Cellular
Pure entry.
Blender 2.82 cycles, 300 samples with AI quick D-Noise.
My original idea was just out of control and was taking way too long to finish. As such I modeled a single cell, spewed a couple thousand of instances of it out of a particle system, threw some lighting on it and sent it to render.
The original render was going to be 4k at 600 samples, but it was less than halfway finished at abouty 4:00 pm EST, so I dumbed it down to 1920x1080, dropped the sample rate to 300 and let 'er rip to get thgis rendered in time.
I did include AO and dynamic shadows, but as the cells are translucent, it may be a bit tough to tell. Without them there was little to no differentiation between cells. I liked the subtlety of the textures, but I wanted clear differentiation between each instance.
I’ll include the motion blurred non-entry in a comment below for anyone interested. I was originally going to do a composite, but there are just too many bouncing rays to get it done in time.
Anyway, win or lose hope y’all enjoy.