CGTalk - The Journey Begins Challenge (2D) Entry: Berter Akyol

BlackDidThis

04-29-2006, 05:28 PM

Hello Everybody ;

Last night Robert Mack (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?userid=85530); an old friend of mine from the challenges here had caught me online after a long few months of leaving me in piece to work with what I had in priority...
As his usual he had sent me a link to his work... which was from this new subject of again CG-Network’s… to glance at and say my usual humble blah blahs about it.

Honestly I hadn’t even known that there was a new subject out on the polls already! (I had truly broken off with disliking the last subject)
But this particular subject REALLY appealed to me, since it was metaphorically fitting perfectly to a painting I was sort of hoping to start on as soon as I had some free time in hand!!!
And after looong thinking it through; I presume I thought I might as well push it a try. It’s a picture that would mean a LOT to my wife and myself… and the competitions do tend to motivate me to peal some more free time to completing things.

The ‘Subject’ is a sort of journey taken from real life…
From a result of a few unfortunate events in my past, over a decade ago a doctor had come up to me and sadly gave me the bad news that as much as I would love to; I shouldn’t really try to expect having children!

I can not explain to you guys the ‘hurt’ that had embedded into me. I loved children a lot and had literally ‘Always’ wished to be a father.
This jealousy to create something was in its own manner also the reason I started painting/sculpting/illustrating. I was a bit too sensitive over the subject and demanded to be able to create at least something!
We have tried with my wife many times to have a child… but there was years of love and marriage without any child in reward.

Some of you closer to me know that at around end-October we had a VERY misfortunate blow in our life. Hence the reason I had to break off every community I was volunteering to take part in.
Well not going to nag much about it here (I believe I have ranted already more than I should)… but the thing is that in these hardest days of ours, God has seeded an answer to our prayers that have gathered for some good amount of time!
Rebecca is expecting a (so far very) healthy baby at mid-September!!!

With how much this matter meant to me… I had had wanted to create a painting of our unborn-Child.
I mostly wish to try and capture a moment from this amazing journey our child is taking inside a loving woman. And sort of try to carry out the indescribable emotions I felt when I first saw the little one, growing, in the ultrasound scans.

And finding it very suitable to this challenge… I am going to give this ‘season’ a belated shot.
I am aware that I have very little time left. And carry no hopes in making it in time at the detail level that I personally prefer to present my works. I am also aware that again I have chosen to go for something a little bit ‘odd’… but against the consequences and the fact that I am fairly busy. I would really wish to create such an image.

Wish me luck!

Black

makaron

04-29-2006, 06:09 PM

http://hem.bredband.net/makaron/smile/bbbb.jpg

and wish you luck...

beelow

04-29-2006, 07:24 PM

Congrats and welcome back Black, good luck!;)

Gunilla

04-29-2006, 07:52 PM

Hey Black - good to see you in!
... and I love your concept, those 3d scans are fantastic! So, have the baby been born yet? If so, big congrats :thumbsup:

BlackDidThis

04-30-2006, 12:16 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146352599_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146352599_large.jpg)

Okay;

Some more blah-blah…
I know you guys probably hate me for this! :)

You see the way the software mentioned above produces a smooth volume from the slices obtained is in a manner a tessellation method that is dependent on many circumstances. One of the most important ones is probably the density and angles between the particles within the slices.

Those that are into 3D can try to think of this as “Smoothing”… and “Normal direction”. Hence you can note the dense amount of smoothing that has occurred in thin parts... or how some pieces are attached to others unnecessarily.
Sooo, with the provided image given it is not that impossible to generate a 2.5D model to help guess how the software may have removed some valuable sharp corners, and how some bits may have been blended to each other with a simulated polygonal model of similar properties.
I personally gave it a try... and I have to confess that it was a challenging work.

The final rendered image from my attempt was overlayed as a separate layer onto the original image (I chose to start with plate 11… the last one from the above)
I plan on using this final result as a reference onto draw what I presume the child might end up looking like.
The WHOLE idea of this project is to try to portray a person that can not actually sit and pose for me, and to still try to make the image resemble that person as close to reality as possible (In the end, all the plates shall possibly end up going through the mentioned process as I have the time)

Not too easy maybe… But is there anything more fun than playing with a baby?

Black

BlackDidThis

04-30-2006, 12:23 AM

I have stopped working a bit less than three hours ago... (It's past 1 am here)
And I plan on working on this little guy this evening since tomorrow and Monday we seem to be having a program in hand.

So hopefully by tomorrow I can provide a something presentable enough by tomorrow morning

Til then...

Mona (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=129166):
Thank you.. and Good luck to you too… (Emoticon mania?)

Bryce (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=129663):
Thank you very much for the kind wishs!

Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228):
Oh no, no the baby is not born yet. The Doctor had given a date of 20th of September… but the development suggests that the birth might be at the 12th.. so at September we shall have a little one none the less.

Black

Gord-MacDonald

04-30-2006, 02:55 AM

very nice work - reminds me of Medardo Rosso (one of my altime favorites)
Congratulations on your beautiful little miracle (your child)

Gord

BlackDidThis

04-30-2006, 06:04 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146373490_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146373490_large.jpg)

After some good time spent on ideas and options; I ended up deciding to try and do something with one of the poses our child had already presented.

Attached you can see the scan of a quick sketch and the same plate again that I simply used directly to draw from. Even though this particular sketch had started out in intentions to get somewhere… what you see here is not exactly a plan of what I have a mind to doing.
I am really not too sure on what to go for in this stage as a final composition… and intend on experimenting with the elements and colours as I go.
Such a subject is not exactly something I believe I shall be capable of presenting a line-art of at its early stage.

Going to go off to rest some bit now... hope to post something again before our short “family holiday”

Black

BlackDidThis

04-30-2006, 06:13 AM

Gordon (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=107644):
Medardo Rosso?...
Wow I thought he only sculpted.. I had no idea he painted as well! I had better do a search I guess.
I think I can relate to his style in a manner.
But I presume that he more tries to permit the characteristics of the stone he took to work with, to shine through his works. Even though my personal favourates in sculptor are a few centuries old... I really like his works as well.

Thank you dearly for the kind wishes and compliments.

Black

Gunilla

04-30-2006, 07:30 AM

[/url]

[url="http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228"]Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=129663):
Oh no, no the baby is not born yet. The Doctor had given a date of 20th of September… but the development suggests that the birth might be at the 12th.. so at September we shall have a little one none the less.

Sorry, I hadn't read all the story before asking... and now, twice as much congrats for the expected one - hope all goes well for you and your wife :)

BlackDidThis

04-30-2006, 01:05 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146398739_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146398739_large.jpg)

It seems we are going to be going off within the hour… And I won’t be around tonight nor tomorrow night.

So I might as well post an update no to keep the screens a bit busy until my return.

What I am doing here is fairly obvious I hope. I just through in some colour strokes from places I liked from the scan, and started to shape things out.
I know that it is really not too much a development at the moment… But bare with me. I shall have some dramatic changes by my return.

As much as I liked the midi-ochre spectrum in the scan... do expect me to add a various amount of colours to introduce depth I would have achieved with more contrast light and shadow (There being a lack of lighting in the current location of this poor thing :) )
Also the image looked too much like a baby, and not necessarily like a foetus. So there shall definitely be some changes on that as well by the next go.

Til next!

Black

BlackDidThis

04-30-2006, 01:07 PM

Lol no worries Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228) ...

I honestly don't expect everyone to be able to spare the time to do all the reading.
Your heart was in the right place and your wishes were good ones :)

Sooo no complaints here!

Black

BlackDidThis

05-01-2006, 07:57 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146509852_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146509852_large.jpg)

Back with a little update...

All that was done again was a series of brush strokes around most of the image to sort of simulate the floating layers of translucent membranes overlapping each other.

I have also changed the structure of the eye, and then made an attempt of trying out an ear for this little one. Unfortunately I failed miserably on the ear so I went over it a couple of times to get it out of the way, but not completely covered. This way I could sort of use it as a place-holder.
The close-ups provided here are not actually to display any details worked on. The details are to come in later processes. I love including a lot of work into the eyes especially. And I thought it would be a nice idea to have a closer view to where it is coming from.

Hope to update as soon as possible... But now I have to get to more pressing matters :(
I have doubts to make where his hand is now a shoulder or not… In the next image I may remove his had… really not too sure yet.

Black

NOOB!

05-02-2006, 12:29 PM

looking good man,although i do feel sick,eeewww wet fetus.

BlackDidThis

05-02-2006, 01:14 PM

It is only going to get sicker! :twisted:

(And thats my child you are talking about there you creep! :))

Black

(Ironic... I am now on your thread! :eek: )

BlackDidThis

05-02-2006, 06:42 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146591765_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146591765_large.jpg)

As earlier mentioned… One more update with details on the particular areas.

Even though these are definitely the finalised state of these particular two areas… I really like how they are coming out and plan on leaving them as they are until the rest of the image develops.

For those that would like to achieve such effects in their own works and do not get too successful results by painting with hand, a good idea would be to use a filter found in PhotoShop called “PlasticWrap”.
The effects here are a result of a combination of hand painting and using the filter to get as decent a result as I can manage.

Unfortunately I am still not exactly sure on how I want the whole image to look like even though I have started to work this densely on some details. (Also the reason I don’t have a LineArt submitted yet)

Guess that’s about it… Comments or questions welcome;
Til next…

Black

BlackDidThis

05-03-2006, 11:45 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146696311_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146696311_large.jpg)

I had some bad news that I had to overcome by the time I got to this update :(

It seems that I had had made a serious mistake on the proportions of the head when I had had enhanced the image. I overlooked that the scan had an isometric cropping.

So I had to resize the head completely. And it cost me a lot of the details I had already created. The most of my work on it today was trying to fix this ill issue (You can see the borders of the earlier version of the head in the enlarged version of the image).
I think I am going to stop on the foetus and get to figuring out a nice composition.

What you see on the let side is a photo of a Japanese “Mino Paper” (from DataCraft Sozaijiten); that I used as a colour palette for the Umbilical cord which.
I used its original form as it is for the more pale parts… and the saturated version for under-laying veins. I again sampled a good amount of colours from here, to mound a texture to the placenta before I ran it through a filter.

I believe I shall be up for the night working some more on this. I feel bad for delaying so much today :(

Black

Zephyri

05-04-2006, 01:19 AM

Aw, Black! Congratulations to you and your wife, and great way to get inspired for a challenge! *grin* I think it's wonderful you can do something so utterly close to your heart, that will serve as a reminder for years to come. I like the colour choices so far, and interestng to see how you choose them! Cracking way to pick up colours for veins and layers of tissue. The baby's head definitely looks more normal at the smaller size too, can't wait to see you do the facial features and really bring it to life. Will you be adding any magical touches to it? I've always seen these kind of images as something otherwordly, when you stop to think about how utterly amazing the creation of a brand new human being is, even on a cellular level.

No crits thus far, just well wishes!

BlackDidThis

05-04-2006, 11:41 AM

Thank you Sam (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=157196)!
We had tried everything for a loong time...
from cabbages to storks..

But finally we got some inside information: all of those were apparently only myths!
You would be SHOCKED if you knew what you needed to do to have children :eek:

Thank you also for all the sweet words on the image.
I am not too sure what you mean exactly by magical.. But I presume you mean as to add something "Supernatural" or "tinkling"...

There was a thought such crossing my mind for some time... though never really strong enough for me to try and apply it anywhere.
Now with your mentioning... I think I'll give it some more thought.. just might add something. Let me in on it if anything crosses your mind.

In general I wanted to go for a sort of surreal look.. but attempting to preserve some convincingness and anatomical correctness to a level (Hence the reason I am trying to rescale everything to the ultrasounds scans)... as well as try to not make just any child... but our own.

As for the bit about "life"... it is truely amazing how everything develops and matures.
The feeling of sharing the pregnancy period as a couple is incompairable to anything I have known.
I wish something simiallar to be lived by all of you some day.

Will be updating tonight hopefully

Black

BlackDidThis

05-04-2006, 02:44 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146750277_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146750277_large.jpg)

This isn’t exactly a big scale update… but I have been literally spending hours almost on the ear. And I would sort of like to present how I got the effect before I merge the layers together. (Not merely a tutorial … buuut…)

As written on the image itself; it ended up to consist of three layers.
I had really messed up the first ear while trying to wrap it into position… and then I just kept applying a plastic wrap filter accompanied by gradating filters to achieve some sort of an odd ‘Cartilage’ effect.

Though placing something like this under most everywhere in this particular project; using this piece especially here was not in plan at that moment.

Another layer for the ear was drawn on a larger scale and then transformed into its skewed scale.

The last layer was a series of paint effects layered on top of each other to get an organic/membrane texture.
I used a gradient texture filter on it and then embossed the highlights a bit with a variety of other filters.
This last layer was used with a low opacity setting and shall also be the layer that I plan on applying the wet ‘vernix’ layer when I apply it to the whole head.

Yeah I know I had had said “no more details until I get the whole thing drafted”, but this is a good way for me to get the days troubles out of my head and think of other things… I shall need a lot less stress to be able to sit down and peacefully prepare a full-scale composition.

I’ll let you guys in on the rest of the child by the end of the day hopefully.

Til next!

Black

Gunilla

05-04-2006, 06:04 PM

I really like where you're taking this - a lot of emotional expression already ... this promises to become a very strong image. Thanks for showing the layers for the ear - you are really building things up here - great work so far :thumbsup:

BlackDidThis

05-05-2006, 01:29 AM

Thank you very much Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228)!

honestly,
I shall have to admit that I am really enjoying the work I am putting into this image
and it means a lot if you like it as well. :)

The most of the image was all created with layers and layers in order to ensure a sort of inner translucency as you would be able to find in a child's skin at that particular developmental stage.
Not saying that I did a great job, but I tried... and in the making; "many layers" proved to be THE method that helped me out most.

I actually prepared a set of images for another (longer though) mini-tutorial for how to come about the wet look I managed to get in most of the child's blobby wrinkles.
It shall be some time before I post it though since I shall yet have to type it as well :sad:
I presume I'll be posting it by tomorrow morning or something.

Thank you once again for popping by!

Black
(I am hoping to post an update within the hour or so)

BlackDidThis

05-05-2006, 01:41 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146789699_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146789699_large.jpg)

Another update:

I have to confess that I was VERY upset to have lost the hard worked details from the eye while I was trying to resize the most of the head without rescaling the maxilla of our child here.

Buuut… you always have to pay a sort of price for stupidity. And that was mine.

As expected, I had to sit and do them all over again. I guess by learning how to get effects such with trial in the first go. I managed to fit in a good lot more details to compare to the earlier form of the skin… and not just the eye.
(I hope you can see the amount of detail in spite the loss from the *.jpeg compression)

Over a conversation about the “method”: I actually prepared a series of very simple images demonstrating how I achieved such effects.
It shall be posted some time soon.

Black

SideAche

05-05-2006, 03:52 AM

Hey Black, didn't see you before now. Nice to see you back. Congrats on the little one. This one looks quite interesting and promising.

oceanbluesky

05-05-2006, 04:22 AM

Absolutely love this theme! Best of luck to you and your wife!

BlackDidThis

05-05-2006, 07:24 AM

Hello Cliff (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=68272);

Yes back for this one.. though I attended when I had less then a month and a highly detailed concept :Sad:
(Possibly also the reason you didn't see me before)
Hope I'll make it in time!

Glad you liked the idea!

Thank you Eric (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=212983);

I am glad youlike it.. And hope to be able to finish it!
:)

Gunilla

05-05-2006, 07:31 AM

The right eye is absolutely amazing! I'm really looking forward to the tut on how you do it - I could never do that effect good in 2d.
And yes, I like the concept much, I did fetuses for the previous cchallenge and the special mood was really fun working with - it's great to follow someone elses workmethods for a similar scene.
I'll be watching you closely on this... you have now been officially warned :D

BlackDidThis

05-05-2006, 07:34 AM

THeTuTORiALpaRT:

As sort of stated in the update above… after showing an earlier version of this update to an old (No insult intended Mona (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=129166)) friend I had sort of decided to make a little tutorial on how to create such convincingly natural skin effects as found on the latest update.
(Warning: Looong text ahead :sad:)

The method is oddly simple actually and but definitely requires an already existing experience of painting/drawing as well as a good amount of patience and care.

This mini tutorial’ish is not intended on creating a master piece… nor is it going to be based on screen grabs from how I made the skin in my project…
You are going to have to try and understand the effects of this method and try to make use of them with your own projects to your own talents abilities even though I tried my best to get the effects with as much use of filters or standardised options as I can. The settings below are NOT standard… and definitely vary to what you plan to do. The ONE thing I would advise you to do through is to work in an extremely large scale as the results are much more rewarding.
(These images provided were all prepared in a little bit over two minutes if it shall be of any help to you be able to have an idea of the amount of time it actually takes)

To start off, I inserted a variety of brushstrokes... you can do anything here as you would wish to.

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/Original.jpg

I then took this image and ran it through a filter just to get some effects.
(PosterEdges with the programs default settings)

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/PosterEdges.jpg

I hit undo and then I faded the effects of the filter (CTRL Shift F) onto the image with the blend to “Multiply” and the opacity to 50.

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/Multiply-50-Percent.jpg

I took the resulting image and went to the patternMaker(CTRL Alt Shift X).
For effects or textures I rarely go for the pattern maker tool, but it is very suiting for the task we have yet in hand.
I used a smooth value of 3 to not get such cornered edges.

