Spectacular 3D Entry: Gijs Leijdekkers

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1129496796_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1129496796_large.jpg)

Hi everybody! I am ready for a new challenge! :)

From the first minutes the theme of this challenge was known, I had some ideas, and began brainstorming and evolving them more and more... In that way I came so some concepts, and at this moment I have about 3 different ideas to have an 'original' approach of the theme.

This is the first (while it's the last I had as a result of the 'evolutionairy proces'). On the image you see a factory where some bathtubs slide along... In there are really 'weird things' (I'd like to get a kinda surreal/artistic final image). The connection they have, is that it all are 'flashes' of the womans life (who's in the middle... smoking). Flashes are 'spectacular', as is the constuction of the factory. At the other hand it's kind of ironic, as the old woman doesn't look 'spectacular' but more like 'having a life without spectacular things at all'!

I've done this 'sketch' with CorelDRAW to just get the rough idea on a (digital) canvas. I hope to get a rather photoreal result, but that it still looks some 'surreal'.

We'll see: I'll try to show of the next idea, soon!
-Gijs

[Wytze]

Nice to see another dutchman in the challenge:)

I like your idea, will give a very special feeling i think.

my challenge entry (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=283168)

[Dutchman]

Well Wytse, there are quite much Dutchman (and Dutchgirl? :D ) in the challenge... In fact it even seems that Holland would be the most popular 3D-country on the world...! :eek: It's really stunning to see how many people come from our 'kikkerlandje'! ;)

Hopefully the final will háve a special atmosphere/feeling around it! :) In fact that would be my main-goal! :)

I hope to post the next concept tomorrow, after some more brainstorming tonight! ;)

Are there more people with an opinion about my first concept? :twisted:
-Gijs

[rankstein]

hello Dutchman,thanks for your compliments...my work is also (will be) kinda "not so ordinary"
,but yours is even more (in a good way) I like the idea with a lovly women,as most men would agree with me..:applause:..but as I understood there will be like wrilly a lot thubs...waiting for model...good luck a lot!
and a nice day!:buttrock:

[Gunilla]

Great idea - this can make a great image! Good luck :thumbsup:

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1129914695_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1129914695_large.jpg)

And here we are with another concept sketch: this time of the woman/old lady who's siting in the bathtub. Instead of the cliché 'babe with boobs' ( ;) ), I want to put a very old an totally nót attractive woman in the bath... Not only to get a 'different' mood, but also to have a more challenging modelling process, as I'll now have the ability to make her a bit 'cartoony'. Later on I'll post some refences to show you what kind of woman I'm goaling to get... :)

This is first done with a fineliner and waterpaint on a A4-paper, then scanned in, and then I did some little colorcorrection and adjustments in Photoshop.

I hope to post the other concepts/ideas soon, so that I can choose a concept soon, and get on with the réal stuff!

I hope you'll post what you think of this new update!
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

@ rankstein : Thanks for the reply and the compliments! :twisted: Indeed, as far as I saw of you stuff, your stuff will be 'not ordinairy' too... I always try to find something original, so also in this case - instead of rendering a car-crash or so, I wanted to think further and beyond... And it seems you choose that same workflow! ;) I hope myself to be modelling soon, also... Good luck to you also! (again ;) )

@ Gunilla : Thank you! I hope also to 'make a great image'...! Let's just hope the 'different look' will be more positive than negative in the eyes of the jury and other-members....! ;)

As I said before, I'll try to post that other concept-ideas soon, so that I can start of soon...! :) Please keep telling what you think of the idea(s)!
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1129989468_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1129989468_large.jpg)

It all started with... This idea! ;) Even before the theme of the challenge was (officially) revealed, I had the idea to use some uge structures in the image (I had been inspired by our town's really old train-station). I also wanted to have some place for 'ZBrush-fun' (> stylized characters ;) ), so this was the first that popped into my mind: the spectacular opening of a city, by the mayor of the city. In the front curious and exited people, in the back the wonderfull (lighted) city, and on the sky fireworks and so... The whole image would be very colorfull and stylized (Burton-y ;) ).

