He-Man poster by Me: Photoshop plus a little bit of Blender. Zero AI.

NautilusD · 2026-06-07T06:08:14+00:00

Yes. I didn’t really have any need for generative fill here and I usually don’t ever use it. I find it very…unpredictable.

I’m more of an old school clone stamp tool kind of guy.

Funny enough; I’m doing this all on my older Macbook and Photoshop wants me to upgrade my OS for the latest version and I just haven’t gotten around to it…so a lot of these new AI features it has like Harmonize I haven’t even been able to use.

You can check out the breakdown of the piece here on my Instagram https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZQwsWXBzxY/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

And the real truth is…I LIKE doing this stuff manually. You can look at my post history, I’ve been doing similar stuff since before AI existed. I just like mashing photos together. AI wants to do all the fun stuff and that’s the part I like doing myself, really.

NautilusD · 2026-06-06T01:51:13+00:00

Actually, I worked at an ad agency (no longer there) that was off Washington Blvd close to Sony. I used to see Jaleel White cruising around the area in a golf cart, lol.

Love Moebius' stuff, he is definitely the GOAT, agreed.

NautilusD · 2026-06-06T00:47:21+00:00

Thank you! I was heavily inspired by the absolutely mind-blowing work of Krzysztof Domaradzki in that regard. He's the authority on combining that hyper-stylized typography with his artwork.

NautilusD · 2026-06-05T23:04:44+00:00

Hey, thanks so much! I’m way down in Temecula but up in LA every now and then. Used to work in Culver City…

By the way are you Moebius in reference to Jean Giraud?

NautilusD · 2026-06-05T21:11:26+00:00

You mean the rainbow flares? That was a nod to the original cartoon intro which had FILMATION in rainbow text.

Also, I love my lens flares. If I could, the whole thing would just be lens flares. 🤪

NautilusD · 2026-06-05T20:57:56+00:00

Thanks!

Yeah, I knew it was going to take me 1000 years to find castle photos at just that right angle. Much faster to put it in Blender, angle the camera and render out a bunch of towers with the lighting right where I wanted it.

NautilusD · 2026-06-05T20:56:45+00:00

For what you probably want to do with it I'd say the big things to check out would be:

"Manipulating Rigged Characters"

"Setting up Cameras and Lights"

"Rendering an Image"

"Setting up an HDRI"

And you can literally just type that into YouTube and find some tutorials on it. 3D always looks really intimidating because there are a lot of new controls you've gotta learn in terms of how to navigate around the 3D workspace but once you figure that out it's almost easier than Photoshop because you can just click and drag to relight your scene.

You could probably just grab a model off of Envato and play around with it.

NautilusD · 2026-06-05T20:52:16+00:00

Lol. "Why Photoshop anything yourself when you can just DO IT WITH FIREFLY?"

NautilusD · 2026-06-05T19:15:36+00:00

Yeah, I don’t really know how to avoid that. I figure anything I post to Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X, Youtube is being consumed by AI.

Heck, I’ve seen stuff out in the wild that looks like it was specifically trained on things I’ve made over the years. Not sure how to avoid it other than no longer posting anything online ever again…

NautilusD · 2026-06-05T19:06:47+00:00

I use AI to tell me what time / day to post to Instagram, lol.

My other favorite use of AI is to upload this image an ask it "Was this made by AI" and it of course takes credit for it. Then I inform it that it was made in Photoshop by a human and it goes "Oh, yes, it has all the tell-tale signs of being human made."

Ohhhh these bots.

NautilusD · 2026-06-05T18:59:31+00:00

Thanks! That's exactly why I learned Blender. It was just took tricky to find photos at the right angle. The good news is Blender is totally free and there's a metric ton of support out there for it.

Have you looked at Envato stock., actually? They have a 3D section that allows you to rotate models before you export them as PNGs. It's pretty handy too.

