Treefrog, revisited

sketchy · February 9, 2006, 10:52am

So, this is an image that I did a little over a year ago and posted here. I was never really happy with the lighting. So recently I began fiddling with it. I think that this new version is much better than the old one.

Other than a major lighting overhaul, I also replaced my old stupid looking dragonfly with my new uber-cool dragonfly that was recently seen in “treefrog.nature”. The lightning bugs are new as well.

If you really want to see the old version, it is still viewable here: http://cs.unm.edu/~sketch/gallery/images/redeyeweb.png

BeBraw · February 9, 2006, 10:57am

Really nice work.

I would love to have a frog poster just like this.

BgDM · February 9, 2006, 11:16am

WOW! 110% improvement over the original, and I liked the original.

Great use of extra lamps to fake the light bounces off the water to the underside of the plant leaves. Some radiosity used as well? Sort of looks like it.

I can see some AA jaggies though. Maybe render larger and scale it down to help make it look just that tiny bit better.

BgDM

Robin · February 9, 2006, 11:20am

Very, very nice. I have no crits.

jackblack · February 9, 2006, 12:07pm

God just called me and said He was jealous. Just kiddin’, it looks awesome, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, awesome. Love it, great improvment over the last one. Can you post a blend file of one of those fireflys?

HERETIC · February 9, 2006, 12:19pm

Yes! Nice realy work! I like this all.

Yakyak · February 9, 2006, 12:24pm

Magnificent work ! I like the way of joining very realistic with nearly fantasy feature very much.

Enriq766 · February 9, 2006, 12:31pm

WOW the frog looks so…sticky! Nice I would say a huge improvement on an already amazing render. Nice job to rework this.

johanhartman · February 9, 2006, 1:58pm

Extreme improvement, I like the natural look that you have captured so well.

Yoshi_Rider · February 9, 2006, 3:36pm

One crit, the water doesn’t look very much like water…more like a mud substance with a watery texture

Bapsis · February 9, 2006, 4:16pm

I remember the first time you posted your frog, i thought it was done quite well. But this composition with him is beautiful, very good job mate.

I agree about the water, it looks a little fake. It might help it look more real if it were mostly still and had only a few little ripples in circular patterns around objects like the branch the frog is on and the ones in the background.
And maybe the dragon fly could use a bit of work, mostly on the wings i think, they look a bit thick and should be at least a little translucent, but maybe you are going for a particular style there that im not getting.

But a very pretty picture none the less, it looks very nice!!!

Matt

Blend on, and blend well!!!

ClumsyBoy · February 9, 2006, 4:21pm

I am speechless… Its great.

cekuhnen · February 9, 2006, 4:25pm

sweet shaders, great work.
i enjoy the illustrative quality of the rendering.
i am only not sure about teh white flower in the top right corner.
i think it takes some attention away from the frog.

claas

lucidMonkey · February 9, 2006, 4:48pm

very nice… is this a pure render or did you do some post processing?

any chance you’ll bless us with a larger render?

LowPoly · February 9, 2006, 5:26pm

Nicely done! Is there anyway i could see a wire of your frog. I’m working on a poison dart frog right now and I’m having trouble pulling out the arms and legs

thnx,

LP

scorpius · February 9, 2006, 7:48pm

That is purely excellent! Is it just blender/yafray or is it postprocessed?

sketchy · February 10, 2006, 7:53am

Thanks for all the comments and crits!

BeBraw: Thanks! A poster would be cool… but i shudder at the render time :o

BgDM: For the bounced light off the water I used a pair of hemi lights pointed straight up. One of them has a voronoi texture on it to create a caustic effect (although this is so subtle, even I don’t notice it :D). There’s no radiosity. I fake radiosity with lamps. As for the AA issues… I think I just need to be more careful with postprocessing :(.

Robin: Thanks!

jackblack: I don’t have the .blend with me at the moment, but I’ll post the firefly later. They are pretty simple: lowpoly mesh with a halo for the glow.

HERETIC: Thanks for the kind words.

Yakyak: Thanks. I tried to create a dream-like quality. I’m glad you picked up on the fantasy aspects.

Enriq766: Thanks bro. I’m so glad you approve of my frogs stickiness :P.

johanhartman: Thanks man.

Yoshi_Rider: I suppose I was going for murky water. I agree it looks a little wierd. Thanks for the crit.

Bapsis: Thanks for the compliment. For the wings, do you mean translucent or transparent? They are a little transparent (they should probably be more transparent). I don’t like Blender’s tranlucency (especially when combined with hemi lights… and I love my hemis :D).

ClumsyBoy: Thanks, you are too kind.

cekuhnen: Thanks for the feedback. I find your comments on the white flower interesting because my own eye does not seem to be drawn to it. I guess that just goes to show how important it is to get feedback from others. I think artists can get stuck looking at their artwork in certain ways, which is different than how others look at the piece.

lucidMonkey: There is some post processing here. I might post a larger render (I have one already- but it doesn’t look as good).

LowPoly: Thanks. Like I said earlier, I don’t have the blend with me, but I can post a wire later.

scorpius: No yafray. But their is postprocessing. Obviously the DoF was done in post pro. Also, I did a trick I learned from a painting class: I desaturated the image based on the distance from the camera (so the things in the background are greyish, and the things in the foreground have heavily saturated colors). I think it creates a nice sense of depth and atmosphere. But in general, it looks pretty close to the raw render.

Once again, thanks for the comments and crits!

Bapsis · February 10, 2006, 9:15am

Hey man,

I didnt know translucency was a problem with the types of lights you like to use, but the wings definatly should be more transparent then. Unless, as i say, you are going for a particular look or style, then all is good.

I found a really good ref pic, it also shows that the dragonfly is a but fuzzy with a bit of fur on the body. Not saying that you need to have this, but definatly a suggestion.

Anywayz, check out these wings, almost just look like framework. Can also see the fuzz pretty well on this pic.

Anywayz, i checked out your gallery and the dragonfly pic there on its own has an awesome wing set, should be more like that.

Best of luck to ya mate, your a wicked Blender artist and its nice to see your stuff!!!

Matt

Blend on, and blend well!!!

Rogenator · February 10, 2006, 10:43am

Greetings:
Awesome render, i specially like the dragonfly, looking at an image i found with google it seems that the hands are a bit more orange, just being picky , either way great job

Anthony · February 10, 2006, 11:17am

Oooooooooooo SHINY! :o

The dragonfly in this version is very uber cool too