He is the first render from my new project Fading knight. The idea is two pictures in one a fallen dead knight which is at the same time a ‘moutain’ sort of any way hope it works… still lots to do on it but here’s the first shot.
any suggestions? as I say there is still lots to do, more objects hair,trees, sand, dof perhaps a hard light effect in post…
The concept is interesting, and could be really cool if done correctly. As you said, there’s still much to do. The terrain looks rather low-poly, more detail would certainly be beneficial.
I think the transition between the rock and cloth could be improved. I would try making them out of the same mesh then using nodes to differentiate between the rock material and the cloth material. there’s a link in my signature on how to do this.
Hi the terrain is very low poly so have got rid of some and adding more detailed terrain wig the antmodifier I need to change some of the rock texture too as its abit much repeating in places. As for the stencilling I’ve been doing it with Uv exports and photoshop having trouble sorting will look into doing it on blender as it would be easier to tell what I’m doing! I have remodelled half of the helmet to become rock a bit better and give it a better transition from steel to rock. I will post back a picture of more updates later today. Thanks for the input guys.
ok a bit of an update. Fiddled a bit more with textures, added more geometry to the landscape and tryed fixing the lighting to include more shadowing…
still need to look at the stencilling thing for the transition between textures. I started with a soft edge brush and moved to a harder edge but I’m still not happy. I think it needs a hard edge but more broken up if you know what I mean more in line with the cracked rock surface its to become…
any way still more to do modelling more rocks to break up the textures and some shrubs… then foam on the water etc…
Having trouble to get distance between the near cliffs and the terrain near the knight…hopeing dof will sort that tho.
I’m not sure what your end goal for the scene is, but I feel like there needs to be more of a human structure under the knight’s cloak. As it is now, it looks like a helmet put next to a blanket with pillows underneath. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the scene though!
If you want inspiration, look up concept art for a game called Dark Souls. Great game, and incredible artists behind it. Hope this helps!
added more human element and fiddled more with textures retoped the cloak getting more as I envisioned… ( not totally but I’m getting the feel of it better now) need more rocks etc to break up edges between objects…
The rigidness of the cloak may be your biggest roadblock to making the body of your knight look more believable. If it were me, I would focus on making the cloak look less “starched” or heavy by bringing it down in strategic places to add detail form what would be underneath it. For example, pay very close attention to the neck and arm areas. Bring the cloak down over the shoulders, and define the arm underneath it. However, all of this is obviously only important as long as it helps to support your final concept.
You should make the hand a really pale-bluish colour if the knight is dead or even better put a rusted gauntlet on it and maybe put some blood on the cloth.
bit ofan update with more geometry on the landscape and texture unwrapping on the cliffs lighting and etc needs fixed long way off still…
Whoa, what progress. I’m really looking forward to the finished product and am enjoying the updates man. It would look really cool if the hand and mountain were mixed. The knuckles would make for a cool outcropping
Thanks Frobenius,Edge! Heres the latest update, a bit of ivy fiddled with textures more, some sculpting on the helmet rock. Looked more at the lighting which was leaving it all a bit flat… anway’s here’s the picture
Next I’m going to look at the shore line… see about some waves etc…
I have to say, when this thread first started, i was dubious as to whether or not you could do it, but now i say: you have take this picture a long way! heres to the finished product!
Thanks Bossestrenders here’s again an update with a bit of post in ps. still need to stick a bit of dof in there (why didn’t I set that up before rendering again? DOH def) any way. I’m on route as they say fresh look again tomorrow with DOF!
Try adding a little blur around the water line
Try to mix things upp with a bump map
You might want to watch secrets of realistic texturing by andrew price(if you havn’t already)
Looks good
The lighting is just about perfect,my only critique now is that the water looks flat… is it ocean simulation or just a picture?
IMHO the lighting is very bright for an overcast scene, i believe a more somber setting would suite this work perfectly. great job btw. 
Cheers people.
The water is a flat plane with glossy a spot of rough and one blue colour with a touch of white emission painted on in ps for the shore line waves its the only flat geometry left in the scene. I kind of liked it to introduce a serene stillness to the image but I’m starting to think it needs a bit more shape and colours in it… Just a bit at least after looking at reference of still ocean renders… I’m just checking out some procedural noise for the bump and possibly the colour…I generally use picture textures (with a lot of Andrew Price’s very useful stuff from that tutorial (http://www.blenderguru.com/videos/the-secrets-of-realistic-texturing/) I often return to it to remind me which nodes go where!)
I’m also going to tone down the brightness in the top half of the picture to add back in the ‘sombre’ subject…
Ok here it is with some noise and stuff on the sea with some post in ps ( hate that bit as I feel I tend to go overboard from the original, also I don’t really know all the filters etc…)
Anyways critique away people, I am considering putting a stone sword hilt lying near the hand and some ivy on the near right mountain. What do you think?
The water is much better! However, the image is more dark and I cant help thinking i cant really see it now… but on the other hand, I like the low-saturation style it took on… maybe add back the brightness and reduce saturation? That sword idea sound cool! I don’t think the mountain needs ivy, but hey, if you wanna go for it! I know how fun ivy is… quick question, is this cycles or BI?
