So far I don’t have a title for this piece, but it’s not finished anyway, so that doesn’t matter. So far there aren’t even any textures, now that I think about it --other than procedurals. Just a simple node setup, for DOF and a bit of colour correction. I think the right background is lacking something… and also, those things buried in the sand have no textures.
Hope you enjoy it, and, like everybody else says, C&C are welcome!
The back right does seem a little empty. Where is it, anyway? Cause if it was a junked up old place, broken machinery wouldn’t go amiss. Or some kind of tool-bench or something. Still, good start.
Well, you’re right in fact… Broken-up machinery would fit well here. I should model some…Would it work to do it with a few different models (scaled, rotated differently) and also static particles (to look like debris on the ground)?
Also, what do you think of the sand material? Too “glossy”?
EDIT: I did some debris and stuff, but only rendered that part to save time.
I would personally make the background very dark or maybe completely black. Add a bit more dynamic light to bring the focus to the robot and that other thing in the foreground. Take a look at this thread http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=3558243#post3558243 in which the god of CG (IMHO) Steven Stalhberg, does some paintovers of other’s works to show them how to create dynamic lighting. Maybe you’ll get some inspiration from that, I know I sure did.
If you keep the background imo the sand is too glossy and to bright in the back. I’d subsurf those eggs in the front. According the visible lighting I think there should be more shadows at the robot.
I tried to make some improvements in this render (which only took 20 mins because I decided against AO this time). I think some material tweaks are needed now; the “eggs” are reflecting a bit too much light. Do you think the background is still not dark enough? And should I even bother with textures other than the procedural ones I have?
@intermalte: What do you mean by “According the visible lighting I think there should be more shadows at the robot.”?
Another quick update:
It’s a little hard to see what’s going on. What are the eggs for, anyway? And what are they on? And what’s the robot doing? The picture confuses me enough that I’m having trouble seeing beyond that.
The scene is dark - I thought of something like a cave lit through holes or maybe it’s a dark sky and there might be some lights from flying objects. This kind of scenery would lead to hard lights and dense shadows. The way you did it the front seems to be lit like in daylight while the background doesn’t fit.
Well - since I can’t really tell what I can see in your background my interpretation might be wrong.
Thanks for the replies.
Here’s an update, in which I basically tried to make it more clear what that thing is in the foreground and also have the DOF affect the foreground.
lighting looks betters now. However this dof-effect in the foreground is too intense and looks therefore a little bit unrealistic.