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/PatternMaker_Smooth3_a.jpg

I tiled this pattern four times

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/Tiled.jpg

And then went again to the patternMaker(CTRL Alt Shift X).

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/PatternMaker_Smooth3_b.jpg

I took this resulting image and ran it again through a filter.
(Remember... we are still trying to achieve a sort of skin-like texture to be able to work with rather than to sit and actually go through the trouble of having to paint it all)
This time I used the neonGlow Filter with again it’s default settings.

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/NeonGlowDefault.jpg

I then went and picked an ochre’ish colour and filled the image with this colour. The blend was at “Colour” and the opacity was at 85 percent.

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/FillColour65percent.jpg

This time I wanted to add some embossed noise… so I went on to the texturizer filter and selected a sandstone texture and got it’s settings to 100 percent for scaling, and 2 for it’s relief depth. Oh… and I gave it’s lighting from the left side of it.

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/TexturizerScaling100Relief2Left.jpg

BlackDidThis

05-05-2006, 07:35 AM

We are almost through with the first stage of the effect…
I just found the noise a little bit too much…
So I applied a gausianBlur on it with it’s strength at a full 1.0

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/GaussianBlur1.jpg

I took this and applied a bas-Relief filter with its detail settings to 13 and it’s smoothness to 6

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/BasREliefDetail13Smoothness6.jpg

This effect gives out a greyscale image… so we have to retain the colour we lost because of it.

So I just went on and faded the effect with CTRL Shift F. I put the blending to Luminosity so I would be able to regain the same colours but be able to introduce these new luminance values of the filter.

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/FadeLuminosity.jpg

BlackDidThis

05-05-2006, 07:35 AM

Well that’s about it for the first half!!!
This first part was only a simple series of stuff you could go through to create simple effects such as the one shown above.
In order to make the “bogy skin” effects seen on the image posted; you are going to have to have a sort of skin like texture to work on.
The ideal would be for you to create under laying veins as well as some opaque and translucent layers to increase convincingness. Your experience and your techniques can help vary the results up to here to the better or the worse... none the less the actual fun part comes from here on:

FIRST, before you do anything, duplicate your image and proceed on the following step on its duplicate!

Okay… now the big step… texture and apply a plasticWrap filter onto it. You can use any setting to your hearts content. For this particular image I used a setting of 9 for the highlight strength... 10 for the detail and 5 for the Smoothness.

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/PlasticWrap.jpg

Alright… now our skin already looks very wet and blobby… but not exactly looking like what we would want it to.
Don’t worry. We are going to have nothing to do with this layer and will be ending up deleting it in the end any ways… this is going to be the source image for the stampTool only. Unless of course you would personally wish to do more with it later on.
This is the image you are going to use for the more saturated and “Burned” or “dodged” areas.
So you will have to fade the effect with an overLay or with a softLight blend setting.
I mostly used softLight until today and got very good results.
(This one here was by using a softLight and an opacity value of 50 percent)

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/FadePlasticWrapSoftlight50.jpg

Now back to our original image that we had duplicated from…
This part now is VERY important you are going to have to click on the check box right next to your last action in your historyWindow. Actually... this is the big TRICK that this effect is all about :)

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/History.jpg

This is because the changes we are going to do now are going to be gently removed with the aid of the historyBrush tool.
Now, let’s reselect the original layer… and apply the exact settings to it as we had had with the previous filter by pressing CTRL F.

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/PlasticWrap.jpg

You should end up with some sort of an image as the above again

Once you have completed the steps until now... go to the duplicated layer and select your stampingTool. And after making sure that you are working on that particular layer, with Alt held down to mark a starting point; click on any where on the image

Without moving your mouse (You can in fact place guides to snap to and be sure you click twice on the same place) click again this time without pressing the Alt button from your keyboard.

This should source your stampTool to the second layer that had the effect faded in, where the history tool is sourced from how the texture was prior to the changes the plasticWrap filter had created.
So what you are going to be doing is to use the two tools interchangeably to the effect you would desire.
The History too is going to dampen the effects of the greasiness and the blobby’ness. And the stamp tool is going to apply a saturated effect of the similar damping (With a blob of its own though)
Here I tried to demonstrate effects you can achieve with the use of only one of these two tools.

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/Final.jpg

And since they are TOOLS... you are able to play with the tools own adjustments… Like you can set the historyBrush to overLay or softLight… to also be able to get high saturations… Or you may want to multiply the result as to burn darker effects in.
It is ALL up to you here on.

With all that in mind… if you observe the example specimen below... you may better find traces on how such wrinkles were obtained.
(I have ofcourse introduced a variety of additional things in producing this. Things such as the liquidifyFilter, the smudgeTool, the Highlighter and the burnTool... aaa ...as well as simply brushing I the effect)

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/BlobbySkinTutorial/Example.jpg

As I had said at the top; this is not a tutorial that can exactly help you instantly create the best results for such effects. But it is what I personally used in achieving this particular effect.

Thats about it!

Best of luck with your future projects!

Black

BlackDidThis

05-05-2006, 07:49 AM

Lol
HELLO Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228):

You may follow it as much as you wish to! It is never a loss to have an attractive person around on such ventures :rolleyes:

As for the tutorial... I guess I was typing it as you were posting.. and MAN was it a bit complicated to get together with all the external linking's :cry:
I had sort of kept from the "Spectacular" challenge.. save from viewing Mona (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=129166)'s and Robert (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?userid=85530)'s... actually at the end of it also the works of Thitipon (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?userid=159411)... (I really like his work)

And now I feel sorry for not viewing any of the 3D's :(
I shall be going through it this evening as well hopefully...
(Since Mr. "Show your Feet" already scared me from commenting on your post...
I don't know what he will do if I post on HIS?! :eek: )

It would be very nice to see what you have come up with in the making.

I guess my greatest advantage on 3D to most is my ability to create my own textures with or without a photograph. In that perspective.. it may be a good idea for you to at least try out the method above... you never know. t just might prove useful in a future project :d

Thank you once again for dropping by!

Black

Gunilla

05-05-2006, 08:47 AM

Lol - plese, I don't encourage you to go through my old spctacular thread... that one is even worse spam-wise than the current :)
And ...wow, this is such a great tut - I will try it out step by step, durin the weekend. I'm sure iit will be very useful for the things I do. Much appreciated.

(And don't be afraid of Mr. Curly Toes :D ... read again, he is actually backing you up in a way that wont hurt my feelings... there isn't an unfriendly bone in his person from what I've seen) :)

Enough chatting for now, back to work it is - have a great day!

BlackDidThis

05-05-2006, 07:48 PM

Thank you for the warning Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228)...

But too late... I already went through a lot of it... I have to apologise that I have not been able to read through it as before though.
You have made a very good work back there. I also was able to have one more Foetus image to add to my collection from a scan on your thread :bounce:
Sooo it was really not as great a waste of time.

I am glad you like the tutorial...
IT wasn't going to happen actually even though I had thought of such a thing... But when Mona (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=129166) had mentioned of it being possible to appear as if I pasted them all instead of painting them... I thought it a good idea to show how it would be possible.
Though I really can't assume that they would be easily confused with a photograph.

Thank you again for your ever so kind heads up!

Black
(Curly toes?.... hahaha... naaa not afraid of him ... yet :) )

BlackDidThis

05-05-2006, 07:49 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146854959_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146854959_large.jpg)

I went on with the effect I tried explaining in the tutorial on the rest of his body... but I had to include some more under laying elements for the convincingness of the tender translucency (Especially removed the arm and the umbilical chord so you can better see it all).
As much as I couldn’t teach you how to do this all exactly, I am hoping it to be possible for you to understand how I worked until now.

I also started on the legs and tiny feet.
The original form of them was supposed to be some what like the red sketch lines (Hence the reason they have been included in the update).
But I liked the thought of the feet appearing even tinier, due to perspective distortion. I am going to try to build on like this and see where it takes me.
Let me know what you think.

The second leg is the set of lines that go over the painted one.
Not started on that yet. Because I want to make sure I like how the position is going to be.
Here I have made the foot a good amount more red/bloodshot… but I think I am going to end up adding some Sub-Surface-Scattering effect with another neat little trick:
I select he whole leg (For example) And then apply a ‘Plaster’ filter effect… with its smooth set to maximum and in this case I would possibly prefer the light to be coming from the images left.
Then I would fade the filter effect with a blend option of overLay and it’s opacity depending on how strong I would like to have this effect.

What this would do is add a good dodge to the tips of the toes with a nice pass (Of course this can be done directly with the gradient tool as well… I just like to see the filters own variations).
And once again just as in the tutorial.. it would be a good idea to use the history brush to blend things in.

Oops… Too much blah-blah again :(

Til Later!

Black

cosmicbeanbag

05-05-2006, 11:18 PM

thanks for the step by step with the texture. nice interpretation.

draw!

k

BlackDidThis

05-06-2006, 05:21 AM

:) Your welcome...
Glad you liked it

Black

Gunilla

05-06-2006, 08:01 AM

good morning, :)
I went through your tut last night and I'm glad I finally have found a use for the plastic wrap filter - I used it in my own project and it is very useful when not used "as is" but mixed in another way. thanks again!

I'm glad you liked my spectacular work - I spent quite some time digging for refs for that one... I think one of the most difficult things is that the different body parts differ so much in shape depending on age... as example the butt part is quite pointy at an early stage and the feet are a bit like duck feet... hmm... so for my fetuses I mixed different refs and in the end probably got different ages for them. Ah well... this (http://www.friendsofhope.com/content/images/11%20weeks_legs%20and%20feet.jpg) is a nice ref for feet I think. Let me know if you need more ref pics - I got a lot.

Have you decided what age your fetus is?

No crits at this point - just following with interest.

BlackDidThis

05-06-2006, 06:44 PM

The Reference image;
Oh no... I was refering to the image that Romel (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=145039) had posted and linked in THIS (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=2630615&postcount=102) post.

I think I have a good set of images.. unfortunately not as many close ups as I would wish to have... then again I have worked with medical visualisations for some time.. I am trying to rely on my experience for the details :banghead:

Your work was really worth the time to look through.. I would advise others to gaze through if they have the time... It is just that the scanned image was an extra bonus on my part :)

THANK YOU for the refenrence... Had startted on the feet just now... talking about timing!
These are a bit from the wrong angle... but they are the highest res feet pictures I have now. So I am sure they'll come to good use.

My Child?
Oh yes do I know how old I want to make him/her... I would like to try and predict what he/she looked like on April the 14th when he/she was 18 weeks and 2 days old! :cool:

You have made a good point on the bit about "The development of the foetus"... And it had apparently come up on your thread a few times.. like the developing of the ears and so on.
I am trying to keep to the books on how a child develops.. but more actually watching the ecograph scans (The 2D slices instead of the 3D ones though) to better follow up on the skeletal development.
Like even though it was in such an early stage... the fingers were impressively long and graceful. And the back was fantastic (The child has a very fortunate construction it seems). But quit a unique forehead to accompany it (My wife says "Takes from you!" :) )

Sooo in the end of it I am trying to stick to as much evidence I have of the child from that particular day... but I doubt I am that correct by the book. Just trying my best.
Actually because of the part of constantly getting to watch the video's and examine the images I am enjoying this image in it's making as much as I am.

As for the tutorial...
as you play along with it you will notice that it tends to emboss the brush stokes as you work... this ca be annoying at times if you painted the skin with brush strokes.

You CAN use this to your advantage... Like I make obvious squiggly marks at places and then liquefy it to folds and twirls that I would like it to flow as... then when I apply the filter I get a fantastic base for wrinkles like those of the eyelid.
(Needless to say.. you would be better off adding things like veins afterwards to not have them filtered as well!)

Okaay now... back to my tiny little feet!

Thank you again;

take care!

Black

BlackDidThis

05-06-2006, 11:30 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146954648_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1146954648_large.jpg)

I really got stuck at something here…
Remember I had had mentioned on the earlier post about a method of combining the plasterFilter with overLay or softLight?
Well I worked some good bit on the foot.. and then started on the tiny toes (Which was made via a radical of first making a decent set of toes then deforming them dearly and trying to push and pull them back to shape)… where I had to sort of decide if the toes would be fairly translucent or not, hence the need to go on with creating fine details or not.

This is what I ended up doing.. I selected a segment of the leg and duplicated it onto another layer… gradually erased it towards the root to enable a smooth pass to the effect, and then I applied plasterFilter with lighting to the side and the detail to the min the smooth to the max.

When I overlayed the image with faint opacity... I got an image such as the right (The images left).
The latest form of the leg and feet are as they are presented on the left (The pictures right).

The odd thing here is I started to doubt IF I should go on with the surface scattered lighting when there is already a fine amount of worked detail or not.
As “half-way” as it is… I actually like the work done on the foot. With the effect in mention I the details will be lost… and I shall not be able to add any further details to it.

I liked both and couldn’t decide… So I stopped on the foot for now.

Any suggestions?

Black

Gunilla

05-07-2006, 07:03 AM

I can't quite follow your left/right descriptions here, but I say both alternatives looks good. The right, more translucent version feels more accurate but it all depends on how you will make the rest. Probably you would like to make the limbs more translucent than the body?

You continue to do an amazing work here - so I just keep on watching and cheering :)

jevinart

05-07-2006, 07:21 AM

hands and feet are the most difficult challenge an artist can ever overcome. please don't feel less than exceptional when dealing with these issues. i spent 2 years in art school at the "academy of art college" in the 80's studying specifically heads, hands and feet (yes, it's true!).

if i may make a suggestion:

gather as much reference material as you can on embryos and pre-born, in-womb fetuses, composite those images in photoshop, and draw a rough sketch of the outlines as a guide. then, use your artisitc talents to fill in the details...

BlackDidThis

05-07-2006, 01:47 PM

Hello Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);

I really seem to have made a mess out of it haven't I? :blush:
I guess I was really tired... And my English is not my best when I am such :(

Your understanding of the question is very accurate in spite my illegible description.
I think the same as you on the matter now.. And actually every one I have asked also advised to go for the translucent version, saying that it would be more accurate.

My only problem now is the fact that to be able to have such a translucent effect I would have to have some sort of light sourcing from behind the subject. In a lab environment, isolated from the rest of the organs, it is cleareer (Where most the reference images have had been taken)... But this would not always be particularly the same this time.
So I am going to try and wait to go on with the limbs until I have an environment built around to suggest better execution of the light.

Thank you yet again... you are always being so very helpful!

Hello there Kevin (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=214626)

Oh no, no... that was not my problem;
On the contrary, one of my favourite bits about drawing a figure would be the hands and feet.. especially the individual fingers. Because I really like the way I can give character with the use of them.
Mmm Wait... no; I think I love the EYES the most on that department... hey in fact I even married because of a pair of beautiful eyes! :)

My question was more in the area of "Should I make them transparent, or not"

None the less you can never have an adcvise too many! And yours was gladly noted down!
I totally agree and even say just about the same to those that have such difficulties (With a loong line of unneccesary 'blah-blah's attached to it):
"It is best you spent some good time working on them! "
I don't know how many times I kept repeating this while I was giving illustration lessons back in the academy.

Thank you both... but as I tried explaining my reasons on Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228)'s reply... I am going to let it wait until I have the rest figured out for the lighting.
I'll try to post something of it later tonight.

Black

BlackDidThis

05-07-2006, 08:46 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147031189_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147031189_large.jpg)

I sort of decided against going on with the leg and foot. It seemed wiser to leave it for now until I can better evaluate from where the light should be coming onto the legs.

It struck me to take samples of my steps this time as I was sketching out the lines to fill in for the surface the child is facing.
I took about 15 or so copies of the steps... which are outlined briefly on the 7 steps presented above.
The last ones were basically following the method I mentioned on the post before the last update.

Shall you click on it to see a larger image, I have to apologise for the horrible resolution issue.
Firstly the Jpeg compression did it’s thing, and then the fact that I mistook the canvas size that I was working with when I had put it all together.
Unfortunately I had exceeded the image borders... and while optimizing the program does a lousy job when it involves resizing both the quality and the scale if the scale ratio is not a power of two :(

Til next…

Black

Edit:
Due to the re-scale to fit in the image limit of 1280 pixels... the zoom amounts stated in the larger details are not relevant. They appear much smaller than the original than the amount stated there.

Gunilla

05-08-2006, 01:20 PM

Great! Another tut for how to do it - looks really good!
Thanks for posting these steps - after the challenge I suggest you post thm in the anatomy forum, I'm sure they will be greatly appreciated :)

The baby is coming to live really fast here - amazing that you could get such results in such short time!

BlackDidThis

05-08-2006, 04:50 PM

Lol... naaa I wouldn't dare call these a tutorial as they are... just a simple series of walk-through' s.

Shall you be needing use for such techniques for your future projects, or see them useful at any rate:
I still happen to have a PSD file with very high resolution for each step taken here...
So if you would like to; just let me know. I wouldn't mind sending you it all as it is.

Though I shall have to optimise it at least some bit... since it is very high res and contains around 15-20 images for every step taken; it is around 720 megabytes :sad:
(Don't even ask how big the original file is!)

This evening I want to sit and work (Hopefully complete) the placenta and the series of allantoic vessels feeding the Chord.

I'll try to take grabs of steps in that as well.. but it is possibly going to be straight forward.
I can't think of a simple technique to speed up it's work flow this time. We'll see... Need to handle some other things first now.

Originally Posted by Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228):
...The baby is coming to live really fast here - amazing that you could get such results in such short time!
I can't tell you how much I needed to hear that!
Because I really have the paranoia that it shall not finish...
and that I was simply too crazy to be starting this so late and wanting to do so much!

