Working on an Anubis shot that feels a little flat, could use some advice on how to breathe some life into the render
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Your sky is half the image, so might as well try to do something cool there. Maybe make it a night time shot with a full moon? Blue sky & gold is a nice color scheme with contrast between warm & cool hues. The zombies could be on fire too with cool blue moonlight. Maybe a super simple Egyptian village in the background? Like, just some basic house shapes with lights scattered everywhere? They could be out of focus with depth of field, but the night lights in the background would look cool.The pyramid could have its sharp edges lit to make it a recognizable shape with the DOF on. And you could sculpt the dunes with high resolution and sculpting brushes in the foreground. Or you could subdivide and add a displace modifier to make the dunes more detailed. And the zombies could have weapons. Making your main character up against an impossibly strong enemy makes it more exciting. Currently, the zombies would stand no chance to your great Anubis.
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hey!
Something feels a bit off with the Anubis himself. The head is smaller than the arms , the hips don’t look much wider than the knees, do you thing it should be balanced somehow?
It feels like he doesn’t care about his situation, and is taking a pose for a fashion show. I expect you want him to feel confident about his situation, maybe let him have his spear through a dead zombie and give him a disdainful look toward the closest coming. You could also add a trail behind the undeads to show they are actually moving to him and not floating around like the one on the left.
The two zombies on the right back feel strange, which is linked with what blendersplendor says, give some displace modifier to the sand, the zombies have much more details than the sand has
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It looks flat because of the absence of shadows where Anubis and zombies touch the sand. Also, I’d expect them to leave trails in the sand (footprints for Anubis, drag trails for the zombies.)
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Thank you again @BlenderSplendor will definitely take these to heart and build on the details and do more with the pyramid and village. Do you think a night time shot would be better? I was trying to go for a sandstorm and was thinking of building on that but I am open to suggestions
@Zelfior, Thanks I laughed for a good five minutes about the fashion show comment. Will definitely work on that.
About the hips and the head, I was working from a genzoman concept(https://www.deviantart.com/genzoman/art/Anubis-77784252) which seemed to call for weirder proportions so his look was by design but for hips and knees I think that’s more the pose than anything but I can work on it when I revise the pose
@Meshmonkey My sand some seems to have been a little weaker than everything else so will definitely build up on the detail, trails and shadows
Composition is probably my biggest weakness right now from lack of experience so I’m grateful to have found this community. Going to work on your suggestions and get back to you. Thanks!
The pillar may also be a bit questionable, because of the right dune, if you compare, it looks HUGE, is it meant to be? it feels like being too much, maybe you could take it away and include it in the proposed village, or turn the village into some temple sanctuary.
The way you modeled the sandstorm looks more like clouds, i guess there is a scale issue, we can see too far for having a sandstorm that prevents you from seeing a blue sky. It is a bit like you are either inside the storm, but within a clean air micro climate
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was trying to make it seem closer than the pyramid but I see what you mean about the right dune and about the sandstorm. I had seen a shot from the assassins creed Origins where the sandstorm was dusty enough to feel like a sandstorm but clear enough to see some of the architecture in the background and had tried use that for reference but will work on fixing the micro climate
I like this concept and it has a good style.
Color and Sandstorm
I think the monotone color scheme is appropriate but it is too uniform in brightness and texture. That makes the picture look flat. Make appropriate areas darker where the sand has blocked the sunlight or it gives the right artistic look. Bold or dramatic look that way. Use some swirls, streams, or wisps of sand to add detail. Use brightness, volumetrics, and amount of texture detail to add to the sense of depth and scale. I would make the foreground fairly clear with the dust obscuring more and more in the distance until only monumental things like the pyramid are visible.
In the World
Put things “in the world”. Show how things effect and are effected by the things around them. Footprints, shadows, sand in the wind where steps or crawling has moved it, etc.
Tell a Story
Position the characters and objects and create the setting to tell a story. I see Anubis, god of the dead, collecting the recently deceased. They move toward him to be received into the next world. His arrival was heralded by a sandstorm. For that example, maybe make a temple of Anubis with obelisks or colonnades marking a path to the altar or platform where Anubis stands. The dead travel along the path to him. You could research reconstructions of ancient temples etc.
Anubis
His feet are not finished. A proportionally small head is used to exaggerate muscles or powerful build like for the Hulk but Anubis’ head is much too small. He is more realistic and detailed than other objects. That is good for the main character but make some other things near him also detailed.
The Dead
They should not be the same. Use different levels of decomposition or damage, different clothes, a rare mummy. The poses need work.
Composition
- Try the composition guides (Camera->Viewport Display->Composition Guides) to help place objects.
- Even if you make a temple etc. keep this simple. The simplicity I see here is appealing.
- I like the color scheme you used.
- Harmony. Is anything out of place, distracting, too much or too little of something, etc.?
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Wow the support here is actually pretty staggering, especially when all the feedback I’ve gotten is so constructive. Thank you again, I have definitely taken everything to heart and will try build a better composition. Will look into a good temple design and will definitely build up on the color and sandstorm’s swirls and dust.
I do need to ask what you mean about “the feet are not finished”, is it about the detail in my texture?
It is your picture, your vision, your way. Consider advice, ideas, observations but keep you in your picture.
Anubis has elaborate clothes, accessories, armor, detailed modeling and textures but the legs and feet have no details. The legs and feet are not like his skin and muscles and have no toes so he is wearing something. It is not clear if that is boots, sandals, socks, pants …
Anything new?
Hey Splododyne, tbh not yet… started questioning some of the details with my Anubis model and my ability to make a good render composite so thought I’d take a step back and try practice with something new (Halloween Lockdown) before I came back to this with fresh eyes
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Sounds good. Taking a break does give us fresh eyes and renewed enthusiasm. Halloween Lockdown looks great!