Challenge #754 Voting CLOSED

@usernew:
Thanks for the comments! I wanted the glass to have somewhat ‘wavy’ reflection like Enthymeme’s entry but couldn’t get it right. The title and corp name were different back then, I changed it to help the viewer to understand the scene better, and you’re right, perhaps someone did call down the meteor! Now that I see it again, I think it could also serve as a prequel for 3dmad’s entry. :smiley:

Nice work on your entry too, oh poor Danbo… Love the vignette effect and those darker part on the box sides too. I think the stuffs that reflected on the big mirror kinda steal the attention a bit, but overall it looks good!

@Millani:
Can we get an early next theme now? :wink: A great effort you did there! I think it can also be read starting from the right to have somewhat a ‘better’ ending (with the door interpreted as ‘invitation’ rather than ‘out’).

@Helge:
I think a raptor would fit better in a bathroom? Or maybe… it’s a small Indominus Rex? Yikes!

Thx for Voting for me guys. I thought mine was inadequate compared to all the wonderful submissions that were sent but i can see myself improving very fast and that’s what matters.

It would! Especially, since the real ones were only about 50cm high. JP may have added a little creative freedom on that end.

Thx for the comments usernew, about the repeating reflection. I figured i should be almost repeating having the distance in mind. I went for a plastic look after getting some undesirable results with metal material. And i didn’t want to spend to much time on it.

My vote goes to purbosky, his entry deserves at least one vote in my opinion!

I’m flattered with all the votes, they came as a surprise for me :wink: And it will be the first time (hopefully).

Thank you! I initially had 2 interpretations, then usernew showed another and you just gave me a fourth one :smiley:
I wonder how many interpretations are there…

And now for some feedback:

purbosky: The buildings are nice and varied. I must confess, I did not see the meteors at first. I thought the reflection were actually construction cranes :wink: (probably related to the fact that Berlin is full of them). Now that I see them, I think contrast between ordinary office life and a catastrophe were really interesting.

DERBENDER: Funny usage of the theory of relativity and the silver surfer. The model and materials are nice, even though it doesn’t look much like silver (not sure how the silver surfer is supposed to look like). Also, the image used for background is a bit too stretched.

didierv: Interesting reference. I liked the claw, although it looks a bit low-poly. My main critique is that the objects are mostly evenly-lit.

RayVelcoro: I liked the angle, makes the satellite look pretty big. The reflection looks nice, however, it is really strange that all panels reflect exactly the same image. I think the plastic materials works for a sci-fi or non-realistic look.

fdo: This is one of those images which I need a while to understand what is going on. I really liked the illusion you made. The lighting and materials are pretty realistic.

R_dva: The ghost of Suzanne is quite spooky. But I think the scene needs a bit more context, like a wall or something. The lights are nice.

Scepter1987: Pretty surreal. I liked the bubbles. But the usage of images for the background and the portal look too “obvious” and flat.

FlyingBanana: Someone is into trouble! I wasn’t aware of this natural mirror. I liked the way that the viewer is sort of placed in the dangerous situation. I just think that the flat faces are too small and similar to each other.

Munno101: This reminds me of the “default cube” week, where Suzannes were being transformed into cubes. Now I see a poor cube, remembering the days it was a free Suzanne…
The materials and texture gave the scene a nice variation, however some of the cubes are floating (and the copyright notice of one of the images is visible ;)).

fcharr: That’s a very nice model, she looks pretty mean. The materials on the wall are nice, but they seem to be unrelated to each other,

Ansaar13: Even butterflies suffer with vanity! The butterfly looks very nice, and I liked how you gave an insect some personality without making it an humanoid.

usernew: I really liked the lighting and the objects here. Poor cardboard fellow, no one gives it the attention it deserves, not even the mirror recognizes its existence!

joshwinkler3d: Interesting take on the theme. Since water is reflective, the objects in this scene are “inside” a mirror. I liked the idea of having a gas station underwater (after all, sharks also need to use the bathroom during long journeys). But as already stated, the colours on your previous entry were much prettier.

mirek_snd: Very horryfing. I liked how you simulated some camera defects, making this feel like a photo in bad light conditions. I also liked how the creepiness is very subtle. The colours enhanced the feeling of horror.

