Calmed By Nature

Halloween season is in full swing over here at the CBN HQ 🎥🎃🧙‍♀️🐈‍⬛💀 About 6 years ago I had the idea to buy a green screen and use it to put motion into my videos. It was one of the best decisions and it gets a lot of use for my halloween videos. Like I said last year, who needs ai when you can have fun with a green screen instead!

I was hoping to my video out today but just know that it's close and It's probably my most ridiculous Halloween video to date. Happy start to October and more to come soon! 🎃🦉

10 hours ago | [YT] | 621

Calmed By Nature

👋 Hey just wanted to pop in an say happy autumn to everyone 🍁

I forgot to mention my new "Fall Diner" album on all streaming services. I also wanted to mention that my "Jazz for Autumn" playlist on Spotify which contains my complete collection of Autumn jazz. Check them out if you're interested!

🥞 Fall Diner Album: fanlink.tv/FallDiner
🍁 Jazz for Autumn Playlist: fanlink.tv/JazzForAutumn


*** Also: This is real music. No AI. I commission original music for my videos from a small group of talented working musicians / composers. I've been working with these people for many years and I plan to continue. I have no interest in using AI music. I care way too much about this channel and music in general to ever do that. So thank you all for your continued support so that I can keep this thing running 👍 Take care!

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1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 1,043

Calmed By Nature

Would you be interested in seeing a long form behind the scenes video of my art process?

In the past I was hesitant to share this because I tend to work very slowly but also because I've worked hard over the years to develop a unique art style / process and I didn't love the idea of showing too many of my techniques out of fear that others would copy them. But in light of the recent changes in the world 🤖 I'm thinking it might be a good idea to share more about my process now that most people (at least in the youtube ambience niche) are no longer even making their own art.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 609

Calmed By Nature

🦉 Hey! I wanted a share a few screenshots I took while creating my latest fall diner video. I can be hard on my own work so it's fun for me to look back at my initial sketches to remember how it developed and appreciate the journey. For those that don't know much about me I'm a digital artist living in Portland, Oregon and I've doing it for over 15 years, and much more seriously in the last 6 years. I've talked about my creative process in the past but I thought I'd share more about my recent project because it seems to be more relevant than ever these days.

STAGE 1: The Rough Idea / Concept. I start with research and sketching. I like to spend a few days looking at real locations for inspiration. For this project I visited a few old diners in my city. I also use google to look at photos of classic diners and old cafes across the US. A few of the details I really wanted to get into this video was the counter, the kitchen window with tickets, and of course the classic juke box. Since I make jazz ambience videos on my channel I wanted the "Owl City Diner" to have a more traditional cozy feel compared to a typical 50s style chrome and vinyl booth diners. I chose to use lots of wood, warm leather, soft curtains, and general warm colors for the decor to help set that mood. I also decided to use a very old Wurlitzer jukebox which is actually a model from 1937 which I just thought was really cool looking and one that I could imagine actually played old swing jazz records back in the day.

STAGE 2: Refined Sketch + Light. This is where I take my rough idea and I start playing with the lighting. The design for me is just as much in the light as it is in the layout. I decided to keep it pretty simple. I wanted the overhead lights to have a nice soft glow and the jukebox to have a secondary glow that feels kind of like the hearth or heartbeat of the diner.

STAGE 3: Rough Color. At this point I turn off my light art and lighting and I just roughly paint in the colors of each area. I try to do this part quickly and to zoom out a little to make sure I keep my eye on the whole scene so that it remains cohesive. Once this looks good at a thumbnail size I know I'm ready to move on to painting and building the scene

STAGE 4: Polishing Details. I use a many techniques to build and polish an image. I start with large solid shapes of color for things like the floor, walls, counter, sky, buildings, trees, etc. Then part by part I refine each object in the room. I consider it a multimedia art process because I use both traditional painting as well as traditional digital art / phootoshop tools like applying photo textures, photos (like the jukebox, trees, cars, etc), and a few 3d objects. And then I blend it all together using overpainting technique and many layers of lighting effects.This part of my process can take me sometimes two or three weeks.




STAGE 5: animation and sound and music... several more weeks spent here but that's a conversation for another day!

If you read this far, thanks for your interest and support! Take care!

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3 weeks ago | [YT] | 2,885

Calmed By Nature

EDIT: it's out now! https://youtu.be/PTMFErX4PR4

🦉🥞 COMING SOON!! We’re heading back to my favorite sleepy autumn town. The old sign has been glowing since 1952, and luckily, not much has changed over the decades… friendly people, good food, and open 24 hours. Hope to see you there.