So this is the sketch I just finished as vector in CorelDRAW... Not all the elements I had in my mind came to this sketch, but its mainly meant to give you a stylized feel of the idea/image.

I'm gonna show you some other concepts also, soon, to make you, ánd myself sure, I'll use the best idea!
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1130006071_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1130006071_large.jpg)

Here I'm showing off some other piece of the evolution to the 'bath-tub-factory'.
As you saw before, I began with the idea of the city. From that idea, I went to and idea of a giant structure, with a welder on it, and lots of 'little worker houses' spread on that huge structure. Out of the little sparks that the welder 'made', an angel appeared in the dark. This would give the image a nice surreal mood. The image would be quite wide (2000x1000 or so), and the image would be very dark, so that the light places made the image more dynamic. Because it's quite hard to get that idea in 2D on paper, I haven't visualised that (yet).

From the huge structures-idea I moved on to something completely different: I was thinking about 'spectacular' and came to a grandmother, for who the life is only spectacular when her grandchildren are visiting her. From thát on, I was thinking of other possibilities with an old woman, and I was thinking of an old woman who's playing cards or so... As that might be the only spectacular she does in her life. Maybe this idea would be visualised to an image, in a way like in 'Pixar's Gerry's Game'. So two the same woman playing cards together.

And from thát idea, I moved to an idea with a bathtub... (as seen in the attached sketch) A woman, smoking, in a really old bathroom. It could have a nice mood/atmosphere, and I could do nice things with the texturing.

The above sketch was done in MS Acrylic and Photoshop.

Let's hope you like it & Let's hope somebody replies! ;)
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1130006630_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1130006630_large.jpg)

And here the last conceptsketch for today! ;) On this one we see the next step where I came to through the evolution of the concept. Because the 'Woman in the Bath' wouldn't have enough action (I read the rules for the challenge again, and wasn't sure if my image would have had enough movement & spectaculairity ;) ), I was looking for a way to make it more spectacular. I came to the idea of a chase in a bathtub. A 'nice' old woman in the bathtub and a angry ugly old woman on a big machine to make pie of her. ;) The image would look more cartoony (maybe a bit in the Aardman's 'Wallace and Gromit'-style). But almost immidiately after finishing this sketch (a week ago), I didn't know so sure if this was a nice idea, so I was looking for again another idea. Then the idea of the factory (as posted earlier) popped into my head! I'm planning to continue with that one, now I finally have told/shown you all my ideas for this challenge.

The above sketch was done in Microsoft's Beta-software 'Acrylic'.

I hope I'll get some reactions from you soon... In fact I can't wait to hear from you which one I should pick! ;)

Greetz! & Thanks for your time
-Gijs

[tuck]

Hi! Dutchman

Thanks for visit my entry!

Good luck for contest na.:)

[sergioKomic]

hey! Nice skechesso far, check this out!

http://www.funworks.co.nz/bathtubracer.htm

Heh....

Its real...


Good luck.... (and hurry up! )

[Joblh]

hey Dutchman, start doing some 3D your running out of time! :wip:

i really like the idea of an old woman, that's doing things that's only spectacular from her point of view, stick with that! :)

btw i like the concepts you made, unique style :)

[Dutchman]

@ tuck : It was a pleasure to me to visit your thread! Really very amazing stuff over there! :) Thanks for your reply, and all the best to you!

@ sergioKomic : Thanks for liking the sketches! :scream: The fact that that bathtubracer 'allready exists' is cool! ;) But my design will have more style! ;) About 'the hurrying': all this pre-process is just to be sure I now choose the right concept to work with the upcoming month. Being demotivated is just very not-cool!

@ Job : Thanks for liking the idea and the sketches! :) I hope to get a more art-y final then 'regular'.

Tomorrow I'll start the real work (modeling and such stuff). The only thing to decide now is which old-woman concept to use: the factory or the bathroom?!? Anybody with an opinion? :shrug:

I really hope to get some reactions, so that I can be sure of taking the right choise... :)
-Gijs

[danielkenobi]

Chase in a Bath top looks great, It can be very funny. I would go for that one.

