Challenge #739 Voting CLOSED

This week’s theme: UFO

After 2 days of voting, a winner is declared: The voting will close on Wednesday.
The winner picks the theme for next week.

[ If the winner doesn’t supply a theme before Thursday 22:30 GMT, the organizer will select the theme. In this case, the winner’s theme will be used the next time we are lacking a theme on Thursday 22:30 GMT. :slight_smile: ]

Having selected the theme, the winner will not be eligible to enter that week. They may however still submit an image, but it won’t be included in the voting.

Pure Entries

  • RayVelcoro
    ufo02
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495294&stc=1&thumb=1

  • LeoBlenderToon
    “After Earth repair”: Somewhere in Mars
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495349&stc=1&thumb=1

  • benla
    Music of the Cosmos
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495354&stc=1&thumb=1

  • FlyingBanana
    Star Sliders Have Begun Invasion
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495410&stc=1&thumb=1

  • 3dnotguru
    Haunebu
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495440&stc=1&thumb=1

  • Evilos
    Space Battle Inbound
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495482&stc=1&thumb=1

  • Unicornaphobist
    Flying Saucer
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495490&stc=1&thumb=1

  • Photox
    hd 2942
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495491&stc=1&thumb=1

  • didierv
    Martian UFO
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495513&stc=1&thumb=1

  • wolfel
    finished
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495527&stc=1&thumb=1

  • Hiryuusan
    Stealth is the key
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495577&stc=1&thumb=1

  • DoriNori
    Spooky Cyborg Jellyfish-Like Spaceships Floating Through Deep Space Near a Moon With a Notably Blue Color Scheme With Some Purple in it As Well
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495599&stc=1&thumb=1

  • appie.123
    Crash Landed
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495660&stc=1&thumb=1

  • texasfunk101
    All your base are belong to us
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495627&stc=1&thumb=1

  • david.speer
    Ufo
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495697&stc=1&thumb=1

  • caz747
    S H A D O
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495699&stc=1&thumb=1

Open Entries

  • astiero
    Wrong place, wrong time
    [Rendered with eevee and edited with Gimp. So open entry I guess.]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495327&stc=1&thumb=1

  • fcharr
    Above the Tree Line
    [Open entry, 700 samples: sapling (alpha planes) and sky generator.]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495431&stc=1&thumb=1

  • Miatpi
    Old Discovery
    [The reason it’s open is the big role the textures had, most notably the rock textures and the Cave painting.]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495531&stc=1&thumb=1

  • str11
    UFO exploring abandoned city
    [I’m used many textures,especially textures of buildings and moss (for moss i’m used some microdisplacement)]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495713&stc=1&thumb=1

Non-competing Entries

  • Helge
    Wow!-Signal
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495373&stc=1&thumb=1

  • purbosky
    Black Knight
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495383&stc=1&thumb=1

  • OLG
    Control. we have a problem!
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=495499&stc=1&thumb=1

  • RobertT
    VISIT
    http://artofinterpretation.com/images4/wc739-Visit-byrjt2017.jpg

So many great entries this week, hard to choose.

Awsome entries indeed.

Does anyone have any critic on my work?
I’d like to improve my blender skills and feel like getting general (or specific) feedback will help a great deal.
Thanks:)

I’m not sure what to think of the rock debris on the UFO.

Certainly appie.123. I think the modeling and textures are pretty spot on, though some dirt on the ship wouldn’t have been so bad.
My critisism is the lighting - which feels flat - and the sky - which is a little simple. I would have liked some clouds, and maybe distant mountains. But that’s just me :wink:

Btw, could someone review my entry? Not to sound cheeky, but I’ve got no votes!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
What’s wroooooooong!!!???
(Overdramatization indented)

I’ll vote for your one, I thinks it’s a pretty clean entry! Also loved the idea.

Yay! Thanks :slight_smile:

@appie.123 I have to agree with Miatpi. I think you did a fantastic job with the jagged terrain, and the dust gives it a nice atmosphere, but the mostly empty sky does seem out of place.
You also could have made the focus of your scene stand out more by using some extra lighting or compositing to enhance the colors a bit, but that’s just me being picky :wink:

@Miatpi & Dorinori You’re right about the sky, it’s to empty. I could have added clouds.
Also lighting is sth I need to work on.

