Challenge #743 Voting CLOSED

This week’s theme: guitar

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

  • LeoBlenderToon
    O violão
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498353&stc=1&thumb=1

  • RayVelcoro
    Fender Blender
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498497&stc=1&thumb=1

  • didierv
    The top things used to pretend playing guitar
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498515&stc=1&thumb=1

  • astiero
    untitled
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498560&stc=1&thumb=1

  • purbosky
    Blue Wish
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498561&stc=1&thumb=1

  • DM9
    Ovation Guitars
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498607&stc=1&thumb=1

  • BlenderrMan
    Jam Time
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498605&stc=1&thumb=1

  • BenitaS
    Guitar
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498641&stc=1&thumb=1

  • fcharr
    In Tune
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498662&stc=1&thumb=1

  • Advent Crown
    Dulcimer in Nature
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498670&stc=1&thumb=1

  • Ryeath
    Resonant Frequency
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498681&stc=1&thumb=1

  • FlyingBanana
    Tune-a-Fish
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498687&stc=1&thumb=1

  • joshwinkler3d
    Bygone Tune
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498624&stc=1&thumb=1

  • robproctor83
    ba-guitar-full
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498731&stc=1&thumb=1

  • vaguehorizon
    Guitar Pool
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498732&stc=1&thumb=1

  • caz747
    Eight miles high.
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498753&stc=1&thumb=1

  • Evilos
    It’s a Sad story but unfortunately I can’t tell you…
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498757&stc=1&thumb=1

  • david.speer
    Rising Star
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498762&stc=1&thumb=1

  • str11
    Semi acoustic guitar
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498787&stc=1&thumb=1

  • NATIVO
    Old Guitar
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498789&stc=1&thumb=1

  • fdo
    Enlightened Electric Guitar 1955
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498793&stc=1&thumb=1

  • Millani
    Guitar Warrior
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498802&stc=1&thumb=1

  • bazevedo
    Late Night Inspiration
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498821&stc=1&thumb=1

Open Entries

  • Miatpi
    Rock you!
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498813&stc=1&thumb=1[Quite some colour correction in Gimp, hence it’s openess.]

Non-competing Entries

  • Fulip
    More guitars = more fun
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498487&stc=1&thumb=1

  • OLG
    Electric Guitar Thunder
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498519&stc=1&thumb=1

  • RobertT
    ACOUSTICAL VISTAS: CAMP FIRE GUITAR SONG
    http://www.artofinterpretation.com/images4/wc743-AcousticalVistas-CampFireGuitarSong-byrjt2017.jpg

  • Helge
    The Band
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=498606&stc=1&thumb=1

Wow, that was a tough choice.

@asterio: I’m in love with your paint-ish style. How is it done? :slight_smile:

@helge: how can you always have such an incredible out-of-the-box entry every week (not to say they always have a very fitting style-choice)??? Any tip…? :wink:

@RobertT, you should have titled it “The Campfire Song Song”. Quite the missed opportunity :wink:

@Miatpi who is asterio? I couldn’t find that person on this thread, or the submission thread… I wanted to see the style you were talking about :slight_smile:

@Millani your submission looks much better with it brightened like that. It’s important to be able to see the picture clearly, it makes a huge difference I think. Unfortunately there are some other entries here that would look much better if they were simply brightened. Even if you think you have it bright enough from the render alone I would still suggest running it through Photoshop or Blenders compositor and brightening it even more.

Whoops, I meant Astiero. Sorry. :o

@robproctor83 Thanks. It is definitely important to be able to clearly see the image, yet shadows are so cool :smiley:

Thanks! I’m glad you like it. Usually, I start by thinking about all the approaches I don’t want to put time into … and if what is left is worth the time and seems to be doable on Saturday night between 00:00 and 04:00AM (this doesn’t work out most of the time), I’m ready to go. Btw. the current entry was based on a stain on our bathroom floor. :wink:

@Helge: thanks!

__

You know what bothers me? That I actually though the blurriness I slapped on my guitar would make it look dreamlike and cooler. Now I see it only makes it unclear and… unclear. Not to mention it’s also probably one of those “too dark” images Robproctor mentioned.

Helge I really like your piece a lot too. Are you non compete since your the admin? That’s not fair :frowning: But yea your submissions are always unique, very interesting.

I would love to hear feedback on my submission.
I didn’t really like the floor, it felt too clean, so I’ve been working on that.

I wasn’t that happy with how my lighting turned out. I wanted to have a late night, low light feeling, but in the end the image was too dark. I am still working on getting good low level mood lighting, without having too much noise.

