Grand Space Opera 2D Entry: Patrick Jensen

[Tonsen]

Hmmm. The goal of this was to see if I could get a camera's lens to give the kind of scale I rendered below. Might use it, not sure yet. Just showing another thought here, :)

http://www.metavisuals.com/Matte/wireframe.gif

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1098683449_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1098683449_large.jpg)

Hey everybody!

Stole an hour tonight to rough out this concept. Got the basic direction I'm wanting to go. Not sure how far I want to put the viewer off the planet, so the foreground elements are really rough right now. Got the preliminary pallette down though....and I think there needs to be more ships, heh. So, I'll post more as it comes!

Thoughts, suggestions, always welcome

Cheers!

- Jensen

[Fahrija]

The scetch has great mood and much density. The shapes are to loose yet to evaluate the image accurate. Looks promising > I´m looking forward to see further development.

[AirbORn]

wow! I love the scale and direction you are taking. It reminds me of pirates ships but in space. :)

[Erebus74]

Truely good colors in here, maybe the greenish tint on the right is a little "out of place" in the reds, oranges, and blacks, but overally a good mood!

[Bishoppess of Death]

*twitchdie* That's about all I can do. So awsome. The colors and light and the composition too. I love it, just like that. So that's a garuntee the finished product will blow me away.

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1098723570_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1098723570_large.jpg)

Thanks for the critiques and enthusiasm! Lessening the green was a good choice there. This is just an idea for the bottom half of the piece. It'll be fun refining structures once I lock down a concept. Still might try some other options, so we'll see what happens.

Gotta run, and thanks for the input!

- Jensen

[Ranath]

wow, very dynamic, very strong. This is going to be great

[ChrisThatGuy]

That's awesome. Great perspective.
<mutters something about competition and goes to work on own piece>

[adel3d]

That's great!
esp the depth and the color!
Hope to see the final!!!

[WyattHarris]

The colors used in the sunset, explosions (?) are beautiful. Almost looks like the sky is on fire. The cityscape gives a look of a city built around a beach. Good progress.

[cgtalkmember]

Very nice indeed, i like that yellow it makes it stand out :thumbsup:

[Artie]

Oho! Very strong atmosphere! I like the mood of destruction and burn-everything-you-see ;)

[NinjaA55N]

Great one! I also like the atmosphere very much so dont wast it (yea right... as if that is possible ;)) Keep that contrast of an orange and green color, which gives that apocalyptic feeling of last days of the planet. Maybe just add some spaceships or other flying object way in the back, like if they r pulling off, trying to escape from this mess. Only my opinion :)
I must also say that the way that u started, with 3d render is a smart move!

[stickyblue]

woohooo amazing work is getting done again within the extremely little time you have ! :)

[malcolmvexxed]

I think it's getting much better nice transition on the colors from yellow to green and orange, the selection make it work and still keep separation.

[Dutchman]

WOW! Thats an awesome conceptsketch! I can feel the power of your brain/hand :) coming out of it! Looks really dynamic and looks also promising allot detail (that little lights are great!). I'll keep an eye on this thread! :)

Allot good luck wished,

Gijs

[btw: your site is really cool! I like allot works of you featured on it, and that tutorials are very cool! I'll also keep an eye on your site I think ;) ]

[ardenrey]

Great light and colors!:thumbsup: Keep it up!
Good luck!

[JTD]

I think the perspective and the angle you present give the piece a great sense of action. Beautiful color palete.

[idiot box]

Wow, I really like this, nice comp and great angles.

[Slav]

one of my favorite works thus far. i cannot wait to see how this ends up.

[Erebus74]

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

Now it's truely better in color balance, maybe a bit too bright in general...but overally splendid!

Gio

[element5]

I really like this image, very cool :applause:

[Tonsen]

Hey folks!

I'm glad you all like the direction it's going. An update should be coming up this weekend. It's been a bit difficult getting the perspective down and also compositionally, what the focus should be, etc. So stay tuned and thanks for the input!!

Cheers!

- Jensen

[hydrocell]

mate it's awesome, when i saw the thumbnail I was like.. and the winner is.. yeh would definitiely like to see some more detail, but the colours work for sure.

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1100314234_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1100314234_large.jpg)

Hey folks!

Thanks again for all the great support. I'm having a blast on this one, and have started to refine a few areas. Once I get more changes into the whole piece, I'll post it on up.

Enjoy!

