Yes! That is way more appealing to the eyes, rather than the green fire. The lighting of the room looks nice as well. More matches the sky outside it. The snow is looking good too.
As for the archway and such. You have the glowing relic signs on the altar. Why not add them to the archway to light it up a bit? Just a thought.
have to agree that the lighting setup you have right now is losing pretty much your entire scene.
right now all of your main props are pretty much all hidden in shadow and the bright white light is the only thing that shows up. I know you want to go for a dark/stormy feel to the scene but if you end up losing all the models you put time and effort into making whats the point? I think you can still pull off the mood by pushing some areas into extreme shadow while still lighting up your detailed props with light.
Also right now your light sources arnt really casting light the right way. Your fires for example would brighten up everything around them and give you some nice dark shadows being cast from those objects. As it stands now the fire light dosnt seem to be effecting anything beyond the glow on the roof.
The door, antlers and fure pelts would be getting a lot of nice light from the fires but right now they are getting almost nothing which is a shame because you want to have those things pop out since those props and the alter are the most important part of your scene, not the white light from the door.
I actually prefer the lighting set up you had up one post, the one with the paintover. Without all that white light junk you can see all the props you worked on which again ist whats important. I still think you could push the contrast with the fire light to make the items near them pop out and be your focal point and make it look more like they are being lit by fire.
In that pic above the paintover your alter shows some cast light on the steps as if there is light pouring down from above. This is what I would expect to see and it fits well, but it gets lost in your last render.
Also I think you should consider moving your antler banner flag to the far left of the scene near the broken whole in the wall. Right now its getting lost and you cant see any of the details on it. If you move it over near the door you could even give it the look that wind is blowing it instead of it being so static. I think this will give your whole seem more life and feel like a living place.
Finnally when I saw this pic it was on my nice LCD thats pretty bright and I thought it was overall too dark and you were losing most of your work. When I moved the screen over to my regular LCD monitor that isnt as bright pretty much everything was in darkness. Remember not everyones monitor will be as bright as yours so if things are too dark on yours they might be way to dark on others. Go for pushing the lighting with a lot of light and dark contrast instead of just a big white blob light that hides all your hard work.
Anyway sorry for the long post but I think if you change your lighting back to what you had and push it more to accentuate your props this will look killer. Good Luck!
Autocon: Hey thanks for the post. I figured to achieve the cool lighting it would be a give and take of detail in the other props. However, with your advise, I now have the flames casting more blue light around them, as well as a spotlight under the antlers to illuminate them and the arch a bit more, and an ambient light to lighten the entire scene a tad. I think this works a bit better now, because you get to SEE more of the scene instead of INFERRING whats there.
I got the impression that it was inside a cave on a mountain? In that case, there was already a floor, and the simple barbarian people who worshiped Crom probably wouldn't build something that complex. Just seems a bit out of character. (which is fine...)
The color of the floor just makes the colors of the blood and the altar thing seem very ugly to me.
the close up shot looks pretty good...the wide angle is lacking...you might want to add some assets to break up the edges...some dead frozen vegetation....bones...even barrels...anything to fill in the space and make it more interesting
Sup Jimmy, hate to give crits so late in the creation of this thing, but here goes anyway, i'll try to reccomend some stuff that wont take too long to create.
I really like the tight angle shot. The lighting works, nothing competes for attention and the scene looks flushed out with the various cool horns you've created. The colors bother me a bit, I think the horns flames and blood are a little oversaturated, and the crystals on the alter are a bit too cartoony with that flat plasticy blue. Any way you could bring in those crystals you made for prototyping?
The Wide angle scene i think could use a little work, more than anything your cave enterance is fighting for attention with your portal entrance, and your portal entrance is 50x cooler. It's also making the lighting in your scene confusing, having 2 white light sources from both sides. I'd seriously consider darkening the outside of your scene and letting the light from your portal unify the whole thing. Other than that, i think icicles would be kick ass for this, make a couple good ones, they're not too hard, just like your crystals for the gnome town, and just slap 'em everywhere if your poly limit allows you.
