http://gallery.mudpuddle.co.nz/view_photo.php?full=1&set_albumName=kansas15&id=0274_G
NOTE: Like the boat image, photorealism wasn’t the goal here, the goal here was to create a beachfront city using a style that involves flat planes and simple coloring.
If you think this is garbage as well, I have to say I’m sorry for showing artwork to you.
Not using Imageshack because their uploader isn’t working.
I have seen many of your artworks being under heavy criticism, sometimes (according to me) rightfully, other times not. But I have to say, I like this work, this style.
It’s NO artwork, but this is your best piece so far. It wouldn’t hurt to explore this style; flat, but with depth (thanks to the subtle shadows).
Well if others like it I may very well see what else I can do with this style, perhaps do some expansion on the style and maybe have curved flat, but not solid shapes.
One of the secrets to getting depth on these types of pieces is spot lamps with very soft buffer shadows. That and AO is a major reason it doesn’t look flat as a pancake.
No, Kansas, it’s not garbage. It’s one of the few pieces you’ve produced that could actually be called art by most of your critics. It’s not particularly ‘Blender’ art, since it’s mainly a 2d piece, with the barest hints of 3d in the slight shadows on the background planes.
I know this is Finished Projects, but since your habit is to post works-in-progress in this forum, I’ll give you some advice for improving this piece:
Foreground colors are generally more saturated than background colors. In your shader panels, if you select the HSV sliders, you can use the S (saturation) slider to turn the saturation up or down a touch, and still keep the same hues and values. If you make the background planes less saturated color, and the foreground planes more saturated (not by much, be subtle) you’ll get more of a three dee effect while keeping the essential flat collage thing you’ve got going here.
Doesn’t seem like a secret to me. I mean, that’s what spot lamps can do… cast shadows and stuff like that… but hey, as long as it works.
Useless comment.
its no artwork…I could rub crap in a circle and create art and it could still look like crap but it’d still be art. And artwork if I intented it for production (might as well clarify). I got the imression you ment art when you said artwork.
The only thing I don’t like about this piece is that the shadows aren’t evident throughout for the buildings further back. This can make it a little difficult for my eye to quickly discern what is where §respectively Other than that I like how you addapted the waviness or the water throughout the piece.
i do enjoy this piece. Like one of those pictures you might find in your grandma’s house on the wall from the eighties. Maybe with a title like “miami” or something. my only comment is that making the water layers shift left and right more rather than all being lined up vertically may help with the look.
and Sago: chillax.
what?!
i dont understand your point. lets hear your definition of ‘art’ and ‘artwork’.
i like the 2d collage style, reminds me of claymation and that sort of stuff. try making the shadows darker, itll give you more depth. have you thought about animating it?
Glad a lot here like it. I appear to get better comments on pieces where I purposely don’t try for near photorealism. Of course I am aware that there’s many more ways a photorealistic piece can go wrong (look on CGtalk for example)
I like it; it explores a style of 3D art I’ve been experimenting with myselfrecently.
Lower the bar until you can make it. Works for me.
nice style, but too much duplicating. try more original shapes next time.
the water jumps out from the style, but not enough, to fit.
.b
My only crits are the sky and the quality of the picture that might need work. you don’t save in JPG do you?
Other than that I realy like it man!
Jacco;
hahaha! all too common, unfortunately.
The sea needs more variation in texture, it now looks too uniform and messes up the scene too much. Also the city textures could use some alterations, as the buildings seems to blend in too much in places, also the city setup looks a bit too crowded.
Nice style thoug, nothing particulary exiting or original, and needs still some work, but nicely done .
Hippie: about the crowdedness some real life coastal cities do indeed have very crowded beachfronts, maybe not so much in America, but it’s a bit more so in cities in Latin America and then there’s Miami.
I’ll explore and expand the style more, noting I should take more variation for the color.
I really like it. The one thing that niggles me is the sea. It isn’t as clean cut as the rest of the image and that riles me up 
There are too many layers in the ocean, it looks like one of those bubbly foam things that are put on old matresses to make them softer. I’d recommend fewer layers, and place them more randomly (both horizontally and vertically).
I also agree with the comment on reducing the saturation for distant objects. One quick and cheap way to do this is to use mist in the world settings.
I think this would look pretty cool animated (waving palm trees, and shifting waves, and whatnot).
Of course, these are just my opinion. It looks pretty good right now.
btw… I don’t think this is “lowering the bar”… it’s more of finding your own style. Take a look at South Park… just about everyone here could duplicate that style, but how many could work it as well as Parker and Stone? And South Park is animated in Maya to boot. If everybody in 3D only worked towards realistic images, 3D would be freakin’ dull.
Trevor: It wouldn’t be, normally, but cyborg dragon has a bit of a… history. It goes back a few years. Kind of a long story.