Monkeys need leaves.

Here’s the full illustration of Igor the monkey, as well as some of the riveting steps involved with the creation of the background.

+ © owned by Saputo Bakery, Inc.

First I sketched me some greenery and grassy bits.

Next I made the very back layer. I created the grass in Maya and then blurred the beegeebers out of it using Photoshop’s lens blur filter.

Here’s Igor in front of the background. I just plopped him down in Photoshop.

Then I modeled and rendered the midground leaves in Maya and dropped them between Igor and the blurry grass. Now it’s starting to feel like a scene!

Next I built the foreground leaves in 3d, and also rendered a shadow pass for all the leaves. I then dumped those into the photoshop file. The shadows really helped ground all those elements.

Then I pulled out the old lens blur filter again and did some assertive, yet mild blurring of the midground leaves for some depth. I may not be deep, but that doesn’t mean my illustrations have to be shallow!

Next I rendered a fog layer in Maya, and made it blue in Photoshop to help Igor and other foreground elements stand out even more. The warm colors, they’re in your face, but the blues, ahhh the blues. They just settle into the background and soothe those tired peepers.

And finally I modeled and rendered the logo and lowered that gently into place. Kachunk!

+ © owned by Saputo Bakery, Inc.