inkWanderer's avatar
It's a lot simpler than it appears, haha. First, I find a screenshot that looks good--it has to be a shot where their entire body (or almost all of it) is clearly visible. I vector the image in Illustrator, then bring it into InDesign and texture it with stuff I have in my own library or from Lost and Taken, an amazing high-res texture website. I do the layout in InDesign (on an A3 canvas, actually, so I can turn them into posters later if I want) and then it's a quick trip to Photoshop for a resize and some final adjustments.

All in all it only takes a few hours per piece, depending on how complex I want to make it. Lately I've been challenging myself to vector it in as few pieces as possible. For instance, Aang only has six discrete shapes, excluding his tattoos.
MonstroIris's avatar
That's really interesting!
And thanks for making this; I now have an awesome desktop background.
inkWanderer's avatar
It is my unmitigated pleasure!