Here was another initial idea I had, but didn’t really have time to work on it much more. The idea was to be a futuristic museum setting with displays of guitars and other musical instruments, and how those might be viewed in the future.


The opportunity to create a guitar has come up a few times. for this challenge I decided to focus on the one thing that ended up being neglected: And I still got it wrong. I think I know what to do next time around. First I’ll do the tuners and the nut, which will serve as a guide for the neck and head.

Cool guitars all across the page :slight_smile:

@Helge, I don’t see why shouldn’t compete. you wouldn’t always win, there’s serious competition.

Also, nice to know I’m not the only Portuguese participating in the challenge!

Difficult choice there as all of the renders are of such good quality. Quite often I will vote for the image that is the most inventive, other times it will be because the texturing and modelling is just so darn good. Anyway vote’s in. Best of luck one and all.

Yay, im in second place, my favorite spot :slight_smile: hehe… I wish I had a few more hours to work on the render, i realize now that all the chrome on my entry looks gold from the reflections, and my blender logo isn’t embedded correctly on the guitar. I’m also missing the wear and tear, oh well. I’ll work on it a bit more for my personal gallery. Looking forward to the next contest already :slight_smile:

This was my first time participating in the weekend challenge, and definitely won’t be my last. I could definitely see how doing this regularly would improve your skills and stretch you to try new things. It was also cool to see all the great submissions. Here is another model that I did for this challenge but didn’t end up using in my submission. It’s always good to have a spare banjo model laying around right?


Yes, indeed, many entries are similar to each other(especially close up images), including my.



And here I made little improvements in my scene

Some thoughts:

LeoBlenderToon: I like this, it’s quite easygoing and have a soft feeling to it. Also the ground is very realistic.

RayVelcoro: the concept is great here! The guitar-thing in the background is amasingly detailed, maybe to that point that it steals the spotlight from the guitar in focus (which to me looks a little flat). Oh, and the choice of font is really fitting.

didierv: at first I thought the Air-sign was a triangle (the instrument) :stuck_out_tongue:
Anyway, the idea is really clever. I’m a little confused about the melancholic mood as the content is fun.

asterio: as I said above I love your style (please reveal the secret :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :)) and it nails the mood here. The girls pose, her shadowed eyes, the dirt, the siuettes, it’s just perfect. Very cool.

purbosky: cool yet cute in some way, and the neon-lights are a nice touch. Maybe it would stand out more if it was brightened up a little, especially the background light.

dm9: this would work great as a post card. I love the colour scheme and composition here, it overall feels calm and interesting. Not to mention it’s quite realistic.

BlenderrMan: I don’t know what an acoustic guitar does at an amplifier, or what that metallic-leaf-thing on the cable is, but it looks cool. The subtle spotlight on the guitar draw me into the scene, which I really like.

BenitaS: not bad at all. Nice details on the (guitar)neck, which I think also should have been on the rest of the guitar too.

fcharr: haha, cool. That’s all I can say. I don’t really know what it is (or rather why there are so many of them) but… it’s cool. I just wish the text weren’t obscured (what’s it saying?).

AdventCrown: this one is reallt good. The lighting, the realism (escpecially the ground), the style of the guitar-ish instrument… it’s so soft and warm. The only thing that bugs me is the rocks the instrument lean on: for one thing there’s grass penetrating the one to the right, but my biggest issue is that they seam to be “floating” on the grass. Maybe that’s just me, that I think it gives them a lightweight impression.

Ryeath: this is really clever, and the style makes it stand out. Nice!

FlyingBanana: what’s better: a flying banana or a guitar-fish? Sorry, I just had to :P.
Anyway, the fish is just cute. I could easily think of it as some childs stuffed animal. It looks very stiff though, and maybe some SSS wouldn’t hurt.

jishwinkler3d: at first i thought this was a real guitar left in the sand, but now I see it’s a broken sign of some sort. I really like the look of it, but the sand seams to be very jagged/low poly.

robproctor83: you’ve done it again! How in the world can you have only been working with blender for a month-or-so??? The details are all perfect and thought through (I can even feel the tension of the strings). There’s a blender logo and even a hidden Mickey (I’ll never forget you if you get that reference).
How did you make belt texture? Gazillions of hair strands?

vaguehorizon: haha, I didn’t realise the guitar-pool at first, but I’ve gotta say it’s very clever. Very detailed too. I just think the saturation is too strong, and maybe if it was taken from a slightly higher angle the guitar-resemblence would be clearer.

caz747: Is it a memorial for a musician? I tried too google 1959, but didn’t really find anything on “eight miles high”. It’s probably just me, I’m not very educated in music-history.
Render wise it’s quite good, maybe the lighting on the guitar could be stronger, like a spotlight or so.