Hoping to try and catch as extreme a pace as I can now, so I don't have to abort, or have to give up on quality.

Wish me luck!
Thank you again.

Black

xric7

05-08-2006, 05:18 PM

hehe look like this gonna be obstetric thread.:D u should make unborn anatomy forum LOL:twisted: i'm joke.
anyway,ur progress is so good.the way you made the inside-body's detail is stunning!can't wait for the final image and final birth.:bounce:
by the way,once i had scultped a baby in the belly too(for my job)but he is not my son hahaaa.:D

BlackDidThis

05-09-2006, 02:57 AM

Hahahaha... obstetric eh?

Well you have a point there! :)
So this tells you guys a lot about my life at the moment... Dealing with the wife's pregnancy, if not investigating through the net for her care, and if not doing that painting something about it!
Would you say I am a little obsessed? :rolleyes:

I have been working none stop on the allontoic vessels for the placenta for a few good hours... And man do I need to stop on that for a while.
I tried to put aside an image about every half an hour... I'll put them together and possibly post them as an update after I rest some good bit and also eat something.

Originally Posted by Thitipon (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=159411)
...but he is not my son hahaaaYou know you should be ashamed of yourself! You should take responsibility for the child! :argh:
The mother can't go raise him on her own! :)

While browsing images for the Placenta I came across this unique baby statue where the sculptor has used the placenta as a base and the Umbilical Chord as a stand.
I'll try balancing something like that as well shall I ever attempt a baby statue... I would like to try balancing such a composition.

Thank you very much for the compliments.
It means so much more coming from such a good painter as your self Thitipon (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=159411)!

Black

Gunilla

05-09-2006, 09:12 AM

Good morning, thanks for offering your highres files, very generous indeed. At the moment I'm just testing and getting inspired by youe work methods so I don't think I need it. You have developed some very clever techniques for PS work here so I try to find the parts that would fit int my own workflow.

I'm so looking forward to the updated placenta (did I say that? :)) and of course I wish you good luck in the finish line for this, you'll make it and you'll make it in style :thumbsup:

BlackDidThis

05-09-2006, 12:21 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147173708_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147173708_large.jpg)

This is not exactly “teaching” as some of my posts have been… But as promised to Gunilla: I have attempted to put aside copies from about every half hour.
I accept that it was very slow progress to compare. I have to insist though that it was not an easy task in hand (I have to also consider the bulge of the mass of vessels so I have the right shape of it.

One way of doing such a task is to take various thick brushes and draw them as they are with a textured brush tip. And then smudge them into more capillaries as you wish. And then to contour what you have just drawn. At about the third step seen here: I just applied a variety of gallery filter effects to get a sort of colour mass that I can begin to work from. These varied from paintDoubs to cutOut, plasticWrap to sponge.
All from there is a “pain in the behind” though :(
And I STILL have so much more to do on it!

I am have stopped at a stage that really looks incomplete, but it is for a reason… now I have to arrange that the foetal side of the placenta’s membrane (Camera’s view) is correctly convex to be able to interact with the vessels. And I have to also position the yolk sack. I plan on having that displayed some how as well.
It may seem different at this moment, but actually the vessels lay flat on the surface.
Shall you notice, there are still some “non-detailed” parts at the tips. Well I am going to be blending this layer into the background… And need them to flush the dark Prussian blue into the background so I can again provide a “Wet-look”.

Criticism, comments and questions welcome…

Black

walrus

05-09-2006, 02:33 PM

Good work, so far, Black, you're being very thorough. You mentioned adding a "wet look." Are you going to be making it look at though the whole piece is filled with fluids too? (It is in real life, isn't it? You would know more than I...)
Anyhow, keep moving along... good luck!

-mike

BlackDidThis

05-09-2006, 04:08 PM

Completely your call Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228)... The offer is there.
I am not too sure I would fit in to the Anatomy forum... sometimes I don't really feel fitting to the community even... so I may not exactly be able to post any tuts on the methods. But none the less I love sharing things I find, and you or anyone can contact me on my methods. I would be glad to answer.

Hope you find some use of what you have followed up on here.
Unfortunately too many of us, including myself, overlook many abilities the program can give us if just be a bit more creative.
I am sure you yourself shall find many methods of your own that shall be so much more useful.

Originally Posted by Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228):
...I'm so looking forward to the updated placenta (did I say that? :))...Lol.. you really had me laughing with that one! :)
Yes you did.. and I documented it!

Originally Posted by Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228):
...you'll make it and you'll make it in style :thumbsup:That is VERY interesting.. It is exactly what Mona (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=129166) had said word for word!:eek:
Is it a Swedish saying or something?

Thank you Michael (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?userid=122885) ... lol yeah I am sort of acting like as if I was an expert on the matter aren't I? :(
Well there is a fluid... I have a sort of doubt to add in the Amniotic cavity or fluid... as it has little refraction value to my direct concern... But it does add an amount of blurriness that I may include or not.

But I have a mind to have the camera look through the uterine cavity some what. So we shall be seeing the child through the amnion and the amniochoroinic membrane.
This shall be challenging to do without loosing some of the details I prefer to keep. Possibly going to simulate the surfaces rather than perfectly illustrate them.

When I mentioned the "Wet-Look"; I was refering to the way the thin membrane would have an additional specularity.
Trying to rely on some particular chemical difrences (like the greasy vernix layer that cover the child... which is next in line) and the thin membranes to make this biological composition look a little more interesting.

Actually all that said... I have to really insist that this is NOT medically correct. As a professional I would object to how a lot of stuff have been presented or positioned.
But I am not really trying to make it as a scientific documentation/reference... I am just trying to make it "convincing"... and interpreting the environment my little child might be in just now... also trying to present to the viewers some sense of his/her miraculous journey.

Ohh boy... too much typing again...
Back to work! :(

Black

Gunilla

05-09-2006, 05:12 PM

Hey! That placenta rocks! :thumbsup:
It develops very well I think, more painterly style than the other parts so far but I think that's a plus here.
On a sidenote, the best plugin I've found for "quick and dirty vessel making" is this (http://www.alienskin.com/xx2/xx2_filters.html) lightning filter... I used it a lot for my fetuses and it worked really well for tiny shapes.
Unfortunately too many of us, including myself, overlook many abilities the program can give us if just be a bit more creative.
This is so true! When I first started I did a lot of experimenting with photoshop - now, I tend to just install the new upgrade and start to work without thouroughly going through new functions... keepin up with all the software I use would be a fulltime job in itself (she said, a bit lazy :)) Thanks for offering your tips and trics for future occasions, I will take you up on it for sure.

Nope, not a swedish saying for all I know, we have probably picked it up around here somewhere... Mona and I both hang out here a lot :)

I will spend the evening with doing a simple illustration of TUMT - ahh, the thrilling joys of medic illustration :D

Llynna

05-09-2006, 07:50 PM

hey black,

just read through your thread and am really amazed of the amount of thought you put in it and research on the subject and search for reference. also its really great to read about your photoshop technique :)

i need to read it all again in some quiet moment later not in the middle of work ;). are you planning to keep the square aspect ratio? will you add some fluidal stuff too?

awaiting your next update and many greetings

makaron

05-09-2006, 09:04 PM

hallo mr Black... nice progress... :bounce:

BlackDidThis

05-10-2006, 12:35 AM

Hello Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);
Hmm... the placenta has gotten some distance since that post... and planning on spending tonight on it some more.

I had had the earlier version of the filter collection years ago.. then of course there was no "Crack"... but they did in fact have lightning’s. And in those "new beginner" days I would use that to create veins for eye textures.
Funny how I have totally forgotten about it. Thanks for the heads up.

None the less it may not have been suitable for my needs, though I don't know how much the filters options have upgraded, because of the way I wished to create the vessels interaction with each other.
I intend to crowd it as much as I can... making these biggies sort of the highway vessels.
I'll try posting a close up of the umbilical connection for you to better see what I may mean.

TUMT?... So you are drawing/modeling prostats at work now?... Or the illustration of how the therapy works?
In any case... good luck. Doesn't seem like you are having much fun with it :(
Sorry.

Hello Britta (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=167411)...
Firstly thank you for the generous compliments. I am flattered.

The technique described is just one of the many ways to have done it. I just hoped to share mine. I am overwhelmed with it being interesting to anyone else.

Regarding to the fluids... I am definitely planning on adding the vernix (That yucky yellowish thing that the baby is covered when born)... But As I plan the rest of the composition in my head: I am sort of enjoying the thought of the inner reflection you sometimes notice when swimming inside a pool. I shall really have to finish the whole of it first.

The ratio?
... if you are referring to the Pixel aspect ratio, I do not tend to change it from 1:1. There is no plan to use this image in broadcast production.
But if you are referring to the canvas size.. oh no... I don't plan on keeping it as it is here.
I am just using the scanned sketch as my canvas size at the moment.

The bit about investigation:
I always have believed in the little things to be the little devils that bring that extra touch on any of my works... but this time it's a little bit different... I am an expecting father :) And nothing gives me more pleasure than to try and figure out how my child might be looking like, what he/she may be living through.
Thank you so much for the encouragement!

Mona (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=129166)!:eek:
How COULD you?! :deal:

You broke the deal! ... Or wait have you?
Has it been that many posts already?

I'll be working on the image tonight... hopefully I'll get far enough to be able to post a worthy update. Thank you all for the encouragements!

Black

Andoy

05-10-2006, 07:25 AM

Hope you don't mind me popping by...:)
I check this thread every day, looking for your updates. For two reasons really, First reason is basically just to see your work and the second reason is to see how far you have taken this project.
The more i see it, the more i am highly confident of you hitting your deadline,( But only you know if thats gonna happen with any time to spare )
Just to let you know, i don't very often visit repeatedly to a thread, but this has a special interest to me and just thought i'd drop in a little encouragement for you also..

Llynna

05-10-2006, 07:45 AM

*waiting for update*

congrats on your fatherhood :) so thats why youre so excited about this and i must say its really the beginning of a big journey, maybe the biggest journey there is (except for some religious afterlife things if you believe in it). when im finished posting here i must look for this great book i got, about the growth of the child illustrated by stunning photographs, its really awesome.

im sorry i meant the canvas size, it was kinda late here and i painted the whole day ;) sometimes my english gets confusing at these states of mind. i really think that adding a bit of canvas to both sides would add something.

cheers! :thumbsup:

Gunilla

05-10-2006, 08:14 AM

Ahhh - thanks, it's no big problem with doing the TUMT, sometimes it's just strange what kind of functions you get insight in, right? :)
That's what I like about medicill, but in this case I have only very little time for each illustration, only some line drawings to show the procedure.

You're right about the lightin plugin, there is very little control on how the branches will go, so for more detailed/precise stuff it isn't very useful.
Yes, I very much like to see a closeup of the umbilical connection, but only if it doesn't steel to much time from you.

Good luck with the next steps, looking forward to see them :thumbsup:

BlackDidThis

05-10-2006, 01:10 PM

ANDY (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=108025)!

My dear "Always there" friend!
Like it wasn't enough for you to support me while painfully still moderating :)
...
Here you are to encourage me again!

Thank you...
Well as you can see I am going at a very slow pace... making full use of my insomnia. Even though I am not "hour restricted" as most of us are by their work. I am trying to keep to a particular program with the rest of the projects (You know the story... damn do I have so much to do! :cry:)
I'll try to update more often knowing some one such as your self is also peeping over my shoulder!

My love to the ever beautiful lady!

Britta (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=167411)...
I am just now at your thread... and there is still SOO much to read!
Giving it a little break so I can post some answers here :)
(I must insist that I can not call your thread a waist of time)

Hmmm I have an impressive archive from images of the net... and it is difficult to really not call the procedure a miracle.
My wife and I have tried for years to have children... And when you try for so long: You actually much better grasp how valuable the chance for parturiency is.

I have to honestly confess that I am TOO busy for literally anything and I am consuming from my resting hours to try and complete this image. And it is costing a lot of energy and concentration... But I have seriously very little to complain left from the joy of the project for our part :)

Thank you again for the kind words.. And just for you, even if I decide to crop the image... I shall try and enlarge the canvas to see what I can sketch more onto it.
Deal? :)

Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228),

Dear...

This has really turned into our little chat board... Though I am far from complaining any bit of your company :)

Hmm.. I have had the opportunity to do a various amount of medical projects.... and I have to confess that I had had enjoyed it greatly. The demand on medical precision had simply forced me to improve on my anatomy.
The unfortunate thing was the manner I had to do them all with airbrush as digital printing was far from a "success story" back in those days.

I have at the moment some things in hand that I have to deal with, including a half read thread), but once I have some time (Should be in a few hours) I shall get you an update of the chord as it was last night when I had answered the message and of how it is now.

Thank you all for the support again!

Black

paperclip

05-10-2006, 02:33 PM

This is a very beautiful painting and very emotional as well, I can really tel where you're going with this and It illustrates the theme very well! Thanks for the wonderful in depth tutorial, it was very useful and I'll try out that technique someday in the future! The only thing I can point out so far is that the far right eye seems too high and that impacts on the brow line. Aside from that, great work and I'm really enjoying watching your progress! Keep going, my friend!

BlackDidThis

05-10-2006, 06:16 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147281413_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147281413_large.jpg)

I had thought that I had a copy of the vessels in the state they were before I started working on them last night.
Well apparently I hadn’t. And I am going to be able to show only what they look like now , I am very sorry for that (Which has a positive side to be able to show a closer close up when I have to show only one instead of two :) ).

Actually a dear few more layers are involved… but they are far from ready to make sense. I am hoping to be rid of this stage of the child this evening.

One thing that caught my attention while answering the posts on the thread is that I have to state that I am not trying to make the image medically accurate. On the contrary: I am going to try to stick to my surreal point of views. But I would prefer to be able to include some convincing material in its making.
And also would prefer to be able to make best description of this journey as I can manage.

Well til next;

Black

BlackDidThis

05-10-2006, 06:26 PM

Thank you so much Theressa (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=92679)...

Hmm yes you are very right about the eye being a little more "up".
But there is a little detail of the story that I should mention now.
When we went in the 3D scan for the first time.. and were able to watch our child sit as we probed around... He/she was so still and thoughtful. I don't know HOW you could say this about a fetus, leave alone a baby; but there was something "deep" there.

At first the eye popped upwards by mistake... while I was obligated to enlarge the skull without rescaling the maxilla or mandibula. But as it happened, I thought it sort of cool to apear as if the eyebrow is kinda 'lifted' up.
So I left it that way. It felt as if it gave the simiallar feel as we had felt in that darkened room.

I still have some work on the eyes (I am sure you have noticed more mismatches between them...) But I am leaving them for a later period where I shall need to smear him/her in Vernix.
So please by knowing the story above.. let me know if you think that the brow being slightly raised does add a sort of maturity, or if it is just me please.
As a father to be... I am FAAAR from objective... he/she looks cute all the time!

Thank you again;

Black

BlackDidThis

05-11-2006, 05:19 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147321185_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147321185_large.jpg)

Gosh am I fed up with the vessels!

Okay the child was at least as difficult… but I can’t really compare the two in the sense of my “enjoying” it.
And momentarily I can not really say that I am enjoying this as much as I should.

I started introducing textured brushes and am trying to blend them into the surface as well. The colour adjustments per vessel have been removed for being able to match the hues. It is not going to remain this particularly uniform.
Actually for what you see here; most that is left is to run them through a series of procedures mentioned often above. But I still want to create a denser forest of capillaries on areas I plan to keep vivid

It really may not seem like such, but I am very close to finishing the particular area seen in this update.
But still, I don’t think I will want to play with this part of the project for a while, so I am just posting this state of it before I move on...

Veeery tired;

Black

Gunilla

05-11-2006, 05:17 PM

Chat continues (I really hope I'm not keeping you from working, but it's so fun to chat with someone in the same field of interest)
And those vessels are really beautiful, it's like an abstact space scene or something ... very nice. About not being medically correct - that's what these occasions are good for, right? To get an opportunity to do something unique and totally from your own ideas... no nagging clients with opinions.
And make this kind of mix between realistic and fantasy works very well for this concept I think- this will become a very emotional image :)

So, do you still do a lot of medical work or was it earlier (BC, before computers)?

BlackDidThis

05-11-2006, 09:13 PM

Keeping me?
Mmmm guess it's this "male" thing; but we never tend to mind the company of a lady :)

About being medically incorrect;
I think you hit the nail on the head. I am not going to complain much about my clients... I am very greatful for the income as well... But there are times when they tend to get a little bit above the level of "I can tolerate".
I think the record of of passing that line would be medical and biochemical parcitioners (I presume you can relate to this).

This time I am making "medical experience and investigation" a tool and not a goal. Which I makes a great deal diffrence in it's application to the resolting composisions.
I have been proffessionally illustrating since I was about 17 for companies. And since then have been into a variaty of subjects.
The last of my medical practices were of I believe 3 BC or in my better recollection; 5 BM (Before marriage).

These days I don't really get offers from medical companies.
I work mostly 3D with production companies for films and commercials. But I think you can see a little evidence of such a background in most of my stuff.

paperclip

05-11-2006, 09:23 PM

I see what you mean about the eyebrow...it's just that it doesn't really look anatomically possible, maybe lower it just a teensy bit? I must :applause: your fantastic veins, you have produced a beautiful effect there! I am very impressed by your stuff here.

I think it's fantastic that you're celebrating your paternity so much....children don't seem to be appreciated anywhere near enough in the general culture. Kids are fantastic and have so much to offer. (I say this not as a parent, but as a big sister, 6X aunt and au-pair.) You'll have a lot of fun watching your little one grow up. Do you have any names picked out yet?

