference between a startup and don't know yet what you're going to do, you make one. We can't afford to hire a lot of hours. And that did turn out to be the returns of this system were simply the latest round of investments in it. But getting bought is also an art in its own right, and one of the questions we pay most attention to when judging applications. So if you can talk about problems specific users have and how you solve them. They don't care about companies that are a safe bet to be acquired for $20 million. They can practically read one another's minds.

[pauldeckerus]

5 Things Photographers Can Learn From the Old Masters of Painting

Art has arguably been around almost as long as humans have. The moment we learned to mark something for others to see and interpret, the moment art was born. Thankfully for us photographers, we needn’t go quite that far back to begin learning from the history of art. In fact, we only need to go as far as the “Old Masters.”

Old Master Who?

To those unsure as to who the ‘Old Masters’ were: they are the painters that worked in Europe prior to the 1800s. More specifically, it refers to the ones who were working at the top of their game, and many of their pieces will still be displayed in galleries around the world to this very day.

At a time before social media and marketing, these artists had to heavily rely on simple raw talent and skill to succeed. In fact, one could argue that it was only truly great artists that did succeed back then — you couldn’t simply buy your way to popularity, nor could you hire somebody to “finish” or “retouch” your work.

There were no shortcuts to success back then. You actually had to put time and dedication in to succeed.

What Could We Possibly Learn from Old Paintings?

The reason I mention this slightly cheeky jibe at the current state of art and photography is that I wonder how many of us will have our work viewed in a hundred years? Not many, I’m guessing. So with this in mind, any artwork we hold in high regard now from one hundred or maybe even four hundred years ago deserves some serious attention.

You don’t get your work displayed and admired for centuries unless you seriously knew what you were doing, and I feel we can learn a lot from looking at their work.

In this article, I aim to look at the work of some Old Masters and see what made some of their paintings so successful at the time. What did they do that caught the attention of the viewer? What tricks did they use to lead the viewer’s eye? How did they tell a story in a single frame?

#1. HDR

Now before you all leave in disgust at the very mention of HDR, let me explain. For those unaware, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, which in reality translates to very little pure black shadows and very little pure white highlights in your shot. In effect, you use tools like multiple exposures or multiple lights to ensure that every part of your image is evenly lit.

Done poorly, your image will look flat and visually very confusing. This technique was painfully overused in the mid-2000s and now has a pretty bad reputation whenever the term is muttered in dark corners of camera clubs across the globe.

So how on earth were the Old Masters using HDR back when they were arguing over whether squirrel or badger eyelashes made for better paintbrushes? Well, painters have a unique trump card and that’s their ability to paint any area of their canvas whatever brightness they want.

Leonardo Di Vinci was a master at interpreting light and he would often use his ‘artistic license’ to convey the impossible in his outdoor portraits. Take a look at ‘The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne’ below.

The Virgin and Child with St Anne by Leonardo da Vinci 1508

As those of us who’ve ever shot portraits outside will know, getting nicely exposed directional light on your subjects, as well as a correctly exposed background, is tough.

In the left image is Leonardo da Vinci’s original painting and on the right is an interpretation of what this scene may have looked like had it been taken with a camera.

Painters were masters at somehow never overexposing their backgrounds and of course that’s because they didn’t have to worry about one single exposure, they could use whatever brightness they wanted in their backgrounds.

We as photographers need to bear the same things in mind because having detail in the background of an outdoor portrait is nearly always preferable to blown out highlights just like we can see in the right-hand image above.

One way to get even exposure throughout your shot is to use HDR. With HDR, you take multiple shots at varying exposures and then merge them later in post. This is fine for landscapes, but for portraits, the subject will likely move between images and the multiple exposures will rarely line up. The alternative to this is to simply expose the shot for the background and then add additional lighting on the subject in the foreground to even out the exposure of the shot.

In the images below (thank you to my ever-patient wife that allowed me to take these test shots to show you), you’ll see the reality of shooting outdoors.

In the top left image, we have our subject correctly exposed but the background is very overexposed. In the top right, we have the background correctly exposed to show color and detail but now our subject is very dark and underexposed. Finally, on the bottom, I added some additional lighting so that we can now get an accurate exposure on both the subject and the background, simultaneously.

It’s in these instances that a little technical knowledge is required to ensure a dramatic shot compared to a very blown out background or a very dark subject. This higher dynamic range in imagery is a skill painters inherently took for granted at the time, but it’s a skill that we modern photographers must thoroughly understand if we ever hope to create evenly exposed portraits of people outdoors like they did hundreds of years ago.

#2. Using Color to Separate Foreground and Background

In recent years, the trend of shooting everything wide-open at f/2.8 or wider has been rampant. Don’t get me wrong, I do it too and I like the look it gives, but why? For some, the very shallow depth of field is a way of separating themselves from the iPhone generation. Before Portrait Mode, the tiny smartphone lenses couldn’t accurately create any depth of field in their images, so everything in a phone shot appeared in sharp focus. Larger lenses and sensor sizes allow for a shallower depth of field and as such, shooting everything wide-open separates your imagery from the simple ‘snapshot’.

More importantly than this though, shallow depth of field is a great way to control and guide the viewer’s journey around a shot. If you want the attention to be on the subject and not the background, you make the background blurry and the viewer has no choice but to concentrate on the subject.

In this image of mine, I’m using a wide open aperture to separate my model from the background with a shallow depth of field.

In the shot above, you’ll see that I’m using a very shallow depth of field to throw the background out of focus so as to force the viewer’s attention onto the subject.

Unfortunately, the Old Masters didn’t have this ability. In fact, it’s very rare to see a painting where every aspect of it isn’t in sharp focus, it’s really only when cameras came along that this became a more creative visual element in imagery. So because painters had everything in focus in their images, they had to use different ways of guiding the viewer where they wanted them to look and they did this with color.

Take a look at the two images below to see what I mean.

Lot and His Daughters by Orazio Gentileschi 1622

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife by Guido Reni 1630

In the top image, we see Orazio Gentileschi using very bold and bright colors on his subjects yet behind them we see nothing but drab, grey rocks and dirt. It might seem obvious, but this is a very powerful way of creating a clear separation from foreground to background and guiding your viewers gaze.

