Why a dragon ?

Everything began in June, 2003, with a simple single line, like this one :

It's a step, I like to name "Shape search" : I draw random shapes and random colors. Then I try to get something interesting from theses shapes.
By drawing, I got the idea to make a cartoon like dragon. So, the dragon is the result of coincidences.

Then, I drew, the logo of the site.



Then, a sweet animated gif.



Finally, here is the first version of the site.

Towards the 3D.

I liked the idea of the dragon. Thus, I wanted to build the same idea with 3D modelling techniques.
Up to this day, I was using a tool named pov-ray. Pov-ray is a very good tool but it has a big disadvantage : you have to type the 3D objects and 3D operations inside a text editor.
I assessed the total number of vertex of the final dragon to about 2000 à 3000, whithout the scene. I though, I was not able to write the 3000 vertex of a mesh, by hand, one vertex after the other, inside a text editor. So, I searched for a tool wich will meet my needs. I found Blender.

Building the dragon

I started with some roughs, with a simple pen. My goal, was to clarify my personal vision of this mythological animal : The shape and the position of the horns, the eyes, the eyebrows, ...
A creature wich looks extremely strong, but always nice and friendly.


Zoom on the head of the beast.

The first renders

Here are some of the firsts quick renders I've made. I added a subsurf Catmull-Clark level 1.

A quick render.

Design of the scene

My first idea, was to put the dragon in the middle of an original water scene.
My goal is simply to put the elements of the scene, while avoiding the unnecessary details.
For the background, I used a skydome with a photo material. When the sky is cloudy, I think that using a skydome, grows the volume of the scene.





A scene with a bit more details.

Design of the ugly fish

I wanted to add a fish wich would be ugly, awful and hideous : The ugly fish. A prehistoric like pirhana. Like the ones the Marsupilami eats for breakfast.



Zoom on the ugly.

The jungle

Here, I started to add somme plants and trees in the scene. The computations slow a bit the computer. That's the reason why I added tese elements at the end of the design job.

I used a particul system to build the grass. I got the vegetation at a website specialized in architecture for blender : Blender architecture .

Search about water

At this step, I tried to make the water a bit more realistic, by playing with the textures and the tunings.
I definitely, opted for the CatRom filter.

Some tunings : the waves are too small here.




Searches and tunings, one more time.



Yes, at first glance, the water looks vertical.
When looking at the dragon, try to think the water plane to be horizontal and imagine the dragon is diving/jumping into the water while swirling, you will get vertigo. Try it, you'll see !

Finally

No scene, met my needs and I was not satisfied. The message is hidden inside a thousand of micocospic details.
I just kept the result, you can see in the title bar of the website.
The goal was to get a personal web site wich is really personal.