Glowing Crystals (fun with nodes & SSS)

Artwork Blender Tests
1

I thought it might be fun to mess around with Blender’s material and compositing nodes, and I came up with this:

Not using texture nodes yet, although I imagine I’ll mess around with those soon too. :slight_smile:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3073/3036157673_b51b1c65cb_o.png
3036157673_b51b1c65cb_o.png800×600

2

Here’s another attempt, with the color ramp changed to add some blue.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/3037106930_00107152e1_o.png
3037106930_00107152e1_o.png800×600

3

You need to work on it a little, the amount of washout robs it of any appearence of depth in most spots.

You need to reduce that washout.

4

By “washout” do you mean focal blur? How does this look?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3185/3037148096_7fb81654bb_o.png
3037148096_7fb81654bb_o.png800×600

5

By washout I mean shading so bright it looks washed out, you need to get the crystal shading look more 3D because so far they look very 2D.

Try to get the shading to contrast more between ultra bright and darker, reduce the ultra bright shaded areas.

6

it’s really really really saturated, kind of hard to look at

7

Here it is, desaturated a bit:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3207/3038968198_464c333caa_o.png
3038968198_464c333caa_o.png800×600

8

verrrry sweeeeeet

9

Nice
what happen on a smooth object?

10

pretty cool, crystals are fun to play with: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=122968

11

That’s pretty sweet. It’s interesting how we went for a similar concept, but the moods are radically different (yours appears to be aiming for realism, while mine has a more cartoonish feel).