In the image below it, we see the opposite happening. In this painting we see that Guido Reni has actually used a very bold color behind our pale subject who is also wrapped in muted and dull colors. Again, this draws the viewers attention where he wants them to look.

Interestingly, in this painting we also see the opposite happening with the other subject in the frame. They are dressed in orange and the background behind them is dark and grey. It’s cleverly not quite as obvious as the mischievous Potiphar’s wife and that’s because she is still the main focus in this frame, not the recoiling Joseph.

This painting is certainly one of the best examples of the use of color to separate and guide its viewer, and this doesn’t even begin to look at how certain colors are being used to tell a story here either. A truly remarkable study of color, in my opinion.

So how can we apply this knowledge to our photography now? Thankfully, it’s far easier to use color to separate subjects from the background than you might think, and by no means does it mean you shouldn’t also use the shallow depth of field as well as this color separation. In fact, they often go hand in hand, especially with busier backgrounds. You’ll often find neutral backgrounds and colorful subjects in commercial fashion images as well as e-commerce, and they simply use white backgrounds to ensure maximum attention on the clothing.

In the images below from Rankin and Mario Testino we can see this use of white and muted backgrounds to maximise the impact on the subjects.

On the left is a beauty image by Rankin – Here Rankin is using a very clear separation of subject to background, so much so in fact that the background seems to disappear entirely. On the right we have a fashion shot by Mario Testino and again, it’s very clear to see the impact colour has when separated against a muted backdrop.

Conversely, we can use colorful backgrounds to highlight and isolate the subject and it’s this technique you’ll often see appearing in my own work. In the two images below, you’ll see me clearly using color to separate the foreground and background. On the left, a clear bold color is seen behind the model in stark contrast to her white dress and on the right I’ve colored a location in a bold blue to heavily contrast the red of the styling in the foreground.

Jake Hicks using coloured backgrounds to separate the subjects.

You can take this color separation theory one step further by sandwiching your subject between color as well. In my image below, you’ll see that I’ve artificially colored the background behind my subject, but I’ve also artificially colored the immediate foreground in similar colors as well. This technique of sandwiching the subject between color like this can be easily overdone, but if used in conjunction with a shallow depth of field, the viewer has no choice but to be engaged with the subject.

Jake Hicks using both colour in the background and in the foreground to separate the model from the scene.

#3. Composites

You may be thinking that ‘composites’ is a relatively modern term, a word used to describe a puzzle of images rearranged to create an entirely separate piece. Surely this has only been truly possible with modern digital software? Well, as it turns out, composites is merely a modern word but the act of bringing multiple elements together to form a unique piece has been around almost as long as art itself.

In our modern digital world, we often use composites as a way of bringing multiple images together for a number of reasons. Maybe we’re trying to create something that ultimately doesn’t exist in the real world, or maybe we’re simply trying to bring together varying exposures of a single scene that would ordinarily be near impossible to capture in a single frame.

But whatever the reason for a composite, we are usually trying to create an impossible shot, a shot that simply doesn’t exist in reality. It should be no surprise then, that artists have been doing this for centuries and if it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for us.

One of the core reasons for bringing multiple elements together in paintings was often due to larger paintings that had many, many subjects involved. Artists rarely got 10 important people to stand around and pose at the same time so they were often painted separately until the entire painting was complete, effectively creating an impossible shot. But multiple subjects wasn’t the only reason for composite painting like this.

Below is a portrait of a man. The identity of the man is actually unclear and it may even be a self-portrait of the painter himself. This painting was made by Italian artist Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari) in 1576 and although it is assumed that this is what the subject looked like, the surroundings themselves are entirely made-up.

‘Portrait of a Man’ by Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari) 1576

Back then it was very common to commission a portrait of yourself just as it still is today and back then, just like today, it was very common to have certain aspects of your portrait ‘enhanced’. In this instance it is believed that this painting was made in southern Italy and in that area, there were none of those trees we see present behind the subject.

More importantly, though, the gentleman is confidently leaning against a plinth alongside vast, fluted greek columns. There were no such columns anywhere near this town in Italy, then or ever. This was a technique often used by artists as it gave them the ability to say something about the subject. In this instance, we see in the carved reliefs on those plinths beside him, scenes that give us hints to his profession, background or even military rank. As I said, this was a very common practice, but this image we see before us never really existed in reality.

Another great example of composites from the Old Masters was in still life painting. The painting of still life subjects upon a table was incredibly popular, but it wasn’t until Jan van Huysum came along in the early 1700s and began creating impossible paintings that their popularity skyrocketed. Jan Van Huysum was nothing short of a genius with his brush and at his peak, he literally could not paint fast enough to keep up with the demand for his exquisite work.

But what really stood Jan Van Huysum’s work apart, was his ability to capture fruit and flowers in unique arrangements. Up until that point, painters had painted what was in the fruit bowl or vase in front of them but in an era before the fridge, you were beholden to the seasons and what was in bloom at the time. Jan Van Huysum did away with that notion and brought together the best fruits and flowers from throughout the year into a single painting.

‘Fruit Piece’ by Jan van Huysum 1722

Jan Van Huysum image ‘Fruit Piece’ from 1722 simply never existed and it is an extraordinary collection of fruit and flowers that never sat in the same place at once. If you ever get the chance to see the work of Jan Van Huysum I urge to check it out as his skill is almost unbelievable. The detail in this piece is nothing short of breathtaking up close. In fact, his ability and technique were so highly coveted that he always worked alone and never allowed visitors to his studio.

Closeups of the ‘Fruit Piece’

I’m sure you need little advice on where to look for inspiration for modern day composite photographers, and there are certainly many great composite artists out there to chose from right now. But here’s a few to get you started: Renee Robyn, Dave Hill, Erik Johansson.

And remember, if compositing was good enough for the Old Masters hundreds of years ago, it’s certainly good enough for us today.