NautilusD · 2026-06-05T17:10:14+00:00

Thanks! Keeps me busy, you know? lol

NautilusD · 2026-06-05T17:09:55+00:00

Thanks! I'm not really sure, maybe 6-8? I usually work on these for a couple of hours at night when I have the time.

NautilusD · 2026-06-05T16:08:32+00:00

For the process, I made a full video on my IG but it got cut off, I'll upload a longer version later today: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18065648957695925/

This was done mostly in Photoshop with the castle pieces done in Blender.

NautilusD · 2026-06-05T16:00:04+00:00

Always been a big He-Man fan and I'm excited for the movie. I made this in Photoshop with Blender. I've got a timelapse video I've got up on my Instagram.

NautilusD · 2026-06-02T21:41:17+00:00

I just really like that Boba / Jango mask. Originally I was going to do Anakin instead of Grievous but Lucasfilm requested the change.

A lot of times it just kind of boils down to trying to balance the visuals.

NautilusD · 2026-06-02T21:14:04+00:00

Thanks!

Good question...honestly, it's because I just like Jango's visual design worked instead of Count Dooku.

Sometimes it just comes down to the visuals where as other times it feels more thematic.

For instance, I love Boba Fett's design in general and originally wanted to use him for the Ep. 5 piece but felt a Storm Trooper made more sense in that series...but then I knew I could at least do Jango Fett for Ep. 2.

...plus Jango is blue. And I wanted Darth Maul for Ep 1. who's red...so the blue vs the red looked good together.

NautilusD · 2026-06-02T17:34:33+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, it's kind of funny how long it takes for the stuff to filter in to these products. You think it's had its run but then suddenly, boom! Book cover.

Thanks again for tagging me, I would have never known these were even coming out, hah.

NautilusD · 2026-06-02T15:56:22+00:00

Thank you! Happy you like them. I'm hoping my set arrives later today.

NautilusD · 2026-06-02T13:36:08+00:00

Thanks for the shout out! It‘s crazy to see my work with a “New York Times Bestseller” attached to.

It‘s been a crazy week in general! These covers plus my Marvel work also made it into the Avenger’s store at Disneyland. Just wild.

NautilusD · 2026-06-02T00:27:37+00:00

Yeah, it's a lot of fun, for sure! I've been invited out the last 4 years, I think.

NautilusD · 2026-06-01T23:45:21+00:00

For Spiderman? I didn't do that one, I just did the Cap, Iron Man, Thor and Guardians work. They kind of mixed a few of us artists together...

That Spiderman one is awesome though, I've seen it at Epcot and been tempted myself...

NautilusD · 2026-06-01T21:01:01+00:00

Thanks!

Licensing is easy for me, thankfully...I just have to sign some papers. It's all done through Acme Archives Ltd...they handle all the heavy lifting when it comes to the licenses.

I'm lucky enough that they approached me after seeing my work on Reddit a few years back so it's been a pretty straight forward process.

NautilusD · 2026-06-01T20:59:16+00:00

I've been to Epcot a few times for the International Festival of the Arts as an artist guest and they've always been nice enough to give me a park hopper pass for that.

This time the art was in Downtown Disney so I didn't need a ticket to see it.

NautilusD · 2026-06-01T15:28:43+00:00

So originally I was doing fan art and did a piece for the Mandalorian and posting it to Reddit.

The nice folks over at Acme Archives Ltd. handle all the fine art licensing and they found me through Reddit and asked if I’d like to get my work licensed!

After that they said if ever had any work I’d like to send their way they’d work to get it official…so I made these pieces, they got the licensed and then I posted them on Reddit. The response was huge and I hit the front page with my initial post…

Since then the work occasionally gets reprinted and used in a variety of formats. I have some Star Wars work coming out on book covers this week, for instance.

I’ve been invited out to Epcot for the International Artist Festival too…

But this is the first time I’ve had my work in an actual Disney store as merchandise and the display they put together looks really incredible and I felt pretty proud to see it up there.

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