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1130588361_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1130588361_large.jpg)

And here is finally some 'real' work, after all those preperations! :) This is the result of 2 houres of modeling... Just started from a plane that was converted to 'editable poly', and then I extruded it the way up. All modeling till here wasn't done with reference or so... Just tweaking vertexes!
The topology isn't great, but for 2 houres it may not be thát bad (1 year ago this would have taken me 2 days ;) ). I'm gonna go a little further in 3ds Max now, and then go to ZBrush for some details/tweaking. In every case it's great to have allot freedom to make something that does not have to look very realistic (it must be a bit characterized :) ).

I'm still not sure about which concept to use, but as both the Bathroom and the Bathtub-factory have the same old woman, I can in every case continue this.

I hope to get some reactions! In every case the project is really on wheels now! :)
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

@ Danielkenobi : Thanks for the reply to my thread, and the compliments about the Bathtub-chase-concept! :) Unless you said you did think that was the best one, I'll not be going further on that one. Unless that, it was good from you to tell, because now I had to be extra-sure to choose the other one! ;)

I've still not choosen the one I'll be going further with: the bathtubfactory or the bathroom... Is there somebody around here with an opinion? :p

Thanks so much for checking this out, and remember: I still need a comment about the modelling! ;)
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1131225938_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1131225938_large.jpg)

And more modeling on the run... Just some little tweaks now, and I added the ears. The next stop will be ZBrush! ;)

By the way, I've been thinking allot of how to post-process the image, and I choosed to do 90% of the postproduction in After Effects, as it doesn't has to handle large file-formats, and as I can play with all setting without loosing details or dynamic color information! Also I choosed to do no texturing in 3Ds Max (well... as least as possible), as it's much easier to do such stuff in post!

I'll try to invest most of my spare time in this project! :)

Please leave a message about what you tihnk for so far... Feedback would help me to get better! :)
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1131462897_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1131462897_large.jpg)

And here is another update. The last 2 houres I've tweaked the woman-model a bit, and modeled a (very) simple bathtub. After some tweaking of it, that thing will be finished. Notice the curls in the holder of the bathtub... Doesn't it give you a Burton-feel? ;)

I've made some ideas of 'what to put in the other bathtubs' (as I'm 90% sure to pick the factory-concept). In my new idea there will be 4 tubs beside the one with the woman. One with a 'sort of dog', one with flowers & butterflies, one with books (and a candlelight), and one with musictools (a piano, a violin, a trompet?!).

All things are planned... I just have to make it all happend! ;)

Hopefully I'll get a reply this time...
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1131820148_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1131820148_large.jpg)

Time left: 23 days, 5 hours, 38 minutes, 42 seconds.

Whoo... That's going to get closer and closer! :eek: But I'm sure I'll get that deadline! :)

Today I've been detailing and tweaking the woman a bit, in ZBrush. I still am thinking if I have to make the lips looking 'charming and volumetric' or more like 'old, dry and sucked inside because she doesn't have teeth'. I'll see! ;)

To be doing something different, my next modeling will be different details that will be visible in the background.

This thingy was rendered out of ZBrush, with a tweaked version of the well-known Antropus-shader. Afterwards I've also done some Photoshop things to make it look more sub-surface-scattering (to train myself how I'll do that in the final).

Hopefully this time I'll get a reply... It's getting really annoying that nobody of those 400 viewers leaves a reply...! :shrug: May YOU be the one who can make my image better! ;)
-Gijs

[Gunilla]

Hi there! :)

I think you got a great expression from that Zbrush pass - she now has the look of an elderly aristocrat, very good!
Her boobs looks like they're floating, great! Just make sure they will be at or slightly below the water level ... if you want to have them above they should probably be hanging down more.