#4. Composition and Leading Lines

Granted this one should come as no surprise, but composition and lending lines have been a big part of the art world for a while now. But although you see this as obvious, strong composition is so often overlooked in modern photography in favor of simply recording what’s in front of you. I see too many current photographers get wrapped up in sharpness, megapixels and color balance to ensure they perfectly recreate what’s in front of their camera as accurately as possible. Unfortunately, none of these things will result in a ‘great’ photo, just like the perfect frame won’t make a great painting.

As photographers, we need to be thinking about telling a visual story and to do that many great artists will use composition and leading lines to take our eyes on that visual journey around a frame. Simply plonking your model in the center of the frame isn’t going to cut it, and using a color checker, a $2,000 razor sharp lens, and a 100-megapixel camera will never change that.

Let’s take a look at some Old Masters work and see what they did with composition and leading lines.

‘The Night Watch’ by Rembrandt van Rijn in 1642

This painting of ‘The Night Watch’ by Rembrandt van Rijn in 1642 is likely one of the most studied paintings of all time, as art students across the globe discuss its art tropes and it could easily fill an entire article all by itself. But if we just briefly look at composition and leading lines alone, you’ll see how Rembrandt clearly uses shape, form, and objects to create leading lines that all lead us to the center subjects. This is one of those elements in artwork that may seem obvious once they’re shown to you, but to the unknowing viewer’s eye, this is an incredibly powerful visual tool.

In the painting below, we see a slightly more complex use of leading lines.

‘The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew’ by Charles Le Brun 1646

In the painting above, ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew’ by Charles Le Brun we can clearly see very strong leading lines throughout this shot and if you continue to look at this image, more and more repeating shapes and symmetry begins to appear. Look again and see if the abundance of triangles starts to become more apparent. These very strong lines and balanced symmetry is incredibly hard to do in such a complicated piece and the more you look at this, the more compositional elements that start to emerge.

There is of course nothing wrong with the modern images that are being produced today, but you may well struggle to find a modern image that comes close to this level of compositional complexity.

As I previously mentioned, examples of striking composition and leading lines are harder to find today than you might think. Don’t get me wrong: of course it’s out there, but I think it plays less of a part in recent imagery than it has done historically.

One of the most famous photographers for composition and leading lines is Henri Cartier-Bresson as his work in the 1930s is part of practically every self-respecting photo training bible out there.

Photos by Henri Cartier-Bresson

As we move further forward in time, it becomes harder to pick out striking forms of composition as so many other factors form a part of our modern photography repertoire. A great place to start though is the work of Mikael Jansson as his work will often contain many striking elements of composition.

Photos by Mikael Jansson.

#5. Chiaroscuro

Lastly, we’ll take a look at one of my favorites: chiaroscuro. For those unsure of what that weird word means, chiaroscuro comes from the Renaissance period of art and is a word used to describe light and shadow. The Renaissance artists used dyed paper and then applied white gouache to create their works which resulted in a heavily contrasted image.

This heavily contrasted artwork was seen again as woodcuts which resulted in only two tones being used; the ink on the woodcut and the surface it was to be printed onto. Chiaroscuro is only a word few artists would use today, but the more modern term for this heavily contrasted style of lighting, used in both cinema and still photography is ‘low-key lighting’.

The key artists who later developed this chiaroscuro style was Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt and they were seen as the first individuals who stepped away from this HDR ‘look’ of everything being correctly exposed in paintings, and explored a stronger, almost single light style of work.

Of course, back then the most prominent light source after the sun had gone down was candlelight, and it was this light source that was seemingly used in many of the chiaroscuro paintings.

‘Matchmaker’ by Gerard van Honthorst in 1625

In the famous ‘Matchmaker’ painting by Gerard van Honthorst in 1625 we clearly see the candle in shot and as with so many great chiaroscuro paintings, the subjects are placed around the light source to create that stunning light to dark to light to dark tone throughout the frame. It’s pieces of art like this and it’s incredible use of the low-key lighting that should be seen far more in modern day black and white photography, but sadly this skill is being overlooked and often ignored. If you are even remotely interested in black and white photography, then please invest a little time in exploring these chiaroscuro paintings and their artists and guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Chiaroscuro was also a technique that started to get used a little more stylistically in single person portraits. In the image below ‘David with the Head of Goliath’ by Guido Cagnacci in 1645, we see a very clever use of chiaroscuro not only on the subject but on the background as well.

‘David with the Head of Goliath’ by Guido Cagnacci in 1645

To me, this a staggeringly stylistic portrait at the time and the very clever use of light to shadow makes the image incredibly three dimensional. The diagonal shadow line behind the subject cuts through just as the light hits the face of David and then falls off to shadow again moments later before again returning to light behind him. It’s this beautiful play of light that is as elegant as it is simple. Once again, we rarely see this high-level execution of lighting in our modern image making and I feel it’s something many of us, myself included, could benefit from understanding more comprehensively.

So what can we learn from chiaroscuro and begin to implement today? First and foremost, we once again need to isolate our subjects from our backgrounds and as artists that create two-dimensional images of three-dimensional objects, we need to introduce more visual depth into our portraits.

I bring this up as I all too often see subjects disappearing into the backgrounds behind them and they end up getting visually lost in the frame. Take a look at the two examples below to see the difference in reference to ‘subject and background separation’.

One light portrait away from background (left), and one light portrait close to background (right).

In the image on the left, you’ll see the model has no separation from the background and she appears to have no shape without that additional background light behind her. In the second image, you’ll clearly see the very strong separation that is now present that results in more shape and form in the subject as well as an added sense of depth to the shot.

Both of these images were shot with a single light, the only thing that changed was how close the subject is to the backdrop behind her. As I moved her and the light closer to the background, the light fell onto her as well as the background and very quickly and easily we created the added depth to the shot with the addition of the light behind.

Granted this is a very simplistic example of chiaroscuro being used in modern photography but the principles are the same. Create a sense of depth in your shot, not only on your subject but with the background as well.

Closing Thoughts

The bottom line is, the works of the ‘Old Masters’ are in galleries today and some of those paintings were painted hundreds of years ago, yet we still enjoy and contemplate them today. In a world where some images last mere seconds at most, it really is worth visiting what makes those art pieces so important to our visual culture today.