[NOOB!]

man i love seeing artist work from start to more refined,excellent,ur colour choices are spot on!

both of those latest pics are cool.i dunno which one you should go for!!

[NinjaA55N]

great new sketches! keep'em coming!

[Arctis]

Well, you are really gifted, dude !
I really like the way you suggest reality with abstract shapes of light. I've seen on your website that you're only 21 ! I wonder what you gonna do at 30 or 40 !
Bravo !

My 2D space opera thread (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=185203)

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1100381062_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1100381062_large.jpg)

Thanks very much for the kind words.

So here's what I have so far, the whole piece as it stands right now. It's very much still in progress, but I wanted to show you waht the whole thing's looking like. I've been messing with the clouds for a while, and as you can see they're still very very rough. Once I figure out shapes and colors I'll get in there and refine them to look more like clouds. I'm not sure about the explosion on the bottom left, because I want the focus to be up there on the ship's explosion. So I might get rid of the lower one. And the idea is, maybe we're on some kind of building watching this horrible and spectacular event take place, or we're on some kind of ship fleeing the scene. You can notice the redish hint of a cloud layer above the city, which will get more refined to look more like clouds and less like Photoshop, heh. A lot of changes to come, but mainly the struggle to keep it from getting too messy, yet pull it into refinement.

Definitely a fun one. And great job to everyone else!! There's some mighty fine work being made here.

Cheers!

-Jensen

[Miker]

you've got the fish eye lens going there. its working great.

[SideAche]

This is looking quite good. Love the perspective. I really like the loose brush work going on. Very painterly. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[sidchagan]

Coming along perfectly so far. I really have nothing constructive to say, great work :)

[Speaky]

Hi Tonsen, just gotta say it's really working for me. Impressive field of view, good strong subject matter. If I could make a suggestion, it would be to tone down the saturation as it seems to be pretty full on all over. I might also lower the overall values so that you could really focus on the upper ship's explosion by giving it more contrast and saturation than the rest of the pic. At the moment it's struggling to appear as a centre of interest. Generally though, great stuff, I'm enjoying watching this pic develop.

[Arctis]

Hi,
it's an impressive scene you have ! I really like the city and its blending lights : it's striking !
Good choice of lens : fish eye is ideal for hudge scale.
I am just disturbed by the way the ship upleft is binding : it seems elastic. Maybe the nose of the two ships in the sky need to be higher, to respect fish eye deformation.
anyway, beautiful work, Mr Tonsen.

My space opera thread (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=185203)

[LuisNCT]

Lightning and perspective are great. The lower city and the sun reflection in the sea likes me very much. But maybe the upper right clouds nearby the explosion are too much round. Impressive work!

[Fahrija]

Hey Tonsen,
Nice development >I really like this image. :)

The two explosions have nearly the same size but they refer to different scales. The profound impact is that one in the background. Maybe the front explosion could be turn into a bunch of little fires accrued by little fighters. Just to accentuate the big explosion again.

Greetings
Fahrija

[Tonsen]

Miker, SideAche, and sidchagen > Awesome. Glad you like it! Thanks very much.

Speaky > I definitely agree, and once you said that, I made some quick changes and color overlays to push the rest of the image back a bit, and it's much more enjoyable, and less punchy now. Nice!

Arctis > You're not liking that left ship either. Glad you think that too. I'll work up some different options and get em up. I might have to quickly model a ship and paint over it to get things more accurate. Should be fun nonetheless. Good spot.

LuisNCT > Nice and round and fluffy doesn't = nasty explosion. I agree, heh, those will get more varied and more cloud or ploomlike with refinement.

Fahrija > It's amazing how when I paint, i reference things in the image. I'll paint a cloud and it'll have the same silhouette as a ship, or paint a tier in the city, and it looks like a spike on a ship. This is probably on of the biggest things I'm learning on this one, is consciously struggling with making things not line up with eachother, make things more organic, less predictable, and resultly more interesting and natural. I feel the explosion is weak too, it was a device to take up some space, and I'll definitely try out your suggestion, because I think it would be a fun one. And I'm also really enjoying your work Fahrija! Keep it up!

Welp, these were some great suggestions people. Thank you very much. I'm very eager to continue working on this one. Cheers!