Doing post in AE seems a good idea, I'm doing it in PS and the machine is almost screaming :scream:

You're doing a great job here, fun concept and you seem to have made some really good progress since the previous challenge. So, now - go, go, go :thumbsup:

[Dutchman]

Gunilla! Thanks for that nice reply! :) Now I finally feel again how good it is to be commented about your work: your reply really boosts me! :scream:

Thanks for liking the ZBrush-tweaking. ;) And yeah; about that boobs: I want to give them a bit like a 'hanging look' (like even the BH even can't hold the weight ;) ). For that type of 'breasts-look' I was inspired by Antropus' 'Old Lady (http://www.antropus.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=9&pos=2)' still/model.

I don't know if there will be water in the tubs at all (I don't think I don't even have to consider, as you won't be able to see it in a 'flat-from-side' image :) ), but I'm planning to not have to show the nipples... ;) Otherwise I'd have to make sencored one also... ;)

I know how hard your machine can scream when using PS on print-res with lots of layers, so I learnt a bit lesson out of it! As I've been training in AE for a quite long time now, I think I can work more efficient in it. Especially to do almost éverything in AE (also the shading: combining lots of renders). I hope it to become a nice workflow! :)

Really again thanks for the nice reply! I'll get on working as hard as possible! ;)

And other people: please don't think I got enough replies now, I really neeeed replies! :)
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1132417358_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1132417358_large.jpg)

To show you guys something about my inspiration for the image, I decided to put some images of my 'Inspiration'-folder over here.

Over the last couple of months I just saved everything that may be usefull as inspiration for this challenge in a folder, and now I picked out some of the most important ones to show you. All copyrights belong to the artists themselfes! :) More updates soon...! I'm working hard!

I hope to get some feedback after a long time without it! :)
-Gijs

[Wytze]

you got some great conceptstuff there m8:thumbsup:

love the old granny picture.

my challenge entry (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=283168)

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1132434033_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1132434033_large.jpg)

'Time left: 16 days, 3 hours, 5 minutes, 16 seconds.'

Whooops... Time is getting reeeaaaally short now! :D

Thát's the reason I made my composition a bit simpler: instead of 4 extra bathtubs around, it will just have 2 extra bathtubs. Also the composition pixel-aspect-ratio won't be 3:4 anymore, but 1:2. Maybe that change will bring a nice look with it. :)

In the one extra bathtub is a 'weird dog' and in the other one flowers and sunflowers ('they always look at the bright side of life :) '). Also there will be a 'crowd of butterflyes'. Might give the image a nice fantasy look! :)

We'll see how far I can get it! :) In every case I'm still very motivated! :wip:

I hope to get some more reactions soon. Feedback is cool, and getting totally nó feedback is... totally UNCOOL! :sad:

Thanks!
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1132446384_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1132446384_large.jpg)

Progress Alert! Beep-beep! :wavey:

The last couple of houres I worked on 'the (weird) dog'! I began in 3ds Max, without any blueprints or so, just freeform modeling. After I was satisfied with the mesh, I saved it as an OBJ-format object, and played with it in ZBrush. After hitting the render-button over there, and doing some small touchup in Photoshop (of which I was amazed of the fake-SSS you can generate out of just óne render :) ), I got this as result.

Whatever you might think about it, I just hope it 'reminds you of a dog'! ;) I think I reached that goal! :arteest:

Coming soon: the modeling of some details in the scène.

I'm gonna look for my bed, he deserves some attention of me too! ;) Meanwhile you might wanna say what you think of my last updates? :)

Thanks & Have a nice day or night! :)
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

Unless I réally hate it if people are so unpatient to wait for a reply that they reply a few time after themselfes, I think I need to in this case... :blush:

Are my concept and the execution of it só brilliant that no one (exept the ones who yet did ;) ) of those 600 viewers has something to critique, or is it that my stuff is so very rubbish that I wouldn't even deserve a reply...? :curious:

I'm just getting a bit annoyed by getting totally no feedback - unless I really need it to keep being motivated and so! :) Why do you guys click my thread away without replying? :wavey:

Owkay, back to busness: I had to do some things for my study, so there hasn't been allot progress today, but I sketched down some (background-) details on paper. I might post them later on..! :)

For now I just hope to get some replies soon! :p
-Gijs

[Joblh]

lol, the only place on the net where you get 'instant' feedback is the blender forum elysiun ;) anyways, i like the progress so far! some thing you might wanna change is the cheeck of grandma, their a bit to sharp.
Add some asymmetry to the head to make her more ugly. i like the weirdiness of the dog keep it up! :)

[Gunilla]

I think the new concept looks good - it can work out really well, good luck with it!

