Yifan Wang - 3D Digital Art Selection

Ancient Dragon with Black Mage Girl

The most recent project I created from my original concept is a scene where a black mage girl encounters an ancient dragon on her magical journey. I did it in GNOMON's classes, Digital Sculpting & Lighting and Rendering 1. Appreciate my instructors, Wren Cromwell and Leonardo Ledesma!

It is the first time I've been sculpting an enormous creature with such a complex and unique artistic expression, a Chinese dragon that appears to be from ancient times. I have a soft spot for giant, powerful fantasy creatures, especially when placed alongside tiny creatures. The exaggerated feeling created by the massive difference in size intensifies the power of the epic duel.

I wanted to challenge myself to create an old dragon that looked in good spirits. It has curly tousled hair and a flowing beard. The mouth full of sharp teeth is half-open, and the whole facial expression is majestic and menacing. I am delighted to design its extended corners in a way that branches and rocks are mixed. The body twisting and the overall stance started with polylines pipes, and they ended up in what I found to be more satisfying. For the back and tail of the dragon, I used a similar sculpting technique to the head. Honestly, I enjoy the shape that looks like rocks or cliffs. Next, I learn how to make brushes for scales and divide them organically on the body. During the Zbrush process, the dragon carving steps in Keita Okada's Artworks & Making Book gave me excellent guidance and help. I learned a lot from it.

I am also very fond of this sculpted little girl. Her original inspiration came from Lalafell, a gnome-like race from the seas south of Eorzea in Final Fantasy XIV. I designed the robe and staff with unique shapes and patterns. I hope they make girls seem to have a lot of magic and experience, fearless to face such a colossal dragon.

Wren Cromwell taught my Digital Sculpting class. Thanks so much to his lectures and guidance; I had an intense interest in Zbrush sculpting and all these new skills! And then, I did this scene in Lighting and Rendering 1 class, taught by Leonardo Ledesma. Again, I am very grateful for his detailed instructions and modification suggestions; it was very inspiring for my scenes and lighting.

I did the final texturing, lighting, and rendering in Cinema4D by Octane. I try to mix the texture of the hand-carved stone with the golden bronze in a way that strengthens the edges and details.

An Uninvited Guest

For unknown reasons, a green iguana broke into the car studio. I created this scene in GNOMON's classes, Hard Surface Modeling 1 & Texturing and Shading 2. Lots of thanks to my instructors, David Mooy and Christophe Desse!

Many thanks to Christophe for his lectures and for giving me this fantastic idea!

I modeled this Aston Martin 1933 Le Mans in Maya. These mechanized designs and all the details of classic cars fascinate me. And I tried to carve an astute green iguana following reference photography and then created as many layers as possible in Substance Painter to mimic the texture and pattern of its skin. Finally, I combined the scene in Maya and rendered it with V-ray.

While checking out this car project, I studied studio photography's lighting and camera movement techniques. I'm trying to make a quick cut shot short to showcase all the details I love about this classic car.

Digital Artist’s Studio

It’s an original concept of interior design I made in GNOMON’s classes, Art History 2 & Animation and Visual Effects 1. I got inspiration from four works of art from Japan’s Edo period in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Thanks so much for the lectures and guidance provided by Keri Shurtliff and Stephen McClure!

Four works of art from Japan’s Edo period in the Metropolitan Museum of Art as below: Sword Guard (Tsuba), War Hat (Jingasa) with Storage Bag, Small View of Yedo, and Old Plum.

Based on these artworks, I used them as inspiration to create an interior concept design, a digital artist’s studio. And then, I reinterpreted the entire indoor scene with 3D animation. I did the whole project in Maya, texturing and rendering with V-ray.

A Room Full of Memories

This project was my first time learning to create an architecture interior in Maya with V-ray, practicing modeling, textures, lighting, and rendering. I did it in the Introduction to 3D with Maya class taught by Stephen McClure at GNOMON. Very grateful to him, and I had tremendous fun learning these skills.

The photography of RODNAE Productions inspired me. A lonely older woman was sitting on the bed looking outside the glass window in this room, with Beloved's Photo on the desk. The task of this assignment is to restore it as 100% as possible. Here is the link to the original photo: RODNAE Productions.

GNOMON awarded these four projects Best of Term, respectively categorized as Digital Sculpting, Texturing and Shading, Environment Design, and Environment Interior. It is undoubtedly a great encouragement to me, which gives me more motivation and passion for keeping going! I am intensely grateful for the opportunity to perfect them even after the classes!

Although there is still a lot of room for improvement in these projects, I am happy to share this article with you, and I have learned a lot over the year! Also, huge thanks to my family and friends for their support!

Thank you for viewing my works. I hope you enjoy the creations!

Here are the links to my Artstaion and LinkedIn.