I’m a coder but I learned how to use Blender in order to make games with Unity. Most of the things I’ve made so far have been done by following tutorials but this is my first independent work made for the purpose of rendering an image.
The first one is 1000 samples, the second one is 100. I wanted to test the difference in low poly models. Still don’t know what to do about the noise on the fire/smoke(which is all polys). I do know need to make it less transparent and more blastly. I finished this model last week, but am just now posting it, and so I guess that was a bit of self-reflection.
The windshields looks a bit small, and I’m not sure what that grey lens shape is at the tip of the nose cone.
The smoke seems a bit odd for me too. If it’s still on Earth, there’s usually a heavy orange flame that gradually turns into a dense smoke trail, and both are opaque. See herefor reference. And if it’s in space, I think it’s pretty much smokeless because the low pressure can’t hold gasses together.
The low-poly look, and shape of the shuttle and SRBs looks good (besides the windshields).
Looks good so far, but I would thin out the wingtips a little and try reworking the cockpit slightly. There’s something slightly off about it. The External Tank also looks like its the wrong colour, though that could just be my monitor. To me it looks red, and it should be more of a duller orange. I agree with PixelEuphoria about the smoke trail too, and if it is in space the SRBs wouldn’t still be attached anyway. There are three Main Engines rather than two as well, and the exhaust from them would be much longer and tinged blue slightly. I’m nitpicking however and I don’t know if you’re actually going for a representation of the real space shuttle or a custom design or not. Overall I love the style and composition of the images, really dig low poly stuff. The smoke looks particularly good even with the noise issue.
Thanks for the tips! I adjusted the windshield/cockpit slightly. Fixed the grey thingy. I did work on the smoke a little bit in the node editor mostly, it still needs work imo but I’m not sure where to go at this point so I’m putting it back up here for feedback.
Again thanks for tips I thinned out the wings. However I’m taking a bit of artistic freedom on this, so I’m gonna keep the Extrenal Tank red and limit the it to two main engines. As I said above, I worked on the smoke more, but still feel it could be better.
I like how the windshield is longer, but I’d say it should be as tall as it previously was. Also, If you look at references, the windshields are placed further back onto the “forehead” (not a technical term), where it looks like you have it sitting too far forward.
I can also see into a dark pocket in the engine bell on the right rocket booster on the bottom picture. I would say either make the flame seal off from seeing into the bell, or put an emissive/bright material in the bell. Or if you’re using Cycles/GI, have the flame geometry be a light; I actually think the entire flame portion should be emissive and not have any shading.
I don’t know if you’re just focusing on polys, but you could also give a shot at doing some Blender composting for the flame bloom. On the reference link in my previous post, you can see the white flame has a large soft orange glow and a thin kind-of dark orange outline.
I thinned out the wings. However I’m taking a bit of artistic freedom on this, so I’m gonna keep the Extrenal Tank red and limit the it to two main engines. As I said above, I worked on the smoke more, but still feel it could be better.