BlackDidThis

05-11-2006, 09:54 PM

Oh no!.. we don't :cry:

I was very fortunate about my wife in a variaty of ways related to the child... firstly the fact that she was aparently as 'Fertile' and suitable to carry a child as they get; and secondly with the fact that she also wanted to have children together.
Now here is the funnier part; Literally since we our first days as dates (We sort of always knew it was not going to be a short term relationship) we have been searching for suitable names.
And now we have been past the dating... and been married for 5 years and we still havin't decided! :eek:

We found a ffew girl names that we both liked... but are stuck at boys names... really no desicion yet :sad:

If we find anything... I'll let you know!

I think I can relate to the children that are not yours.. I had lovely children as I was giving Ballet lessons.. And a good amount of children in the family. I know it is not the same as having your own and having to do the diapers and keeping up all night... But it is still a good evaluation on deciding on wether you want t go with it or not.

I guess we want this child so much.. I can't get my mind off of it. Hence the illustrations of the child :)

Thank you for the kind words once again Theressa (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=92679)...
It means so much to get compliments such from someone of your caliber..

Black

paperclip

05-11-2006, 09:57 PM

Oh, dear God, don't say my calibre! I've only been doing this stuff for a little while, whereas you've been working in it for years! Your stuff is incredible and at a level far above mine, so you saying that just makes me sad & embarrassed. :sad: The only reason I'm in this contest is to suck knowledge from the amazingly talented people here who've been working for years (like yourself!). It's just enough to see you guys doing what you do best- and showing the rest of us how you do it!

BlackDidThis

05-11-2006, 10:46 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147383971_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147383971_large.jpg)

Okay… now THIS was fun!
And a LOT!

Not only did I not work on some series of stupid vessel interactions… But I also got to see the baby again! =D

There is SO much more incomplete yet. I would not be surprised if you all found a lot of things, or if you came up with a lot of advises.
This is not exactly the final resulting image… Just a “I think I am going to go for this” type of an update.
I really liked this composition and will go for it in the next steps to follow.

I am definitely going to be keeping the white contours that actually are a result of the filter, though I will have to clean it up a dear bit... I am also planning on introducing similar incandescent contours to the child and all else.
So I guess that would answer the question we had earlier about the leg, and if it should be translucent looking or not? I’ll just try to see to it that all the pieces match each other well.

How:

The Chorion from the foetus’s side and the scarp bits we see in white from the maternal side were all done in an amazingly simple set of steps:

First I had to create a sponge/tissue texture of some sort… (I made very good use of the brush preset “Scattered Wild Flowers” that comes with PhotoShop) and then duplicated this and stalked them on top of each other after slightly modifying each of them.

Leaving the original untouched, I merged them all together with a few different blending settings.
Then I ran this through a variety of filters… I got them a bit blobbier/fluffier with paintDaubs, added freckle pigments and contours with posteriseEdges, and then applied a few other blend settings and the famous (at least for this project) plasticWrap.
I then had a “wrinkle” layer on top of it and I blended this on top with ‘exclusion’. This made the wrinkle “folds” appear as whiter.

Then I simply spherized it under the distortion filters, and wrap deformed it into this shape. I applied a plasticWrap to this once more but this time I faded the filter effect with softLight at a lower opacity value.

The original colours were NOTHING close to what it is now… With all those filters I had a serious mess infront of me. I then matched this image’s colour to the colour of the isolated placenta layer. And Tada… there you have it.
I left the sponge like tissue at the back and this gave a fine illuminated maternal side of the Chorion.

Adding the earlier created placenta was very easy after all this... since the two textures already matched each other so well. Mostly stampTool where needed.

Well as said... still a lot of work to do... but I really enjoyed getting this far!
Hope for you to like it!

Black

BlackDidThis

05-11-2006, 11:02 PM

Originally Posted by Theressa (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=92679):
Oh, dear God, don't say my calibre! I've only been doing this stuff for a little while, whereas you've been working in it for years! Your stuff is incredible and at a level far above mine, so you saying that just makes me sad & embarrassed. :sad: The only reason I'm in this contest is to suck knowledge from the amazingly talented people here who've been working for years (like yourself!). It's just enough to see you guys doing what you do best- and showing the rest of us how you do it!I guess we have a different understanding for Calibre... as I am sure many people of the forums shall agree that you are far from carrying the signs of a beginner... and also that you are to be classified as the ones that has learned enough and has started to show off as well" :)
And I really don't believe that a good work is proportional with age or experience... I have seen a painting of a cousin 3 years of age with a colour composition that got me jealous.

I hadn't expected your reply to be so fast Theressa (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=92679)...
coincidently I had just had your thread open about a quarter of an hour ago... Unlike many; I tend to try and enjoy the thread and try to follow up on the emotions/developments of the particular contestant.
Yours is taking much longer than a few other I had the opportunity to read through... but I have to definitely defend myself in saying that it was not a 'compliment said for nothing'. It was something I wrote while I was still reading your thread actually.

I like what I do... not that I am very good at it. But I enjoy it. And like many, I enjoy hearing of people that like it as well.
This sort of feels so much better when you hear compliments from somebody that you had just thought was doing a good job herself!

Go get them! :)

Black

(Oh btw.. I think I am going to agree with you about the eye.. in this image it looks more odd. The previous stages I had a mind to have him/her sort of push against the placenta membrane with his/her head. But I don't think that's going to happen any longer. I'll deal with the eye when I start on Vernix'ing him/her :) )

BlackDidThis

05-12-2006, 12:56 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147434997_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147434997_large.jpg)

I would really appreciate those who have the time to state their opinion about something here.

At first I hadn’t the idea of really forcing myself to fit into the competition. But to try and only make an image that I would personally like to have.
Hence the reason I did not bother with having a tiny little person and a gigantic background as the “rules” had suggested us to... considering that the journey was a huge one as it is for such a little being.

But now that I have sort of dropped a kind of background element (that HAS been worked on… these were made from lat nights update image… hence it’s smaller size to play around with); I played around with a few different settings and sort of enjoyed the extra space to include even more work/details.

I just Might include more elements to dwarf his/her journey.

I put together 6 versions that I would like to go for:

1_ is making the canvas 14544 x 10628 landscape, and placing the child on the bottom right hand corner. The image shall be played around with a little but the rest shall all be left black.

2_ is the same as above, but there is going to be a series of balancing elements this time. I can not tell ‘what’ for now. But they shall be related to the birth and the gestation.

3_ is making the canvas 10628 x 14544 portrait, and placing the child on the bottom right hand corner. The image shall be played around with a little but the rest shall all be left black.

4_ is the same as version3, but again there is going to be a series of balancing elements this time. I can not tell ‘what’ for now. But they shall be related to the birth and the gestation.

5_ is making the canvas 9537 x 8149, and have elements about the development of the child laid out around the frame of the image as you would see it in the screen grabs of an echography scan.

6_ is how the image looked like in the latest 8194 x 8149 format yesterday.

I honestly do not want to dwarf the child any further than these for the competitions suggestions sake. He/she IS the most important element that I want to have most of.
But of these I would really appreciate it if you were able to give me some feed back or reasons to why I should go with any of them.

Thank you all pre hand (Even for reading all this)
Please give me an idea if you can;

Black

Gunilla

05-12-2006, 06:54 PM

Wow! Yesterdays update is really fantastic! The mood is getting stronger and stronger, great work :thumbsup:
I sort of miss the cheek getting pressed against the placenta in the earlier version... that part made it look crowded an therefore more urgent to get out - as in starting the journey outside. And you and Theresa are right about that right eye now, it looks a bit strange which it didn't do in the more crowded setting.
As for the layouts... interesting that you're placing him/her in the right corner - for me it would seem more natural with the left one. Adding some empty space in the comp could work really well I think, and among the options I like the portrait version best. But I would be happy to see a panoramic with the little one to the left :)

But there are times when they tend to get a little bit above the level of "I can tolerate".
I think the record of of passing that line would be medical and biochemical parcitioners (I presume you can relate to this).

Haha, don't get me started on that! It's funny how a medical degree can make someone a pro in everything from font choice to colours :D
But even so, I enjoy working with the researchers and medical experts a lot - being just as passionate as I am about their field. It's a good thing about their dedication, even if it can be tiredsome sometimes.
Sounds like you've been moving on to other stuff just as fun, good!

And here I go, chatting away again :)

CoreyArtE

05-12-2006, 07:12 PM

Black you really have a creative idea here.

BlackDidThis

05-12-2006, 10:48 PM

My dear Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);

I am glad you liked the update... Rebecca(My wife) loved it... and wants it to be our invitations for after the birth :)

I had reasons to put it to the side on the right Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228)... I wanted to have the child's 'developing' come forth. Since it was to be too difficult for me to introduce what he/she is going to become...
I only know only of the journey until here... which was already 'a long enough' path to flow by. And I presume I am relying too much on the knowledge of others about the process of a child's development, hoping that they will all be able to figure out that there is a loong voyage to come.
I shall do as you suggested though as to see how it turns out. It would help if I can figure something's concerning the birth... hmm...

For the eyes... yeah I had had liked that a lot also... even had puffed the cheek a bit from the pressure of leaning against the wall. But all that seems to have to change a bit now. :sad:
I am leaving the composition still as a question mark and working on the rest of the components such and the Amnion membrane and cavity (That's tonight's program) and the still unfinished series of vessels from the foetal view of the placenta. :cry:

I think I would enjoy doing medical illustrations... But well I can only do what job is brought in front of me. And I seem to have drifted away from medical researches for some while.

Hello Corey (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=53024)!
Thank you... I am really glad you liked it!

Black

BlackDidThis

05-13-2006, 06:59 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147499976_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147499976_large.jpg)

I am ‘for now’ leaving the composition decision and going on with trying to complete the parts that are irrelevant to the placement of the elements.
(So if you have some input concerning the previous post; I would STILL appreciate it)

These are grabs from the making of the Amnion:
(You may need to click on the image for a higher resolution… to make better sense)

A

On a pink BG; a variety of blue and yellow fillings were done.
This was shrunk for blurring and resized to full scale, then distorted with the Spherize filter on its max settings.
Then with a lighter colour, a variety of brush strokes were done to simulate areas for vessels (Low opacity value to achieve a variety in colour).
Little care was shown since the most of it is going to be transparent in the end.

B

A selection was made circling the white strokes around the border of the distortion and was duplicated;
Then series of “flame-arcs” shaped strokes were created from smudging (Ctrl Shift X) and then these were first distorted (Spherize) and then a duplicate of it was filtered through plasticWrap (Blended to history as softLight). Then its layer properties were set to overlay.

C

The resulting image of the previous step was colour matched to the very BG image that it was duplicated from.
The BG image was also run through the plasticWrap filter and distorted a little bit.
Some modifications were done to the brush strokes but minor changes to compare.

D
The “flame-arc” layer was set to a high contrast and then used as a selection mask to delete the in-between areas from the plasticWraped version of it. I used lightingEffects on the resulting image.
Created a layer on top of the BG layer and smudged/altered the vessels with the smudgeTool (Tool options set to “Sample All Layers”) so I have a copy of the vessels on a separate layer.
The exact same settings for the lighting effects were used for both this layer and the BG layer (A different selection outline this time)

E

The BG was converted into a default layer. And a variety of effects were applied to get “’Cell-Like’ partitions. Used the Blue-Channel as a selection mask and hit delete a couple of times (This was to give a more membrane like surface)
The “smudged duplicate” of the BG was better refined (Brush strokes, smudges, filters) And blended into the cell structure of the BG (HealingBrush Tool)

F

More work was done on the vessel layer (particularly the larger vessels… the lighter ones were left as they were)
More filters were applied on independent layers to get even more organic textures, and they were again used as selection masks to delete from the background (And at parts to erase from the vessels layer as well)
The outer “crusty” layer was duplicated. The bottom one was set to overlay and the upper one was shrunk even more (Selecting the layers components, inverting the selection and deleting a couple of times). I ran this through variations to get a gold-yellowish tint (This shall be just about how I plan on introducing vernix to the foetus as well)

There is much more work to be done yet… But I am going to be doing those after I carry the Amnion layer-group to the original image.
Since those changes need to be done with the child and the rest of the elements in mind.

Til next:

Black

akahraman

05-13-2006, 09:31 AM

:surprisedI am watching with admiration how you develope that much realistic. You're working as a scientist by combining photoshop skills with yours... There is a point for your works i would like to specify that, they are a little bit unvoluminous and connection of the elements is broken. You're reaching to a really succesful process that sholud be faultless...Very well done...:thumbsup:

( )

BlackDidThis

05-13-2006, 04:54 PM

Hello Alperen (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=220606)!

Thank you very much, it means a lot, but you're compliments were really too generous. And difficult to live up to.

About your advise,
I am not exactly sure if I got what you meant to say... Are you referring to how each piece is doing something on their own but not able to interact with each other?
Hmmm well if that's so, I am guilty as charged :cry:
There is a lot of work to do on that department!

The thing is:
When the details are exaggerated at this level, it is a lot of work to integrate them. And I am planning on keeping them as individual elements until I have the composition decided on (Hence not to have to work on them all over again).
But I am embarrassed for it to have caught your attention :blush:
So I shall try and integrate them a little better when I start to work on it today.

And your second advice;
I think you mean that it looks too flat, that the pieces are lacking a dimension... right?
Well this is sort of also related to the previous explanation... But yes I should add some lighting to ensure a better depth and volume.
I have to agree with you.

Thank you so much for your insight!
I can never get enough of hearing some serious ones...
Hope I got them all right though.
(And also hope to be able to prepare something to a quarter of what your expectations seem to be :sad:)

Black

Gunilla

05-13-2006, 06:18 PM

It's so fascinating to follow your steps through this, struggling and playing with the same parts I did a while back in such a different style and techniques!
You're doing a splendid job with the amnion, and I'm really curious on how you will integrate it in your image. The step by step description is another gold piece for me to study, thanks!

For the layout, I understand why you want to place it on the right now... but Why I suggested the left side is for the topic "Journey begins". It would be quite logical if the unknown lies before him, in the future... but I'm sure it will be clearer to me later on. :)

So, it seems you work long nights with this now... don't worry, with this tempo you'll have no problem finishing in time. So, what's next?

akahraman

05-13-2006, 07:38 PM

You really get me what i mean...I was guessing you know those problems but i just wanted to accent. It seems to be a very professional job. Besides, there is enought time for you to finalize it,you're working quite fast and sure. I am learning too much thing from you...Watching and hoping more...Good luck...

Allah analý babalý buyutsun..:):rolleyes:

( )

BlackDidThis

05-13-2006, 09:41 PM

Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);
Hmm.. I hope they prove to be as useful as you claim them to be.

But unfortunately they are not exactly tutorials that tend to result in similar results for all who try walking the same steps :sad:
They are more actually a series of grabs explaining how I got to where I have.

But all that said, as I stated before... shall you want to know more about any particular area or method... all you have to do is ask.
I would love to explain what I can.

I haven't started on the big picture yet...
But shall I do so, I am going to keep to my word and see what I can do with putting it on the other side.
Actually I hadn't liked the results when I had tried it out before I had posted all the other variations. It looked very unbalanced in the angle the placenta was in that state.
(One of the worst things of it being 2D is that you can't rotate the model :cry:)

But I may be able to make it work with introducing some additional elements.. still thinking on that.

As for how the Amnion is going?
Well, I mounted the amnion earlier this noon... but then noticed that she didn't have that much fluid in the echograph scans... so I have to sort of shrink the size of the sack and work on it recently.
I'll post an update with the amnion after I finish a few things I have in hand

Selam Alperen (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=220606);

Firstly: Sagolasin :) ... insallah! (For those that don't understand: Thank you... hopefully!)

I am glad I got your comments correctly :)
Actually you were very clear in your words... I guess I was just too tired and wasn't able to be sure enough and feared to make a mistake.

There are some changes on the child with the new additions, but still far from what you had advised.
Hope to make more improvements on giving volume in the following updates. (Now that I seem to know now where to bring the lighting from)

As for the speed?... well I HAVE to work this fast since I already started very late, with so much to do. :cry:

Just wish to finish it the way this painting deserves to be finished.

Thank you so much for your confidence :thumbsup: ...

Update coming soon;

Black

BlackDidThis

05-14-2006, 01:09 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147565346_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147565346_large.jpg)

I am still going on with fine tuning the elements I have in hand.
My goal from this point on is to try to present a possible “finished work” in case anything happens towards the last days.

I mounted the amnion today, but it cost me a lot, because I ended up having o shrink its size in ratio to the amount of fluid in Rebecca’s (My wife) ultrasound scans.

The amnion is far from finished and definitely not fitted in yet.
Next I want some “settling” on its surface.
The child does not really leave Rebecca much rest, pushing around to settle better.
I have attempted for a slight refraction and caustic due to the fluid inside. But I wish to make the fluid less blurry and the membrane more transparent.

Today I have also merged a good amount of layers to optimised the file … You can see the latest version of the layers window (Yes this is the lesser amount!)

Til next;

Black

akahraman

05-14-2006, 01:22 AM

Hi again,

| At my earlier post, i wished for their baby to grow up with its - missed its gender:blush: - father and mother always togather...|

I couldn't read carrefully all your posts here, sorry if i ask you that u say before...You talked about light... I wonder if it is in the body or you imagine something different...because if its inside the body with full of fluids, there should be a soft, vveerryy soft ligth effect just like in the depth of the sea or water... I am sure you've imagine that sight... This could maybe help you to give it the realist visualization...Also this strange mood gives the opportunity of tranquillity,awaiting before the biggest journey...! The silent before storm... Resting to gain power. I wish i could explain that:shrug:... I know you understand me... Here,in this job you're doing, there is much MORE than drawing or painting or technique or...else...