Thanks for the help

appie.123: This is an honest effort, and points for that. Realism is a tough sell, it’s like a mirage in the desert, the closer you get the farther away it moves. Compositionally it’s bare, blank, a bit boring. The rocks are decent, but uncanny. The UFO is phony, and the rocks on top of it, should be removed or reworked. Any time something looks fake, the viewer loses interest. Overall there is thin story and no plot. It’s a crash landed UFO, with a cliched flying saucer shape. Overall: A for effort, C for execution. Keep going!

edit: Miapi has clarified that the cave is geometry, and the ufo is his own work. And the following harsh critique should be mostly ignored.
Miatpi: I will shoot you straight man: You cannot even call this piece your own work. The rocks and the cave painting are BOTH borrowed? That’s the whole damn taco! You have some other hand/who knows what with cheesy depth of field, out of focus, but the lion’s share of your image is someone else art – not even someone’s photo of a sunset as a background, but actual art! Your punishment is that next week you must create a piece that is 100% your own, nothing borrowed! Don’t make me start posting emojis! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

:ba:

Just some observations as I look over these great entries…

RayVelcoro: Blender’s always had a tinge of alien technology quality to me, and your UFO, to me, makes for both a creative nod to the Blender logo as well as the fact this software is really out of this world!

LeoBlenderToon: Such a nice and shiny UFO! This must be a full service shop where, after they fix your UFO, they wash and polish it as well! Pleasant colors too!

benla: I voted for this not only because I’m a musician and love all things cosmological, but also it’s a truly unique image, perhaps depicting what some might call “the music of the spheres.” Magnificient colors, angle, and blending of the past with the future. Looking even closer, one has to admire how you fit a solar system where a vinyl record normally goes. Outstanding stuff!

FlyingBanana: Looking at this image (and then seeing your BlenderArtists name), I must admire the very good humor in this piece. Plus, for me, through my quirky eyes, it can blend together ingeniously, with a little imagination, two things I enjoy: pizza and Star Wars. For example, this could very well be the Empire’s pizza delivery service =) Nice use of procedurals on the planet as well!

3dnotguru: Very photographic results, and a nice use of DOF. To me, this looks like one of those photos it would be so fun to see beamed back from the surface of Mars from one of the rovers =) Great work on the terrain too!

Evilos: This is full of action and cool details! It looks like a Borg cube ship (from Star Trek) taking on both the Prequel-era Star Wars Trade Federation ship and some solar sailers. The beams are bright and a cool addition to this image!

Unicornaphobist: Such a nice clean render, and, in my funny mind, I’d like to think if Apple were ever to get into manufacturing flying saucers, this would be rather close to their trademark minimal design methods =)

Photox: Excellent in every way, especially in that it hints at something far grander above structurally, and, beyond that, an otherworldly mission. This could very well be a launch vehicle from one of our newly discovered exoplanetary neighbors, perhaps from Gliese 581, or thereabouts =) Render quality and realization top-notch as always with you.

didierv: I really like the alienesque lettering, partly because it’s otherworldly looking enough and not too obious in what it says, and then you realize what it says =) If a native of Mars saw one of our flying craft, as in your image, they, like us, would be astounded. I also imagine this could be a poster in the room of a Martian teenager who’s been reading up lately on Earth-based sci-fi stories.

wolfel: This is a fun one with some nice compositional choices, and the little alien creature is cute to me as well! Something in-between Mike Wazowski (of Pixar’s Monsters Incorporated) and Junior Asparagus from VeggieTales =)

Hiryuusan: There’s a lot of advanced-looking elements here, considering the liquid and the smoke flow, and the ship designs are quite cool and appropriately not of this Earth. That beacon of light into the sky is a nice addition and helps to fill out the piece compositionally.

DoriNori: As I was saying in the entry thread, I thought your title and render were nice. I especially like the color scheme here :wink: To think that there might really be such mechanical-organic entities somewhere in the universe is quite a thought!

appie.123: This is a great, particularly down to the details in the rocks and what I think is melting snow on top of the UFO. The rising vapor smoke from the bottom of the image can further help the viewer to believe the temperature has recently increased, and look what it has revealed!

texasfunk101: Very photographic and cool. The contrast between the UFO and the environment works really well, and it also makes for some great reflections. It’s fun to wonder what might emerge from such a vehicle.

david.speer: This is a fun one, something that reminds me of some classic side-scrolling arcade games where the graphics were nowhere nearly as good this. I could almost hear some vintage video game music in the background =) I also like the procedural indentations on the moon.

caz747: Even without any motion blur on the vehicles themselves there’s a clear sense of velocity and chase here! I see there is some motion blur on what might be some propeller-like structure near the lower part of the UFO. Very nicely stylized ships as well!

astiero: What a wonderful way to demonstrate Eevee’s abilities, and to do it in style, monochromatically, as well! This looks like a still frame from an animated movie about UFOs. It definitely makes me look forward to trying Eevee once its officially out there, even as I’m trying to learn some of the finer points of Cycles at this time after being a long-time Blender Internal advocate (which I still am).

fcharr: I love the density of details in the forest and the way the UFO (“mothership” perhaps?) is approaching it broad daylight. Reminds me a bit of the ships from V. The stature of this UFO can also make one wonder what these aliens are like. Hopefully they are happy visitors =)

Miatpi: As I was saying in the entry thread, this, to me, seems like it could be from an animated movie. Maybe even something like a very young Indiana Jones, long before there would be any thoughts of Crystal Skulls :slight_smile:

str11: Lots of technically admirable things in here as well as a very aesthetically-pleasing classic UFO with some very cool energy emanations. Using microdisplacement for the moss was brilliant, and it that contributes to set the visuall tone within this image.

