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Assistance with this scene

I've been working on this piece for sometime. Any advice is welcome. Thank you for your time. 

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  • darthcora22

    Here's a close up of the skull
  • darthcora22

    The wire-frame mesh of the skull. 
  • darthcora22

    Here's the wire-frame of the glass jar
  • darthcora22

    Close up of the glass jar
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    There are no shadows in that scene.  It looks incredibly unnatural.

    Also that skull is way too specularly sharp and shiny.  Feels like it's made of a glosssy plastic and not a matte material.

    The sstory of this scene is not  clear.  I do not understand what sort of study thiss is, or what the person is studying, or who's room this could be.  Thhat theme should be clarified; otherwise it feels uninteresting

    Are you using Toolbag?
  • darthcora22
    Thanks for your feedback, and I will make those changes. Yes, I used Toolbag. 
  • darthcora22

    Still working on the lighting, but here's an update of the scene. 
  • darthcora22

    Made further adjustments to the lighting. Hope you enjoy. 
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    How do the paintings contribute to the whole scene?  Why does the character, who owns thiis room, care about those particular paintings?
  • darthcora22
    I wanted something to fill up the space composition wise. But those are all valid questions. I picked the castle to help with the whole fantasy vibe. I could afford to change them both. Thank you for your feedback. 
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    You should really look into the set design and dressing of the Dr. Strange movie, especially the New York sanctum scenes.  

    What's been expounded upon by scores of seasoned enviironment artists is this concern that a lot of newer environment artists forget about telling a clear story with their environment work. 

    Yes, there's value in making good looking assets, but it can be all for naught when the synergy of all those assets doesn't produce an understandable story. 

    Really think about who's room this is.  Why are theese particular objects here?  Why is it organized this way?  In the same way someone can make some general assumptions about you based on how you keep your own room organized, think about the same thing when you set dress.

    You've got a skull, a staff from Elder Scrolls Skyrim, and a Disney Mickey wizard hat.  There's not a lot of synergy or explanation going on besides that this is some geek's room, which if that's the intention, you have to really play it up.
  • darthcora22
    Off to go do some research and rethinking for my scene. I hope with round three I will get that synergy and the story across that your're talking about. I will definitely look into set dressing and design of Dr. Strange. Thanks again. 
  • darthcora22

    Updates for the scene. This is the study of Malius Altemius, a wizard a part of the Atomic Order. The Atomic Order is a Victorian time traveling order dedicated to maintaining the proper timeline. Malius' crowning achievement is taking down the Horned King, a grand master lich. He keeps his head on display, and out of tradition has removed his teeth and jaw to keep him from talking. 
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    Wow.  This looks better.

    Take the Atomic Order plaque out or redesign it so it looks like a real sigil.  Just reads as clip art from Windows XP right now.

    The head sculpt needs more polishing.  Just rip a good one from online, or make one yourself.

    Wood cabinet needs a higher resolution tileable wood material.  It's blurry.  It is very blurry.

    There is height information on the lettering of the letter.  This doesn't make sense; ink printing rarely depresses that far in for a depression to read that strong.
  • darthcora22
    Thank you. I will get to work on those changes. 
  • darthcora22
    I also wanted to thank you for your last time you gave me advice, Brian. It really got me thinking about how I present scenes. How they should tell a story, and not just be displays how how you can model. I believe it made me better as an artist. 
  • darthcora22
  • jStins
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    jStins interpolator
    Good feedback from @Brian%20"Panda"%20Choi and kudos for acting on it @darthcora22. I'm not sure if you'll keep going on this scene or move onto something else, but the lighting would be another area to address with pretty big gains in the overall quality of the image. Take all of Brian's comments about story and apply that to the lighting. That doesn't necessarily mean that the lighting has to be overt in making the place look good or evil or whatever, but all the light sources should be motivated in some way. Even a basic 3 point lighting setup can be improved simply by thinking about what's emitting the light and using that for reference in determining intensity, color and shadow settings. 

    Right now your dominate light source seems to be pointing straight at the props. What's creating that light? Sunlight through a window? What time of day? Light from an off-camera oil lamp? Make a decision on that then look at references to drive your angle / light type / color / contrast choices. One general thing I'd suggest is to angle the light to the left or right so the shadows are cast in a more interesting way. Shadows are important composition elements and they are currently just falling behind the props -not doing much to ground them or create contrast. Lighting is an important part of the story and quality of your scene and can do so much more than just make things be seen. 
  • darthcora22
    Thank you @jStins. I'm continuing to work on this scene. It's been a little slowed since going full time at my job. I'm actually going to post a new photo of it after this response. I will continue to work on my lighting of the scene and a few others I have. I'm rereading through my textbooks to hopefully improve. 
  • darthcora22
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