A project i’ve been working on, it’s a visualisation of a city inside SCP-3008-1, the endless IKEA store.
I need critique so i can improve variation. I feel it’s kind of repetitive so far. Please tell me what you think!
I felt something was needed infront of the “camera” as in pretty much every picture. Thinking about decreasing the size of the hands though, they take way to much space and attention.
You don’t necessarily need to have the hands, there, just put something else like another bit of furniture, or perhaps the edge of a shopping cart, or an L-cart handlebar. Also the POV is a bit low to the floor, if you’re trying to go for eye level. I realize this is to emphasize a since of of size, but it doesn’t work if you want to put something taller between the viewer and the rest of the scene.
The way this is composed, your eyes are drawn straight down the path to smack into a fairly uninteresting view against the wall, largely because it’s out of focus. Put something there to look at, even if it’s something between here and there (if you don’t want to change the somewhat creepy vibe you seem to be gong for).
It took me a second look to realize the red streaks are supposed to be blood; desaturate it a bit, there’s not nearly enough light to warrant that shade, with how the hands are looking (assuming you persist with the hands). In the vein of adding focal interest, perhaps add a weapon of some kind along the path, like it’s been knocked from his hand, or, if you want to be a bit more macabre, make it a long bloodtrail.
All that, however, would defocus from spotlighting your IKEA furniture. Honestly, if that’s your intent (not simply an
excellent stage for a horror story), I would change the POV to on a shelf and looking across and endless sea of furniture, and focus on a display of your favorite models.
As for your concern about repetition, one expects a certain amount of that in about any store, save for perhaps an antique or thrift store, or a smaller moms and pop shop.
Thank you for the input, it was incredibly constructive and I agree with you on many of your points!
Specifically the composition. As you mentioned, i persist on making an excellent horror stage, with relevance to the fan work i’ve read.
Showing the furniture is really unimportant.
I’m unsure of how to make a more interesting composition, i felt this one was good in frog perspective, from the dead guy being hauled backwards, but i do also feel as if it takes too much attention and also redirects attention to the wrong part of the wall. I’ve thought about doing what you said about putting something else in front of the camera, and simply moving the dead guy a bit to the left, so you can see him being hauled away, without taking primary focus.
As for the lighting i changed it a bit and added more thickness and height to the wall to make it more pleasing to look at, i understand it looks quite flat in the last picture.
With that change, it’s already looking a lot better.
Your blood streaks seem to be hovering, now. You can make the object not cast shadows by hooking your texture (or material, if it’s that) to a mix node and a transparent texture, with a camera path for the mix value. If it’s giving you a bit of trouble. If your hovering blood was intentional, like a spray, it should arch a bit more OR have a wider spray towards the end; think like when you put your thumb over the end of a hose to increase the pressure.
If those floating bits are blood drops, they could live with a bit of lighting.
The dead guy looks like a dying guy, rather than a dead guy. The second arm looks like it’s raised up in the air, reaching out for help, which adds a lot of emotional impact. But if you’re going for 100% dead, you definitely need to lower it to the ground, and possibly remove the blood droplets in the air, since that would have happened before he died.
To make the composition more interesting… I think your main issue is there’s too much of a gap between your foreground and your background. You have almost nothing in the middle ground at all, just a bit on the right, and that really only serves to reinforce the framing (which is good, but you need more). I think if you put something in the area between your new light and the blood streaks on the left half of the image, it would help. I think there’s a lack of overlap, which is what helps give a piece a feeling of depth. You nailed it with the outstretched arm, it very firmly establishes the scale you’re working at, but some more of that, perhaps combined with the aforementioned midground element, would tie it together.
Thanks! Yes the midground surely needs some work. I’ll probably decrease hand size a bit too.’
Yes sorry I meant dying, not dead. The black things are just temporary but they will still look something like that, they are like “void” particles, so to speak. I also noticed now theres something wrong with this perspective, cause the hands are actually WAY further away from the fort. Maybe I can avoid changing perspective and just add size referential objects.
I added a bed and very very rough sketches of the monsters, mostly to determine their positioning and posing.
Removed the blurriness on the hands, obviously a bad move. The blood improved, although ill probs make it even longer. THat white little table in the light looks horrible tbh. GOnna remove it in the next pic.
I would say you have improved your piece considerably since your first post. You’re doing marvelously!
You’re both right and wrong about the hands. If you add a rimlight of sorts on the right, like you did the left, instead of adding blurriness again, it’ll be like the monster is dragging the guy into the dark.
I’m guessing the outlined fellow on the left is a victim, rather than a monster. The outline is a bit thick. If you could remove it, it’d be good.
The only other thing I would do is reposition some of those void particles so they don’t look like they’re part of the furniture displays. And keep the table! Just make it a little longer, or more obvious that it’s a table.