Behind The Scenes: Breaking Bad (Patreon)

Recently I realized, I'm making that much of low poly flat shaded illustrations. As I invested more and more time into my weekly designs, works got more detailed, more complicated and time consuming. I love the results, but sometimes I need a bit faster workflow, or simply I miss the look of flat shading.

It's a bit different and when lit correctly, it can provide almost painting-like feeling. So I went and done some more low poly works and found myself a little bit rusty. It's not that I didn't know how to model something. On the contrary, I knew too well a didn't feel restricted by my skill.

That can lead into inconsistency sometimes. If you have no barriers, you go all over the place. So what can you do to force yourself into that space like before? Well set some barriers yourself.

Visit the full Pinboard here

So I set some rules I wanted to follow. For example, depending on the size of the cylindrical shape, I would use only 8 and 12 sided geometry, only for really large structures, I would go higher. As for the bevels, I would not produce more than three segments in the corner.

And then there are other ways you can help yourself. Zoom out often and enable wireframe overlay. If there is really dense geometry, maybe you can go back and simplify it. Remember, it's not a race for bigger, better and more complicated. It's about producing consistent and desired results within a style.

I had Breaking Bad in my list for a while and I though it will make a great exercise here. Lot of detailed structures to simplify and some vibrand colors like red and yellow to play with. 

I got some reference shots and began sketching. I even found a floorplan online and quickly realized, there are compromises to be made. If I wanted to create a replica of the show layout, it just wouldn't fit into the square diorama, and I would need to zoom out quite a bit.

So I decided to shuffle things around and see if I can get away with it. I took a good look on the central lab equipment and picked the parts that were most visible in the show and thus easily recognizable. Additionally, I really wanted to do a blue back-lit stack of product, red door and overhead walk.

I sketched in some shapes and tried to move them around until I found the layout that pleased my eyes. And of course, it had nothing to do with the TV show's layout. But within the format and style restrictions I set, I think it was the best possible outcome and easily recognizable.

You can watch the process video on Youtube