Elements like a strong dynamic range, using color as a way to display depth, including impossible elements, strong composition, and engaging light and shadow were common staples in so many pieces art before. Now those incredibly powerful almost vital elements of an image, are far harder to find.

I know I for one will be trying to include many of these elements into my future work and I would encourage you to do the same. After all, if it was good enough for the “Old Masters,” it’s good enough for us.

About the author: Jake Hicks is an editorial and fashion photographer based in Reading, UK. He specializes in keeping the skill in the camera and not just on the screen. If you’d like to learn more about his incredibly popular gelled lighting and post-pro techniques, visit this link for more info. You can find more of his work and writing on his website, Facebook, 500px, Instagram, Twitter, and Flickr. This article was also published here.

from Photography News https://petapixel.com/2018/11/29/5-things-photographers-can-learn-from-the-old-masters-of-painting/

[doxampage]

Top 10 3D Sculpting Programs – The Best Software for Creating Digital Sculptures for 3D Printing

3D sculpting is a fascinating way to bring characters, monsters, and all kinds of organic shapes to life. While many 3D modeling programs focus on precision, 3D sculpting apps are all about turning a piece of visual clay into a stunning 3D print. This article will show you the 10 best 3D sculpting programs to get the job done!

In the first part of this blog post, we will focus on sculpting programs. Here, sculpting is the sole purpose of the software and not just a bonus feature. Later on, we will also mention traditional 3D modeling programs that offer basic sculpting modules.

Sculpting Programs

1. ZBrush

Without any doubt, ZBrush is the most popular and most powerful digital sculpting program out there. It offers the world’s most advanced tools for everyone from art enthusiasts to major film and games studios.

Launched in 1999 as 2.5D modeling software, it is now the go-to solution for 3D sculptors and painters. Jody Garrett, who printed the goat skull that you can see below with ZBrush, calls the software a “hands-down tour-de-force of digital tools.”

Heads up though: ZBrush comes with a rather steep learning curve and a price of 795 USD. To get a feel for the software without taking any risks you can start ZBrush’s 45-day-trial version here. You should also check out our tutorial about how to prepare your ZBrush models for 3D printing here.

By: Pixologic

Price: 795USD

Jody Garrett’s goat skull was designed with ZBrush

2. Mudbox

ZBrush’s biggest competitor is Mudbox, which was developed in 2007 and acquired by Autodesk. Mudbox digital painting and sculpting software provides 3D artists with an intuitive and tactile toolset for creating and modifying 3D geometry and textures.

By: Autodesk

Price: 10USD/month or 80USD/year

It’s hard to say which of these two programs (ZBrush or Mudbox) is really better, but here are some points to consider:

Mudbox’s sculpting style differs somewhat to that of ZBrush and can be considered as more beginner-friendly.

The main difference between both programs is that ZBrush is much better at generating a base geometry to start modeling with than Mudbox. With Mudbox, you need to use integrations with Maya or 3ds Max to generate a base geometry more easily.

Overall, ZBrush and Mudbox feature similar sets of tools and brushes. However, ZBrush beats Mudbox in terms of functionality.

ZBrush is often considered to be superior to Mudbox when it comes to painting the model.

Mudbox costs 10 USD/month, whereas ZBrush costs 795 USD for a single user license.

Since both ZBrush and Mudbox come as free trial versions, you might want to check them both out first and then choose the program you like most.

This bust of a monster was created in Mudbox

3. Meshmixer

If you don’t want to jump into the cold water right away, you might want to get started with some free sculpting apps first. Meshmixer is one of the free 3D-sculpting-based CAD programs created by Autodesk – and it is also one of their simpler, more beginner-friendly programs. Meshmixer can be used to intuitively sculpt designs, hollow them out, cut them apart, and combine parts together without wrecking your mesh’s internal or external geometry. It’s a very cool tool to prepare your design for 3D printing as well.

You can mash, mix, sculpt, stamp or paint your own 3D designs from scratch, or start from over 10,000 models in the 123D Gallery. Our very own mascot (the Piguin; see below), was created in this great program. If you also want to give it a try, be sure to take a look at our extensive Meshmixer beginner’s guide.

By: Autodesk

Price: Free

These 3D printed Piguins by Bert de Niel were created in Meshmixer

4. 3D Coat

3D Coat is another interesting digital sculpting program. Its main advantages are its super powerful texturing, UV mapping, and painting tools.

The general 3D modeling part of working with this software is pretty unconventional and differs from the other programs listed here. However, if your number one concern is ‘coating’ your sculpt with a great texture, then 3D Coat is your best friend.

This software comes at a price that ranges between 99 and 379 USD depending on which license suits your needs. The 3D printing community of this software is rather small, and so finding good 3D printing tutorials for it is a little more difficult than for the other programs mentioned in this list. To try it, you can simply start with their free 30 days trial version.

By: Pilgway

Price:  from 99USD (amateurs) to 379USD (professionals)

The Forrest Critter SC by Lazyad was created with 3D Coat.

5. Sculptris

Sculptris is a free digital sculpting tool, created by Pixologic, the company behind ZBrush. If you’re new to the world of digital sculpting, Sculptris is the ideal ground on which to get started. It shows you the very basics of what ZBrush is able to do.

Sculptris provides an excellent gateway into the world of 3D sculpting. Its features are easy to learn, even for people with little or no experience in digital art, yet robust enough for creating detailed base models. Sculptris also lets you import 3D meshes (.obj) for further detailing and modifying.

The only downside of Sculptris is its limited functionality. When you’re ready to take your Sculptris creations to the next level for detailing, having a look at ZBrush definitely makes sense.

By: Pixologic

Price: Free

The 3D printed Serpents Buckle by Michael Mueller was created in Sculptris

Further 3D Modeling Programs with Sculpting Capabilities

The programs that we looked at so far are nearly exclusively about sculpting an object. However, several traditional 3D modeling programs also offer sculpting features. So if you already have experience with one of the following programs, you might want to check out their sculpting modules first. Keep in mind that the sculpting functionality of these programs are inferior to those of Mudbox and ZBrush, but it’s enough to get a basic job done.