Your work is difficult.But being father causes you to feel much more than i'm trying to explain...there is no doubt... This'll be easy for you...

I am exciting to see the result...

| forget to say,thanks for easy watching tutorials |

( )

EdP-Art

05-14-2006, 01:32 AM

It's a nice concept and your putting a lot of work into it. Well done.

On your layout query... I think you need to explain what we are looking at a bit more so I'd go with the 'form to counter balance'. One idea that struck me was to have an outline on the mother's body slightly visible and in the background pictures or items relating to the future of the child, like teddys, school brochures, empty picture frames.
Another idea was to have the picture as the echography scan pinned to a board along with a list/programme of things that will happen after the child is born. Like a card for a prospective school, list of possible names (which may be helpful soon :) ).

i know you are planning on having everything other than the baby black but you do need to give us some inkling of the journey ahead. :hmm:

It'll be a good piece whatever you do with it.

*Ed

akahraman

05-14-2006, 01:38 AM

Hmm,,I've looked to your image again and i can say that; there should be much more places light can not reach...Needs smooth blacks..this is what i see... This is an early stage for know... Sure you would think this,but i wanted to confirm...Maybe you want something different... I hope i dont cause you to be hurry and feel under pressure... We should watch it patiently until the end of the challenge... Work is great for know and deserves to be calm...

( )

BlackDidThis

05-14-2006, 05:33 PM

Hi;
I was waiting to not have to spam my thread again without having an update in hand...
But I shall need the whole of today to help a very good friend of mine on her animation. So I guess it is best I don't leave your posts unanswered.

Selam Alperen (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=220606);

Lol I am aware that I tend to type a lot :)
And I am not ever going to blame you for not being able to read through all of it... the post will remain here anyways, shall you wish to do so some time.

The thing about the lighting had had come up in a question I had had asked a few updates back about the leg.
The way that a foetus is some good amount more translucent than a new born baby. And that they have a sort of inner glow, like a jade or a ruby.

How to get a "translucent material" effect:
I achieve this sort of an effect on the 2D basis by selecting the shape of the form and then applying a "plasterFilter" to a duplicate of that layer. Then I set the blending of this duplicate as "overLay".
In the filters settings I am able to determine the angle from where the light is coming from.
I had explained these in a post before the leg.

Back to the leg;
Now the down fall of doing such an effect is that you boost the ambience of the object and simply loose a lot from the details.
That's why I had had asked the forum if they thought that I should go for with or without such an effect.

Shortly after that post I had realised that to get such a translucent lighting effectively, you would have to have a sort of lighting from behind.
And since the composition was not yet set... I thought I would best leave it for later, until I know from where I wanted to do the lighting.

The Caustic effects:
I presume the word you were looking for was caustics (kirinimdan odaklanan isinlar), where the light waves break up into a spectrum and enhance the lighting of the surrounding.

Well I had mentioned on my update that I had applied an amount of caustics. Though I didn't go about doing it to the rest of the elements yet.
If you shall look carefully at the amnion (Kese) carefully you shall notice that the fluid in the sack has actually enhanced the luminance of the child and the elements that are to be inside it.
I have also included a slight magnified distortion due to the Refraction (Kirinim) qualities of the fluid.

Unfortunately the material in mention (The Amnion cavity) is not too refractive and a bit too muddy to be too caustic.
But I might use the idea of an exaggerated caustic effect with the new light I have a mind of introducing.

As I read your post... I think I can get your point about the "calm" with the effects of caustics... you are talking about how the pools lit at night reflect a soothing animation of lights on the ceiling or walls.
I just might consider such an idea.
Thank you

About your second post:
I think you are really going to like what I did with the latest version last-night/this-morning.
But it was simply running it through the "lightEffects" filter and altering the bordering a little bit. So nothing really worth posting here yet.
I agree that there is more volume still needed and more light to be dramatised. they shall be here... they shall be here :twisted:

And no, no... you are not pressuring me at all... I enjoy the enthusiasm and touchable motivation you are granting me... thank you so much!
I just hope to make something deserving such high expectations.
(And yes... it is VERY far from being just a pointing for me)

Hello ED (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=215175);

THANK YOU!

I was possibly going to set a post about how there has been over 500 visits to the thread since I actually asked on how I should proceed with the composition... and that Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228) (Heaven sent!) was the only person to actually give me an opinion!

Now I can feel much better about it! :)

I think I agree with your comments completely... As much as it looks cool against the black, the image needs a little bit more input on how things should or can go.
And I think I am going to go with including some sort of elements in order to be able to introduce that.

I am not so sure about the school bit... sounded to kitsch in first thought but has started to grow on me. But I have been thinking of portraying my beautiful wife at some degree... Or presenting more maternal structures to help present the difficulties of the journey of biological creation.

About the data of the echograph scan... Well my only worry about that is that none of the elements in this image until now were copied or directly made use of a photo or any other reference... And as fine as I am with placing the digits and texts of the echograph... I don't know how I would wish to include the image resulting of it without breaking that rule of mine.
But I shall start thinking of more absurd methods of bringing it to a use since this image is non the less a surreal approach to what's happening inside her.

Children's names? ... oooh you hit me where it hurts!... still don't know what to call him/her! :cry: But I am not sure of using texts too much. Feels as if it may spoil it.
Once again... I will give it a try. I don't see a harm in it.

Your insight on this all was very useful.. than kyou for sparing the time for it. I shall give each of them some thought and try to find ways of applying them to see ho they turn out.

Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);
I know you didn't post anything of yet... but I just grew to have a habbit of including you in every reply I set :p

Naaa.. I just wanted to post a message stating that I THINK I have managed to find a manner of lighting that might make the child look good enough when placed on the other side.
I am still considering of what elements to bring out... but I have now the better luxury of being able to use both sides. I'll try to include that if I have time at the end of today.

Thank you all;

Black

akahraman

05-15-2006, 12:40 AM

I guess i see...:rolleyes:

I wonder when you'll write a book...:) Maybe you'd already have... Looks like you have so much thing to say very useful...Also looks like you have a great potential about writing...:buttrock: this point got my attention. and thanx for explanatory replays...Kolay gelsin...

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individium

05-15-2006, 02:28 AM

hi friend,
first i want to thank you for your very helpful and kind comments

after finishing my work i tried to read your posts but too long and im very near to sleep i just could read the first 1/3 of it.

right now all i can say is you made a great image looking very realistic and artistic.

see you later i'll be back later for more examination but for now morpheus calling me very insistently :).

zzzzz...

Gunilla

05-15-2006, 03:55 PM

Oh! You've been busy and I haven't been around chatting! But I'm glad you include me in the anwsers anyway :)

first, amnion... Looks really good in place, maybe you loose some of the nice details in the underlying layers? This is a really tricky balance, but maybe you could make it even more transparent - at least partially. Another thing that comes to mind is maybe making some areas within the amnion more shadowed so it would be light, transparent amniion with sectretly dark shadows underneath... right now it all looks a bit even, but in a gourgeous way of course!
As for his/hers name - don't worry, that seems to fall into place once the baby is born - looking exactly as a "......" (fill in the blanks here)

Looking forward to your next step, have a nice evening :thumbsup:

OrO

05-15-2006, 05:55 PM

wow....good idea about the journey...good luck to you!!!

BlackDidThis

05-16-2006, 01:03 AM

I am sorry, but from Saturday on, life was seriously difficult and impressively busy on our side.
And as much as I wished to, I couldn't work on the child enough to be able to post an update.

I have a few hours work before me.. and after that shall I not be too tired, I will try and catch up to the time loss. if not tomorrow.

Selam Alperen (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=220606);
lol... It goes as simple as "You ask... And I will explain!" :) :p

I didn't see a shorter way of saying all of those. And sort of felt like you would like to know the technicality.

there were a series of models, textures and even a variaty of tutorials that were intended on being put up on my site.
But unfortunately they all got lost with my workstation burning down.
Actually I have accepted to help out on writing an article for a new digital magazine that you guys have... I'll notify you of that if you would be interested.

Shall you have anything to ask until they are rewritten and posted up... do feel free!

Hello Berkay (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=214501);
I really hope you haven't bothered coming all the way here only because I have posted on your thread.
It is truly not needed.

I wouldn't know about the artistic side...
I just hope that I manage to preserve enough realistic elements to not loose touch with the viewers.
As a result it is a it emotional.

And I am really sorry for doing such pain on your eyes with the reading... I guess I just like to write a lot :blush:

Thank you for the encouragement!

Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);
Ohh yes... tricky indeed.

The words of one talking out of experience are so much different than others ... Isn't it?
I always had a fear of including the amnion to begin with... simply for the fear of loosing the details from under as you had had mentioned.

But I decided to go for it around the middle of this week after coming up with a sort of "Idea" to handle the matter and make better use of it.

What you see now is not exactly the amnion itself, but a blend of the cavity and the refraction effects of it. (The idea bit was the use of caustics, though I might exaggerate it as much as Alperen (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=220606) had also suggested)

Now that I have the spread of it all.. I am going to make the membrane be "sensed" to be there by taking as little off the hard worked details as I can manage.
Hope to succeed.

About the names... well you are not the first that says that... but it just feels so odd to still not be able to. I guess like in many things I do, I am trying just too hard :sad:

Originally Posted by Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);
... right now it all looks a bit even, but in a gourgeous way of course!Oh that quote is DEFINATELY one to keep :p

OrO (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=156661)!
hey it has been a long time...
Glad you liked the idea... and thank you! :)

Black

individium

05-16-2006, 02:39 AM

selam black

i'm sorry you hoped this not to happen but i came here becouse you posted me:) but you can feel alright 'cause that is not the only reason.
i saw your posts before you posted me but didnt have time to examine that time(as i said at my posts). and the other reason is youre writing so much good stuff and i was sure you wrotew soo much helpoful things in your posts(look im right:) )

and other than that you dont give any pain to my eyes, i enjoy reading.

see you later

BlackDidThis

05-17-2006, 04:04 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147835091_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147835091_large.jpg)

It has been a while since I had the opportunity to work on the child.
But we had a lot on our hands these last few days. Also the reason I was not too able to visit the forum to compare to before.

Today I worked some amount on the lighting… and actually on refining some of the details to fit in these particular areas.
I am including a larger version of one of these. It is still not really comparable to the actual resolution, but it should give you a good idea.

As you may notice, I am gradually making the most of the elements translucent.
Also, this time I have included the membrane of the amnion instead of the cavity, and the particles that have stuck onto its outer surface. Not that there was any work done on them since the last update.

Hope you like it

Black

BlackDidThis

05-17-2006, 04:09 AM

Selam Berkay (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=214501);
lol.. just don't get ahabbit of spamming :)

I am glad you liked the reading material... It was definately fun sharing it with all of you.
I just hope that some of the information here can be of use to some of you.

Best of luck
(Got to go ... a lot to have to do :sad:)

Black

Gunilla

05-17-2006, 06:03 AM

Oh yes! You're definitely on the right track here. Amnion works really well now, enough visible to be there but not so much that it's hiding him/her - nice work :thumbsup:
Also I notice a very nice falloff effect in the bottom of it - just what's needed to define the shape.
No crits from me at this point - you just keep doing what you do and it'll be fine :)

EdP-Art

05-17-2006, 09:04 AM

Hi Black, there's a lot of detail there, it's nice work.

I'm have no medical knowledge but herre are few comments...

The 'artery' (I can't even spell it) between the chin and the hand, at a distance, looks like a deformed hand. Maybe tone it down a bit.

Why is there a white box in the top right?

The white edges all around the outside of the drawing make it look like you cut it out of a photo. If you feather it so it blends with the black it will look mmore like the black is part of the mothers body.

Looking forward to more updates before we hit the deadline! :eek:

*Ed

akahraman

05-17-2006, 09:09 AM

I really love the light influence on the 6x detail if you wonder about my thought...It's becoming a highly original work...Some parts of the figure are too much 2D you know,especially on the face and fingers...This stage looks like a collage to me...But it looks to be so much better, i can realize this when i see the small detail...You have a great skill for sure...

( )

BlackDidThis

05-17-2006, 03:39 PM

Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);
Thank you yet again :)

I am sort of planning on giving even better shape to the placenta and the viewed segment of the Uterus wall... but for now I have a mind to go on in and give him/her a left arm and leg, now that I know what sort of a volume I have to fit him/her into!

The bad news is that the reason the amnion is so much clearer is that I took off the visibility of the amniotic cavity and the artefacts stuck onto the membrane. But fear not... I really plan on making the sack much more transparent to not steal the spot light from the child :)

Tack så mycket! (<= THIS is NOT easy to do with my keyboard!)
(For those who don't understand: Thank you)

Hello again ED (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=215175);

Lol, I am so sorry for literally turning the thread into an anatomical study! :blush:
And no one is asking for you to know all the names... I get your point very clearly.

I shall be including (Hopefully) the other hand in the next update, so that might make it a little bit easier to distinguish. Even still the image is going to change some good bit.
That you see there is the vessels that collect from the placenta and send it up the Umbilical chord.
You can see an actual version of it HERE (http://www-medlib.med.utah.edu/WebPath/PLACHTML/PLAC031.html) (I am making it a link instead of placing the image... in case you are squeamish by any rate)
So how it goes is: the entrance is from the inside.. and the exit is from the outer side of the chord. That's why all of the vessels are so much darker in colour.
ONCE I am done with the positioning of everything I am going to go in and paint some blueish hues. I am just postponing it til I am sure of the looks. Since the position of it might totally change by then.

The box on the top:
:blush:
Well the file I am working with is now around 1.34 gigabytes... and I need to work on some elements on a separate layer when I am applying effects. The Big ones is easier to mount to another image. I have little black brush strokes on the corners for each big layer.
But for the smaller elements, instead of having again gigantic files to play with them... I use a smaller canvas. The box there is to help me reorient when I bring the file back.

The white edges;
Oh .. I like the effect of it being cut out!
I plan on leaving that.. It is going to help me emphasize the effect of light coming from behind and it was not too easy to do. :sad: I have in fact done a similar effect on the child's head this time.
But yes.. at this stage it is a little "raw" and does need to be refined. I hope to deal with that at some time.

Selam Alperen (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=220606);
hmmm.. A collage
I should watch out for that!.. It is an obvious trap that happens when you use selection masks and go into too much details.

Skill?
There you go on the extreme compliments again :)
But thank you.. I am only as skilled as you are and it means alot to hear such words.

I will watch out for your point ... and I hope to get something as good as I hope for.

Thank you again!

Black

alxcote

05-17-2006, 05:27 PM

Hey black,

I like your idea for this project.. very creative I must say. I'm not quite sure what you have in mind for your final composition but I think that's what you'll have to focus on the most in the end. Make sure all the elements communicate well.

Good luck,

alx

BlackDidThis

05-18-2006, 01:56 AM

Thank you Alexandre (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=54456)...
Honestly I don't have a very clear idea for the final composition. And actually that's the reason of hesitation now in the steps I am taking.

My major goal was to try to make use of all the echograph scans of our child and try to portray what he/she could be looking like. There are a few results in mind, but none of them strike yet as "what I would like to do".

As for having the elements; that's the main "objective" now.
Trying to integrate everything I have worked on up until now.
Hope to get some where.

Black

BlackDidThis

05-18-2006, 08:30 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147937447_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147937447_large.jpg)

This is a little something I put together while giving a short break to what I was doing.
(It is sort of intended to illustrate the uterine cavity)
I shall not, what so ever, be using it as it is here... everything is just put together such as to give an idea of what the image may look like with some sort of element on the counter corners.

Last night; after I was done, I showed it to a very good friend of mine and really liked what she had said/commented:
“Don’t ruin the beauty of the child by enforcing a background element”.

As much as I am find that she has a point, I just wanted to see what you guys think of it as well.

Til next

Black

Andoy

05-18-2006, 02:20 PM

To be honest with you Black, I don't like it... i am finding my eye is drawn away from the child very quickly and towards the new background image..

Maybe if the background was only barely visible, more like a ghostly image of what is going to come .. then it wouldn't pull the viewers eye in too fast.

I look forward to your updates as usual

all the best

Gunilla

05-18-2006, 02:49 PM

New part is really beautiful, and if you can make it "melt" into the scene I think it can work well. The styles are a bit to different right now to say for sure. And now one with the baby to the left?
Compliments for your swedish, been taking lessons? :)

Andoy

05-18-2006, 05:09 PM

Maybe i should re phrase my last post....
I Do agree with Gunilla that the new part is beautiful and maybe i did not quite explain what i thought very well.
I think that if you could merge the new background into the image without drawing the eye away from the main part it would be superb. That is why i thought about fading it or something ... but i do re-iterate that i am no artist and the skills you have will far outway any ideas i have :)

as always ... all the best
Andy

dinodog-jr

05-18-2006, 07:20 PM

Black,
the baby coloring is simply blown me away!

R u goin to use the latest uterine cavity as baby Background?!

Honestly, i would like to see this baby floating in this "tunnel"..

Very nice details u got here!..

EdP-Art

05-18-2006, 11:30 PM

Hi Black, I love the cavity. It's begining to create the story.

The baby looks like there's a spotlight on it compared to the background. I know you like the white around the edge but try one with out the white and blend it a bit more into the background and see what you get. I prefer the right pic, the cavity looks like the path ahead.