As for tips on getting feedback - the best way is to post feedback in others threads, that way you get more possible new contacts ... and don't think you don't get comments because your work is bad - cause it isn't, it's probably because there are soo many threads around to keep track of that it's easy to get lost.

So cheer up, you're doing great here! :thumbsup:

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133118037_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133118037_large.jpg)

Time left: 8 days, 5 hours, 6 minutes, 31 seconds.

Whoops... That's getting... aauuh... really close! ;)

And that's exactly what I was thinking this week also, so I've been changing of composition.

The first reason would be time; I wouldn't have time to get that flowers of that last comp looking right and so.
Second reason: it was a bad composition, as you'd think the woman was 'most important' and second of all the dog and the flowers were the most important. The fact is that a dog and 'some flowers' can't be of the same 'level', so that just didn't fit! ;)

Now I've been imagining about a portait composition. In the first 'new sketches' (one of the is the thingy you see above) I still wanted to place the bathtub in the centre, but later I stepped of that idea. In the 'real new comp' the window (with in front of it the bathtub with the old woman (fishing with a fishing rod) and the dog) is in the upper half, and at the downside are fishes in fishbowls! That 'fishing stuff' will give the image still a more 'spectacular feeling' isn't it...? :)

I hope you like the new concept, and yes... I need to hurry... ;)
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

@ Job: Thanks for being 'the revolutionary' one to place a post in my thread! ;) And... hmm... I really should switch to Blender if you then get faster feedback... :twisted: I'll look what I can fix on that grandma (within a week :scream: )! Thanks for the helpful crit about that, in every case! And about the dog; thanks for the compliment! :) My target was to get it weird, and you see it as weird!

@ Gunilla: Thanks for liking the new concept! Well... as you can see; I now switched to another concept, and I hope you won't get angry at me now (liking the new one less....? :twisted: )... About the 'tricks' to get more feedback; well, I posted in quite much threads around here, but don't get often feedback back from them... I'm not the type of guy who likes to ask people for feedbck (normally); I like it better to get it spontanously... But this time there was nog other way. :scream: Your reply did allot to me! :) (Again) Really kind of you to check out my thread! :)

Any opinions about the new concept? :) (while I'm working veeery hard on it...! :buttrock: )

[Wytze]

I like the new concept better then the old one, looks like a really wierd but fantastic picture.

Can't wait to see it in 3d(^_^)

My challenge entry (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=283168)

[Dutchman]

Wytze, cool that you (again! :) ) took time to reply here! Even cooler that you like the new concept better, as I've been very unsure about the change of concept... I've got some really cool (IMO ;) ) ideas for rendering, texturing, coloring and all that stuff... If all wents right, I will even be proud of the image! ;) Just lets hope that I get it all done befóre the deadline... :eek: Also really cool that like the 'weirdness', as that is exactly my goal of this challenge (I myself would rather call it 'surrealism' instead of 'weirdness', but it all comes down for the same ;) )! Thanks again for your kind reply!

And... I'll be working very hard, to just get myself sure to finish it... I got 3 (completely) 'spare' days before the deadline, so with some luck I'll just do it! ;)

Anyone more with an opinion? :scream:
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133609297_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133609297_large.jpg)

Yeah... I've been going on with the challenge! :)
Here I show you a render in ZBrush of the (almost) finished model of the Old Woman. I yet added the hands and posed them. The left one will hold a cigar, the right one will hold the fishing rod!
That modeling of the hands was constantly going from ZBrush to Max and Max to ZBrush... I know they don't look very marvelous, but at least they're posed in the right way!?! ;)

Updates soon! ('Time left: 2 days, 12 hours, 35 minutes, 7 seconds.')