6. Blender

Blender is a very powerful 3D modeling program and a popular choice within the 3D printing community. It has been equipped with a sculpting tool set since 2007, and its workflow is pretty similar to that of ZBrush and Mudbox. Additional bonuses are the sheer number of tutorials and plugins out there as well as the fact that Blender is completely free! However, users continuously complain about the interface and the very steep learning curve!

By: Blender Foundation

Price: Free and Open Source

This monster was sculpted in Blender by BlenderMania

7. Cinema 4D

Cinema 4D received a sculpting module back in 2012. It features multi-resolution sculpting, advanced symmetry options and a big range of brushes, stencils and stamps. However, if you are not already an owner of this software, it comes with a price of roughly 3,500 USD (42 days free trial here).

By: Maxon

Price: 3,500USD

8. MODO

MODO has an integrated sculpting mode since 2007. The so called “Painting and Sculpting” function is designed to be simple to use while providing users with a powerful and intuitive toolset that empowers artists to realize their vision with the least amount of strain. MODO comes at around 1,799 USD (30 days free trial here)

By: Foundry

Price: from 599USD/year to 1,799USD perpetual license

9. Maya

Maya also extended its 3D sculpting capabilities and added a new set of brushes in 2016. While it does a decent job, many users complain that the workflow is still too buggy and sluggish. Also, Maya comes at 185 USD/month – so unless you already own a Maya license you might want to consider other programs first or try their 30 days free trial.

By: Autodesk

Price: 242USD/month or 1,936USD/year

Online 3D Sculpting App

10. SculptGL

Last but not least we have an honorable mention that certainly deserves a spot on this list: SculptGL. This app is free, doesn’t need a download/installation and doesn’t require you to sign up. It runs directly in your browser and allows you to start sculpting your first model in seconds. It’s a great app to start messing around and find out if this way of modeling is right for you. Of course it won’t lead to the most stunning designs, but it is a nice sandbox! You might want to check out our tutorial to get a better understanding of this free app.

By: Stephane Ginier

Price: Free

Japanese artist Motogashi designed this using Sculpt GL

Are you ready to get going? 3D sculptors love printing their designs in multicolor! Take a look at 10 stunning (sculpted) multicolor 3D prints here to see what other 3D artist have created. If your design is ready to be printed, upload it here and see the price of your HD 3D print instantly.

Top 10 3D Sculpting Programs – The Best Software for Creating Digital Sculptures for 3D Printing published first on https://getyourprintingcompanies.tumblr.com/

[goope-jp-tenmei]

Behind the Stationery: Katharine Watson

Today’s installment of Behind the Stationery is a very special one, as we sit down with printmaker and business owner Katharine Watson! Katharine carves and prints each linoleum block entirely by hand to produce all kinds goods from stationery to textiles. Today she’s sharing her carving process with us, along with how local shows helped launch her full-time business and why she doesn’t believe in creative block. She’s a longtime favorite here on the OSBP and wrote our guide to block printing if you want more details on that! Take it away, Katharine! —Megan Soh

Photo by Maika Lindsay

From Katharine: My name is Katharine Watson and I run my namesake business from my studio in Portland, Maine. I started my business in 2009 after graduating from college and wanting to make the jump into being an artist. I started out doing linocuts on paper and stationery, and have since expanded to working with home goods, doing licensing for other companies, and doing custom design based on my linocuts.

I always knew I wanted to be an artist, but in college it seemed like being a fine art painter was the only real career path. Once I graduated I started working at a stationery store, continued printmaking in my free time, and began to do some small shows where I sold prints and hand-printed stationery. It started going well and I realized that there was a market for printmaking. I was surprised because I didn’t see being an artist as a full-time career option, but after about a year of working like crazy on the side, I was able to quit my other jobs and pursue printmaking and art full-time. I definitely credit doing all those local shows at first for some of my success: it was so helpful to get feedback in the early stages (whether it was vocalized or through what people purchased). It really helped me to figure out what would sell, and seeing people get excited about my work and style in the beginning was an amazing push to get started.

When I started my business I lived in Washington, D.C., and have since lived in rural Vermont and am now settled in Portland, Maine. My studio is in a converted barn behind my house, and that was our main requirement when we were house-hunting. I briefly considered getting a studio a little more separate from our house, but I love being able to work so close from home or run in quickly when I think of a good idea (and the commute is pretty great when it’s snowing).

All of my stationery starts with hand-carved linoleum blocks, and we also offer block printed art prints, home goods, textiles, and custom work. I love stationery and printmaking, and it made sense to me when I was starting out to put the two together. When I first started, I didn’t know of anyone else who was working with linocuts, and that definitely helped me stand out in the beginning. Now, thanks to social media, I know of so many other artists working with linoleum. It’s so great to see other people’s work be more visible thanks to the internet, and also to see the resurgence in interest in printmaking that’s happened in the last few years.

My day usually starts with me working on email and social media messages, and taking care of the less glamorous business tasks like submitting files, tweaking designs, and putting invoices together. Those parts aren’t as Instagram-friendly as some of the other work I do, but I actually love doing it because it’s what allows me to work full-time for myself. I always appreciate every new inquiry or order because it keeps my business going, and I love getting requests that are a little outside of my comfort zone as they help me develop new ideas and styles. One of the nice things about being self-employed is that I don’t really have a set schedule. Some parts of the year I am working twelve hour days and rushing to get shipments out and meet deadlines, and other times I get to be more creative, try new styles, and work a little less. I’ve really gotten used to that balance, but it was one of the harder adjustments to running a business. At first I thought that slower times were a sign that things weren’t going well, and now I am able to recognize them as a necessary time to reset and keep pushing new ideas. I definitely wouldn’t be able to come up with new work if every month were as busy as December.

