Challenge #766 Voting CLOSED

This week’s theme:

Symmetry

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

  • Semicolonkid
    [post=3287456] Harmony Theory[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516223&thumb=1

  • oJB
    [post=3287508]Symmetry Breakout[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516236&thumb=1

  • fcharr
    [post=3287700]Balance[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516313&thumb=1

  • DoriNori
    [post=3287759]SymmeTREE! Get it? because… its a tree…[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516334&thumb=1

  • RayVelcoro
    [post=3287332]Installation Symmetry[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516367&thumb=1

  • TomZed
    [post=3287572]Search of Hope[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516269&thumb=1

  • Invenis
    [post=3287545]A nice looking tree in a lake[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516253&thumb=1

  • Maxime
    [post=3288020]combat[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516466&thumb=1

  • Photox
    [post=3288045]La Roue[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516470&thumb=1

  • purbosky
    [post=3287779]Regal Wings[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516482&thumb=1

  • lolwel21
    [post=3287843]Afloat[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516508&thumb=1

  • Millani
    [post=3288181]Leaves, Forever of Sevael[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516540&thumb=1

  • wacampbell
    [post=3287975]Peaceful Symmetry[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516427&thumb=1

  • Nikos096
    [post=3288185]The Road to Sym[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516551&thumb=1

  • joshwinkler3d
    [post=3288233]Architectural Symmetry[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516570&thumb=1

  • Iridesium
    [post=3286918]The Explosive Symmetry of Victory[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516499&thumb=1

  • didierv
    [post=3288102]Robot basketball competitions are boring[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516583&thumb=1

  • tklein
    [post=3288283]Design and Implementation[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516584&thumb=1

  • str11
    [post=3288368]Symmetrical Stack[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516600&thumb=1

  • Piet
    [post=3288350]resymmetrize a broken monkey candle with mirror modifier[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516598&thumb=1

Open Entries

  • beau11
    [post=3287437]Nature’s Symmetry[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516214&thumb=1
    (Open: Grass Essentials)

  • DM9
    [post=3287721]Obsidian Sculpture[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516350&thumb=1
    (Open, since I used Photoshop to develop the RAW image and added a frame and text.)

  • RC12
    [post=3287873]Landscape[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516381&thumb=1
    (Most of the work is done by ANT landscape addon. Photoshop for post-processing)

  • caz747
    [post=3287986]Stargate[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516430&thumb=1
    (I think I will go open on this one as the rune symbols were done in Gimp. )

  • FlyingBanana
    [post=3288140]Patrick’s Day Off[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516523&thumb=1
    (Open Entry)

Non-competing Entries

  • OLG
    [post=3286915]Supersymmetry[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516064&thumb=1

  • Nikos096
    [post=3287617]symmerty[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516286&thumb=1

  • Helge
    [post=3287829]Open Water[/post]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=516342&thumb=1

  • RobertT
    [post=3288054]SENSING SECRET SYMMETRIES[/post]
    http://www.artofinterpretation.com/images2018/wc766-SensingSecretSymmetries-byrjt2018.jpg

Lots of nice entries, have a few favorites of which I will choose later on.

@Robert, I love the colors of ur entry, i remember you shared some of your shaders (CyclesToonShader) last year which I still love to use. Are you perhaps willing to share some more custom cycles materials?

Very intriguing bunch of entries this time.

@RoberT I would like to know how you did yours. Was it just Photoshop? Or particles in blender? Anyways It is interesting.

@lolwel21 I like the way yours came out! maybe a little too bright but good all the same.

RayVelcoro: Thanks! I haven’t had much Blender time except for the WCs due to a lot of new music I’ve been working on, but I do have a number of Cycles shader/textures releases I hope to release in the near future. I have to review everything again to ensure they’re working up through the latest 2.79a + 2.80 test builds.

Iridesium: It’s all created, rendered, and finalized within Blender, which is my only workflow. There are two render layers for this project: one with the main meshes (manually extruded, subdivided, transformed, sculpted, separated, etc.) and the second with additional symmetrical designs, which started, separately, as regular geometry (manually transformed/spun-symmetry circles) and then were converted to curves with a tiny circle serving as the bevel object. In years past I would have simply assigned “wireframe” materials to those shapes within Blender internal, but, with Cycles (even with its wireframe input shader), I find this method comparable. I also use a variety of glossy and transparent shaders so shapes can blend. I also make use of some standard (internal) Blender Blend textures (with custom color gradients) within the render node network. You can still use these otherwise Blender-internal-only textures with a Cycles render node system by first assigning them to a Brush texture and then using Texture inputs in the render layers. For final post-render tweaking within Blender, I also use Blender’s capable Color Correction features, with curve adjustments for brightness and further color grading. Essentially, I’m using everything I can in Blender to push a project way further than I would in the past, and, even after all these years, I’m still learning about new possibilities for existing parameters and functions. It seems to be infinitely inexhaustible! =)

wow great entries :slight_smile:

@frying banana: I assume Patrick’s facing down :wink:

@fchar Yeah that’s it. :slight_smile: Sounds good to me.

