Curious Morning 2022

Curious Morning is a peaceful creature-world illustration capturing a quiet moment at the edge of a jungle watering hole. The piece centers on a herd of my Grootslag creatures—stylized, elephant-like giants inspired by African folklore—beginning their day as one young calf leans in with playful curiosity toward a small river turtle surfacing in the water. The scene focuses on mood, natural lighting, and storytelling through creature behavior.

My Role

Sole Creator: Responsible for the full visual and technical execution—character modeling, creature design, environment creation, lighting, rendering, and final compositing.

Responsibilities:

Creature Concept & Design

• Designed the Grootslag as an original interpretation of the mythic creature—combining elephant physiology with reptilian armor plating, spines, and prehistoric proportions.

• Created the small river creature to add scale contrast and narrative charm, emphasizing worldbuilding beyond the main herd.

Sculpting & Modeling

• Sculpted both large and small creatures in high detail, incorporating thick skin folds, tusks, ridges, plates, and subtle stylizations to enhance appeal.

• Built optimized low-poly meshes suitable for rigging, animation, and complex posing.

Rigging & Posing

• Fully rigged all Grootslag individuals to allow for expressive body language, trunk gestures, and herd movement.

• Posed the creatures to tell a naturalistic story: grazing adults, alert guardians, and curious calves exploring their environment.

Texturing & Lookdev

• Painted all creature textures by hand, focusing on leathery skin variation, soft color transitions, and believable material breakup.

• Developed shaders for water, rocks, moss, and foliage to unify the scene’s natural atmosphere.

Environment Creation

• Built a lush forest clearing with layered vegetation, ground scatter, river rocks, and misty distance falloff to create depth.

• Used subtle environmental storytelling—bent grass, cracked stones, and morning haze—to evoke a lived-in ecosystem.

Lighting & Rendering

• Created a warm dawn lighting setup with soft rimlight and filtered sunlight passing through canopy layers.

• Integrated volumetric fog and ambient bounce light to simulate early-morning humidity and forest atmosphere.

Cinematic Composition

• Framed the scene with a wide, peaceful landscape that draws the eye from the foreground water to the towering Grootslag in the background.

• Used overlapping silhouettes and varying creature scale to emphasize depth and environmental immersion.

Compositing & Final Polish

• Combined render passes with gentle color grading, bloom, soft sharpening, and atmospheric haze.

• Enhanced focal areas—like the curious calf and reflective water surface—using subtle contrast and highlight boosts..

Software Used

3DS Max, Maya (Rigging and Posing), Corona Renderer, Substance Painter, TopoGun 2, After Effects, Photoshop