3D Digital Art for Printed Cards

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Card Designs
Homemade cards, taken to another level

I've always had mixed feelings about cards.

While I understand a person's desire to express their emotions on a nice piece of paper along with a picture, I can't help but feel that they're a waste of money. Your £2 card, along with whatever message you wanted to express with it, almost always gets thrown away after it has served it's purpose....

So when I do give cards, I've always tried to make it something really worth keeping, perhaps even to cherish.

...And what better way to do so than to make the card yourself!

For several years now I've taken pencil to paper, or hand to mouse as the case may be, and created my own cards and images to give to others. While it can be very difficult to find a spare 5/10 hours to spend on such an endeavor, It's worth it in the end when you return in a year or so and see the card still on display on someone's shelf.

You know your card has survived spring cleaning because it means something special to that person.

The Latest creation, a combination of 3D elements with a photograph. Created in march 2011

A3D birthday scene, where the only photographic elements was a HDR image for reflections, and scanned sketches for the paper cutout characters.

It all started with my first Birthday Card (see below), which I did for my sister in 2008. We both used to make each other cards for birthdays, and I wanted to do something that was different and unique to my abilities.

So I turned to my 3D modelling skills and had a bit of a play around. Before I knew it, I had a concept and a simple image that had a great impact.

Since then I've done cards for friends and family on as many occasions as possible. Free Time is usually what dictates when someone does or doesn't get a card, especially now that I freelance outside of my job.

The very first birthday card, created in 2008 for my sister.

The cards have been a great oppertunity for me to push my creative mind and technical capabilities, and to see what I'm truly capable of.

I've treated them as learning experiences and always try to do something new and interesting for each card I create.

Sometimes ideas get abandoned, other times they result in something I can truly be proud of. It's all part of the learning process, and I'm always eager to learn.

Fully 3D, this scene too over 20hrs to design, model and texture (there's more off camera), and a further 5hrs alone to render one image

Close up render of the text from the above scene.

I've always liked creating scenes that mix the real with the imaginary. 3D allows you to do this so freely, with amazing results

The concept art for the previous render was then incorporated into it's own 3D composite image

The creation of the "Little Man", as seen in previous images, spawned a large number of other scenes using the same character, some of which were turned into cards.