Helge: I love your reference to and reinterpretation of the famous “Wow Signal” and how you’ve once again effortlessly combined humor and charm in such a distinct and enjoyable manner!

purbosky: This is so cool. I heart about this years ago, and it always seemed like a great idea for a sci-fi adventure. I noticed your nodes in the entry thread, and I appreciate seeing how you approached the procedurals here. I’m now moving on to some more advanced usage of procedurals, and, after studying these things nonstop over the past several weeks and experimenting intensely with Cycles shader techniques, I’ve accumulated some interesting tests and results. So, I hope, in the very near future, to release some free potentially useful procedural texture tools for Cycles shaders.

OLG: The close angle of this encounter or pursuit increases the tension and sense of danger of the situation portrayed. The details on the rocks contrast nicely with the smooth surface of the jets and the UFOs!

RobertT

Photox: theres been a total misunderstanding here, a not so nice one. I have burrowed nothing: I modelled the Cave in blender, it’s just the mapped texture thats not mine. And the Cave painting is solely mine made in Gimp (which I stated in the entry thread btw). All the modeling of the cave, hand etc. and other textures (than the rock) is 100% me in blender.

With that said, could I get a… hrm… updated critique of my work? (though I do agree on the depth of the field being cheesy, but a true depth of the fielld effect would have taken days to render)

Haha, true that. But I don’t know if that’s good or not (I tried after all I aimed for photorealism, but I guess animated shows aren’t so bad either)…

Miatpi: It is a very image good to me, and, well, I have seen a lot of renders over the years in addition to my own countless mistakes =)

And here’s another thing I like about your image: we’re discovering this along with the character holding the flashlight, and the beam of light helps to concentrate our attention and share vicariously in the character’s discovery.

It’s a very compositionally strong piece as well in terms of diagonal direction (up from lower left) and as far as things like the “rule of thirds” and the “golden ratio” go.

Such “rules” are only guidelines, and it’s great to see people consciously or otherwise work within or beyond such concepts.

It’s really whatever visually works best for the artist, independent of third-party views, that can emerge as something personally important at the end of it all: did it come close to portraying what we wanted to portray? If so, we have succeeded to some degree and should be happy with it =)

RobertT

@Miatpi: If you ask me, there is no doubt, “long before […] any thoughts of Crystal Skulls” is good. The longer, the better! :slight_smile:

@RobertT: Thanks - I’m glad the idea was still noticeable. :slight_smile:

This means so much for me, for all these things were stuff I aimed for: the composition, the lighting, the story… There’s nothing better than when that comes through.

And so I’m VERY happy with it =)

Thank you so much!

Haha, I see what you did there :wink:

I’ll do some critique tomorrow (it’s night by now here in Sweden) so stay tuned :cool:

@RobertT:
Thanks! Well, any rumors or conspiracy theories are bound to be great inspiration for a story, wouldn’t it? The spicier the better!

I like and mostly use procedural textures, though not too advanced and some may not ‘technically correct’ btw. It’s amazing how the built-in basic textures can be tweaked into so many great possibilities without having to rely on external ones. Will be waiting to see your texture release for sure!

@all:
Great entries everyone, there are fun and creative ideas/concepts too, made me think twice (or more) before casting vote! Looks like we still have to wait 'till the last second to find the winner!

OK, fair enough. There is a world of difference knowing it’s a cave you modeled and and an image you created. The ways it’s worded in your entry makes it sounds as if both are just borrowed textures. I crapped all over it mostly for those reasons. I’ll give it fresh eyes knowing this is your art.
There is a lot to like here. The diagonal lines make for a dynamic and exciting composition. And there is story here, huge points for that. There is minor style clash, of the odd uv mapped rock texture, the cave painting, and the hand. The hand is closer to toon, and the rocks are too real/fake real. I’d suggest going more toon for the rocks/painting. In general make a style choice and stay with it throughout. There’s also room for a bit of humor (or horror) and unusual storytelling within the cave painting, perhaps the aliens are doing something funny (or awful). Helge is the local master of the humorous story render. The lighting is ambiguous on the right side, I can’t tell if it’s just the cone of light, or there is another cave wall closer to the camera. You have succeeded in one area hugely: interest. There is something here, there are characters, there is discovery. The viewer wants to fully comprehend it. Consider making the payoff (the entire realization) somehow deeper or more complex. Great work, I look forward to seeing more, and I am sorry for the misunderstanding.

Do not get worked up over that… No votes or few votes sometimes happens. You remember that users can only vote once, therefore having many entries, there are more chances of getting few votes.
I even have the feeling that if results could not be seen until the voting date was finished, then the votes would be even less distributed.