When I’m thinking of a new design or product, I’ll start with a thumbnail sketch, and then draw the design out on linoleum and start carving. One of my favorite things to do is experiment with new patterns and see what I can do with them: after a new block is printed, I might scan it and move it into Photoshop to turn it into a repeat pattern, or use a piece of the design on a new wedding invitation. Usually one new idea will snowball into lots of new ones, and that’s my favorite thing about having a little extra time to create vs. being on a tight deadline. People often ask me about creative block and it’s not something I really believe in: if I don’t have any ideas, I’ll just start doodling or look through old work, get something down on paper and see what happens. I don’t think that a lack of creative block means that you’re consistently doing good work, just that you’re getting ideas out of your head and onto paper, even if they are terrible. I usually find that there is something there worth exploring, and if not I can just keep getting shapes down on paper.

My process starts with a plain piece of linoleum, and I draw the border for the size of the piece I want to make. I always carve on linoleum from Blick, but I always recommend that people try out different types of linoleum to find which one works best for them. Every type has a different feel and a different texture when printed, and it took lots of experimenting for me to figure out what worked best with my style. I carve with Speedball carving tools, and again, different people have different preferences for tools but these are the ones I’ve always liked most.

I start by sketching out my design with a ballpoint pen, usually just drawing freehand and sketching out the lines as I go. Once I have the pattern laid out, I’ll go over it with Sharpie so I can see exactly which lines need to be carved out. From there, I start by carving away the smallest details and work out to carving away the larger background pieces. I then use a wide marker to draw over what I’ve carved so I can see what still needs to be worked on.

Once a block is finished (which can take anywhere from 2 to 20+ hours depending on the size of the block, but most A2-sized blocks take about three hours) I’ll print it on one of our two presses. We have a C&P that we use to print smaller blocks and all our block printed cards (or anything smaller than 8×10), and a Challenge Proof Press that I use for larger blocks and art prints. I mostly use rubber-based VanSon inks, but I also like Speedball oil-based inks.

I love the carving process because I just turn on a TV show or podcast and get in the zone of carving. It’s very meditative and sometimes I can carve for hours without really noticing (until my hand cramps up and I have to take a break). People always ask what happens if I make a mistake and carve out the wrong part, but that’s not usually an issue unless I’m carving text. If I make a mistake on a pattern I’ll just incorporate it into the design and hide it by moving things around a bit, but if it’s text I’ll have to start over. Because of that I always carve the text first, because it’s heartbreaking to get to the end of a carving and then accidentally cut the T off of “Thank You”!

Photo by Maika Lindsay

My favorite thing about the whole process is doing the first test print, when you finally get to see the carving time pay off and see how everything looks. It’s always kind of a surprise because you never know exactly what it’s going to look like, and that makes the process worth it for me!

Photos by Katharine Watson unless noted otherwise.

Want to be featured in the Behind the Stationery column? Reach out to Megan at megan [at] ohsobeautifulpaper [dot] com for more details.

from Oh So Beautiful Paper https://ift.tt/2GMOC8X via IFTTT

[totalimageshop]

Top 10 3D Sculpting Programs – The Best Software for Creating Digital Sculptures for 3D Printing

3D sculpting is a fascinating way to bring characters, monsters, and all kinds of organic shapes to life. While many 3D modeling programs focus on precision, 3D sculpting apps are all about turning a piece of visual clay into a stunning 3D print. This article will show you the 10 best 3D sculpting programs to get the job done!

In the first part of this blog post, we will focus on sculpting programs. Here, sculpting is the sole purpose of the software and not just a bonus feature. Later on, we will also mention traditional 3D modeling programs that offer basic sculpting modules.

Sculpting Programs

1. ZBrush

Without any doubt, ZBrush is the most popular and most powerful digital sculpting program out there. It offers the world’s most advanced tools for everyone from art enthusiasts to major film and games studios.

Launched in 1999 as 2.5D modeling software, it is now the go-to solution for 3D sculptors and painters. Jody Garrett, who printed the goat skull that you can see below with ZBrush, calls the software a “hands-down tour-de-force of digital tools.”

Heads up though: ZBrush comes with a rather steep learning curve and a price of 795 USD. To get a feel for the software without taking any risks you can start ZBrush’s 45-day-trial version here. You should also check out our tutorial about how to prepare your ZBrush models for 3D printing here.

By: Pixologic

Price: 795USD

Jody Garrett’s goat skull was designed with ZBrush

2. Mudbox

ZBrush’s biggest competitor is Mudbox, which was developed in 2007 and acquired by Autodesk. Mudbox digital painting and sculpting software provides 3D artists with an intuitive and tactile toolset for creating and modifying 3D geometry and textures.

By: Autodesk

Price: 10USD/month or 80USD/year

It’s hard to say which of these two programs (ZBrush or Mudbox) is really better, but here are some points to consider:

Mudbox’s sculpting style differs somewhat to that of ZBrush and can be considered as more beginner-friendly.

The main difference between both programs is that ZBrush is much better at generating a base geometry to start modeling with than Mudbox. With Mudbox, you need to use integrations with Maya or 3ds Max to generate a base geometry more easily.

Overall, ZBrush and Mudbox feature similar sets of tools and brushes. However, ZBrush beats Mudbox in terms of functionality.

ZBrush is often considered to be superior to Mudbox when it comes to painting the model.

Mudbox costs 10 USD/month, whereas ZBrush costs 795 USD for a single user license.

Since both ZBrush and Mudbox come as free trial versions, you might want to check them both out first and then choose the program you like most.

This bust of a monster was created in Mudbox

3. Meshmixer

If you don’t want to jump into the cold water right away, you might want to get started with some free sculpting apps first. Meshmixer is one of the free 3D-sculpting-based CAD programs created by Autodesk – and it is also one of their simpler, more beginner-friendly programs. Meshmixer can be used to intuitively sculpt designs, hollow them out, cut them apart, and combine parts together without wrecking your mesh’s internal or external geometry. It’s a very cool tool to prepare your design for 3D printing as well.

You can mash, mix, sculpt, stamp or paint your own 3D designs from scratch, or start from over 10,000 models in the 123D Gallery. Our very own mascot (the Piguin; see below), was created in this great program. If you also want to give it a try, be sure to take a look at our extensive Meshmixer beginner’s guide.