- Tonsen

[kaparo]

Hi. You have a great developing work in here! I thin as you: the bottom explosion do not help. If you remove it, the composiotn will gain. Besides I think the little ship in the background looks a liyttle lose there. Perhaps is the trail, as it is a white strong curve. Having an important point of perspective in the sun you could direct its move like the ship is coming from there, or something like that or you could remove its trail, too. Well, just ideas, you know. Kepp going!

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1104819821_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1104819821_large.jpg)

Happy New Year everyone!

Having a great and restful break, I came back to this project last night with a fresh outlook on what it could become. The original composition just wasn't working for me, and the original intent was to have the viewer somehow stuck in the middle of this epic battle, which led to the formation of the ship and ultimately this new composition.

**Note: More ships are coming, heh. Just trying to get the composition and main action locked before I keep adding extras and mayhem, (while keeping the whole thing from getting cluttered), all great challenges I look forward to.

I'd be greatful for any comments or suggestions you have. And keep up the amazing work I'm seeing around here!

Best,

Jensen

[Falcorr]

Heh he he he :eek: *

I just knew things would go crazy during the last few weeks.
I thought you had quit allready! There goes my chance for even honorable mention.

Is that sky from photoref?

If not it might be the best one so far!

[andreasrocha]

This is wonderful, Tonsen! I agree with Falcor...it must be the best sky around. Simply stunning. The spaceship in the foreground looks wonderful, and those spikes pointing out worked out perfectly! I would like to suggest two things, that I think might improve your work:

1. The planet's horizon seems too curved. If possible, try to straighten it a bit, so the planet doesn't seem so small.

2. The rocket's trail is calling too much attention. Try to make it less obvious, or remove one of the trails.

This entry is one of the best, definitely.

Keep it up!

[Fahrija]

Hi tonsen,

really beautiful picture. Outstanding what you conjured up in final lap. The atmosphere is great.

Just a question. How did you make the metal texture of the right spaceship in the foreground?

Best wishes
Fahrija

[KaleN]

Great job indeed! I just love Your colour scheme! Can't wait for finished piece

[Tranchefeux]

Hi,
It, is made very good is controlled and your super sky have a
photograph,
good luck.

[walrus]

This is just beautiful, Jensen! Great work! As for a secxond opinion, I am going to respectfully disagree with Andreas: I really like the fish-eye lens feel that you've carried over from your earlier concept, and hope that you'll keep it. and I like the twin missile trails too. I will, in a vague attempt to be helpful, point out just two things that catch my eye, but it's a really nice piece and would be wonderful without any changes. But anyhow:

It catches my eye that all of the spikes on the right ship all end almost perfectly at the horizon of the planet. I like that they add a sense of perspective, but i wonder how they would look is they were each a few feet shorter.

Secondly, with so much beautiful perspective in this shop, it feel a little unfitting that the attacking ship is seen from a near-perfect front view. A little more tilt and perspective could make it look much more in-place.

But anyhow, nonetheless great work!

-mike

[Tonsen]

Falcor: Thanks! The sky did originate from a photograph I took. It started as a mid-day sky which I then tweaked and painted into a sunset. I'll post the photos I involved in the scene soon so you can see the before and after.

andreasrocha: Thank you! As you can see from the last pic to this one, I had to pull back the warped fish eye lens...and the curvature was an issue I was struggling with for a while. I think I can find a middle ground between yours and walrus's observations. The horizon is not consistant from the left to the right of the image, which I noticed after reading your comments. So I'll work on that one, thanks! And I've been tweaking the trails...adding more shadowing to them...and it's helping...so good catch.

Fahrija: Hey there! The metal sheen is mainly use of a brush set to color dodge. Sometimes I lasso an area of an image, copy and past it....then use various brush settings on it, and erase which areas I don't like from this layer. Always gives new results you might otherwise not think of with straight color painting.

KaleN and Tranchefeux: Thanks!

walrus: I've been trying to give the spikes more purpose than just compositional coolness, so hopefully you'll like the update I'll put up tonight. And your comment about the left ship's perspective caused me to completely revamp it....which...thank you for that, cause I came up with a new style of ship that contrasts our hero ship much better.

Thanks for the help! And great job on your scenes as well!

- Jensen

[Arctis]

Stunning work, your painting skills are very high !
I would be interested to see the photo ref you have used for this pict.
By advance, congrats for the prize you will win for sure. :thumbsup:

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1104901776_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1104901776_large.jpg)

Thanks to your great comments, and some more inspiration from around here, I give you the latest.

More refinements of some areas will be done soon. As well as re-thinking some of the smaller ships and where they're placed.

