I feel like I squeezed everything i had in me for this piece, don’t really know where to take it from here. If you have any advice on what i can do to improve it, please let me know. Also don’t know what to do with the colors; if you happen to have any color grading advice I would really appreciate it.
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it’s based on the concept by Marcin Koszalski, https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lElKo. as soon as i saw it, i couldn’t resist making something like it in 3D.
it’s very frustrating right now because i know it’s not quite there yet, but i can’t put my finger on it. is the trooper texturing bad? is the cloak material off? the sabers composed right? can the lighting be better? I’m working on adding some more smoke to the mid ground, but that’s taking a lot of time and i don’t know what to do with everything else in the meantime. if you can help me out with any suggestions, or anything that stands out to you, please, i’m begging. Thanks a lot, and i really appreciate you trying to help me make this better.
P.S. base female model in DAZ3D, all done in blender, and textures from poliigon.com with occasional hand painting.
The trooper textures and the cloak look good.
With the saber lighting/compositing,you could improve the image a lot.
It should influence the ambience pretty strong, look at the reference how it reflects on the helmet and the ambience in general.
The lighting of the woman and her gesture could be improved too. Make stronger shadows (almost black) and don´t forget the light saber influence.
I like the gesture of the reference image more.
Some smoke will definitely help the scene.
Other than that, pretty cool work.) keep going and don´t forget:
You need 20% of the time to make 80% of the image and
for the final 20% you need 80% of the time.
You are missing the blue, he used red and blue, especialy on her face. Also he point the sables to the helmet on the floor and that helmet has a lot of red reflections. Also the sables near her are brighter, and the ones far of her are les brighter and out of focus. That are all conposition triks to gide the eyes and to have contrast, like the blue on her face. Sorry my bad english
Also the way you put the hand makes it not important, look how on the reference the hand has a lot of contrast and gide your view down to the helmet
And the muscles on the arm are distractin and give all other fell to the character, sith go for the easy power, so he has a lot,of power but not by going to the gym heh eh e
aaaah dude, this is so helpful thanks a lot! I’ll get to work right away and update when i fix everything. (lighting - darker shadows, more ambiance, mess with the gesture, etc.) Appreciate your advice
wow, never thought about that. thanks for the thought, i really didn’t consider it. story wise I was going for a strong warrior turned Sith quickly, not much effort – hence the lightsaber collector vibe versus just one saber they built themselves. i’ll keep everything you said in mind, it’s gold.
thanks again for trying to help make this better :evilgrin:
Awesome! I would consider adding/conveying more cloth motion. More importantly if you work on Background such as crashed ship or troopers running around(can all be out of focus), it will be epic scene! Basically you come this far, don’t get lazy now and make it epic
(CLICK ON IMAGE FOR BETTER RESOLUTION. I’m having some serious display issues on top of california’s impossibly bright sun, so the grade is really off, hope it’s not too bad)
guys I can’t thank you enough for all the advice! I couldn’t have taken the next step without you!
in this update I redid the character lighting to work properly both now and in the future, and I got the compositing ready to allow me easier customization for whatever look would look best.
I made a list of what stood out from your suggestions, so I came to a two part conclusion.
the pose is weak because my changes to the original concept broke the focus of the scene, so I will change it completely.
I do not intend to stick to the concept art, it was just something to get me started, and as some of you have suggested, it would be best to expand the scene from where it is now.
half the work was fixing the scene with the things you guys pointed out, so now the other half is fixing the pose, composition, and i guess a more custom artistic spin on the piece.
the plan for the next step is to redesign the composition by blocking out a new layout, and using what i have to start a larger scene. Basically introduce some more AT-STs, fire, explosions, ships, and arrange it all into a comprehensive battle scene. will post an update with the blackout soon.
Please, please, please help me push it forward again if you have any advice. I’m too engrained in this scene, the only thing that will snap some sense into me now is your suggestions
also, can someone please let me know what would be the best way to update this thread? i’ve seen most people just keep replying with updates. would it be bad practice to edit the main post and add the updates one after the other at the end?
new update. honestly i’m so exhausted from this image, i don’t know what to do. i feel like it’s not improving, and i don’t know what i can do to make it better. i’ll work on the cloak to change the material and give it a more realistic shape.
i think what i really need to do from here is focus more on the character – like without the background – and get that to be the best it can be.
Yeah, I think if you add lighting bolts it would be an overkill and would destroy the composition with the sabers as guiding lines.
With some bolts it would be hard to get the focus back on the sith.
@XeroShadow i understand the feeling you have for some lightning bolts, i felt like it needed some more power, or something more to the scene, i can’t quite put my finger on it. i wouldn’t add that necessarily, but something like it might work. like adapting the scene to look more mid battle with some blaster lasers beaming at her and having her deflect them, maybe more soldiers in the background faintly visible like @NeverTilt suggested, and things like that.
I must say I like the original best. It’s omnious. This one is neat as well the new one, more of a fighting pose as if she’s ready to attack. The first one reminds me of Ventress from Clone Wars. Just regally stepping in, sabers whirling about her. At least at the times she’s composed.
The fighting pose is a bit too composed. She’s a sith after all. Fuel her with rage. Something along the lines of this picture below. Hunched, with a slight crouch, arms bent with claws out screaming a murderous rage at the opponents. Sabers swirling or poised as daggers ready to fly towards the camera.
Dude! yes! what an idiot, i didn’t think of it. they definitely need to move, i’ll work with that - maybe it’ll more room for me to improve the composition.
it means a lot!