Also some horns to adorn the walls would add a lot too, maybe a ring that goes around the structure. This'll give your wide angle shot the tension you achieved in your tight angle.
Blood and snow look more realistic than they've been.
Hard to see all the work you did with your sculpt for the archway but it reads well as a piece so it still works out nicely, especially with the new lighting around.
se7ered: good idea. I had some pillars and debris previously, but the style of the pillars didnt mesh well with the other architechture styles so i scrapped it. I do think the ice-cycles help break the long unbroken lines tho.
crazyfingers: The outside light is now less intense to keep the attention in the altar region. those areas have been competing for the eye the entire process.
daaark: Im going to have to respectfully disagree. The way I thought about it was, that if it were a temple of a god, even a barbarian god, more time would be put into the structure, so that it would withstand the elements of time and weathering.
i lowered the intensity of the glow on the flames. i was thinking some yeti skulls would be pretty cool to throw around, as well as some spinal cords attatched. since its the polish phase for the class projec now, i will return to the scene later on to add in more evidence of life.
Not too sure about the icicles yet. I know it's really hard to get ice to look correct with transparency issues and what not. They look decent in the medium shot but the close up looks strange to me. I feel you may have a better chance with smaller thinner icicles. Pack a little snow (and just repeat tex you have by opening) on those ledges then add the small, thin icicles lining the whole thing. Just something to think about. Hope it helps.
the icicles work really well...but what about all that empty area to the left on the first camera shot?...i notice the right bottom corner is hidden in shadow...maybe you can get some shadows in the lower left too to hide that there is nothing there.
as far as filling out the left side, i'd throw more icicles in. Just tons of icicles covering that entrance, like icicles coming out of icicles to make the outside seem really harsh. Don't be too symetrical either, i'd have the icicles reach the ceiling on the left side of the cave entrance and kinda run to just the tip of the entrance on the right side. This will lead the eye to the alter.
As far as selling the icicles, pump up the spec, increase the gloss, lower the opacity down and put a semi-noisy but smooth normal on 'em. Should give the affect of the icicles that kinkade linked. This way the light from the right can bring some life to the left side without being too overblown and you'll fill out your seen on the left.
If you start getting transparency issues, consider cutting them in half so there's only 1 side to them, you wont see them from behind anyway.
Hello again,
First off, I would like to thank everyone for the interest in this particular thread. It was the first time that I had posted in progress shots and used the feedback to help the final piece. It was really helpful getting some perspective on what I was working on. Here is what I am turning in, and again, thanks for all the feedback!
Cheers, Jim
Atta kid. I knew we'd make it through that some what of a nightmare.
I really like the way the icicles turned out. I think it reads a lot better now and from both shots. Good call on adding them to the entrance as well. Overall, nicely done sir.
One little question? Are you doing this just for fun or is there an unearthly challenge running atm? Always just find the results of the last one and wondering whats going on...
acapulco: it was for an advanced model/texture class at AI San Diego, not the actual Unearthly Challenge. It was a solo project to be done in 11 weeks.
Hello again,
First off, I would like to thank everyone for the interest in this particular thread. It was the first time that I had posted in progress shots and used the feedback to help the final piece. It was really helpful getting some perspective on what I was working on. Here is what I am turning in, and again, thanks for all the feedback!
Replies
As for the archway and such. You have the glowing relic signs on the altar. Why not add them to the archway to light it up a bit? Just a thought.
Good work so far bud.
4 Days Left
right now all of your main props are pretty much all hidden in shadow and the bright white light is the only thing that shows up. I know you want to go for a dark/stormy feel to the scene but if you end up losing all the models you put time and effort into making whats the point? I think you can still pull off the mood by pushing some areas into extreme shadow while still lighting up your detailed props with light.
Also right now your light sources arnt really casting light the right way. Your fires for example would brighten up everything around them and give you some nice dark shadows being cast from those objects. As it stands now the fire light dosnt seem to be effecting anything beyond the glow on the roof.