Evilos: Strong mood, I really like the reflection in the street. I think it would have done raindrops look a little fake, some of them are just blue. Are their material glossy (should be glass)? Anyway I really like this one, and also want to hear the story.

david.speer: I’ll be totally honest: I have no freaking clue what’s going on. Is it a bomb? Are they torturing the guitar? Poor guitar :frowning:
Nah but seriously, this is quite creative. It’s interesting, and the box+light bulbs look really good.
Apart from not understanding what’s happening my biggest issue is the style clash: the guitars body nad the orangy streaks look too cartoonish compared to the rest of the scene. If the streaks are supposed to be sparks, then particles should be the way to go.

strr11: another guitar-lying-on-something, but it doesn’t make it look worse ;). I really like the look of it, escpecially the design. It’s quite realistic and very detailed. Your updated version is even better. Really nice.

NATIVO: as I said, being another guitar-lying-on-something doesn’t make anything look worse (after all you’re leading…). This one is very realistic, and unlike most of the other guitars it’s old and dirty. It’s saying something, the guitar has a story of it’s own. The lighting is very intriguing as well. Very good.

fdo: (another guitar-lying-on…) This is good, and quite realistic. I rreally like the strong lighting and shinyness.

Millani: WHOA!!! It’s… crazy. I… love it. Just imagine meeting him in an alley at night.

bazawedo: know what I like most here? It’s the style consistency. Everything is quite realistic while maintaing a cartoonish touch. It’s very thougt-through as: like the slightly folded paper on the desk, or the slightly skewed light-bulb. The mood really is there.

Miatpi: and finally my own!!! Yeah, not so much to say here. I totally see why it’s not getting much votes, it’s pretty unclear. To think I deliberately added that glow on the guitar…

So that’s my feedback for you. It took quite some time, but I’m happy to do it :slight_smile:
In case anyone would want give me some feedback, it would be appreciated.

@Miatpi, I like how you critique all of the works, I enjoy seeing how everyone views each others pieces. About the hidden mickey though, that’s funny I didn’t realize it until you mentioned it. To be honest I didn’t know what that meant so I had to look it up, but once I realized what it was I immediately saw hidden mickey on the image lol.

@Str11 I like your updated pic a lot better. The background is much better now too. The quality of your piece is excellent, but the shape of the guitar seems off. I like that it’s a unique design, but it just seems… I don’t know, it’s hard to say exactly but just off… I imagine trying to play that guitar would be difficult, especially if you were sitting down. So yea, take that critique with a grain of salt, things like that are very subjective and while I might think it looks off someone else will love it :slight_smile:

@bazevedo I like your new submission much better, too bad you didn’t get that into the contest :stuck_out_tongue: Your contest entry looks pretty good from a technical standpoint, but it’s too dark. It seems that this is a common issue that many artists suffer from, and it can easily be fixed. I hope you don’t mind me reuploading your entry here as an example to show what I am trying to convey. I took your original entry image and just upped the levels in photoshop (you can also do this with blender), it took me literally less than 5 minutes and it makes a huge improvement. Hope this helps.


Thanks. I tried to go a bit different this time.

Here’s your music history lesson for today https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Pie_(song)

I liked the idea behind your image, just need to spend a little more time on the lighting I think.

Thanks for all the reviews, pretty much spot on in most cases.

edit: Oh, just wanted to throw out one piece of advice for people doing guitars renders - most of the time guitars that display their wood grain (i.e. not painted) will have the sound boards (face of the guitar) book ended. So there will be a line down the center and the top and bottom grain will be mirrored.

Wow, thanks for the complete feedback Miatpi. - Your rendering is interesting. Here are some things I would consider to make it stand out more though. First and foremost color. Black on black is a bit too subtle for me. Either the guitar should have a bright color, like the “punk hair” you got going there, or you could have put it on a bright orange colored (or any other color) background to create contrast between the subject and its surroundings. The other thing that does not match so well is the aspect ratio of the image; the subject itself is very vertical, standing up, you even exaggerate it with the low point of view and the raised arms. The landscape aspect ratio sort kills that effect for me, I think a portrait image would have been way better to frame what you were trying to show here. - Lastly those hands don´t really cut it for me, they look like boxing gloves. you could have made one into a plectrum and the other into a hand to show that this thing would be a “guitar god” … just some thoughts. :wink:

By the way, I voted for Didierv, not the best rendering and a bit chunky composition, but I really like the story that goes with the image. ^^