I can’t really believe that this is truly happening. That is, me posting in the “Finished Projects” threads. But, there you have it. The attached image is my first release candidate for the Blender World Cup. I may toy with the overall composition a bit more, and I’ll certainly keep you updated, but I think its finished. However, if you have any critiques whatsoever, by all means, feel free to speak up. I’m going to submit it to the judges soon.
A bit regarding the background of the piece. The setting is, obviously, the skies above World War One, in mid 1916. The balloon you see in the background was dubbed lovingly by the Allies “sausage”, and they were often called “Drachen” (dragon) as well. The “moment in time” concept is more or less implemented here, as the balloon is just going up into flames, and the Nieuport 11 in the foreground is making a hasty retreat. Many said that attacking observation balloons, hoisted above the front line to observe troop movements and direct artillery fire, was suicide, as they were invaluable to both sides of the fighting, and heavily defended not only by escort aircraft but by ferocious anti-aircraft gunfire, or, as said in that time period, “Archie”.
Very nice overall. Lighting and modeling are really well done.
What lacks is the composition. The first thing is that you have the propeller of the plane obscuring the pilot. I would like to see the pilot in this piece, as it would make it a bit more believable. Next, the image would look much better if the plane was not directly in front of the balloon. Move the plane more to the right of the image and leave a bit of space between it and the balloon.
I think that would improve this image a great deal.
^Its the little things that count. Hopefully, this looks a little better. I decided to exclude the other aircraft, and I also decided to do most of my compositing in Blender before I finished it up in Gimp. The result is a much clearer image, I think.
This, my friends, is hopefully the last composite before I send it off to the judges. I want to thank first and foremost the community at military-meshes.com for offering not only professional 3D advice but also technical c&c during the creation of my Nieuport 11 and of course my entry for the Blender World Cup. Also, I want to thank the Blender community for their support throughout this entire process. It has been learning, learning, and still more learning. The entire process was more or less experimental on my part, as I’m still attempting to ground myself into the Blender work flow. Thanks again, wishing you all the best,
This is the entry I sent to the judges. Only difference is the balloon is facing the opposite direction, so that the tilt of the aircraft and that of the balloon were not running parallel, as before it rendered an unbalanced viewing experience. Oh, and a better explosion.
@Moguri: I considered doing this for the contest in it of itself. I’ve already tweaked the colors enough to show a “golden/vintage/(hopefully)cinematic” image. However, just for fun, I’ll post one up asap. :yes:
Here’s the high res. that I submitted. Good luck to all the contestants!
-Biggles
ps: I had to re-render everything because it wasn’t quite one mega pixel. Bleah. Oh, and photobucket downsizes every time one uploads using the free version. But the lighting and overall composition here is better quality. Enjoy.