caz747: Is that the mirror shield used by the Greek hero? Considering how it is on the floor and the medusa is still alive, I guess it didn’t work in your version of the story! The medusa looks really nice.

beau11: Ha, the addition of the cleaning product was very funny. Somebody needs to clean the mirrors in all these entries :wink:

david.speer: That sci-fi pyramid is very mysterious. The environment is nice, but you could’ve moved the camera so that both the object and its reflection are visible.

putr corps: I really loved the lighting and colours in this scene. It is also very detailed. My main critique is the pose of the person. It seems like going through a triangular portal in the middle of the street is an ordinary thing. I think if the person were jumping through the portal instead, the scene would be way more dramatic.

OLG: Is the mirror from your fractal entry? The model is really cool, the details are very beautiful and look authentic. I liked the reflections on the metal on the third version, yet the mirror reflection looks a bit strange. It feels a bit fake to me.

DM9: Ha, nice to see your one-character-for-all-themes again. The way you distorted the image is pretty nice. Let’s just hope she doesn’t have 7 years of bad luck selling the album.

RobertT: I really liked the colours. The model is also very impressive. I’m just wondering, shouldn’t the reflective surface be concave in order to focus all light on the structure in the centre? It seems you mixed a radar dish and a telescope together.

3dmad: Yay, the challenge is in the headlines! I liked the idea of a dog reading the news in a café. It must be deaf though, otherwise the shattering glass would drive it mad. The newspaper is well done, with wrinkles and such.

Helge: I guess someone regreted loving Jurassic Park (that’s what is written in the mirror, right?)! Also, I wonder why somebody needs a concave mirror in their bathroom. The dinosaur looks pretty good.

FuzzyPeachApple: I find these freestyle renders pretty interesting. It looks a bit like something you made in MS paint or another cheap image program, but it is cool nevertheless. I liked how the kid is dressed like a superhero as well. One can understand this as the boy is just playing.

robproctor83: Very dynamic and beautiful details. I’m a bit confused about what the projectile really is, but it looks nice. However, I think gravity ended up playing a much bigger role in the simulation than the bullet. I would expect glass flying forwards instead of bouncing of the floor.

Enthymeme: Nice building. I liked how it takes some time for me to figure out where is “up”. The colours are pretty too. The airplane was a nice touch.

Thx Millani! Congrats with the win! Well deserved.

@usernew
Thanks for the feedback :slight_smile:

I’m having a bit of a hard time trying to recall doing any “amazing” entries :wink: but I guess if your anything like me the message the image is trying to convey counts for a lot, so in that regards I do consider this to be a pretty nice image :-). I think perhaps I could have possibly done a better job of trying to convey the message, as I’m not entirely sure if it’s gotten lost in translation or not ;-).

I do see what you mean about the glass shards, although for me the broken glass around the window is what really ruins the image. I think I really should have taken the time to fracture another glass panel to create some larger peaces for this area, or just scaled a few of the broken peaces up and removed all the rest.

I didn’t do much with the building aka a non-uniformed scaled cube ;-), but my intention was to actually do a little superhero like character standing on top of it, which I guess would have added a little more amusement to it ;-).

@Millani
Thank you!

Yes! I think the dog has probably lost most of it’s hearing now ;-). Which kind of reminds me of my own little dog as she ended up losing her hearing and sight in her old age. However, she still managed to get around perfectly fine, and most of the time you couldn’t even tell she was blind! :slight_smile:

@All
My vote went to fcharr, but it only counts if he promises to work on the character some more and include it again in a future WC PURE entry ;-).

I also liked his explanation of why his mirror appears to be floating in the air, and to me it sounds like a very considerate and caring mirror not wishing to cast a shadow over the walls. However, as he neglected to dedicate his song to my entry too, I would have liked to have been able to award him only half a vote, but as there isn’t a feature to allow be to do this, I had to settle with giving him my entire vote :wink:

Well done to everyone else that has entered this week, you’re all winners in my book!

All the best,
Damien

caz747: Is that the mirror shield used by the Greek hero? Considering how it is on the floor and the medusa is still alive, I guess it didn’t work in your version of the story! The medusa looks really nice.

