Oh, hey, liking that background. Not to mention the new dimensions. Composition to me is looking much more interesting. About ready for the printer here?
Hi All
@theoldghost, thanks for the added explanation, I seem to have got the settings to be where I want it now. You will see the outcome on a snake head that I have been busy with in my limited time, that HDR that you gave me is brilliant!!! The HDR is giving me a fantastic colour on the metal as I will not have any bump on the heads.
Ready for the printer, is it ever, you can tweak forever on your work. I am not 100% sold on the eyes, maybe some crit on this. About the composition, I also like the smoke, gives it some, for lack of a better word Oooooomph.
@minoribus, thank you, yes the ends have been mentioned before :o, knew I would have to do something there eventually. Spent about three days modelling a stunning cobra head, but as I said to harley it seemed to captivate the scene too much, the one I have now is a lot less conspicuous.
I did work on and change the map on the snakes if that is what you were asking.
Nearly there now and time is short, but I have that Cobra head and I think it will be my next project, the chess will have to wait.
Best Regards
Shaun
Hi All
Had a bit of time today to add the rest of the snake bodies and also model a very inconspicuous snake head.
Still want to fiddle with the shaders a bit, think I am done with all modelling with the exception of maybe some sort of earing.
Thoughts appreciated.
Shaun
She’s looking great, Shaun! Your intense skin shader studies really pay off. This is one of the best skin shaders I ever saw on this forum!
I have a few points, though. The snake heads could benefit from a tiny roughness. And for the face masks a solidify modifier could add some volume. And I wonder how it would look if every of the snake hair strands would have a little socket, that connects it to the head.
I fully agree to minoribus. And one more thing: the texture on the snakes still looks like UV unwrapped “projection from view”. The rest is stunning!
I think the ends of the snakes could use some pressure gauges and pressure relief valves, and the occasional valve handle. Lenses, too, or something made of glass. This is steampunk, after all, not gothic.
speed of the many 7s I stand corrected. This does look much better and more finished. If you wanted to pursue it further I might suggest the ends of some snakes have open mouths with fangs. And, a little more volume on the facemask wouldn’t hurt either as minoribus suggested. Orinoco also mentioned glass. And, since the facemask is part of her face it would support a lens of sorts if you want to go there. Hell the support could originate in the center of the mask and the lens cover part of her right eye and nose.
And, yeah I know the lens thing and gas mask of sorts in Steampunk. What the hell it just looks so cool. It’s a striking piece of work right now. But, with a little more work you could push it over the top my blender buddy. And, that being said let me float this idea by you.
One of the snakes on the left side of the composition comes right at the viewer with fangs. (Not photorealistic) Where he’s as big as say the distance between the eye and nose. And, placed using the thirds composition lines in your camera settings on the lower left quadrant.
And, yeah I’m not feeding the pooch anymore with a daily job. So these observations come so easily to me. 
And, not to worry it would take me a damn week to implicate the suggestions I made. But, once again it’s a striking piece right now. Best of luck.
Hi All
@minoribus, thanks you are too kind. I will add a bit of roughness to the heads to see. The mask has a solidify modifier on it at the moment, I suppose I should turn it up as you and ghost have mentioned this.
Please explain what you mean by a little socket as I do not understand, I was also looking at the area where the snakes meet the scull, it does look abrupt, but was not sure what to put there.
The snakes are not actual geometry though, they are all bezier.
@Xerubian, thanks a lot. I have been working on this, but as I mentioned before the snakes are bezier so they are not actually unwrapped. There is just a shader on with a height map. I however agree totally with your point and would really like to get this corrected.
@Orinoco, thanks for looking in, I agree with you that this is not very steampunk at the moment, there are still some things I am working on to add a bit of flavour, but I think that this will probably not end up to be steampunk in the true sense of the style.
@theoldghost, thanks so much really appreciate you looking in and comments. I like your idea very much about the snake with fangs, so if I have the time I will try to implement it.
Shaun
Please explain what you mean by a little socket as I do not understand, I was also looking at the area where the snakes meet the scull, it does look abrupt, but was not sure what to put there.
I had also the feeling that the snake hairs are coming very abrupt out of her head. And I thought that something that would hide or cover the transition would make them blend together better. First I thought about a circle shape around the base of each of them. But now I think a kind of coronet would match the style of this image better. Another option would be what Bernini did. He just didn’t show the base of the snake hair on is statue .
Hi All
@theoldghost, had a hack at your suggestion, what you think? The only thing that now completely terrifies me is that you like it and you say I must do more of them. 
@minoribus, I think that the Bernini option is a good one, but as you know it would be very late for this at the moment.
See what you think, I still would like to work on the lace for her clothing, but that is for tomorrow, fell asleep typing this.
Best Regards
Shaun
Hey, speedman I like it. Could you scale it times 2 and play with the placement just a little. Maybe up just a bit and to your left. This could be a nice hook. Have a good one unless you have other plans. It looks stylistic and just fine but to small IMHO.
Hi All
@theoldghost, Thanks Ghost, love this idea with the snake that you gave me, just really worried that it might take center stage if much bigger? Have moved it around quite a lot, but cannot seem to get it in the correct place, when its there you will know it and it will work.
Been going on the hair and fiddling here and there all day, a thing I am sure all blender users are accustomed to.
Anyone got any crits/likes on the eye colour, like to know.
Here is one that I think is nearly ready to go to print.
Shaun
Yeah, you got it The new UV mapping is much better and now we see the chaotic and untameable nature of the snake hairs so much better. That’s great.
When I look at her and at her facial expression she tells me “Don’t mess with me!” She is conscious about her power which is the power of the snakes. And the snakes and she cooperate in that. And when I look at your image from this point of view I really like the snakes that are facing the viewer. That led me to an idea for a composition, which picks up Ghost’s recommendation. Since I don’t want to clutter your thread with my non present sketching skills I sent you a PM with a suggestion.
Hi All
@TheOldGhost, I think I was worried for nothing, your idea has added a huge amount of depth to the scene. Thanks so much. I think it is in the correct place now?
@minoribus, that mapping had me for a long, long while :spin:. Glad to know that you see the expression as I intended. Have a look and see what you think of the latest. I sent you a PM back. Thanks for the help.
Shaun
Exactly my thinking and of course I would like it. Quite a striking young lady by the way. Looking good.
Hi All
I am crying in my soup at the moment, my power went off early yesterday afternoon and is not going to come on in the foreseeable future as overhead wires have fallen down. I have borrowed a generator to get my computer going, but I have not finished my final render.
Shaun
Oh, man, it’s so bad to hear that! I’d offer to render it for you, but my machine is on heavy duty also. Is this working with the generator?
speed7s how can I download the blend file and render it for you.
Likewise can I help at all?
Guys thank you so much I am overwhelmed by the generosity being shown to me.
I explained to minoribus earlier in a PM that I have a system that runs on batteries through an invertor, the generator has being running quite a while now charging them and they are at about 75 percent at the moment, so a couple of hours more and I should be good to go again.
I will get 10 hours from this source while rendering, my scene takes about 5 hours to be done, so I should make it.
I will scream if help is needed.
Once again thank you, I really appreciate it.
Shaun