Your well on your journey

*Ed

PS Thanks for your very good comments on my journey.

beelow

05-19-2006, 12:24 AM

I am interested to see where you will take this black, Watching patiently hehe! Good luck with pulling this image together! Go, go, go!:scream: :thumbsup:

BlackDidThis

05-19-2006, 05:50 AM

Just a quick reminder about the image posted above being just an idea sketch...
I shall definitely not permit it to dominate the canvas.

I have another option in mind so as to have my wife model for me. But that we shall see. Things are VERY busy on this side.

Individual replies

ANDY (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=108025)!

You definitely take part of the group whose opinion matters for me.
And I already was sure you would dislike this post regarding to our private chats earlier. I agree with your comments back then. And thank you once more for helping me decide on something that was very important to me.

I shall give things a try.. if they work.. they work... If not.. they don't.
I shall not sacrifice the child for it :)

But the mild colours just might do the trick.

Well my good friend.. and good man... I had better finish the replies and get back to stuff.. not too much time left is there? :cry:

Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);

hehehe heh... You caught me there...
Well as promised I gave the other side a go...
In fact I even changed the lighting of the child to attempt that side. I liked the new lighting because of it... but still didn't like the position, so I kept only the new lights :sad:
Sorry

But here you go!.. A quick variety of many;
http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/TheJourneyBegins/BackGround_Eye.jpg

I have given a dear few compositions a try... But as I explained above.. there are a lot of things that might change in spite the limited time remaining.

I am now concentrating on the features of the child only.
(Note that there is now also a sneak preview of the latest form of the child :).I have a mind on preparing the next update sort of like a tutorial again... so it is going to have to wait again until later today)
Edit:
About the Swedish... lol no not exactly taking lessons... just learning the more important things needed to get girls!
Hmm... like: "My left wheel is flat." or "the dentist gave me an appointmet for Thursday."
Once I master the dictation.. none will be able to resist! :bounce:

Hello Tan (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=16345);

I really don't know yet.. but the bit about "swimming" just might not happen. It would have been something I should have had done before I had gotten so far on the form of the child. There are something's that distortion/transformation just can't be enough for.

I am glad you liked it!

Hello ED (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=215175);

Okay... I think I know what can have us both have an "in-between" for the light coming from behind.
There shall not be a ring as it is disturbing you in the latest form of it... It shall be spreading all through the surface at some places. And it shall be cut off in others. Varying to the thickness of the placenta.

I think such a feel will bother you a lot les.

Now you are totally correct on how the child shall be simply cut off of the rest of the image with such a lighting. And I am really going to have to change the whole image if I have to to fit that back light into it.
I have a few ideas.. but if none of them work out. I have a mind to just never mind everything but the child.

The picture on the right?
You mean the landscape version right?
Hmmm.. yes that one does suggest a more distant journey... Ads more drama doesn't it?
I actually had like the landscapes most of the first set of choices as well.
But shall see.

As for the comments?.. oh no, you really should not bother. you have a wonderful journey yourself and it is the best we can do for your being willing to share it with us :)

Bryce (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=129663):
I am glad it has managed to catch your attention.

Just hope to be worth it :D

Black

Slav

05-19-2006, 03:42 PM

hey black. i saw you being more active in the last little bit of the challenge. so i decided to drop in and have a look at what you are up to. i would crit but as of right now all that this image really needs is more work. at any-rate ill be back for your updates.

BlackDidThis

05-19-2006, 03:59 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148050752_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148050752_large.jpg)

In most of my elements in the image, you can probably notice how I have assort of texture applied.
Some of them are done by using preset brushes, and others by stamping or overlaying an effect from one piece to another.
For the bits like the pores, I used an interesting approach. I simply used a scan of a piece of paper at a mid resolution, ad then inflated this into a larger scale. Trying to make sure I get a lost of jpeg artefacts.
Later on I just spread this to the whole canvas, liquidify it to a suiting curve to where I am going to use it… then use the stampTool or the healingBrush to apply them.
Sometimes I even run the scan through a filter to get different effects.

Anyhow here is a sort of step by step description of how you can create and apply a series of veins that are suppose to appear from under the skin.
The whole idea was to try to deal with the problem Alperen had mentioned about how the head was feeling flat, feeling 2D. I figured a few strips of vessels could/would do the trick.

1_

I had to create a series of vessels to be able to have this effect work. You could use an image, or draw them yourself. But I would definitely advise using a reference.
Choose to world with a colour that would be able to give you a good variation when burned or dodged. I chose to work with a sort of Sienna (The exact colour used on the bordering of the above post).
Then you have the dodged version of that colour (Via overlay) on the background and you start working on that. I divided the image into 3 sections to better illustrate how I went on doing this.

a _ Paint/burn the vessels to your liking. Then run segments of it through transformation/distortions to ensure you have them squeeze and twist to the shape you want them so.
Try smudging the junctions with the smudge tool (At any point... do NOT worry about the mess this will make. Because of the further steps we are going to be taking, only the brightest and the darkest tones will be visible). You can always use the dodge tool to lighten these areas up if you would like to clean up. I personally didn’t bother much.
b _ Run the image through “cell” filtering. I personally went for the options of paintDaubs and Dust-N-Scratches. What we want here is to have the brush strokes daubed… and the capillaries to produce from in-between the daubs (The reason will be a little more obvious in a close up)
Then take the smudgeTool again and start refining the tips and junctions.
c _ Run the results once more through filters to get similar constructions after your latest modification. This is the last chance to be able interfere to the vessels positions. So distort/transform them again If you see the need.

2_

Play with the blending settings of the layer by setting it to overLay or softLight. I personally needed a subtle effect, so I went for softLight and an opacity value of 69.
Then duplicate the layer underneath it. And merge the vessels onto it. Your result is actually satisfying to a good amount. But you will loose the surface textures of the bottom if you had any.
There is a work around that.

3_

Now take the healingBrush Tool and having the last layer still active. Alt click and click in the exact same position to source from this layer.
Now turn off the visibility of this layer, and set your tool settings to “Lighten” And start drawing the details you have worked on to this one with this tool.

You can manage to achieve nice convincing results with such a technique as well. Actually two additional things done and not mentioned are the usage of painting only the hue’s of a colder colour with the paintBrush tool to ad a variety to the vessels. You can do such before you merge shall you please.
And secondly, you can always fade your healingBrush Tool effects via Ctrl Shift F after your strokes, or use the historyBrush Tool to blend the effects.
I have done such for the forehead.

Hope they work for you as well!

Black

BlackDidThis

05-19-2006, 04:06 PM

Hello Yaroslav (http://yaroslav/);
Thank you... And lol, I have updated already for you to start on :p

Til later!

Black

makaron

05-19-2006, 05:56 PM

those translucent veins looks fantastic... and the baby is really taking shape...

marvelous work you doing here Mr Black :) both at the image and the tutorials...

MrFreeman

05-19-2006, 08:19 PM

:) Great work Black... and I'm sorry that I've not actually read through your thread in detail until now...

This is a really nice concept and having three children myself, can relate to this....

I agree that it is worth focusing on the baby and look forward to seeing how this works out.

The detail work looks great

Still 8 days left, so good luck!! :) :)

Glosep

05-19-2006, 09:24 PM

Great image, It looks very good until now. I like all the textures and details like the veins and eyes. Maybe you can work a little more in the right hand and foots, just more detail.
Can't wait to see more advances. :scream:

EdP-Art

05-19-2006, 10:10 PM

Hi Black, thanks for the in depth tutorial on veins and translucent skin. Really good stuff.

Lest see more... of the pic, more updates.

*Ed

BlackDidThis

05-20-2006, 03:28 AM

Hello Mona (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=129166)…

I am glad you liked it. It was a very dense week and I don’t know how I was able to spare time for it :sad:.

But I intend on working very hard on it for the weekend! :love:

Hello David (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=79951);
Well doubt you would be the first. Leave alone the fact that there are many posts for people to be able to read through, I tend to type a lot :)

I was very jealous of people like yourself once… but finally we are going to have one of our own!:bounce:
Pure luck actually… I had actually wanted to try and make an image such… but when I heard the subject I just jumped to it. As late as I may have been!

Hello Leonardo (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=96801);
I am not sure if I am going to be doing detail on the hands and feet. Maybe the left hand. Because they are going to be in some strong lighting. And the detail shall be lost in the result of it.
I am especially trying to give as much detail/character to the eyes as I can manage. I usually go for something like that when ever portraying. They add or take so much from the image!

Hello ED (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=215175);
Once again I can not brag about it really being a tutorial… but it was how I made my veins… I hope it can come in handy for you guys as well.

As I said above, I had some hard time updating this week. But this weekend... expect some good pace!

Everybody (http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=191);
Earlier today I had taken a screen grab of a close up to the eyes and ear for a friend of mine.
I tend to do so periodically to be able to examine the progress on various screens.

Since it is very close to its final stage, I thought I would share a full resolution for you.

I hope I wouldn’t have to state that you have to rotate it 90 degrees counter clockwise. I had to rotate the screen-grab so I wouldn’t make scrolling in this thread hell.
(So it’s not that my screen is side ways or anything :p)

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/TheJourneyBegins/ScreenGrab_Eyes_n_Ear.jpg

Sooo Well you got to get a better idea of what the details of the image are like (This is my faourate cropping)

Well that’s about it… I plan on spending some good time on the image this weekend.

Til next

Black

Gunilla

05-20-2006, 07:19 AM

Hey there! Ohh... you've been busy - lot's of new updates.

But here you go!.. A quick variety of many;

I'm glad you tried it out - and also I've no crits about you not deciding to go with this comp...it looks really good though, and the background is stunning. Will you keep any of it?

Haha, for the swedish phrases - let me know if I can help you with some. But you should't waste your time in trying to get swedish girls, now that you're becoming a father and all :D

Your vein work is absolutely beautiful! I know exactly how hard this could be to get right... this will be another useful set of tricks for me, thanks! And the closeup is just amazing...really mmm.
Hmmm, what's the matter with me? Can't I think of anything to pick on?

Nope. I really like what you got going here - the mix of photoreal and painterly style is really wonderful. Have you tried to run a canvas texture filter on the closeup? Perhaps it could be worth a try - I can well see this as an old oilpainting.

Happy workday now!

hdhcg

05-20-2006, 09:52 AM

Very nice working here!Nice idea! Good details. I waiting for continue！

akahraman

05-20-2006, 10:51 AM

I made you a farewell at my own posts but i guess i will interact you here more...I am feeling really cool while watching your entries... Your exposing details are perfect and they are good images differently each other. Those shots are better then your complete job:blush: for now. I also want to say the foot is deformed strangely. This is possible for an illustration but your work is realistic so much and it looks wrong or inattentive.

I can not get sure what you think for your whole composition...One of your before entries,; http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1147937447_medium.jpg
there were a inner organ as a tunnel...This tunnel has a really good mood and telling something about the journey...But i strongly dont reccomend a composition like those things... It would be better to fit the baby...We could watch the details better and this could be a stronger image. On the other hand its possible to find a way you want to achieve. Must try... I really trust your sights and i am sure you will get the best result...However i would like to say those things...

( )

BlackDidThis

05-20-2006, 03:21 PM

Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);
Well no actually :(
I have done little amount of an improvement to compare to my progress from before.
The background was actually a close up to an eye. A photograph I had found on the net a while ago. It was just done to have a colour splash to the back of it. That one as well as the tunnel’s were all done in a minute or two, so they lack coordination to the child.
But I think the colours of the one I showed you may be a way to go.

I am not too sure yet... but I THINK that it might be a good idea to draw Rebecca, but I am mad at her recently, so it is not a good time to attempt drawing her (You know… horns, or giving her a ridiculous look or eve worst ever make her as ugly as Bush :p).
Lol naa.. I will have decided on where to go for by the end of this weekend for sure. You’ll be notified :)

Originally Posted by Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);
...Haha, for the swedish phrases - let me know if I can help you with some. But you should't waste your time in trying to get swedish girls, now that you're becoming a father and all...Hahahaha.. well that’s an aprouch. I always thought that I shouldn’t got for Swedish girls because I was MARRIED… hahaha
But well it never hurts to know that you have back ups now does it? (Joking)

Thank you for the compliments regarding the close up.
But in fact a friend of mine (oddly also a lady :)) has pointed out disturbances concerning the nose.
I had always left the nose to be covered in a vernix mass, since I am unable to read the cartilage formations from the scans we have (Don’t exactly know what the nose looks like for short) But she has a point to what it may take from the image shall I not show a little more concern.
In fact that’s what I was painting on just now. I think I have done a cool nostril that I may not mind revealing from under the vernix layers :)

Well I hadn’t thought of that... But even my canvas’s for my oil paintings (Unfortunately as detailed) are also with a considerable layer of Gesso and some extra fine sanding.
Not having the grains of the canvas in the way, I have much less distraction on my brushes strokes while trying to paint hyper detail.
So a “canvas” texture always strikes me as to be sort of fake, maybe crackling effect?
Though I do have an option o print it out on a canvas… let me think it over.

Hello Dehong (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=212684);

Great to have you drop by, Tank you for the compliments!

I was just o your website earlier today… And I have to say that I am very impressed. (Though I wish you could find a faster server, or manage to optimise your site a little more)

Selam Alperen (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=220606);
Thank you again for your insights on my work. And your compliments to my person.

Usually the eyes are the parts I show most care to in even the earliest stages of my images. It is a sort of bad tactique in the long term…but it helps me interact with the “spirit” of the painting much better, And well I honestly enjoy the eyes a lot.

I get your point and hope I will be able to put as much meaning to the whole of the image.

As for the earlier post of compositions. I am not going to exactly put it the way you see it there. It is actually more for presenting an idea, one of many that I am considering of maybe using. In last of hope, I have the option of not doing anything about the background and the child is, as you said, already a painting of his/her own.

I am flattered by your trust and confidence. But also glad that it doesn’t keep you from sharing your thoughts.I am in a closed shell far from any ones contact… so it means a lot to me to hear what effects are created on others.
Thank you once again for sharing so much time on my thread…
EDIT: I forgot to answer you about the leg...
There is a slight intended distortion on the right leg of the child (Because of the refraction of the liquid). But the left leg is still just there for a colour base. I shall be dealing with it today.
I don't know which one you are refering to.
But I shall be examining the both of them :)

Black

BlackDidThis

05-20-2006, 11:57 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148165874_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148165874_large.jpg)

I know this doesn’t seem like a decent enough update to compare.
But I spent some VERY good amount of time detailing and finalising the child’s face. I am just about completely done with the face and head at this point. I hope to be presenting the rest of the changes in later updates.

As expected… on of THE places that I had the most trouble with was the nose, and since most of the work was for close-up details: I am posting a close up of the before and after version of the nose and lips (Yes, it is still much smaller than the original format)

The method used was similar to all mentioned earlier through the thread. But just to summarise/recall it: the surface was run through various filters to generate cell shapes, and then these were manipulated/distorted, last of all plasticWrap was faded on to give the soft tender feel to it.
What took the MIOST time was the “Modify” part, as it is much more work than what a single word can portray :sad:.

Well getting back to work.
Tomorrow I am hoping to post an update with a background integration test (Not jut a stick on this time)

Black

cLos71

05-21-2006, 12:37 AM

nice going! Keep it up.

EdP-Art

05-21-2006, 02:34 PM

Nice work Black, the details are amazing.

Looking forward to your next update and I'm eager to see how you get the 'journey' feel into it.

This is the first portrait I've ever seen of a child before it was born. What is he/she going to say to you about it when you explain it to them? That, I'm sure, will be a special moment.

Keep it up Black.

*Ed

Gunilla

05-21-2006, 05:52 PM

Oh yes - the new nose is much better. Just as soft and squeezable as they are ( not that I have squeezed an unborn nose)
The face is getting really alive now. One small suggestion though - the gloss specular on the lower lip looks a bit to much - or is it on the amniom? It looks a bit like he/she is using heavy lip gloss, perhaps just breaking the line some could work well?

When you're thinking of adding Rebecca - would it be like surrounding the baby? Behind? It could work well I think - but not looking like Bush :wise:

Holding my breath to see what's next ;)

BlackDidThis

05-21-2006, 08:37 PM

Everybody (http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=191);
First let me place a common answer since Both of you seem to have asked for the composition and how it’s going.
(I KNOW I had had said that I was going to spend the weekend only on this image. But I really had a lot of things to do. Once I am done with these renders. I will start again and hopefully post something visual)

I am thinking of introducing some light from outside the uterus tunnel (that you see in the earlier example), and one illuminating the lower bottom wall. This will ensure a whole black canvas again… giving me a change to keep the isolated colour lay out that I had earlier liked... and also add a distant exit, where the end of his/her development shall pass through.
How I plan on dealing with the light coming from outside the tunnel is going to be through a sort of translucency like I had earlier done with digits of the child.

This would also enable me to include a segmentation of the child’s mother (I know you guys are very curios on what the girl that married this ugly frog would possibly look like! :p).
But that is not certain for two basic reasons.. time and compositin. I’ll see how I manage the lights on the background and decide accordingly
(And no Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228), I am not going to waste my time nor anything else, for something as needless as a Bush “anything”:))

Thank you Carlos (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78063);
I’ll do my best.

My good man ED (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=215175);
Lol, you’ve got a good point there! :)
I guess he/she will be saying something in the lines of “That doesn’t look like me!” :p
Don’t think I ever saw a portrait of a person before their birth as well… never thought of it that way. But when you think of it, with the new pre-birth data that can be obtained, it is odd that there isn’t such an attempt from before.

Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);
Oh I squeeze one every day! Except on my holiday leaves :p..
Well wouldn’t know. But you have to understand that my playing around with the image is literally substituting my inability to play with the child until the birth :)

I get your point about the lip… It had had happened in a very early stage of the development... some what by accident through the wrap filter. And I really liked it since it was sort of those effects that you literally can’t get even if you try. So I tried to mess with it as little as I was able to (Just blending it in to make it look natural).
I wouldn’t think it would gloss that much while the full of him/her is immersed into the fluid.

I’ll keep that in mind though… and spare some time on it as the deadline shows. At this poit I want to move on from the face and detail the rest.

Hoping to post some update within a few hours.

Black

BlackDidThis

05-21-2006, 11:13 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148249583_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148249583_large.jpg)

As much as I have decided to go for a “light from the tunnel” effect… I have not yet set my mind on how I want the image to g: Vertical or landscape.
Hence I am giving them both a try.

From the position of the child to the “exit” (For those who may not know.. the head is facing downwards actually. At least ours was when 18 weeks old), I am presuming I shall end up obligated to go for the portrait layout even though I had personally hoped for a landscape.

The making of the background was pretty straight forward… Though I would like to mention of something I did in the second step here with the radialBlur filter that apparently a dear amount of people I have helped had no idea of and that’s that; when you open the radialBlur window, if you click on the preview representation... you are able to change the centre of the filter effect.

What I did is just set a variety of blobs to my liking… ran them through a few filters, then set the origin of the radialBlur filter to somewhere along the left top corner. It was basically fine tuning the results from then on (The lower rotation effect on the fourth image was not done with the same effect. That one was distortion and smudging).

I actually plan to make more use of the effect somewhere else if not for here (I wish I worked in a larger format). The child is contoured instead of pasted... because I intend on blending the background on the translucency… So I thought it better to leave it with an outline rather than to mislead my judgement.

The landscape layout is going to be a little bit more delayed... I liked some results I got, and I would like to integrate it to the landscape before posting it.

Til later;

Black

BlackDidThis

05-22-2006, 03:32 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148265123_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148265123_large.jpg)

Well this sort of took a while.
I had actually gotten a fare idea of where to go an hour after my last post… but one thing started to lead to another and so on.
I JUST noticed how many hours I have been on these guys!
(The ACTUAL funny part was my waking up my wife at 3-4 in the morning to ask her if she was okay with my using her as a model for the lay out!
She said “Yes” by the way… again :))

I brought the background set up down to two options (The ones presented a few posts back).
Because of its ability of telling the story and of being a good enough excuse for the “11 o’clock” backlighting that the child has.
This time I am not posting them both on one image, so you can better see what’s going on, I shall post the other version next.

The lady on the left hand side is my beautiful wife Rebecca, and how she was like on the 14th of April. (I know she doesn’t look TOO pregnant in that image. But that is how she was like back then)
Every night I take her (More her tummies) photographs to make a procedural movie at the end of the 9 months.
So I have her ‘documented’ at that day :)

Can’t say I drew or painted the image :sad:
From haste I just took the photo, cleaned it, removed the cloths and accessories, and then ran a variety of filters you would usually run to make a photograph look like you have actually painted it.
I worked from there on and just experimented various brush strokes on it, matched it’s colour to the uterus membrane, drew a few defining contours, and then dodge/highlighted her tummy as I faded the rest of her to the back.
I also cared to use a more saturated and brighter membrane starting from her profile outwards to simply bring her out without having to make her any more distracting.

The mouth of the tunnel as had been mentioned before has been vibrantly highlighted.. and shall be even more fleshy, shall I start on the original.

Okay that’s the first one!
Back with the second in a while;

Black

BlackDidThis

05-22-2006, 04:05 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148267134_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148267134_large.jpg)

I just noticed that I actually made a “Milestone” Error on the previous post, since these guys are not colouring WIP’s but more actually concept sketches :sad:

In the previous milestone where I had posted what steps I took in the making of the uterus canal, I realised how so much lighter it was on my other screen. The detail needs to be there, but with a very minimal amount of distraction.
So I played with their colour values and even the hues (got it very slightly colder) so it could look similar in a most screens.

You may have noticed the umbilical chord missing from these last two. That’s because they are going to change some what, and I am working on them.
Another thing to state about the child in both images is that they are only cut outs from screen grabs of the bigger image. So I did not have access to the layers, nor the luxury to be able to blend either of them.
But they are some what modified, to both present a better image, and to sort of have an idea myself for what to watch out for here on.
(I don’t know if you have noticed Ed, but I ended up doing the rims exactly as you had advised :). I guess I should just stop arguing with you and do it from the start next time eh?)

That just about sums it all up.

I am going to spend about two more days trying to figure out which of the two to go for.
As sketched up as either of them is, I tried to present the general emotion I wanted to go for in both.
So please keep in mind that they still are rough sketches, and shall be polished… just not before my mind is made up on “which one”.

Well that’s about it;
Hope to hear what you are thinking.

Black

Andoy

05-22-2006, 06:16 AM

Superb updates Sir Black...
I for one absolutly love the first image with Rebecca in the background and the Landscape layout.
It evokes so much feeling, Stunning !!!

Just a thought though, I am not sure but have you tried with just Rebeccas torso and of course her lovely face, I am thinking that at the moment the female form looks too small, if it was a closer image with only the torso and the part of the face you have now, it may have even more impact, and still not detract from the baby's image.

I am sure you have gone through a million options already and i am sorry to throw another one in there,

will try and catch you later....
Best Regards

BlackDidThis

05-22-2006, 12:59 PM

Hello again lord Smith (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=108025);

Well I think I can say that I have periodically gone through a serious amount of options… But millions would be a little optimistic :p
Now as I had had stated in the post; I had actually used a photograph of her as it is for that sketch. For particularly these challenges I personally prefer to have it all hand painted.
And the photograph from the time had not exactly included her face. Since the images were particularly regarding the growth as it were visible from the outside.
So had not really cut her face off; such to say “You rare not as important”:)

I had ironically always thought of drawing her face actually…
The reason I went for such a composition was rather last minute:
It was basically making use of her being this tall, and slim (Funny how here we say “Slim” for “Smart”… So I say I found a slim girl; in both languages) So I could divide a portion off of the canvas by not exactly segmenting the composition, and still preventing the child to be lost in the wider environment. I thought it led the flow towards the entrance better this way.

There was always the option of closing up onto her stomach, but that would then thicken the mass of her and take some good amount of flow. I had a mind of going for something that would have looked like the composition I had made at threedy back while starting the speed modelling challenges for a bathtub… I don’t know if you had participated that week.
Wait... let me get a link…

Here you go;
http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/TheJourneyBegins/Moderated59_BathTub_Jukuzi.jpg
(Incase you didn't know: the statue at the back is an actual statue that is to be located at our master bedrooms bathroom… still to be completed)

But I find that such compositions seem more fitting with a tummy of the further stages of the pregnancy.

I shall however be keeping the idea of including her face some how. I agree that it would be promising for an impact, and she is very attractive... I just don’t see a way yet without overcrowding.

Thank you again for your insight ANDY (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=108025)!

Black

akahraman

05-22-2006, 07:42 PM

Few things again..:)

Last composition with tunnel seems quite good. I guess it will be perfect when you success a beautiful connection with the foetus. The solution at shadowed areas on the face and blacks are looking too much soiled...This could be some reddish. You must to do more suitable and real shades there. Sensitiveness and thinness of the skin can not be felt for now...

Really few things as always...:D

BlackDidThis

05-22-2006, 10:38 PM

Hello Alperen (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=220606);
Like always I am very glad to hear your critics on what I should do on the child. I like you and you ideas.
But my post was more meant to ask about which composition you guys would believe there is more potential.

In any case;
Are you referring to the neck area?
If that is so, that and the cheek are left off until the umbilical chord is positioned. And to the rest of the darker areas; I have not introduced a saturated hue to the whole child yet. That shall also come.

The tenderness of the skin?
hmm… That IS important. Better watch it! :surprise:

Now as for the composition: I guess you preferred the second one?
By saying “the last”?

Have to go now.
I finally have free time to play with my child again :bounce:

Black
(Going to work on the vessels connecting to the placenta again...
Not going to change that TOO much. But as a result it has to match the new curvature of the inner surface.)

EdP-Art

05-23-2006, 12:09 AM

Hi Black, first off I have to thank you for the excellent crit you did on my pic, it'll really help a lot. Now I doubt I can return the favour but here's an attempt...

Regarding the composition I hope you can link to this paintover here...

http://www.edp-art.com/Images/Black's-paintover.jpg

It's not great but I hope it gives you some idea of how Rebecca could fit into the picture and it's landscape which I get the feeling you prefer. It's not anatomically correct, I'm not a medic, nor are the angles too good but it might help.

We only have a few days left :eek:

Lets get them finsihed.

*Ed

BlackDidThis

05-23-2006, 04:44 AM

Thank you SO much for going through all the trouble of putting all that together!

Actually such a composition was of plan before I went on with painting the placenta (The big mass behind the child).
But technical difficulty I was obligated to start off on the placenta and not a floating child.

The technical difficulty is simply the file size:
To give you an idea; the file size of that square format with the black background is around 1.35-1.40 gigabytes in file size (I am working 4 times the recommended format)

Now if we go back to your image… (I think it has a very suitable proportion for such a project)… and compare the size of the child to the rest of the canvas; you’ll notice that the whole of the canvas is roughly 6.33 times bigger than the child’s.
That would make one BIG file (I really didn’t want to down sample it to a lower resolution and loose all the details I so want to include on the child).

Again about your image,
I have to admit that I had not before thought of placing Rebecca (whom to my personal taste is so much prettier) such.
Actually it is a great catch! Especially how the girls looks add so much more.
Everything is so maternal (Feeling left out here!) to compare to my approach. I had kept things at the biological stage… the way that Rebecca is the “home” to the developmental journey… and tried to hide the love for the child in the tenderness that he/she is encapsulated.
You on the other hand seem to have effort to give the family, love, conception… most everything about having a child in the image. More as if it is not the journey of the child... but the journey of being a parent.
Amazing how one simple change in positioning the elements can change so much isn’t it?

I am downloading and saving this image shall you not mind.
But in the layout of the elements: I am sort of obligated for fisheye distortions and/or surreal perspectives that depend on the hidden implements.

I have not weight on either of the lay outs… actually I liked both of them a lot.
And might use one of them for the child’s invitations, and the other for something else (Yeah, we decide to use these for the graphical contents for everything birth related) But for now I really need to decide on which to go for, for the competition.
So would you personally advise the first?.. or had you thought it to be what I wanted?

At the moment I am MADLY working on the vessels again… man is it a LOT of work :cry:

Thank you SO much again for the time you spared for me!
And yes we had BETTER finish them!

Black

Rooma

05-23-2006, 08:17 AM

I think your work is awsome ,man and I really like your painting..and the concept is very good too..it's a bit direct(I mean symbolizing the journey as life) but let's face it..what example is more of a journey than life?? That's what I'm doing(although in a very different way :) ) In my piece I'm also talking about life..and the carrot like stands for whatever it is that you gain from going through it ..anyways I'm here to talk about you...I think what you've done so far looks so cool and I hope to see the final piece...

All the best.

Rooma

BlackDidThis

05-23-2006, 01:19 PM

Lol thank you;

I guess my enty is until the rabbit pops out of the hole... and yours is the struggle of staying alive after it does.

An image is a relative concept... we take it as we wish :thumbsup:

Got to get back... TOO much to do!

Black

EdP-Art

05-23-2006, 06:12 PM

Now that you mention it my paintover does give a completly different story. I'm eager to see your completed piece, it's going to be great.

What kind of a mchine have you got that can handle 1.4 gig file size. I'd spend the night looking at the hour glass. My pic is about 250MB at the moment.

As for the composition, if you have a look at post #106 on page 8, I like the portrait one on the left. I may have said the other one previously but that was a typo.

I'm replying you in the office so when I get home to work on the pic and you need to do the same especially as you are so caught up in the detailing, :banghead:

Good luck, Black, not that you need it. Now Go, go, gooooooooooo! :wip:

*Ed

BlackDidThis

05-24-2006, 01:24 AM

Well I wouldn’t dare say “Completely” different …
Nor one I wouldn’t want. But the amount of difference is amazing (And yes.. I had liked it :))

Oh yes you had had stated that back then.. how could I forget.. you were the saviour to my constantly asking! :)
But I had to bring them down to the last two versions here. The thing is I have a very vivid idea of what I am going to do with either one. And that’s why I needed to obligate anyone viewing to choose of the two.
As better as any idea may be… the style I am working with sort of demands a serious amount of concentration … Lord knows how many times I have to click on the screen per mm²… so I lack the luxury of time here :cry:.

About the file size…
hehehe...
I shrank it a GREAT bit!
Earlier today I merged a good amount of layers.
It is now a LOT smaller :)

Now it is just 1.28 GB (1,381,822,464 bytes)

:cry: This thing is TOO BIG!:cry:

And yes... my computer is a wonder... love it to bits. I guess it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out how I manage to break them down so often :rollingeyes:

I was HOPING to have updated by now... but some things went wrong... hopefully in about 4 or so hours I am going to be able to present one of the most complex “Vessel” networks I have ever dared to digitally paint!

(After this project… I don’t like talking big.. but I thin I am going to install a tablet at WHAT EVER cost!... These guys are NOT meant to be done with a mouse!)

Til next!

Black

BlackDidThis

05-24-2006, 04:00 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148439637_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148439637_large.jpg)

Before you guys point out anything; PLEASE keep in mind that I still have about 5 more hours to work on them… It’s just that it is NOT going to happen “tonight”/”this morning” any more.
Possibly tomorrow (I really got fed up!).

I was REALLY hoping to have finished this bit and move on. But at least I got the important stuff in…
Tomorrow I am going to have to colour manage things to fit in.. and then go in individually and again try to detail/paint out the parts to match the whole better (the nightmare of working with such details)

Since I had done screen grabs, the first being from early this morning, I tended to post such. But if you guys would want o see a close up, just let me know. I’ll try posting one.

The FIRST square was how it was yesterday morning.
The black bit in the SECOND one is a flat mask layer that I started yesterday and spent over 7 hours to make! This time I used Photoshop’s vectors and a new feature called “Smart-Objects”… most of the vessels were distorted and then reused.
The THIRD one was basically introducing colour, and dodging out the highlights for most.
The LAST image is the latest state it is in now… I had to do a great amount of changes to what the mask layer was like to begin with. As I worked on it... something’s just hadn’t fit in.
The one BIG error I did was I lost myself in detailing it… and accidentally did a lot of work on where the hand is actually going to be covering it! :cry:

Now going to work on the Uterus tunnel, since which ever composition I go for: I shall be needing a good one! :)

Til next!

Black

Gunilla

05-24-2006, 06:38 AM

Oh dear - I'm late with comments again :)
First - layouts, I actually prefer the portrait version a lot. Two reasons, it makes a better focus for the fetus with all the details and also makes him/her as the one beginning it's journey. Even if this is indeed a new journey for all of you I think the idea of having the baby alone in an unknown surrounding is more exiting.

The ongoing veinwork is just amazing! And I also notice it will give the good darker areas for enhancing the baby. Wonderful work and an admirable patience too :)

Now, keep going with this speed and you will have a really fantastic image in the end of the week :thumbsup:

akahraman

05-24-2006, 07:28 AM

I guess i'll call you "the detail master"...
Incredable effort there and worth the time you're passing by...

and which detail i would like to see?? hey idunno,all of it if possible:)

( )

BlackDidThis

05-24-2006, 01:35 PM

Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);
A greater percentage of people are preferring the Landscape version of it with a variety of reasons of their own.
(From the serious lack of feedback on the layout in the forums on this I started to ask people I knew from outside the CG-forums)

And I am starting to find their reasoning quite fitting.

But...
With working on the details of yesterday; I sort of had a conclusion of enforcing the mass amount of organic build up be the amazing background that makes the journey such a great task. Hence the reasons I went into so much detail in the creation of the creation (If that makes any sense).

Shall it work out..
I may just post my child!
And if it doesn't; I'll have a hell of a detailed kid with a finally decided on background :)
(Most preferred the landscape... but my mind is still not set)

Selam Alperen (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=220606);
Hmm well ALL of it would be very difficult...
I will try to find one key point that looks cool enough to keep my Exagerated reputation :)

Just give me about 20 or so minutes... and I'll try opening the file and grabbing a scene.

To post in a short while;

Black

BlackDidThis

05-24-2006, 01:48 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148474916_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148474916_large.jpg)

This is not exactly an update… more a close up to the vessels that I had posted before this.

As I had had said in the other post, there is still a lot of work. But this time I have the advantage of having even the thinnest vessels in a layer apart from the background.

Their background interaction is a feathered shadow layer… that’s the reason it looks so awfully messy at the moment.
But well this was not posted to ‘show off’ but more to give you a closer look to the details of it. I really hope to present you a much cleaner version of it tomorrow.
(Not going to do vessels for today)

Til later…

Black

EdP-Art

05-24-2006, 08:17 PM

All hail the Detail King... BlackDidThis. :thumbsup:

There was a hunt for the 'God Ray' king but I think the king of kings in this Society would have to be the Detail King and you get my vote Black. :thumbsup:

Keep at it but don't forget to time things so you do get it finished. Try and get the overall compostion finished and then get back to the detailing otherwise you may get lost in the details and loose time.

Go Black go...

