Since my next fanart project is nearly done (it's taken almost 5 days!) I decided to take some extra shots from the 'set' and detail how an image such as this is actually put together, for those who might be interested.
The first thing any image requires is a bucketload of addons. Gmod's base game only contains content from Half Life 2 and that isn't gonna get you very far in fanart. Not even for that game, considering it doesn't even have tools for detailed posing of the ragdolls. This is just a snapshot of some of the addons I find myself using the most but my full list has nearly 450 of them.
Next is a map. Now I have constructed a set myself with props on a blank base map before but when doing that, I'm looking at days worth of work for just a single image. So more often I go halfway and use a map and apply set decorations with props where needed. In the case of this image, I did exactly that with gm_apehouse_winter_night.
So here it is, the image set. It's in one of the rooms of the house and uses a couple of props from the map itself such as the bed, the computer desk and the smaller desk in the corner, but everything else was cleared by myself and new props and decoration put in. This room has toggleable lighting as well, which helped for taking the picture and seeing what I was doing when repositioning things, as this project involves several images on this one set.
The models are placed using six addons, primarily. Generally I use the Easy Animation Tool to get a general pose to start with, such as sitting down or holding a weapon. Sometimes if I need a pose more unique than those, I will just use the Standing Pose tool to put the model in a T-pose. Either way, I then use Ragdoll Mover to adjust the position to what is required in the image, and finally I'll use Gmod's built in finger, eye and face posing tool to adjust the hands and expressions.
One of the most important factors of any image, virtual or in real life, is lighting. There are three lamps on the desk and each of them serves its own purpose. The left and central ones are both pointed at Chloe, providing two-point lighting on the model. The one on the right is pointed towards Max. Since she is further away from the camera position and is fairly close to the blue wall lights, she doesn't need two-point. You can see on the lists in the top right how the central and right lamps have exactly the same settings while the left has a lower distance. This is to stop the left one from shining a light through Chloe and catching on the corner of the bed.
It's worth noticing how despite Chloe being on the computer, there isn't one there, just a keyboard and mouse. This is because the camera is positioned in front of where it would be and therefor it wouldn't be visible. One of the main rules of doing images like this is that you never have to pose or detail anything that isn't in the shot, even on the models.
Around the edge of the room, the wall lights are exactly the same tool but heavily altered. These lights have a very narrow FOV and slightly longer distance, and of course are blue. The lamps themselves are mostly out of sight, apart from the far right which I couldn't help. It works as set dressing though, since this is Chloe as a livestreamer.
So there you have it, that's the kind of work that goes into an image such as this. Like I said, it's one part of a much longer group of images that I'll be finishing and posting in the next couple of days, the images require a bit of post-production to add some text as this is another storyboard like I Am Different. Feel free to ask me if there's anything I didn't cover here, a specific effect from another image you're curious about, anything really. I love to chat.
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