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 2,421

Calmed By Nature

Hey have you started to look forward to autumn? I've spent the last month or so working on my next fall themed 'calm cafe' video which will be my 7th year of this series! This is easily my favorite video I get to make each year and I always give myself lots of time to make each one as good as I can. I'm pretty excited for you all to see the new place and hear the collection of music I have for it. I think it's going to be a really good one. More to come soon... and by soon I mean it might still be a while but I'm chipping away at it every day ☕️🦉🥞🍁

1 month ago | [YT] | 542

Calmed By Nature

Hope you are having a good start to your summer! I wanted to drop in and say that "Coastal Cafe" - my latest summer jazz album is out now on all streaming platforms 🏄🏻‍♂️☕️🌴

Listen here 👉 fanlink.tv/CoastalCafe

I'm going to be relaxing for a week or two with my family and then I'm planing to move onto new videos for the coming season 🍁😄☕️

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2 months ago | [YT] | 590

Calmed By Nature

Hey! 👋 Many people ask me about my process, and while I don’t have time to create a full video, I’m happy to share a few screenshots and write about it if you’re interested.


I made my latest video using my typical 5 stage process.

Stage 1: Drawing
I have a long list of ideas for videos, and I’ll typically take the one I'm most excited about and brainstorm ideas while thinking through a rough theme and narrative. Then I’ll start sketching potential compositions. This is the stage where I decide how the image will flow, where it’s set, what the view looks like, and the general structure of the interior. I will typically work on this for about a week. During that process, I’ll likely draw around 10 different locations, then choose my favorite and develop it into a more polished drawing.

Stage 2: Color Blocking & Lighting
After I have my basic line drawing finished, I move on to the lighting and color. I’ll explore a few different moods, styles, and times of day to figure out what feels right for the space and what best fits the mood of the music I’m using.

Stage 3: Rendering Materials & Effects
Once I have the color scheme and layout down, I’ll start building the scene in Photoshop using a combination of digital painting techniques, photo textures, and some photos for complicated objects like chairs and plants. This is a very time-intensive process, but I really enjoy slowly building up the room by hand using textures and drawing all the lighting manually to help blend everything together into one cohesive image.

By the time I’m finished, I’ll usually have around 2,000 layers in my Photoshop document, and I know I’m done when my computer is on the verge of crashing because the file is so large.

Stage 4: Animation & Effects
At this point, I’ll take my final image (or images) from Photoshop and add animations or animated elements like palm trees, waves, birds, and other environmental details.

Stage 5: Creating the Final Video
This is the stage where I bring everything together. I’ll go through my library of music and pick the exact songs and order for the video/album, then mix in any extra nature or cafe sounds.

The music is, and always will be, create by humans (ai free) for those wondering. I have an awesome team of jazz musicians and producers that I’ve been collaborating with for many years, and I don’t plan to make any changes because they do great work and I enjoy supporting other artists though this channel.

I’ve been a digital artist since 2011 and have been building this particular process since around 2017. It has evolved a lot over the years, and I’m sure it will continue to change as my skills grow. Each video is a little different but this should give you a rough idea of how I make them.

Thanks for reading and supporting my work 💙🦉🌴🏄🏻‍♂️

3 months ago | [YT] | 1,199

Calmed By Nature

🦉📖...It feels like flying. When the right wave catches, when your pop-up is fast enough, when you find your balance on the board and watch the glassy surface of the water rushing beneath you as you skim across it, fast, weightless. It’s magic. You close your eyes and feel it all over again. The morning sun that warms the waxy surface of your board and glints in your eyes as you scan the horizon. The thrill of the cold water when you first plunge in, and then how strangely, delightfully comfortable you feel only a few minutes later once your muscles have started to move and your body has warmed up your wetsuit. The taste of salt in your mouth, the sting of it in your eyes when you pop back out of the water gasping and laughing after encountering a wave that was bigger than you bargained for. The focus of waiting for the timing of a wave to be just right. The exhilaration when it is.

Surfing creates a state of mindfulness automatically. When you’re in the water, there is no way to be anything but fully present and vividly, singingly, soaringly alive.

You open your eyes and let the cafe drift back into focus. This morning you felt presence and aliveness in exertion and adrenaline; this afternoon, you feel the same presence and aliveness in calm and rest. The cafe is airy and filled with gentle, filtered light, safe and protected, with a view of the sun-drenched beach through the big front window. The salty breeze lightly plays along the leaves of the lush green plants and makes the shadows of the palms outside dance across the floor. A record spins on the turntable and bubbles fizz surfaceward in your strawberry lemonade. Seagulls sail peacefully through the cloudless sky; you imagine the view they must have, of the beach, the cliffs, this cafe, and it fills you with joy. Tomorrow morning you’ll be back out there, a dot in the water, living your own endless summer--but for now you don’t want to be anywhere else but here...

3 months ago | [YT] | 592

Calmed By Nature

Hey 👋 what have you been up to? I just took some time off to catch up on life and enjoy time with my family the last month and this week I'm starting to work on a new summer cafe ☕️☀️ Hope you all are having a good spring and transition to summer. Talk to you soon!

And if you're interested I now have a summer cafe jazz playlist on Spotify 👉 open.spotify.com/playlist/2V4H2x2GTWrLuXcmiRzNfT

I will continue to add to that playlist as I release more videos and music. And just to remind you, I do not use AI music and I create human art! I appreciate the continued support! Take care 💙🦉

4 months ago | [YT] | 1,288