In the meantime, enjoy! And have a good one,

-Jensen

[Fahrija]

Hi Tonsen,

I love this piece. The sequence really leads me somewhere else. My favorite.



Just some notes about the smoke trails.
The smoke trail of the projectile which hits the background ship I would make as thinner as is reaches the ship and just a bit bigger at the beginning of the flight path (with a bit more translucent character).
I would not paint the smoke trail all the way to the ship which fired the projectile because the ship itself also moves in the same time as the projectile does. That means the starting point of the smoketrail is somewhere else. By doing that I think you increase the impression of movement.

Fahrija

[Arctis]

Hi Tonsen,
My opinion is that the perfect balance was reached by the previous pict you've posted.
The last one isn't as good to me, so I'll try to explain my impression :
- The missile was a dynamic element, easy to read ; now the explosion disturbs the action, because it's in the wrong sense, and because I can't see what's destroyed.
- The missile gas trail is gray-blue now, so it breaks the red color scheme of the sky.
- The previous shape of the firing ship was more dynamic.
- The up-left ship disturb me : its shape and its direction are not clear to me, and I like your sky so much...
- It's a shame you hid a part of your city, at the bottom of your pict : it was so rich...
- The new glow on the lights of the foreground ship are too strong : It was perfect to me on the previous version : striking and sober.
Anyway you're the only master onboard after God, so I wish you good luck !

[Velinov]

Great work man:thumbsup:

There are so many things that hapends in your illustration. Like the concept. I can't wait to see more.


My Grand Space Opera (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=183663)


www.velinov.com (http://www.velinov.com/)

[jbradley]

Wow. Great composition and choice of colors. A lot of emotional value in this concept as well...can't wait to see the next update!

[walrus]

Hey, Jensen, looking good! I love the new ship: The direction it's facing makes it very dynamic. And I like your changes on the horizon, which now make the spikes read a lot better too. And your sky is still just amazing! A few comments, though, some of which echo many of Arctis' good points:

I acree about the glow on the right ship being too strong now... Or perhaps it's not just that they're too strong but that they also have a blue tinge to them. Being one of the only cool colors in the shot - and definitely one of the brightest - it sucks your eye there, 'thoough there's no particular reason that people need to stare at that part of the picture.

I have a lot of trouble reading what that missile is hitting. Fahrija and Arctis said it all about changes, i just really had to study it just to figure it out.

I'm not sure whether the composition needs that top left ship. On one hand, it does frame the piece nicely. But on the other hand, it closes in a shot that's all about dynamic flight, and leaving it a bit more open really helps give a feelign of movelemt and open space and flight.

Anyhow, hope these are helpful. Really beautiful work, have fun finishing! And thanks for your helpful notes on my piece.

-mike

[Lovliebutterfly]

Nice explosion effects! :thumbsup: I like the scale and perspective in your composition!

[weirdworm]

wooo! lookin' good. i like the progress you've made since ya showed me yesterday. cant wait to see ya sunday!

[Tonsen]

Fahrija: I was aware of that fact of the smoke trails...and have yet to address it. And since you spotted that as well, I think it's time! Thank you, and thanks for the continuing crits and support. I have been enjoying your various sketches which are great to see as you progressed to your final result. Keep it up!

Arctis: Thanks for the great encouragement and your ideas as well. I agree with you on the color scheme...I'm actually painting it with a pallete closer to the more recent image...the one before having a reddish filter over it, which I agree in thinking it's more unified that way. And I'll try out some of your suggestions, thank you!

jbradley and Velinov: Thanks so much! New update coming very soon.

walrus: Great points as well. The top ship...I'm disliking more and more, and at this point it's gone, heh. It's competing with the grandness of the ship we're on, and the scale of the whole piece...so it's helping a lot now that it's out. Thanks to you and Arctis for that one.

(and thanks a heap Worm!)

Next on the list of things to fix are those terrible glows. They were an easy stand in for what would otherwise be a very intricate powering device. And the smoke trails and explosion will be addressed, as well as the overall color scheme. Thanks again for the help.

Cheers!

- Jensen

[paulwdavidson]

A well executed piece........I followed your process with great interest.