Thanks, Millani, for the comments, they’re always appreciated. The mirror shield is the one used by Perseus in his battle with Medusa, and if you look at the column on the right hand side of the mirror image it’s possible to see a raised sword just in front of it. To me this is Perseus hiding just out of view, looking at his foe in the mirror shield, and waiting for the chance to strike, but I will be the first to admit that it’s not terribly clear that that’s what’s happening.
I wanted to add a figure holding the shield so that it was more like the scene in the film, but lack of time scuppered that idea.

I’m glad the Medusa looks good. It took me a long time to work out how to add the snake body to one of the MB Lab models, and also the snake hair.

@Millani Wow i never noticed the copyright notice on the wood since i get all my textures from Poliigon and, the wood texture was from one of my previous models that i made before i started using Poliigon. :eek:

Wohoo, congrats, Millani. - well deserved. - Funny you picked a Max Paine quote; I remember that slowmotion feature in the game very well. :wink:

It is always a good idea to think about what you wish for - and that is especially true if the wishes have to do with dinosaurs. :wink:
Thanks for taking the time again. Much appreciated!

And… the winner of Weekend Challenge 754 with 34% of the votes is… Millani!
Here’s to all the great participators…

purbosky : 1 : 2%
DERBENDER : 1 : 2%
didierv : 0 : 0%
RayVelcoro : 1 : 2%
fdo : 1 : 2%
R_dva : 0 : 0%
Scepter1987 : 0 : 0%
Millani : 17 : 34%
FlyingBanana : 0 : 0%
Munno101 : 3 : 6%
fcharr : 1 : 2%
Ansaar13 : 2 : 4%
usernew : 3 : 6%
joshwinkler3d : 0 : 0%
mirek_snd : 8 : 16%
caz747 : 0 : 0%
beau11 : 2 : 4%
david.speer : 0 : 0%
putr corps : 10 : 20%

https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=507316&thumb=1
The Past

Congrats Millani loved the story behind it. Hope for many more wins your way.

Thank you very much! The result was quite a surprise for me. I had some technical issues with the render, specially because I had to render 5 scenes on CPU >.< (and, for some reason, the denoiser didn’t want to work on the reflections).

And congratulations for everyone for the really good entries!

thanks and grats Millani :slight_smile: I can’t believe I got a vote 0_0
Oh magic mirror suspended in the middle of nowhere, who’s the purest entry of them all :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks RayVelcoro for saving me from the vote-less zone! :smiley:

Congrats Millani, and thanks too for the comment!

@usernew: Thanks for the comments. My favorite is the third one as well.

@Millani: Congrats! Thanks for the feedback as well. The model was an older one I did for a CNC project for my kitchen remodel. I was thinking of carving that pattern on the cabinet doors. Ended up not doing that so the model went into my library without any materials or textures. After several years I feel pretty comfortable modeling geometry but I have just now started learning how to add materials and textures. An entirely new skill set for me to learn.

The reflection looks a little odd because of the HDRI I used and the mirror being slightly convex. I wanted a little bit more interest in the reflection that way.

@usernew @Millani: Thank you guys for commenting on my image. The style I ended up with was mostly a product of me doing everything last minute. Everything in the picture is modelled, and the kid as well as the bigger hero in the mirror are just flat faces which were shaped and subdivided into something resembling people. All materials, except for the mirror, were emission shaders, so that made rendering really fast. It felt a bit like cheating, making the focal points of the image out of a few planes, but it was interesting playing around with a new style nonetheless.

@Millani: Congratulations on the win! I enjoyed the story you told and the colors you chose for each part of the story. When I first saw your picture, I thought it would be interesting to somehow make the cracks in the mirror guide the viewer through the story. Just like how a broken mirror usually has an obvious impact point where all the cracks originate from, there must have been some bigger problem in the relationship in the story which all the subsequent problems could have originated from, and you could match up the pictures in the mirror to the cracks in the mirror to reflect those similarities.

Thanks Millani! Yeah, the whole idea came from his sad face :slight_smile:

Congratulations on your well deserved win Millani.