@frying banana: I assume Patrick’s facing down

Last week he was tanning his belly, now his is tanning his back :wink:

Many nice entries this week. I’ve voted for Invenis.

Wait, you can MAKE your own shaders?

SymmeTREE by DoriNori got my vote, very eye-pleasing composition. But it just as easily could have gone to several other entries. For me there are 5 favorites this week. I would love to see that world node setup, Dori!

Wait, you can MAKE your own shaders?

There is a thing called Open Shading Language (OSL). It is a somewhat strange programming language, but you can make shaders with it.

DoriNori: Millani is right about OSL. I don’t use it, though. I just use Cycles’ native nodes to construct materials and procedural textures. The nodes are very capable and powerful when used in various combinations. Before Cycles, I used mainly basic Blender internal shades (without nodes) in conjunction with Blender internal procedurals.

Millani: OSL does seem strange, and I wish there was more about it with regards to Blender. PyNodes as well. A quick search shows PyNodes is something on the 2.8 roadmap: https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Shader_Pynodes_for_Blender_2.8

Some comments:

Semicolonkid: Pretty crazy. Interesting how it is hard to tell it was made with 3D software. It reminds me a bit of the Bauhaus style, though I’m not sure why. (Btw, those purple things with red in the middle look like some body part to me)

oJB: Nice colour contrast. This makes me think of bullying, with the different piece in the middle, being looked at by everyone else. I can almost feel the pressure on the little pawn.

fcharr: I think the Yin-Yang has a nice mix of symmetry and contrast (not only on the visual level). Not sure if it was intentional, but the fact the the circles are not perfectly aligned gives this model a feeling of being “hand-made”.

DoriNori: Thanks for explaining the joke on the title, not sure if I would understand it otherwise :smiley: I liked the day sky (but shouldn’t the colours be flipped? Red near the sun and yellow further above?). Also, the trick with the water reflecting the night was really cool. But I think it should’ve reflected the mountains as well.

RayVelcoro: This scene reminds me a bit about the Fallout game (specially the funny poster). The yellow light was a nice touch. I liked the chaos with the wires.

TomZed: I liked the lighting. The architecture is also very beliveable.

Invenis: I loved the cold feeling of this image. That tree looks so lonely. The leaves are also very cool.

Maxime: Someone is going to get his throat slit :wink: The characters are pretty well done, and the pose of the one in blue looks good. The pose of the one in red looks a bit strange to me, but making a jumping pose is pretty hard so that’s fine. Also interesting how you made both warriors to be left-handed. Just one thing: I see that the bricks on the wall are placed directly on top of each other (as piles). As far as I know, bricks are always placed on top of another two to distribute the weight. Or is your wall based on real architecture?

Photox: The lighting looks very realistic, which is quite amazing since you did not use an HDRI. The cabins look quite dangerous! (Also, nice example of radial symmetry).

purbosky: Nice ships, but I think I liked the one with arrows on the front better than the huge one. Also cool how you aligned the ships to the nebula (the nebula could be brighter though).

lolwel21: Those clouds are really impressive, I really liked them. I just think that, since the scene is mostly white, some additional contrast with the shadows would’ve helped me to see the details on the clouds. Also, the red balloon was a nice touch.

wecampbell: Beautiful colours. I liked the white column in the middle, it gives the scene a certain “fantasy” feeling. I just think the water should be a bit transparent close to the foreground.

Nikos096: Cute buildings. Are they placed in any particular order? I thought it was chronological, but the Mayan temple should be older than the Eiffel tower.

joshwinkler3d: Interesting house. Does it have two kitchens? :wink: I think the door is missing a handle.

Iridesium: Cool guys don’t look at explosions. I really liked the explosion. The superhero is also cool, but his pose makes him look “though”, while his body is more of a nimble hero. I think you could either add more muscle, or give him lighter guns (grenades or melee weapons would fit him better, I think).

didierv: Robot soccer, however, isn’t. Though watching an AI play against itself might be a bit boring. Did you consider to make a close-up of the two robots in the middle, with the scores in the background instead? Also, funny idea :wink:

tklein: The hand-drawn effect is pretty cool. I liked how the thing (is that a necklace?) is very chaotic.

str11: Very mysterious and futuristic. I loved the contrast. Though I have no idea what this is, it reminds me of aliens.

Piet: A need that Suzanne candle. That would be so funny! Anyway, the molten wax looks pretty cool.

beau11: Very pretty butterfly. The grass field is cool, but the scale feels very wrong. I would guess that the butterfly is as big as my forearm! Either that, or that grass is thinner than my hair. I think in real life the butterfly would be about as big as the flowers.

DM9: I really liked the contrast, both white-black and smooth-rough. The sculpture reminds me of an hourglass.

RC12: The mountains look pretty nice. They remind me a bit of Skyrim. However, at the points where the mountains meet the ground I can see some clear seams. Not sure how easy it is to fix that with ANT.

caz747: The ring around the gate is pretty cool. Looking at some images, this looks fairly close to the “real” one. The scene just feels a bit empty though.