You've achieved a great bit of artwork

Congratulations

Paul

[MDN67]

Wow incredible image, it's the first time i see your project, it's terrific the sky, the ship the city all yopur élément are terrible the atmospère and the light is very very welle render, for me it's perhaps the best realistic picture of the challenge 2d, i really like this, very gret job, i cry on my work:sad:,... but it's the challenge :), very great work:applause:

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105666777_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105666777_large.jpg)

Hey everybody,

Getting a bit more stylistic with this update. Not sure if it will be the final look, but it's always easy to pull it back in the end. What do you think?

More ships are coming, and the top ship will be better defined as well as some of the details on the main one.

Most importantly...I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks again for the comments and critique, and as always, keep up the amazing work.

- Jensen

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105817426_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105817426_large.jpg)

Howdy!

Your silence on the last update reassured my feeling that I took a step backwards with that last revision, which is probably the best comment I could have gotten at the time, heh.

Hopefully I've brought back some of the successful elements and made some improvements. The main smoke trails have still yet to be addressed.

Your feedback would be most helpful as I wrap this one up, thanks!

[MDN67]

It's again me, i prefer this style of ship, the pic is... incredible, i like the ambiance, clouds, light, sky, all the élément, for me it's th best project of this challenge, very good work, no,... amazing work

[6800AD]

No silence from this quarter looks fab....great ambiance and lots of punch...great work all the way through.


(My Grand Space Opera Challenge Page)
http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/grandspaceopera/view_entries.php?challenger=5117

[walrus]

Patrick - This is the strongest image by far. I like the original spaceship that you've reverted to much more than the temporary replacement. The warmer tinge on the engines/lights works much better than what you had earlier, 'though i still find them drawing the eyes a lot because they're so glaring. The explosion in the lower right isn't quite reading as powerful yet, mostly because it's so transparent. But I assume that you will work on that more along with the smoke trails that you said you still wanted to touch.

Not much else to add: Good luck finishing it up, and have a good weekend!

-mike

[MDN67]

Oh one thing, at the right, on the ship, before you added a metal reflec, You removed it to put it other than I find less well

[Falcorr]

Tonsen thats pretty clever to be able to achieve improvements by just looking at the thread reply response time :wise:

Next time ill be using that technique also! TRRT time.. yeah :thumbsup:

Blueish hues really did nothing for your piece. It only broke down the illusion of the horizon and colors.

Look out for the lower right corner. Flames or smokes look messy not cool at all.
Smoke needs to have some feeling of opaque not just transparency. Big buffy smoke not let colors eminate from behind.. They should only gather colors from ambience only.

[SideAche]

Beautiful Work, my only crit is to say that the large smoke trail divides the illustration in half. Great technical skills here :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Fahrija]

Hi Tonsen,

I breathe again :) I love this version very much!:thumbsup:

I know I should have posted that I personaly thought the new development wasn´t so strong Will not happen again. :bowdown: (misc.php?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=1&forumid=0#)


Fahrija

[Tonsen]

Hah! I'm so glad you people are enjoying this. I always laugh when I make mistakes or take a tangent to an ugly direction. Always makes getting back on point seem that much more rewarding than straight linear progress.

MDN67: Thanks so much! I tried simplifying the metal's specular, and will see what it looks like adding a bit of it back in.

6800AD: Glad you like it, thanks!

Mike: Thanks, man! I didn't even notice how transparent it was getting on the bottom right explosion. That area will soon be remedied. Have a good one too!

Falcor: Got it. Should be fun refining that area, heh.

SideAche: I've been aware of the trail seeming to divide the piece. I still haven't found a better solution, but as it still gets notice, I'll keep at it and hopefully find an answer, thanks!

Fahrija: haha, glad you're breathing again. And no worries about not posting. Looks like you've been busy enough with your painting (which is looking great!)


Any other comments would be heaply appreciated. Thanks for your time,

- Tonsen

[weirdworm]

so this is why i havent seen you lately!

:) haha i keeed i keeed. jeez its looking good there Mr. J. i cant wait to see it all finished!

[Jezzarts]

Hey there... wow, looking good so far. Nice balance of colour throughout. The spikes really give the image that edge although I'm not entirely sure whats happening... I am pretty tyred though ; )

Did you use reference for the landscape and skyline?... I imagine so as it's spot on. Great job mate, look forward to the final opera, fat lady and all!

[sidchagan]

As far as I can tell, this doesnt need any more changes. Maybe I'm missing something, but as it stands, it looks awesome- fantastic colors, details, everywhere, and definitely a very grand feel.

