I’m working on an entry for a summer challange at the Danish 3D community 3dmaxer.dk with the theme “Surreal Reality”, which is quite strange, yet
very mind boggling…
Deadline for the challange is October 1st, so it’s still early in the process.
“Altruism” (name of the piece) has a surrealistic touch to it and a deep message
in it too. But I’ll try to keep it unexplained to let the viewer make his/hers own
interpretation of the image - like with many other pieces of art.
Rendering times are now up to about 6 hours for all layers alltogether, and the
image is post-pro’ed in Photoshop.
I’m not entirely satisfied with the tears, and I’m planning to add birds to the
sky (for symbolic reasons).
Please post your feedback! Everything is welcome, and appreaciated!
//Mathias
That is shaping up into a very powerful image. The tear should fall from the lowest point of the eye opening…fluid under the influence of gravity, after all.
Now some musings on the compostion. I’d thin the crowd out a bit, maybe remove every third or fourth X, especially in the foreground. I’d also turn the heads of some of the closer X’s so they were secretly looking at O, not everyone, just a few. Lower O and the camera so O is still centered but doesn’t look so much taller than the surrounding crowd. (Another reason for thinning the crowd, so more distant faces can still be seen with a lower camera.) I’m not entirely sure what birds would add to the scene. Or it they would even be in the scene at all, with that crowd covering the landscape further than the eye can see. I look forward to seeing where this goes.
vitaly: Yea. The tear really needs some work. Will try moving it closer to the
nose, and see how it looks.
Orinoco: I wouldn’t really want to thin out the crowd. It’s always been in my
mind to have a tight, full crowd. I tried having the camera lowered at some
point, but it really took much of the majestic feeling away.
Also, I didn’t want the Xs to look at any other one of them in particular, neither
O. They’re all gazing away into the sky, or walking along minding their own
business. It’s part of the plot actually.
Sorry to kind of turn every critique point you bring up down. I don’t really like
to do that, but in this case I’ve tried some of the things you mention out and
other things you crit are ment to be that way. I love to get crit, and usually
follow up on much of it, but I regret to say I can’t always do that…
Though…what I will do is take a look at O’s position in the image. You made
me think, and I might want to lower him some - without moving the camera.
No problem. As I said earlier, the image has an impact. My musings were no more than that, and without actually seeing the image with changes, there is no way to say whether the image would be better or worse, or closer or further from your artistic vision, which is, after all, the one that really matters here.
On to other things: The mountain range seems to be slightly visible on Os head, just below the brow line. The mountains in the background have a brownish band over the lower parts, with the tops of the mountains sticking out into clearer air. If the brownish band represents smog, the top margin should be wavy, just a bit, and the layer should have a large cloud texture affecting alpha a bit, to give the impression of varying density.
I agree with the tear comments, it should be in the centre of the eye. Also, a real tear would be a glistening strip with no thickness, then the tear itself. Your tear at the moment is more like a constant stream of water.
One thing, the mountains go over the O’s face. Either this was just a composting mistake, or he is looking through glass at everyone else (an interesting idea, but one that would need to be strengthened if it were intended).
EDIT - damn, Orinoco, you beat me to it shakes fist
This is one beautiful piece, I think you will end up with your own named section in the gallery someday!
Wow briliant piece of work there. My one crit is that the 2 ‘things’ in the forground that appear to be facing the camera may look better if they are turned slightly away from the camera.
Orinoco: Been thinking about what you said, and I’ve experimented some. Let’s
wait and see if it works…
The mountains are meant to be there in his face - he is somewhat transparent.
The effect is maybe a little too strong. I’ll tweak it a bit. You’re right about
the fog needing to be more textured. Will look into that also.
IanC: Thanks!
Been working with the tears, and I can’t get them to look right in the center.
Will experiment further with the tears. We’ll wait for next update and see.
simbadinuk: Thanks!
Ahh, there are always some of the 26039 dolls not behaving, right?!
Will see what I can do. Next update might be reworked so much, that it’ll be
gone automatically. We’ll see…
Please keep posting more great feedback!
//Mathias
The mountains are meant to be there in his face - he is somewhat transparent.
The effect is maybe a little too strong.
If he is slightly transparent, maybe you should make it stronger. You cannot see anyone through him, as far as I can see, but you can see the mountains.
With the tear, on a human it would originate from the inside corner (opposite to what you have now) and then either to the center then down, or down from there, following the contours of the face. This would depend on the amount of crying, a slight tear would go to the middle, a more bawling cry would drip from the side.
IanC, you really need to get out more. No, no, wait, I’ve got that backward. I need to get out more.tear falls from center of eye
I didn’t read through the entire message so maybe this idea has come up already…
but I think you should give the sad ‘O’ guy some pixar eyes like in starry night this will make some huge contrast opposed to the ‘X’ fellas
blackstorm: Thanks for the idea, but I don’t really think it would fit into the image.
They’re all meant to be the same, exept for the mark they have on their forehead.
It’s part of the plot.
Besides, trying to repeat a succes isn’t a good thing to aim for. You’ll very likely
fail if you try to. I wanna do something totally different this time - always want to.
That is my aim. It’s also much more fun to do something new!
Verry strong/powerfull color scheme (or sceme dunno how to write it).
Nice point your bringin over by the way (that is if I think I think what you Think at least)
I’m working on the update, and I think I’ve stretched it for so long, that you ough
to see something. So, here is a little preview/mock-up of the scene. It is a raw,
fast, lo-quality render and is not meant to be taken anymore serious than a
screenshot. Not a update, just a preview. Link to image
Edit: BTW, little bit of fairly cool info here: I’ve now increased the number of
dolls in the scene. There are now about 44.000 dolls total.
So, please comment! Would appreaciate getting some feedback before I set
it to render for hours, so that’s why I post this.
//Mathias
Looks good, though I much prefer the composition of the original. The pose of the ‘o’ character looks a bit ambiguous, primarily due to the lack of facial expression. He could be suffering a fatal heart attack or waving to a mate of his, we just can’t tell. I’ll be interested to see where you’re going with the new composition, but in my opinion the original presented a far more powerful image.
PaulJ: I understand what you mean. I’d like to get the best of both compositions,
and I’ll keep on experimenting. The pose could be altered too.
On the other hand, I don’t mind the image being a little ambiguous. Makes it
all a little bit more interesting I’d say, though I agree with you that it might be
too much here.
theblenderboy: Well, I’ve got 30 foreground characters - high-res. All the others
behind them are simply alpha planes (with normal maps for extra touch. Though
I’m quite frankly doubting it even makes a difference - but it’s cool anyway).
And yea. The tic-tac-toe idea has also crossed my mind. I actually chose
X and O because of that game in the first place. They are two of the most
easily recognisable and clearly opposite shapes I could think of. That’s propably
why they are used in tic-tac-toe. Recon it’s a pretty old game actually…?
Go on…don’t hold back! C&C appreaciated!
//Mathias
