My idea is for a Chihuahua looking in the Mirror to see a large dog. Please let me know what you think would help sell the idea.
I agree, this is a tough sell, but what a great subject for a 3D image. I think your focus should be the dogs and their expressions; right now most of your image is taken up by floors and walls. I’d probably reframe so that the dogs’ heads pretty much fill the frame, and use a much smaller, freestanding mirror on a tabletop or some such. That way they can be at the same eye level, and it will be quite clear he’s looking in a mirror. I’m afraid anything else ends up looking like two dogs looking through a window at each other. A close-up shot would also let you use depth of field to slightly defocus the chihuahua which I think could enhance the effect.
Another thing that would help is to have the two dogs with the exact same color patterns. I like the idea. Having a chihuahua myself, that is exactly how they feel. They think they are great Danes.
I think adding some smudges or streaks on the mirror could also help sell the effect, otherwise yeah it looks like it could be a doorway or something.
^^^Along those lines, the chihuahua’s breath could be fogging the mirror a bit.
i would like to see the big dogs head lowered down to the chihuahua’s level so that their noses are touching each other.
i think that would help sell the difference in size.
and i agree, giving them the same color pattern would reinforce your idea as well.
i’m lookin forward to seeing the next updates!
Agree with CD38, a narrower frame would probably serve your idea better. It could also be a mirror in a bathroom, and the small dog is sorta standing on the sink to be just high enough to see it’s face reflecting in the mirror, and there’s this huge face watching him back… creepy.
also looking forward to seeing the ups !
That is a huge mirror. Bout a meter wide or so. Maybe make it a little narrower?
Thanks for all the input guys. I’m glad you think it’s a good idea - I hope I can make the changes to pull it off.
At one time I had planned to make the color patterns the same between both dogs, but got side tracked. As for the mirror I like the bathroom idea. I originally planned to use a full length mirror, but didn’t really model what I wanted. Having the dog stand on the sink looking into the mirror would be a good way to get the Chihuahua and Great Dane heads on the same level. One thing I was concerned about was a close cropping of the dog’s head looking in the mirror might prevent one from seeing the two very different sizes in dog.
Looks like I have some work to do - this may take a while. Again thanks for the feedback.
I think you need some ambient occlusion and a slightly better lighting setup. Right now there is a lot of light on the chihuahua.
Wait… I think I finally cracked why your picture looks a little weird. In your lamp settings, is “ray shadow” turned on? Also, you might want to go into the world panel and check Ambient Occlusion.
Ambient occlusion fixed the Chihuahua, but the wall looks “Dirty” now. I tried uploading a shot with ambient occlusion and ray shadows on, but for some reason Blender Artists isn’t accepting my image.
Try to raise the sample count. That will get rid of some noise.
I guess the uploading problem was the resolution size. I did increase the sample counts, and it helped but didn’t eliminate the “Dirty” wall problem as you can see.
Try approximate instead of raytrace. Approximate doesn’t cause noise.
Thanks for the great advice all along. I appreciate you hanging in while I muddled through. Very much appreciated on my part.
Love the concept, it’s dying for cycles though, if you don’t want to go that route, putz with the lighting until you have shadows.
NRK, I didn’t use cycles since I thought that it doesn’t support particle hair yet. I’d be willing to try if it did support particles. I did putz a bit with lighting. I put three point lights above the mirror, and you can see a bit of shadow on the sink.