[ecura]

This is looking good, the colours has turned out well. Its got good action and a nice scenic view. Be quick to put your submission through. It would be a dissapointment if it isn't in. Good luck.

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105896893_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105896893_large.jpg)

I've been wondering what to use for my line art milestone since I don't use lines when constructing a painting, as you can see from the process. I suppose the concept sketch was closer to a line art foundation than what reference photos you use, but since some of you were wondering about those clouds - Here are the pictures I took around Florida and above Italy that helped define the sort of cloud formations I was looking for. After heavy tweaking and painting, the results are as you see in the painting.

Speaking of painting, I better get back to it! Thanks very much for the comments and feedback. I should have a final up tonight (Sunday).

Cheers!

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105924497_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105924497_large.jpg)

Original Res is mainly 3500 x 2220 px. Although in some areas I doubled that so I could work more fluently on some trouble spots I had.

Hope you enjoy these details and the latest revision which is coming up momentarily.

Cheers!

- Tonsen

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105925105_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105925105_large.jpg)

Hey folks!

I've been having a blast with detailing. I hope you all enjoy the latest!

Comments and critique are still welcome, because I'm taking a break now and coming back to knock off the final fixes. (After double checking the image on another monitor).

PS: the fleet of ships coming at us...I'm not quite happy with them yet, but other than that, it's almost finished!

Thanks for all the help. Enjoy!

- Tonsen

[CodeNothing]

beautifull work!
it took me a while before i knew there was an explosion in the bottom right corner... i dont know if thats good or bad. Kinda nice to not have an explosion be a focal point though. so i guess i like it! :) amazing work!

[Tonsen]

You're exactly right...didn't want that one to be too much of a focus. Glad you like it!

[Fahrija]

hi Tonsen,

it is just beautiful. :thumbsup: The atmosphere and color are great and especially the spaceships metal sheen on the right handside (stunning). The single trails look very convincing now after retracting them and fit much better into the scene.

Great work. I love it.

Fahrija

[Falcorr]

Tonsen i only saw COLORING WIP's .. not final coloring... not final image...

Dont tell me you arent going to make it?
Its the last day! Hurry! Finish the pic up. You must upload all versions and the huge final tiff also.. Only few hours left! :bounce:

[walrus]

Thanks for posting the close-ups! It's really nice to see how loosely (or not) various areas of the painting are being renderred. It's looking great! I really like the improvements in the lower right explosion. I have to confess that i really miss the twin curving vapor trails. Sure they bisected the image, but they added a kinetic energy to the piece, and they tied in that upper left ship into the whole scene. (it feels a bit purposeless now.) Also, the curves of the trails accented the curve of the horizon really nicely.
But obviously some folks weren't as crazy about it. It's hard to please 100 back-seat art directors!
anyhow, still looking good. good luck with the final submission!

-mike

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105990266_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105990266_large.jpg)

Alas! It is complete.

Thanks to all your help on this one. I've learned so much and had a blast painting this challenge.

I'll post up the final image with more info momentarily.

Enjoy!

- Tonsen

[MDN67]

Again, again and again, it's amazing pic, no crit i'm definitly fan it's a great piece of art, for me and now she's the best, you are a master:shrug:, i think i don' alone with this avis

[Tonsen]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105992478_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/6/4755/4755_1105992478_large.jpg)

THE DRIGGER INVASION

"Amongst a time of peace and prosperity,
The lost Driggers appear out of legend,
To Illuminate the sky with their renewal of power."


Greetings All,

I've had such a great time working on this one. I thought I'd share some of the goals I wanted to shoot for:

- To paint an advanced civilisation from the air.
- To achieve a cloudscape that advances towards us in depth.
- To put the viewer on a ship, watching this horror take place.
- And to try and achieve a look that in say 5,000 years, with you on that ship too, a photograph from yourself might capture this scene.

The city was a fun challenge, and a large body of water was on the list of things to try and render. The explosions too are a new thing for me, and have been a blast, heh, to have a go at. And getting the viewer on this ship has been fun as well.

When I first thought Grand Space Opera, I compared painting this scene to that of conducting an Opus - Throwing in space ships, an epic landscape, a setting sun, mass explosions and lots going on. All in all, I'm glad to have been part of this challenge, and have greatly appreciated your feedback and help during this process. I've sure enjoyed seeing the variety of work everyone's been posting. Great work!

Hope you have as much fun viewing this work as it was to create it.

