2024 - Blender Progress and Practice

I wouldn’t necessarily get rid of it but when you do, maybe place something else there to guide the eyes towards your focal points. Without anything there, the comp feels a bit tilted to me (to the right)

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Sad crab staring at a meshless skeleton is my favorite part.
It’s wider than I thought it would be from the concept sketch, but I like it, especially once you added the rivets and detailing.

I’m the exact opposite. I can knock out organic things pretty quick, but with hard surface I kind of sit staring at the computer screen hoping that it will take care of itself. (“Pro” Tip, it will not. :disappointed_relieved:)

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Right now I’m leaning towards a combo of @stray and @good_omen ‘s points- making it much smaller and more in the background, then adding a swarm of fish where it was?

Block it out starting with the heroes. If it were a girl standing with car on a street, I’d place those. Then, I’d block out the scenery to pull focus in the desired ways.

There’s tweaking after (lots), to balance it all out - but, helps me keep the main part staged as the key element and not overthinking (too much) about things in the scene that are there for support.

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Yeah, you’re right, I’m going to toss the sub and some basemeshes in tomorrow and start messing around.

Made and rigged a quick (30min) fish:

It’s not super detailed because it’s a far-off, background fish.

Ref:
Noruu_u0

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Guppy!
Oh, no that’s a killifish.

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the overhang would probably be completely dark, unless someone was holding a light under it… which add mystery to the piece: “what’s in there?? is it dangerous??” a good thing, i believe. :slight_smile:

could even have something like an anglerfish or somesuch in a nearby overhang to even allude moreso to that. (of course we’re probably not deep enough for a proper anglerfish, but i don’t know how fantastical your scene is… if there’s a predator to attract and eat crabs about, and pose a minor threat to the crab catching peeps)

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This is where I’m at compositionally:

Please note that the lighting is just to get a very rough idea of value, the sub is going to be a lot more visible and the lighting generally will be heavily stylized (I never use physically accurate lighting)

Big shoutout to @thorn for helping me get here

Un-lit:

Also, I’m going to draw people in, so I’m not bothering with posing the mannequins or anything.

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I’m liking how it’s turning out thus far. I think the overhang is necessary to fill in that empty space. It also provides more feel of size with the characters below it. Looking good. :+1:

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I wasn’t sure about the overhang, but I realized the old overhang just wasn’t right. I sculpted a new one, that turned out a lot better. I agree, I think it fills in that space really well :slight_smile:

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Yes, the previous one was too steep in my opinion. It didnt look natural for an ocean floor. But this one is better.

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Are you going to decorate the overhang with crabs too? :slight_smile:

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So many crabs, crabs everywhere. And fish. And kelp, and probably an octopus or two, and maybe a squid…

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Perhaps just for the halibut have a diver entering or exiting the sub? I like the general porpoise of the overhang!

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Just two? Surely you’ve got more :wink:

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Whale of a good composition thus far!

Sorry, I couldn’t kelp myself. I’ll clam up … for now.

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just don’t do so much you give yourself a haddock. :smiley:

now that i’ve sealed my fate, i will show myself out. >>grinning<<

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Today’s work: most of a guitarfish (still need the tail fins and a couple of the smaller fins), a swimming crab (look them up, they’re a delight to watch), and a wonderfully named shame-faced crab. The guitarfish will be rigged, the swimming crab already is, and the shame-faced crab is an American football with eyes, so it will not be rigged

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I thought shamefaces have legs.

Either way, looks like it’s coming along pretty quick. :slight_smile:

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They do, but they’re very tiny compared to the rest of their ridiculous body, and they like to tuck them under themselves, and I’m lazy :wink:

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