So I figured out a trick for painting digital backgrounds that actually saved my hide
I've been doing digital art for maybe 4 years now, and backgrounds have always been my weak spot. I'd spend hours on a character and then just throw a gradient or some messy sky behind them because I got impatient. Last month I was working on a piece for a client who specifically wanted a detailed forest scene behind their OC, and I was totally stuck. I tried using brushes, I tried drawing every leaf, nothing looked right. Then I remembered seeing someone mention using a 3D program to block out the basic shapes and then paint over it. I downloaded Blender for the first time ever, spent maybe 20 minutes making a super rough tree and ground layout, took a screenshot, and painted over it in like an hour. It came out way better than anything I'd done before, and the client was thrilled. Has anyone else tried using 3D as a shortcut for environment stuff? I'm curious if there's an even simpler way to do it without learning the whole program.