All the best,

Patrick

[Falcorr]

Great work i really liked looking at the new higher resolution version. Those small ships coming from horizon is great touch :thumbsup:

They give more depth to allready awesome sky.

But you also made a mistake doing this part in such a hurry. Just to the right part of the picture were is that horizon. You divided the planes into 4 different planes. Which at those distances would have worked better if the shading would have been uniform. Creating only 1 plane with hills. There is not enough distance for such effect.

Well you can be really proud of this pic :scream: This gonna be somewhere high. Cant promise you the grand prize. Too many awesome works in for it this time.

Good luck! .. Btw go give critique to my work now that you arent in a hurry anywhere.:)

[LuisNCT]

Your final image are impressive. The lightning and the colors are beautiful and the texture of the ship at the right is...no words (How you did it?)

[Speaky]

Tonsen, damn that's a good pic! :eek: Well done sir, you have done yourself proud. I wish my clouds were half as good as yours! :thumbsup:

[Tonsen]

Falcor - Thanks for the spot on that area. It was a last minute detail that I thought I should establish. And, since the server was doing a better a moment ago, I fixed the image and uploaded a new tiff with the change. Thanks very much for that.

And thanks for all the comments!

- Tonsen

[daadaa]

ahem! someones gonna win!

[NinjaA55N]

Well hello there! Im really glad I finally saw ur finished piece. It is a superb one with all that colors, dynamic, contrast... I just love it. Hope to see more stuff from u soon. Good luck!

[MDN67]

After the end, it's, for me, the best pic, congratulation for this work, you have my vote

[Maxter]

I like the colors and the result of the final image.

Good work

Congratulations!!:thumbsup:

[Tonsen]

daadaa: ahh, heh, we shall see! but Thank You!

NinjaASSN: I'm glad too, that you pulled yours off in the end. That was a pretty heavy scene to deal with. Great job!

MDN67: Thank you. I'm so glad you enjoy it.

Maxter: Thanks!

Hope you all are having a great time browsing through the entries as I am. I think it's been a great challenge, with such enthusiasm and encouragement...I love seeing the path each person took with their images. Awesome work folks! I'm glad to have been a part of it this time.

Cheers all around!

- Tonsen

[element5]

Congratulations Patrick!!! :thumbsup: must be a good feeling.

[Squibbit]

nice colors, the clouds are great , as well as the light reflections on the big ship

congrats !

[Fahrija]

Hi Patrick,

congratiulations for 1st runner up!

best regards
fahrija

[ebrowning]

Great job!! And holy crap- the best prize by far! I look forward to seeing what you do now.
Congratulations!

[cgkrusty]

Congrats man... awesome job!

[Tonsen]

Thank you so much! And congrats to all of you as well! Fahrija - your critiques are very constructive and appreciated. Nice work on the award :) And thanks Eric! I'm gonna get back to finishing my thesis and hopefully have some new paintings up real soon. And I have to say, the story within your image is very refreshing and captivating, I'm definitely looking forward to your future work as well.

krusty, Squibb, and element - Thanks!! Have yourself a grand ol' day :)

Cheers!

- Patrick

[Tranchefeux]

Hi, All my compliment for your price.

[Tommy Lee]

Congratulations:thumbsup: ... Absolutly stunning piece of art!

Cheerz

Tommy Lee

[Fahrija]

Hi Patrick,

your thesis? What topic did you choose? Btw-where do you study?
wish you success with that > but I´m sure it will have 1st runner up quality :)

best regards
fahrija

[NinjaA55N]

Im glad to see u on the top on the list. A true masterpiece! Congratulations and I hope we'll see in next challenge as well :)

[MDN67]

Congratulations for the 1 runner, i'll sure you win

[TeemuR]

I'm glad that you place that well! :) I really like your picture. The sky and pyro effects are so nicely done + well balanced pic too.

[Tonsen]

Thanks so much everybody.

I'm wrapping up my last year at Ringling School of Art and Design. Majoring in Computer Animation, your thesis is actually an animated short, completed solely by you from concept to final render. Things are real busy right now, but this challenge arrived at the perfect time, and it's length was long enough, I could work on this image during breaks and down time.

It was sure great seeing all of your works progress. Congrats to all!

Cheers!

- Patrick

[walrus]

Patrick - Really beautiful work, I'm happy to see that you made it onto the short list. Congratulations!

-mike

[SideAche]

Congrats Patrick! Love your work, looking forward to seeing you in the next one.

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