The door, antlers and fure pelts would be getting a lot of nice light from the fires but right now they are getting almost nothing which is a shame because you want to have those things pop out since those props and the alter are the most important part of your scene, not the white light from the door.
I actually prefer the lighting set up you had up one post, the one with the paintover. Without all that white light junk you can see all the props you worked on which again ist whats important. I still think you could push the contrast with the fire light to make the items near them pop out and be your focal point and make it look more like they are being lit by fire.
In that pic above the paintover your alter shows some cast light on the steps as if there is light pouring down from above. This is what I would expect to see and it fits well, but it gets lost in your last render.
Also I think you should consider moving your antler banner flag to the far left of the scene near the broken whole in the wall. Right now its getting lost and you cant see any of the details on it. If you move it over near the door you could even give it the look that wind is blowing it instead of it being so static. I think this will give your whole seem more life and feel like a living place.
Finnally when I saw this pic it was on my nice LCD thats pretty bright and I thought it was overall too dark and you were losing most of your work. When I moved the screen over to my regular LCD monitor that isnt as bright pretty much everything was in darkness. Remember not everyones monitor will be as bright as yours so if things are too dark on yours they might be way to dark on others. Go for pushing the lighting with a lot of light and dark contrast instead of just a big white blob light that hides all your hard work.
Anyway sorry for the long post but I think if you change your lighting back to what you had and push it more to accentuate your props this will look killer. Good Luck!
The color of the floor just makes the colors of the blood and the altar thing seem very ugly to me.
I really like the tight angle shot. The lighting works, nothing competes for attention and the scene looks flushed out with the various cool horns you've created. The colors bother me a bit, I think the horns flames and blood are a little oversaturated, and the crystals on the alter are a bit too cartoony with that flat plasticy blue. Any way you could bring in those crystals you made for prototyping?
The Wide angle scene i think could use a little work, more than anything your cave enterance is fighting for attention with your portal entrance, and your portal entrance is 50x cooler. It's also making the lighting in your scene confusing, having 2 white light sources from both sides. I'd seriously consider darkening the outside of your scene and letting the light from your portal unify the whole thing. Other than that, i think icicles would be kick ass for this, make a couple good ones, they're not too hard, just like your crystals for the gnome town, and just slap 'em everywhere if your poly limit allows you.
Also some horns to adorn the walls would add a lot too, maybe a ring that goes around the structure. This'll give your wide angle shot the tension you achieved in your tight angle.
Anyway, good luck man.
Blood and snow look more realistic than they've been.
Hard to see all the work you did with your sculpt for the archway but it reads well as a piece so it still works out nicely, especially with the new lighting around.
Keep up the good work bud.
crazyfingers: The outside light is now less intense to keep the attention in the altar region. those areas have been competing for the eye the entire process.
daaark: Im going to have to respectfully disagree. The way I thought about it was, that if it were a temple of a god, even a barbarian god, more time would be put into the structure, so that it would withstand the elements of time and weathering.
i lowered the intensity of the glow on the flames. i was thinking some yeti skulls would be pretty cool to throw around, as well as some spinal cords attatched. since its the polish phase for the class projec now, i will return to the scene later on to add in more evidence of life.
here is where it stands now
Check this. This may read better from both shots.
As far as selling the icicles, pump up the spec, increase the gloss, lower the opacity down and put a semi-noisy but smooth normal on 'em. Should give the affect of the icicles that kinkade linked. This way the light from the right can bring some life to the left side without being too overblown and you'll fill out your seen on the left.
If you start getting transparency issues, consider cutting them in half so there's only 1 side to them, you wont see them from behind anyway.
First off, I would like to thank everyone for the interest in this particular thread. It was the first time that I had posted in progress shots and used the feedback to help the final piece. It was really helpful getting some perspective on what I was working on. Here is what I am turning in, and again, thanks for all the feedback!
Cheers, Jim
I really like the way the icicles turned out. I think it reads a lot better now and from both shots. Good call on adding them to the entrance as well. Overall, nicely done sir.
Nap time! :poly142: