The Land Ironclads

Completed for the Dieselpunk ‘Weekly CG Challenge’. Based on the story by HG Wells that predicted the turn of warfare to mechanised. Tried to stay true to his original concept.
Although I will probably not be going back to this project I would really value critique on it.
I seem to spend a long time modelling and shading - and I think I’ve got a lot better at that. I tend to really fail at the lighting and composition.
I’ve read many tutorials and articles about good lighting but just can’t seem to produce a final piece that has a ‘wow’ factor.

Your experienced (or not) advice would be much appreciated…


Hey lordgert cool image, I love the model of the vehicle.

I’m not really an expert but I might have some advice.
Personally I think your image could use more contrast, a lot in this scene is lighted, while the sun is seting in the background.
Wouldn’t it be more logical to have a stronger rim light (from behind) and less light from the left of the scene. The front side of the vehicle for example should be much darker imo.
A lot of rim light usually adds to the grim atmoshpere of a scene as well, which may be desirable.

Finally I see you have used DOF to blur the second train a bit which probably is a good thing to put more focus on the foreground, but maybe in the diesel punk world, some sort of smog or smoke is more likely to appear. This you could use to put the second train a bit out of focus.

Anyway this is just my opinion so do with this advice what you.

I agree with appie.123, really nice looking models but the render itself could use some work. To me some of the lighting does not make sense. If the sun is behind the engine and to the right in the image, the foreground should be much darker with only the stray headlight and gunfire illuminating the machine. The engine might even cast a shadow. Think about trying a darker time of day too, at dusk, when the sun has just set or even fully set to really bring out the grittyness of the image.