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133609507_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133609507_large.jpg)

Just to get an impression, I put the (posed) woman, fishing rod, cigar and dog inside the bathtub.
At this moment I'm working on the 'bridge' where the bathtub will be standing on. Screenshots of that soon! ;)

And... Has anyone an opinion about the progress? :)
-Gijs

[Wytze]

I like the expression of the dog:thumbsup:

[HawVer]

Hi Dutchman!

Nice work. It looks good. The expression on the faces is funny. Your style looks a little like Fellah, an inspiration for any artist. :) I hope you got time enough to finish your work!

Good luck

[Dutchman]

Thanks guys, for the nice and quick response! :cool:

@ Wytze: cool to hear you like the dogs expression! ;) I meant it to be a but 'dull' and 'sleepy', and I think/hope it looks like that too... :arteest:

@ HawVer: Thanks for the nice reply! I indeed put quite some time in the faces, and thats why it's good to hear you think they look interesting/funny! :) Also lots of thanks for comparing me to Fellah - its one big compliment! :drool: Hopefully the final will be worth that comparement! ;)

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133705170_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133705170_large.jpg)

As you see I'm not of the kind of people to give up! ;) With only '1 days, 10 hours, 3 minutes' left, I'm still working veeery hard!

Here you see the fish I did in Max and ZBrush. You might think it looks a little bit like the one in my avater, and indeed I got 'inspired' by that one a bit. Unless, this really is a new model and so (not 'stolen' from a previous project ;) ).

Updates soon! And hopefully also a reaction soon! :)

[Gunilla]

Really cute fish! But now, hurry up! :wip: :wavey:

[ilusiondigital]

Cool concept Gijs, very glad to see you here. But hurry up buddy, the deadline is sooo near. Let´s go and good luck

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133717029_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133717029_large.jpg)

Yeah! Modeling is fínally finished! Here I show you the last modeling milestone-image in what you can see how the final composition looks in 3Ds Max (5 ;) ). Now I 'only need to render, (2d-) texture and composit'! ;)

Lets hope the time won't run toooo fast... :)

See you next milestone! :bounce:
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

My life is now really 100% ruled by 'Spectacular'... And that is so for the last 3 days! :scream: If thát isn't Spectacular?! :twisted:

Thanks for the speedy replies!

@ Gunilla: Cool that you think the fish is cute! ;) I also hope that the viewer will find him a bit sad, as it could hurt a bit to have a hook through your lips! :D In every case it's really cool to see you being interested in my project! Very kind! :)

@ illusiondigital: Wow Victor, so cool to see you over here! :) Thanks for the compliments about the concept! I'm working still very hard, so if there are no more technical problems, I should be able to finish it all in time! :scream: Again; I'm really glad to see you here, and see you later - here or on ZBCentral! You're really 'the man' over there! :twisted:

For now: Max is rendering at Max speed! I yet finished rendering the ZDepth, Ambient Occlusion (hmm, Global Illumination you could call it ;) ) and a color-pass that I can use for masking out different object. The other ones will come also soon, and then I only need some lucky Photoshoping and After-Effects-ing!

Any opinions on the progress? :scream:
-Gijs

[claudiojordao]

Hey Dutchman,
What a very interesting work here.
I like very much the expression of your characters and their pose.
Come on man... hurry up, and good luck.

[Dutchman]

@ claudio_jordao: Thanks man! :cool: What a very nice reply of you! :) I'm glad you like the poses and expressions! Especially as I took quite some time to 'get them right'! :) It's really rewarding to get a reply from you; I think your image is one of the best! (Although I didn't have any time to reply... in every case I checked your thread often, as you image looks even so interesting in the thumbnail :D ) I'll be working very hard... as always - the last 4 days! ;)

Updates soon! :) I'm still rendering the last passes, and then I need to Photoshop and After-Effects! :applause: It's cool that Mibus extended the deadline one day (due to incorrect dates that were said to be the deadline), and I'm sure I can use that for the quality of the final! :)
-Gijs

[Dutchman]

I'm still on the run! :scream: With 16 houres left almost 'everything' is possible!