FlyingBanana: Patrick is getting really lazy lately! I liked the little dots on top of the starfish. Is it bump or did you sculpt it. The sand looks nice, but it is a bit too dry considering the water.

OLG: Pretty crazy. I’ll just believe you that this is related to symmetry :wink:

Helge: That fish is pretty funny, specially with the pig nose. I can almost feel they swimming. I just don’t understand the relation to symmetry. Is it because the fish is symmetric?

RoberT: Speaking that title makes me feel like a snake :wink: I find it really impressive how it is hard to tell what is geometry and what is shading in your entries. But I’m afraid I couldn’t sense the symmetry here, maybe because it is secret.

Cheers for the comments . Millani, much appreciated.

I was trying to get close to the real gate but it’s not 100% and the event horizon is way off in my opinion. The scene is pretty empty so that didn’t help the overall look. Did find out about modelling just a small section of the gate then using an array and empty to make the rest of it, so that was cool.

thanks Millani :slight_smile:


the image is perfectly symmetric, but I gave it a slight rotation, to try and align the dots.

@Millani Thanks for your kind comments.
That’s cortical stack from Altered Carbon.By the way very atmospheric cyberpunk tv serial(by netflix) like a Blade Runner recommend you for watching if you have not seen

Thanks, Millani! =) It’s all geometry with semi-transparent shaders. There are several symmetries at play in the image, and not all of them are born of axial symmetry but rather of proportions, as the etymology of “symmetry” explains: https://www.etymonline.com/word/symmetry

I voted for DM9. Excellent concept and beautiful render!

Some quick observations:

Semicolonkid: A classic abstract treament!

oJB: Excellent idea exploring the symmetrical aspects of chess!

fcharr: Universally recognized, amazingly meaningful, and nicely rendered along with transparency!

DoriNori: Beautiful colors and contrasting, and I love the addition of constellations!

RayVelcoro: A very creative and detailed entry with great render quality and a sense of humor as well!

TomZed: I always admired those kinds of up-the-stairs images, and the symmetry manifests well here through your work!

Invenis: Truly beautiful and even better when the image is enlarged / zoomed into at full resolution!

Maxime: Great details, action, and competing symmetries!

Photox: Masterfully rendered as always, and realistic yet creative and convincing!

purbosky: Very cool, and it reminds me of space-based video games :slight_smile:

lolwel21: Subtle symmetry and beautifully rendered! Actually quite uplifting!

Millani: Very cool, mysterious, with several clear examples of symmetries at work here!

wacampbell: Another truly beautiful render. Extra points for the subtle realistic distortion on the water plane!

Nikos096: Nice clean bright and exemplary of architectural symmetry!

joshwinkler3d: Another architecturally symmetrical work which is well done and seemingly habitable!

Iridesium: Good work on establishing a complete scene with even a sense of it being a situation in progress.

didierv: Very creative idea and nicely realized! Nice on what appears to be binary scoring as well!

tklein: Perfectly executed from idea to actual render – and literally so within this image!

str11: Alienesque and very intriguing! Nice glow as well!

Piet: Mirror symmetry: well done! I thought there might be some use of mirrors in this challenge. Nice melting effects as well!

beau11: A truly beautiful and convincing render. Butterflies are such incredibly beautiful living examples of symmetry in nature!

DM9: As I said, this was my choice. I do not believe the border or text makes that open. Your render is within the border, and that’s all that matters. There’s an easy way to do this in blender using the Scale render node along with some native Blender text in a compositing node in another render layer. I know it works :wink:

RC12: Very nice and convincing mountains – with some snow even! I appreciate the imperfect reflections and the indication of varied areas of ice along the water line.

caz747: A very nice stargate indeed! I wonder where this one goes…

FlyingBanana: I like the starfish very much, and I’m very impressed with the realistic variations in the wet sand!

OLG: I am so glad you did this (supersymmetry). It’s an interesting topic and is not easily visualized. You did very well here!

Nikos096: Nice details on these classic architectural examples of symmetry!

Helge: A superb example of radial symmetry with a clear organic sense of coming together and continuous motion!

Wonderful work, everyone!

@fcharr What I meant is that the structure of the yin-yang is somewhat like this:



That is, a large circle, with two smaller ones inside, each with another smaller circle. In your model, the black small circle is not perfectly in the middle of the white circle, which is a manufacturing defect that would easily appear if the object is hand-made.

@RobertT Thanks!

EDIT: Is there anyway to control the size of the image? The Yin-Yang looks ridiculously huge here…

Thank you for the input @RobertT and @Millani and yes it was sculpted and no textures used on the starfish. I agree about adding a darker tint to the sand where the water is and had passed over but alas I didn’t have time. Just glad that you were able to recognize it for what it was. And the starfish is actually only half a starfish, the bottom side on the sand is just hollow, helped cut down poly count and render time on my potato laptop.

@Millani: I built mine with a similar approach, the exception is I didn’t include the inner circles: I ended up creating extra geometry for those by deleting faces and the rounding out the edges.