By: Autodesk

Price: Free

These 3D printed Piguins by Bert de Niel were created in Meshmixer

4. 3D Coat

3D Coat is another interesting digital sculpting program. Its main advantages are its super powerful texturing, UV mapping, and painting tools.

The general 3D modeling part of working with this software is pretty unconventional and differs from the other programs listed here. However, if your number one concern is ‘coating’ your sculpt with a great texture, then 3D Coat is your best friend.

This software comes at a price that ranges between 99 and 379 USD depending on which license suits your needs. The 3D printing community of this software is rather small, and so finding good 3D printing tutorials for it is a little more difficult than for the other programs mentioned in this list. To try it, you can simply start with their free 30 days trial version.

By: Pilgway

Price:  from 99USD (amateurs) to 379USD (professionals)

The Forrest Critter SC by Lazyad was created with 3D Coat.

5. Sculptris

Sculptris is a free digital sculpting tool, created by Pixologic, the company behind ZBrush. If you’re new to the world of digital sculpting, Sculptris is the ideal ground on which to get started. It shows you the very basics of what ZBrush is able to do.

Sculptris provides an excellent gateway into the world of 3D sculpting. Its features are easy to learn, even for people with little or no experience in digital art, yet robust enough for creating detailed base models. Sculptris also lets you import 3D meshes (.obj) for further detailing and modifying.

The only downside of Sculptris is its limited functionality. When you’re ready to take your Sculptris creations to the next level for detailing, having a look at ZBrush definitely makes sense.

By: Pixologic

Price: Free

The 3D printed Serpents Buckle by Michael Mueller was created in Sculptris

Further 3D Modeling Programs with Sculpting Capabilities

The programs that we looked at so far are nearly exclusively about sculpting an object. However, several traditional 3D modeling programs also offer sculpting features. So if you already have experience with one of the following programs, you might want to check out their sculpting modules first. Keep in mind that the sculpting functionality of these programs are inferior to those of Mudbox and ZBrush, but it’s enough to get a basic job done.

6. Blender

Blender is a very powerful 3D modeling program and a popular choice within the 3D printing community. It has been equipped with a sculpting tool set since 2007, and its workflow is pretty similar to that of ZBrush and Mudbox. Additional bonuses are the sheer number of tutorials and plugins out there as well as the fact that Blender is completely free! However, users continuously complain about the interface and the very steep learning curve!

By: Blender Foundation

Price: Free and Open Source

This monster was sculpted in Blender by BlenderMania

7. Cinema 4D

Cinema 4D received a sculpting module back in 2012. It features multi-resolution sculpting, advanced symmetry options and a big range of brushes, stencils and stamps. However, if you are not already an owner of this software, it comes with a price of roughly 3,500 USD (42 days free trial here).

By: Maxon

Price: 3,500USD

8. MODO

MODO has an integrated sculpting mode since 2007. The so called “Painting and Sculpting” function is designed to be simple to use while providing users with a powerful and intuitive toolset that empowers artists to realize their vision with the least amount of strain. MODO comes at around 1,799 USD (30 days free trial here)

By: Foundry

Price: from 599USD/year to 1,799USD perpetual license

9. Maya

Maya also extended its 3D sculpting capabilities and added a new set of brushes in 2016. While it does a decent job, many users complain that the workflow is still too buggy and sluggish. Also, Maya comes at 185 USD/month – so unless you already own a Maya license you might want to consider other programs first or try their 30 days free trial.

By: Autodesk

Price: 242USD/month or 1,936USD/year

Online 3D Sculpting App

10. SculptGL

Last but not least we have an honorable mention that certainly deserves a spot on this list: SculptGL. This app is free, doesn’t need a download/installation and doesn’t require you to sign up. It runs directly in your browser and allows you to start sculpting your first model in seconds. It’s a great app to start messing around and find out if this way of modeling is right for you. Of course it won’t lead to the most stunning designs, but it is a nice sandbox! You might want to check out our tutorial to get a better understanding of this free app.

By: Stephane Ginier

Price: Free

Japanese artist Motogashi designed this using Sculpt GL

Are you ready to get going? 3D sculptors love printing their designs in multicolor! Take a look at 10 stunning (sculpted) multicolor 3D prints here to see what other 3D artist have created. If your design is ready to be printed, upload it here and see the price of your HD 3D print instantly.

from 3D Printing Blog | i.materialise https://i.materialise.com/blog/3d-sculpting-programs-for-3d-printing/

[doxampage]

Top 10 3D Sculpting Programs – The Best Software for Creating Digital Sculptures for 3D Printing

3D sculpting is a fascinating way to bring characters, monsters, and all kinds of organic shapes to life. While many 3D modeling programs focus on precision, 3D sculpting apps are all about turning a piece of visual clay into a stunning 3D print. This article will show you the 10 best 3D sculpting programs to get the job done!

In the first part of this blog post, we will focus on sculpting programs. Here, sculpting is the sole purpose of the software and not just a bonus feature. Later on, we will also mention traditional 3D modeling programs that offer basic sculpting modules.

Sculpting Programs

1. ZBrush

Without any doubt, ZBrush is the most popular and most powerful digital sculpting program out there. It offers the world’s most advanced tools for everyone from art enthusiasts to major film and games studios.

Launched in 1999 as 2.5D modeling software, it is now the go-to solution for 3D sculptors and painters. Jody Garrett, who printed the goat skull that you can see below with ZBrush, calls the software a “hands-down tour-de-force of digital tools.”

Heads up though: ZBrush comes with a rather steep learning curve and a price of 795 USD. To get a feel for the software without taking any risks you can start ZBrush’s 45-day-trial version here. You should also check out our tutorial about how to prepare your ZBrush models for 3D printing here.

By: Pixologic

Price: 795USD

Jody Garrett’s goat skull was designed with ZBrush

2. Mudbox

ZBrush’s biggest competitor is Mudbox, which was developed in 2007 and acquired by Autodesk. Mudbox digital painting and sculpting software provides 3D artists with an intuitive and tactile toolset for creating and modifying 3D geometry and textures.