Yesterday rendered out the last passes (such as the volume light, rim lights etc) and I also have painted the complete texture (in Photoshop - as an overlay over the render). The only thing left will be getting the lighting and all that stuff right and matching with the textures! :) Surprisingly my workstation can handle the crazy resolution of 2626x5347 (approx ;) ) pixels! :eek:

Updates soon! ;)
-Gijs

[MVDB]

Hope you'll finish in time! Ziet er goed uit ! !
Like the concept..
Good luck to you! :bounce:

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133892801_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133892801_large.jpg)

Whoo... Still 5 hours to go! :scream:

Here I show of the (almost) final color layer I'll use to overlay over the renders. In my opinion working this way is far more effective then UVW-mapping the complete image! Also I think that you have lots of more creative input working this way, as you are really targeting on the final look!

I'll continue working! ;) See you at the next update! :bounce:
-Gijs

[mmoir]

Hey Gijs,

The models look very cool:thumbsup: :thumbsup: and your topic looks interesting, good luck finishing up .

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133910684_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133910684_large.jpg)

No time for long talks this time: time is running veeery short! ;) Here I show you off 2 of my 'lots-of' rendering-passes. I'll post the total list later, if you're interested!

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133910932_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133910932_large.jpg)

Here I show you to other renders: a Global Illumination-pass (with a Skylight and Lighttracer) and a render I did using the Radiosity-utility in Max. At the end I combined them all to get the wished results!

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133911615_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133911615_large.jpg)

Here I show you 2 renders I used for the compositing. I did the specular afterwards (so in post, instead of in the Shading-stadium) to have more control on the final image. :) I'd really loved it to show you some printscreens of Photoshop, but the file is so big that it takes me tóó long to open now...! If theres interest I'll post that stuff tomorrow or so! :)

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133911829_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133911829_large.jpg)

Final image! This is only a closeup of it. The zoomed-out one in some minutes!

[Dutchman]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133912257_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/11/9305/9305_1133912257_large.jpg)

Final image!

On first sight this image may not look so spectacular...?! And thats exactly what I was targeting for in first place! I'm always searching for originality, and in the beginning of the challenge I thought I could reach that by 'this revolutionairy thinking'.
Later on I still wanted to build in something spectacular, so I added the fish.
As I was aiming for a 'more surreal' and stylized (inspiration: mainly Tim Burton!) image, I tried to mix up the weirdest things - a dog, old lady, fishing rod, weird fish - and that might have made the image even more SPECTACULAR!

Thanks for watching and the support/feedback and I hope you like it! :)
-Gijs

[Kamjar]

congrats mate ! :)

ik had je thread nog niet gezien. Is echt leuk geworden.


Hey een vraagje. Jij bent toch nog student of niet?
Wat studeer je dan? Welke opleiding. ( of welk beroep, als je geen student bent )

Want ik zou je graag willen interviewen voor school!
Zou je dat goed vinden?

nouja, bedankt... ik ga slapen, ik voel me niet meer goed ;p
cya.

Groetjes Kam

[Joblh]

looks awesome! but i like the final image close up much better than the last one..., mainly because you loose details and because you got 2 centers of interest one very detailed and one not detailed, but for the rest great lookin! :thumbsup:

[Gunilla]

Congratulations for finishing!

Great job and hope to see you in another challenge - good luck:thumbsup:

[Dutchman]

Hehe, after some loong sleep, here I am again! :)

First of all: thanks for the comments and replies the last 3 days! As I was so buzzy with the work itselfes, I had no time to react on that, before, so lets do that now!

@ MichaelMotion: Thanks for the nice reply! Cool to see that there's 'another dutchman' behind 'that brilliant surreal 2D-entry' of you! :)

@ mmoir: Thanks for the nice comment, Mike! Cool to see such a tallented artist as you around here over my thread! :) I really feel honored! You have such a brilliant final image!!

