Art, Photography, Urbex and Visuals by Francesco Perratone and DoPe
Tag Archives: graphics
As promised, here’s July wallpaper too!
This time I played a bit with multiple layers, compositing operations and HDR, to get to a look that should be something inbetween a photo and an illustration… I think the pink (almost) full color areas on the ceiling are definitely giving that kind of impression.
The shot comes from the abandoned italian asylum too… Here you can see why the warning sign outside! 😉
Why SpiderNest? Because all those “smooth” areas around the collapsed ceiling edge are huge spiderwebs, of course!
It will look great as a wallpaper, full of black areas where to place icons and stuff! That’s for my patrons, you can become one too!
An image from the Italian Alps. Shots used for the work were taken during a short hike to a mountain cabin near home, in north-eastern Italy: rifugio Madonna della Neve (“Our Lady of the Snow”). There’s a small chapel nearby dedicated to her.
You can have a look at the beautiful view from near the rifugiohere …this time I wasn’t the one that took the 360 image 😉
At the sunset…
…we’re near the end of the hike, a few minutes from the cabin. The sun is casting some interesting rays from behind the mountains:
Without the large watermark and in different (higher) resolutions, it’s also April 2017 wallpaper, for my Patreon supporters.
You can receive wallpapers or prints each month, by becoming a patron! You can also help me creating more works by buying one: MatericLook shop, or with a small donation: .
From Freiburg (Germany), Martin’s Gate or Martinstor, one of the ancient city gates.
Hello everyone! I’ve just completed a few jobs that were absorbing me during the last weeks (mainly 3d animations and some electronic assembly for video recording and wireless transmission).
So…. I’m finally able to get back to MatericLook and some (art)works! Months ago I sent out a survey to my subscribers… During the next days I will implement some of the precious suggestions I received back, thanks!
Germany, Freiburg: Martinstor
-The Place
A few months back I visited a dear friend during a weekend… he lives in Alsace, so we had the opportunity to visit Freiburg im Breisgau, a beautiful city in the Southwest part of Germany, close to France and Switzerland. Freiburg is very nice, with a beautiful historical center. It’s the ideal place where to take a walk and have a look at the stunning squares, a merchant’s hall and various gothic buildings, and the cathedral.
-The Work
The shot I used for this work has Martin’s Gate (Martinstor) as a main subject, surrounded by beautiful historical buildings. The lovely geometries of the roofs and top floors give a nice perspective and direct the eye toward the open sky…
I started from an HDR photography (single shot), so I created a few variants, each one optimized to better present a specific part of the image, in terms of lights and shadows. I then used the various parts to assemble more (and nicer) variations.
Then I experimented on each one with some filters and digital painting. This time I used a lot of different digital painting techniques, fully manual but also automated. The latter are almost always unexciting because you have basically no control on the type of strokes and direction… generating, in my opinion, patterns too “uniform” and uninteresting.
I wanted some specific effects I created during the painting. For example the lower parts of the buildings are “streaked”, following each building’s facade direction, to give a more dynamic shape. The sky at this point has a almost uniform “wormy” pattern. I wanted the clock face to look fragmented and a bit fluid, like if seen through a textured glass.
Here’s a detail of the final image (a bit less than half the final resolution). You can see different patterns and strokes all around:
I then identified all the parts I would like to have in my final image, proceeding to put them together (mostly through masking, to control how they overlap and dissolve into each other).
At this point I proceeded with the final steps… After some minor color and light corrections here and there, the lower part of the buildings needed some more darkening. I used a black painting “creeping” on them, following the painting patterns. Also the sky needed some movement through the dark/light “waves” in the middle-right. Plus some more chaotic patterns around the top and right border.
Last steps: some highlights/reflections accents on the gate rooftop. And slight modifications to all roofs’ tops to give them a twisted, more gothic and less perfect look. These also disrupt the shapes geometry and perspective alignment. I think it makes the work more interesting to look at.
And that’s all for now, I hope you’re enjoying the images and the description has been somewhat inspiring 😉
As (almost) all my works, this is available as a print on large canvas (limited to 10) or cotton paper (signed). If interested you can take a look at the shop. If it’s not available yet, you can contact me directly.
Here are some free works for download as wallpapers, as well as some animations to watch.
If you like this or other of my works, please consider supporting me on Patreon with 1$/month, or donate something through Paypal:
A shapeless metal creature that saw us. It’s experimenting, changing, taking on a form, something more similar to us. This serves a sole purpose: it’s trying to communicate… but for now the message it’s still far, far away…
But first, to all my subscribers and patrons that participated to the survey: the “thank you” prints are on their way, your help is very important to me!
Initially I created the 3d figure only. I was thinking about shapes and sculpting, a form similar to what you see… So I illustrated it through digital sculpting. There’s a contrast between planes and curves, smooth joints and angles. I tried to give some harmony to the object, but I didn’t followed a true “rhythm”. During the process I “anthropomorphized” it a bit though, widening the top part and giving it the “Eye” (or “Mouth”).
I liked the work, so I decided to go on and show it. A worn metal look seemed to me the most appropriate, a nice contrast to the shape. In a way a kind of unexpected material.
I worked on it for a bit, because I had a pretty precise idea in mind about that… so I elaborated some pictures to reach the results I was willing to show, in terms of scratches and color. I used them to setup the shader, a technical term for the elements controlling the final “material” displayed by the rendered object.
That’s also the material I would like to use if I’ll ever have the possibility to realize the work in the physical space -that is, by casting it! I was thinking of having it 50cm (20″) tall or more (ideally a 75cm-25″ “home version” and a 2,5m-8′ “outdoor version”).
Finally I rendered an animation with realistic lighting and setup to show the shape and, more important, from a certain point of view, to present the viewer with a pleasant and interesting transformation of shapes, reflections and shadows.
I layered some effects and toned some areas to give a paint-like feel to the pic… It should convey calmness when put on your office screens, now that the holidays are gone! (At least here in Italy!) 😉
Also a forthcoming change could be perceived now that, after some work, the top of the trees look naked, with no leaves left…
The image is available in hi-res to my Patreon supporters pledging from $3, resolutions are the same as free wallpapers (4:3, 3:2, 16:9).
A new work, an half-organic city born from a demented mind: Aberrantia… residential living bulbs are surrounded by degenerate broken geometries and metallic structures….
Also available for free digital use in the download area as multi resolution wallpaper!