By: Autodesk

Price: 10USD/month or 80USD/year

It’s hard to say which of these two programs (ZBrush or Mudbox) is really better, but here are some points to consider:

Mudbox’s sculpting style differs somewhat to that of ZBrush and can be considered as more beginner-friendly.

The main difference between both programs is that ZBrush is much better at generating a base geometry to start modeling with than Mudbox. With Mudbox, you need to use integrations with Maya or 3ds Max to generate a base geometry more easily.

Overall, ZBrush and Mudbox feature similar sets of tools and brushes. However, ZBrush beats Mudbox in terms of functionality.

ZBrush is often considered to be superior to Mudbox when it comes to painting the model.

Mudbox costs 10 USD/month, whereas ZBrush costs 795 USD for a single user license.

Since both ZBrush and Mudbox come as free trial versions, you might want to check them both out first and then choose the program you like most.

This bust of a monster was created in Mudbox

3. Meshmixer

If you don’t want to jump into the cold water right away, you might want to get started with some free sculpting apps first. Meshmixer is one of the free 3D-sculpting-based CAD programs created by Autodesk – and it is also one of their simpler, more beginner-friendly programs. Meshmixer can be used to intuitively sculpt designs, hollow them out, cut them apart, and combine parts together without wrecking your mesh’s internal or external geometry. It’s a very cool tool to prepare your design for 3D printing as well.

You can mash, mix, sculpt, stamp or paint your own 3D designs from scratch, or start from over 10,000 models in the 123D Gallery. Our very own mascot (the Piguin; see below), was created in this great program. If you also want to give it a try, be sure to take a look at our extensive Meshmixer beginner’s guide.

By: Autodesk

Price: Free

These 3D printed Piguins by Bert de Niel were created in Meshmixer

4. 3D Coat

3D Coat is another interesting digital sculpting program. Its main advantages are its super powerful texturing, UV mapping, and painting tools.

The general 3D modeling part of working with this software is pretty unconventional and differs from the other programs listed here. However, if your number one concern is ‘coating’ your sculpt with a great texture, then 3D Coat is your best friend.

This software comes at a price that ranges between 99 and 379 USD depending on which license suits your needs. The 3D printing community of this software is rather small, and so finding good 3D printing tutorials for it is a little more difficult than for the other programs mentioned in this list. To try it, you can simply start with their free 30 days trial version.

By: Pilgway

Price:  from 99USD (amateurs) to 379USD (professionals)

The Forrest Critter SC by Lazyad was created with 3D Coat.

5. Sculptris

Sculptris is a free digital sculpting tool, created by Pixologic, the company behind ZBrush. If you’re new to the world of digital sculpting, Sculptris is the ideal ground on which to get started. It shows you the very basics of what ZBrush is able to do.

Sculptris provides an excellent gateway into the world of 3D sculpting. Its features are easy to learn, even for people with little or no experience in digital art, yet robust enough for creating detailed base models. Sculptris also lets you import 3D meshes (.obj) for further detailing and modifying.

The only downside of Sculptris is its limited functionality. When you’re ready to take your Sculptris creations to the next level for detailing, having a look at ZBrush definitely makes sense.

By: Pixologic

Price: Free

The 3D printed Serpents Buckle by Michael Mueller was created in Sculptris

Further 3D Modeling Programs with Sculpting Capabilities

The programs that we looked at so far are nearly exclusively about sculpting an object. However, several traditional 3D modeling programs also offer sculpting features. So if you already have experience with one of the following programs, you might want to check out their sculpting modules first. Keep in mind that the sculpting functionality of these programs are inferior to those of Mudbox and ZBrush, but it’s enough to get a basic job done.

6. Blender

Blender is a very powerful 3D modeling program and a popular choice within the 3D printing community. It has been equipped with a sculpting tool set since 2007, and its workflow is pretty similar to that of ZBrush and Mudbox. Additional bonuses are the sheer number of tutorials and plugins out there as well as the fact that Blender is completely free! However, users continuously complain about the interface and the very steep learning curve!

By: Blender Foundation

Price: Free and Open Source

This monster was sculpted in Blender by BlenderMania

7. Cinema 4D

Cinema 4D received a sculpting module back in 2012. It features multi-resolution sculpting, advanced symmetry options and a big range of brushes, stencils and stamps. However, if you are not already an owner of this software, it comes with a price of roughly 3,500 USD (42 days free trial here).

By: Maxon

Price: 3,500USD

8. MODO

MODO has an integrated sculpting mode since 2007. The so called “Painting and Sculpting” function is designed to be simple to use while providing users with a powerful and intuitive toolset that empowers artists to realize their vision with the least amount of strain. MODO comes at around 1,799 USD (30 days free trial here)

By: Foundry

Price: from 599USD/year to 1,799USD perpetual license

9. Maya

Maya also extended its 3D sculpting capabilities and added a new set of brushes in 2016. While it does a decent job, many users complain that the workflow is still too buggy and sluggish. Also, Maya comes at 185 USD/month – so unless you already own a Maya license you might want to consider other programs first or try their 30 days free trial.

By: Autodesk

Price: 242USD/month or 1,936USD/year

Online 3D Sculpting App

10. SculptGL

Last but not least we have an honorable mention that certainly deserves a spot on this list: SculptGL. This app is free, doesn’t need a download/installation and doesn’t require you to sign up. It runs directly in your browser and allows you to start sculpting your first model in seconds. It’s a great app to start messing around and find out if this way of modeling is right for you. Of course it won’t lead to the most stunning designs, but it is a nice sandbox! You might want to check out our tutorial to get a better understanding of this free app.

By: Stephane Ginier

Price: Free

Japanese artist Motogashi designed this using Sculpt GL

Are you ready to get going? 3D sculptors love printing their designs in multicolor! Take a look at 10 stunning (sculpted) multicolor 3D prints here to see what other 3D artist have created. If your design is ready to be printed, upload it here and see the price of your HD 3D print instantly.

Top 10 3D Sculpting Programs – The Best Software for Creating Digital Sculptures for 3D Printing published first on http://ift.tt/2vVn0YZ