@ Kamjar: Thanks for the nice words, mate! And; yeah, I study: Industrial Design ('Industrieel Product Ontwerpen - Afgekort: IPO) in The Hague. I'd be honored to be interviewed (by you ;) ), so just pass me a PM! I hope you had a nice sleep, in every case Í had after such a long week of stress!

@ Job: Thanks for the nice reply! Indeed you're right: the final doesn't have very much detail anymore, but thats because of the story you can read down here. Probably I'll do the post-production again (so just using the existing renders) to have a final that I'd be personal more satisfied with! Thanks for the good critique nice words, again!

@ Gunilla: Thanks for your comment! It goes straight to my heart! :) And: yeah, you can expect me in the next challenge of course. But as the difficulties with the different passes and so, yesterday, were a bit 'chaos', and as I really have enjoyed making the concept-arts for this challenge, I may have a completely 2D entry next time! I think it will be great to target me on that kind of art, next time! See you in that challenge?! I hope so, as I was very pleased with your support and with following your entry! :)

Ok, now lets talk about yesterday evening:

I had planned for a very long time to do 90% of the post-production in After Effects, as I then would have more control and smaller files (so it wouldn't take 10 minutes to save ;) ), so I had it all setted up in AE yesterday evening, till I saw that AE wouldn't have the power to export/render the 2600x5200 image! Then - 4 houres before the deadline - I had to do all post in Photoshop, where I couldn't apply all tricks that I had thinked of to do in AE. When I finally got thing 'quite right' in Photoshop, it gave a weird error when saving (in the 'Making High-resolution composit'-stage of saving), that I couldn't save or export the image! I was really getting desperate, as then the deadline was only 2 houres away! After a very desperate 30 minutes, I found the corrupt layer, deleted it, and happily saving worked then... But then I had no time for the final adjustments anymore (like adding the Volume-Light in a nice way...).

So I'm not very satisfied with the end result, but I ám satisfied that I have been 'one of those 300' who finished the challenge! Even while I had submitted my TIFF only 10 minutes before the deadline! Lucky me that there were no errors or so, then!

As I yet have all renders and stuff, I'm thinking of 'once taking a day' to do the post-production over, and to get a nice final that I can be proud of! I can submit that one then for CG-galleries and so to show something 'I'm proud of'! :)

Thanks for all support, and all replies! All people who regulary checked my thread (to call: Job, Gunilla, Wytze), thanks for the encouragement!

See you all in the next challenge, and I hope you once will see my real final ('that I can be proud of') on the cover of 'Exposé'! ;)
-Gijs

[PixelPlay]

Hi. Clicked on your thread and didn't notice that it was a 3D entry. Even looking at it I thought that it was a 2D entry. That is a compliment, at least the way that I see things. I am impressed when 3D can look 2D or life like without the plastic look of most 3D. Also impressed when 2D looks like it was rendered in 3D. Great job and yes, it does look Tim Burtonesque. Best of luck!

[Dutchman]

@ Pixelplay: Thanks for your very nice reply, Richard! :) I really feel honored to get a reply of you in my thread, as your final was sooo awesome (but I already told that in your thread itselfes ;) )! Cool that you was thinking this was a 2D-entry, as that was sort of a goal for me! To get it look like 2D, but being 3D so that I could have more control over the shapes and so. I think its also very cool that you 'are impressed' with the look/shading of my scene! I really tried to handle that in the most UN-plastic way! ;) Thanks for your comment, again, I'm really honored! :twisted:

I'll make the 'really final one' soon, as I now know how you can use a grayscale image as a layer-mask (before I didn't know how to put an image into that). I'll use my different lighting-renders as masks, so that I can colorcorrect only in the volume of the different lighting settings. As I allready have all needed renders, this part of the proces will be 200% fun! And it will even get up to 300%, as theres even no (close ;) ) deadline!

The only problem I'm dealing with at the moment is how to get a volume light look like it is a volume light, and not just as 'a rectangle with a weird color'. If somebody knows the trick, please tell! :bounce:

The final one that I can be proud of (hopefully) will be posted ('quite') soon!

Are there more opinions over here!? :buttrock:
-Gijs

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.