Every Frame a Painting

It all started with an experiment where I combined digitally painted brush strokes with 3D geometry to create a scene that looked very much like a digital painting. Not trying to achieve realism, going for a painterly look in 3D instead.

As the title of this section says (in reference to the YouTube Channel with the same name), the greater goal of this project was to achieve a painting out of every frame.

Studying paintings allowed me to better understand how shapes, colors, lighting, and composition work together to create a beautiful image.

This direction slowly materialized in what has become The Illustrated Nature, a project close to my heart where I could focus on bringing the two worlds I most enjoy together, digital paintings and 3D graphics.

My name is Dragos Matkovski and I will try to share workflows and thought processes I’ve used in the making of this project.

The Assets

One thing I tried to solve from the start was to find a way to make the vegetation models lush and alive. I wanted the trees and the grass to be dense yet performant, and move in the wind in a believable way.