New Fantasy Art Available and This Includes Ray Tracing and Pixel Art

You may recall that I have worked on a digital illustration with warriors, or in the original form a single warrior, who find(s) a magical portal or crystal (there are two versions of objects which I've created).  However, I have some updated versions of this piece now and this includes a ray tracing variant you can see below:

Ray tracing is a concept that has been around for years, but only recently started to really be talked about due to its influence in modern gaming. Graphic cards, mostly from the Nvidia family, are finally able to achieve this lighting technique that produces realistic results of lights being able to bounce off every object in a area visible to the player and not just pre-defined or set-up spots. It is able to respond to players as they play the game and the scenery changes.

Tech Radar defines it as "an algorithm can trace the path of light, and then simulate the way that the light interacts with the virtual objects it ultimately hits in the computer-generated world."

The image above is really not meant in the figurative way to be ray tracing or super realistic lighting, just a fantasy or personal reimagining of the concept. It is also based on magic and fantasy mixed with the concept of ray tracing in a way. The piece as you can also see has the crystal or object turned and skewed from the previous versions and this is why I have also decided to showcase this variant instead of just adding it onto the previous post.

​I also forgot to showcase some other versions I have been working of this fantasy theme. So here they are:

The images above were created after I traced the main character you can see in the Warriors Find Magical Crystal piece (the one I had created before I added the two others). I also applied a filter to it I believe Gaussian Blur and something in the artistic filter section as well.  This one was also before I changed the hue o his skin tone and made his neck less lengthy (this was fixed in the top image above or the ray-traced variant).

The tracing, however, left the hand warped and not really refined. Thus, I have decided to use the Apple Pencil and iPad to create a real hand he is holding the blade with. I have also decided to make him a bit more refined and bulky as a tough and muscular warrior. Below is the result:

Another version more abstract or minimalistic in terms of his texture and shield -- with some vignette effect magic thrown in for good measure:

I have also decided to combine this warrior with the other Lone Warrior or Horse Rider image to see interesting results of this as well. 

I am thinking of fixing the hand for some of the other versions above and may update this post when I do with them. So look on the bottom or below for these versions if I decided to do it. 

Here are also some pixel art versions I am working on and early versions of these (I created basically a new version of the warrior). The hand holding the blade is older though or less refined, but I think the overall look is different and interesting:

Here are some brand new versions I have created by tracing one of the images back into illustrator and combining it with another image through the use of masks. I also have added the helmet in this one using Illustrator:

More of a cartoony look or feel with some other assets or characters or mine added:

Stay tuned for more to come...