Making of Super Snailby Andrés Hurtado, Spain


The specular of the snail skin is very useful to finally get the translucent skin sensation because the one from the original photo and the strong specular applied by me in the texture overlaps, together with a sub surface scattering and a low valve of reflection applied to the material help to create that effect.



The displacement map achieved from the texture and later applied to it highlights the specular even more and adds lots of shades to the snail skin..

Although I wasn’t looking for a very realistic texture I did want it to be believable in the context of the illustration which still is a caricature even though it has a sense of reality (especially because of the photograph of the road).


To achieve a believable effect in the texture of the shell of the snail I start with a photograph of a melon which I clone a few times in Photoshop to get a good base, then I mix it with another photograph, a piece of tree bark and finally I add vertical lines painted on another layer with an airbrush, I adjust the transparency of the layers in overlapping mode. I also make the same texture in black and white for the slight displacement I applied to the shell.



I make a new black texture with “rust” shader in the material palette of Cinema 4D, I give it a high valve of specular and I mix it with the texture of the shell to create a greasy atmosphere and spots just under the engine.