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)
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. )
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.
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:
Guppy!
Oh, no that’s a killifish.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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
Yes, the previous one was too steep in my opinion. It didnt look natural for an ocean floor. But this one is better.
Are you going to decorate the overhang with crabs too?
So many crabs, crabs everywhere. And fish. And kelp, and probably an octopus or two, and maybe a squid…
Perhaps just for the halibut have a diver entering or exiting the sub? I like the general porpoise of the overhang!
Just two? Surely you’ve got more
Whale of a good composition thus far!
Sorry, I couldn’t kelp myself. I’ll clam up … for now.
just don’t do so much you give yourself a haddock.
now that i’ve sealed my fate, i will show myself out. >>grinning<<
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
I thought shamefaces have legs.
Either way, looks like it’s coming along pretty quick.
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