*Ed

BlackDidThis

05-25-2006, 02:46 AM

Hahahahahaha!!
You have REALLY made my day ED (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=215175);
Thank you!
But naaa... well I have seen people with crazy details. I am not an only child in this family of lunatics :banghead:
Actually my other work in the WIP section is a good lot more detailed when you think of it. Cause in this one I made great use of the filters due to the style of the project. The other one was completely hand painted.:argh:

The plan…
Oh I have a plan for the end of the week!
You see the image looks presentable enough as it is with it’s older placenta and elements… (Like even the last two composition try outs weren’t complete failures)
So I am always saving aside a sort of composition that would look good enough and presentable…
And then working on the details and adding them as I go. ;)

I have an update I had wished to post a couple of hours ago…
Let me finish what I have in hand, and go find that file again :)

Black

BlackDidThis

05-25-2006, 03:46 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148525203_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148525203_large.jpg)

I was planning on posting this image Yesterday evening… But there seemed to have been a serious technical issue that lasted some good amount of time!
Glad they have handled it! :thumbsup:

This is a background I started to paint on from my earlier scraps.
The reason it is a landscape is so I could crop bits off it, but so that I don’t have to repaint things. And that would have been a serious pain in the behind since most of it was done via gallery effects as I worked on them.

The FIRST image is again the earlier landscape as it was I think. Just that I removed the overlaying shadow layer … I think I had screen grabbed this without any modifications. But now I am not so sure.

In the SECOND image I introduced some colours and dodged here and there to make parts look like mounds and or folds… then excluded its invert to its own history. Duplicated this and then inverted it again, faded plastic wrap, and overLayed it to the previous. It is what helped me get the volcano stone like effect.

The THIRD image was basically a LOT of brush strokes. The modifications were all done on a separate layer; they were then merged to each other with several blend options.
I tried to introduce some veins, blobs and folds of flesh, and specularity at particular areas. I also tried to add a sort of lighting to the wall on the top of the canvas; to sort of give a feel of it being translucent to a sort of light from the outside.

My FOURTH image was just about the same thing as the previous. But just in a further stage.
The only radical addition to this one was that I generated a series of marble/veins via a procedural texture node in MaYA.
Instead of using this as a vein set... I used it to generate mounds better. The only disappointment is naturally the fact that these mounds naturally emboss towards us uniformly, so I had to cut things into ovals/diamond shapes and later on blend them together.

The resulting image was a bit more convincing to be a possible close-up, though it had so much more work to be done once settled on. I left the middle parts of it a little less worked on manually, since I plan to place the child on there some where.
I think I am really starting to get good at doing organic stuff! :bounce:

Well that’s about it for now…

I have got some good few updates hope to come.

Black

EdP-Art

05-25-2006, 09:31 AM

Hi Detail King, I like the way the background is working out and it's good to hear you have a plan in your head on the composition. I'm eager to see the final piece.

Your humble servant

*Ed

BlackDidThis

05-25-2006, 03:01 PM

Keep calling me demanding titles and I may coward from doing any more details! :argh:

:p

Well I have some news for you...
in the FINALLY decided on composition, I am going to make use of your idea it is going to seem!
I guess now we can just call it even! (Told you that I guess I should just listen to you instead of argue! :))
Today is a holiday and so I have been working on it the whole morning...

Rebecca is home too! :bounce: So she is going to model for me! :)

Well I have a seroius amount of work this time.. I doubt I will be able to make them step-by-step this time... hope you guys won't mind.

Black

BlackDidThis

05-25-2006, 06:00 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148576443_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148576443_large.jpg)

Unbelievable … But it is true;
Have finally decided on the composition!

The idea is again to have the womb upside down in order to keep the baby upright.
As I was working on the background, I noticed how I liked the distorted perspective, and then thought that I would like to have the objects interact with each other.
To match them I had to actually turn the background upside down. Since the perspective distortion on the child has a vanishing point at the bottom and not at the top.
And the rest just developed on its own.

The image on the LEFT is a grab from the canvas as it is now. I shall have the placenta cling onto the uterus wall now… and have the same set of lights effect the wall, and possibly Rebecca as well.
I am planning on re-sketching her particularly, such as to have an even greater distortion. So that’s why I am not presenting a line art still.

On the image on the RIGHT; you could better see how I have scavenged the background image I had earlier created.
The background layer is set up of over 8 layers, so it was sort of painful blending each of the layer into each other individually in order to achieve a uniform 8 set of layers again. (In this scale the stamp tool may have saved the day. But in close-up there is a BIG difference when you merge them and then blend.

Well more to come... I have the whole day today to work with nothing else :)

Black

BlackDidThis

05-25-2006, 07:35 PM

I know this is literally spamming… :sad:

But this was a screen grab I had had from yesterday. And I forgot to post it because of the maintenance issue of last night. And I found it a bit ago while saving something else.

Like a lot of people I tend to have a separate physical drive to use as a scratch disc. This really helps working with PhotoShop.
Last night, like one of many.. I was working again with the illustration, then out of curiosity I just went over to the drive to check how big the temp scratch file was.

And the results: You have GOT to be kidding! :argh:

http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/TheJourneyBegins/YourJoking.gif
I just HAD to share with someone!

(The text is not in English… But I believe you guys can figure out what is what… I have highlighted the ‘size’ bar)

Black

Slav

05-25-2006, 07:41 PM

close to what happened to me with the master and servant challenge. not quite as high but enough to bring my system to a halt.

EdP-Art

05-25-2006, 09:58 PM

Hi Black, i love the composition. Its really comes together very well and what you said about Rebecca being a beauty seems to be true.

Don't feel you have to keep the baby with its head 'down' as this only happens when the baby is about to be born. It moves around all the time, I'm sure Rebecca must be telling you aout being kicked and her inner organs being squashed. :eek:

24 Gigs... being the Detail King has its price. :cry:

Looking forward to the next update

*Ed

BlackDidThis

05-26-2006, 12:59 AM

Hello Yaroslav (http://yaroslav/);

Oh yes… I recall your entry for the Master and Servant… I had especially loved the tree, it was verybeautiful.

Well I guess it just comes down to have to pay prices when something is turning out good.

Here we go again ED (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=215175); :D
One day maybe my good friend... one day maybe... But not yet!

Working on the Line art now…
And DAMN do I HATE it! I hope they remove it at some time… If it is not in your usual work flow; it’s one of the MOST useless milestones ever! A fifth wheel on a cart in fact.
A few more hours and I am giving up... just posting it as things go!

About the child facing up or down… Oh I am sort of obligated to have him/her facing such.. remember? … I was suppose to get the image to how he/she may have looked like on that particular time and date. According to the echographs... the position was pretty own wards :sad;:

Originally Posted by ED (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=215175);
...and what you said about Rebecca being a beauty seems to be true...
Hahahaha… And you thought that Nerds would never get attractive girls? :wise:
She is not only beautiful... pretty smart too. Her Valentines gift last year was a 3D model of ME! Actually she topped it this year… She came to me with news that she was going to model out a “Mini-ME” now on :bounce:

Thank you for the best wishes and encouragement... with how things are going; I believe I will need it!
:sad:

Black
(I will not complain about the vessels ever again if they just remove the obligation of the lines! )

Llynna

05-26-2006, 02:08 AM

oh my goodness 25 gig............. i think my mashine would explode about that^^. my poor baby is struggling with mine and its merely eh dont know around 3 gig or so.

anyway, you really came a long way since i last visited. feeling a bit abd about not visiting regularly -.-. but i got some personal stuff to do and university was quite compelling too.

hopefully you will be able to finish in time and when not be sure to finish it anyhow. im really pressing mine atm but am not sure if i will be able to make it in time.

about the nerd thingie, why the hell must all nerds be ugly........... i think thats just what some people want to think.

ah by the way, i read your link in your signature. do you still need head reference for this 3d project? if you do drop me a pm.

all the best for your picture, your wife and your baby and of course yourself :thumbsup:

BlackDidThis

05-26-2006, 05:16 AM

Hello Britta (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=167411)...

I guess that would make me as guilty. As I had the time mostly to wander around… but not comment as I would fancy.
(I don’t exactly enjoy JUST leaving comments)
But things have been VERY busy here :sad:

About the 3D model thingy... well I have a dear amount of photos in hand that I took of a great amount of people when we went on a trip on April. And so I have a good stock.
But as stated in the related thread (You mean my old signature I presume… I brought it back to my usual) if the photo’s are very good and etc… (I had a LOT of problems with the photos in the first months… But being desperate I modelled out almost every one who sent a photo) I can always place it into wue. Just let me know if you are interested. I am trying to achieve 1000 heads by the end of this year.

Originally Posted by Britta (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=167411);
...about the nerd thingie, why the hell must all nerds be ugly........... i think thats just what some people want to think...Hahahaha Well I am a Nerd.. and I am Ugly! ;)

Thank you for the encouraging compliments…
I hope to get things to look as I wished them to :)

Black

BlackDidThis

05-26-2006, 12:35 PM

I could actually cry!
After spending a night with no sleep or rest to simply complete the image and the line art… I only NOW notice the amazingly STUPID mistake I did!

To put is VERY basically…
Yesterday my wife posed for me to help me out with the remaining composition. The composition for a interpretation of our 18 week unborn child.
And HERE is the STUPID part about it… Rebecca is a few weeks past her 6th MONTH!! :cry:
Damn it REALLY hurt!

Nothing to do...
I have to scavenge the pieces that I can use and go on.
Good thing I had her as a completely separate file so no harm was done to anything else.

I haven’t lost anything…
so no real damage. But I really could have done better things than waste nearly 15 hours :cry:

Damn do I feel stupid for not thinking of it then!

Black

Gunilla

05-26-2006, 02:00 PM

I don't want to distract you with chatting in your final hours - just wishing you good luck!
I don't think it's such a bif thing that Rebecca is further gone than the fetus - they way you've made her it could be flexible I think :thumbsup:
One minor thought though - has the fetus turned to head down at this stage?

Lokks gourgeous as always - Now keep hammering that fantastic image of yours :bounce:

BlackDidThis

05-26-2006, 05:56 PM

Unfortunately in the way I had had prepared it... there was a very big difference..
The image you saw posted earlier as to be the composition concept was not done according to the references obtained with Rebecca’s presence. It was a quick work out to get something worked out to base things onto. The new form of the composition made the size of the child, the placenta, the development, etc… all of them sort of be out of place. Disturbingly out of place in fact.

And if nothing... remember that I WANT to make it to the deadline… but the image itself is a greater priority. I would prefer to do something good, rather than give it in the way it wasn’t suppose to be, or half done, wouldn’t be able to win anything any ways. :)

Now the bummer is that she was at work today, though she is too fat to fit in the project any way:p

Oh last of all… The child was positioned such on our scans.
And it is not uncommon.

Have an update readied… then I have to get back to work!
Thank you so again for dropping by, and all the ecnouragement! :bounce:

Black

BlackDidThis

05-26-2006, 06:14 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148663643_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148663643_large.jpg)

I made a BIG mistake on the image, that literally cost me a whole night’s work to repair!!
After I had completed the whole thing, the thought suddenly struck me that I was trying to paint a woman carrying an 18 week old foetus… but the whole day yesterday, a 6 MONTH pregnant woman had posed for me!! :cry:
I can not believe that I forgot all about that!

As proud as I was of the resulting image I had achieved until about four or five hours ago, it was wrong. And I am going to have to do a simpler one all over again!

This here is of the only piece that I think I shall be using. I had worked some good amount on the wrist accessory and I wouldn’t want to let it go to waste (Yes I have it finely painted out as well).
The Section on top is the Line-Art, the bottom is the Vector-Image

Starting on work RIGHT away!

Black

BlackDidThis

05-26-2006, 08:02 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148670161_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148670161_large.jpg)

Yes I know it is not exactly up to my usual standards of vector images… But I hope to compensate with detailing it while colouring. I really didn’t have the time to make the best of work :sad:

I had to make use of the first sketch as well though, but with a bit more distortion and modification (Her arms, hands, belly, etc…) was done according to her new pose…
A great difficulty was introducing them as convincible masses from those sketches.
I have to accept that this pose is NOT a possible one, nor is its perspective correct. I guess you sort of have to picture it like if a giant ball deformed her mid section outwardly…

I actually had a very good model of my wife that I had had done back in the ‘Master and Servant’ Challenges. It’s a pity that I couldn’t use that… Else it would have been so much easier having that pose to my liking… The data loss months back is proving more and more painful :sad:

Well okay… to get back to work ASAP, I guess I can declare this as to be Rebecca’s Line art.. I shall be posting a full line art later this evening and then end up colouring it all in. :)
(The one on the LEFT is the Line-Art, the RIGHT one is the Vector Image)

Til the next!

Black

BlackDidThis

05-27-2006, 07:18 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148710711_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148710711_large.jpg)

Okay… now FINALLY the last bit of the darn Line Art thingy…
That’s a relief!
NOW its only the FUN part... and expect some serious amount of details!
(I wasn’t able to produce a great Vector work here either… I know… But at least the elements are in place. And I wasted a lot of time repainting a background in order to be able to take a Vector sample from)

Don’t worry, I am not that much behind... I was not only busy with the line art. Because it got too boring… I often changed back to the original and went on painting.
The image has seriously improved since the last update of it was posted.

Black

BlackDidThis

05-27-2006, 07:26 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148711167_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148711167_large.jpg)

Oh yeah... and this is the Vector Image of the Line Art.
You never know when a “this” may come in handy…

Actually since I am already posting an update, I would like to state something…
I am definitely going to give my all tonight and tomorrow, and if I can’t complete the image at a sufficient enough rate. I am planning on submitting it.
Even though I had a plan to try and make an image that is always submit able for even if I am not finished with this deservingly... I think an image of our long waited child deserves a little more respect from his/her parents.

I hope you would understand

Hope to come with more.

Black

PS; A little note to those that I help over private chats… I wasn’t able to notify all of you that I was going to be very busy. So please refer from contacting me until the deadline. Time is very valuable for me at the moment

beelow

05-27-2006, 07:49 AM

Good luck with finishing this black, interesting approach, I hope that you finish in time, less than a day left, Good luck!:thumbsup:

BlackDidThis

05-27-2006, 12:27 PM

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148729232_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/12/11523/11523_1148729232_large.jpg)

This is more an update to inform you guys that I am still alive and still working on the image.
(I hope that it is now easier to understand why having the mother 18 weeks pregnant and over 6 months pregnant had had made such a big difference)

I more try posting the “in between” stages of my work not to actually fit into the rules of the competition, but to be able to share the steps I take or took in the making (Not that it doesn’t also help resolve the question of “Did he really do it :p)
But unfortunately the next image I am going to have to present to you is going to be the final entry.
I do not think I shall be too able to do grabs or tutorials from this point on.

You can possibly understand that it IS sort of demanding I believe, and very time consuming.

Wish me luck…
Hope to post a final image next.

Black.

akahraman

05-27-2006, 05:58 PM

praying for you to complete it completely(!):) in time... man this is disgusting so real!!...:eek:

there will be one more good image with yours,getting better and better...

i didn't tell any opinion not to divert you...but you're reaching a good result.

7 hours...

( )

BlackDidThis

05-27-2006, 09:45 PM

Thank you so much ED (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=215175)
(Sacing the files now)

I am SO tired!.. I have literally been at it for 28-29 hours now!
And hell I am NOT giving up yet :)

Though I am sort of leting things cool down a little now. Rebecca is having stomach pains from the stress. :sad:
My wife and child is a little bit more important you know!

I am most possibly going to be submitting a lower les version (3636 x 2657) if I can finish it... since as much as I really went careful on the details they still have to be really fine tuned before they can be used such.
Oh BTW; the original image is 14544 x 10628.

As far as it goes...
Sort of doesn't feel like it's going to happen. but not a good reason to give up :)
I have nothing to loose from trying :thumbsup:

Til later..
(Hopefully with an image)

BlackDidThis

05-28-2006, 01:06 AM

I really do NOT know if I made it or not!!

I am here sitting infront of the screen watching the progress bar... AND the clock that has passed the deadline!

Something tells me it is not going to upload or something like that.

Any one else have the same thing?

Slav

05-28-2006, 01:17 AM

are you talking about the final tif or the final image? in jpg?

either way i hope to hear good news. as opposed to bad. *crosses fingers for you*

Dutchman

05-28-2006, 01:25 AM

First of all: hi Berter! It's really bad of me to reply for the first time when the challenge is over, but I need to say that your work looks absolutely amazing and full of passion. Later on I'll tell more about what I love of your image. The point is:

are you talking about the final tif or the final image? in jpg?As I don't see a 'final image' milestone showup at the moment, I'm afraid you mean that one? :shrug: Whatever happends: if it goes wrong I'd immidiately let Mibus know... Maybe he's the good one to fix it?! :D

After some sleep and after getting back at school, I'll drop you a longer reply! All the best mate! :beer:
-Gijs

BlackDidThis

05-28-2006, 01:37 AM

I guess something locked...
Not sure

Finally the screen changed.. I got a

Step 2 of 3 - Image Submission Process

Entry submissions are now closed! Thanks for participating

Go and check out some of the entered images (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/journey_begins/view_entries.php).

So for sure I am late. Don't know what happened.
Actually it was a minute or something before ... So I guess it was JUSt when the timer did it's thing.. and that locked it all

Well ... there were more stuff I had wanted to do anyways ... sooo :shrug:

I'll upload the image to the net shortly.. so you guys could see where it got to

In any case.. I had a lot of fun! :)

Black

BlackDidThis

05-28-2006, 01:46 AM

Ooops Wait...

Sorry guys... Can't show you the image... Rebecca just forbid me! :sad:

Well okay not exactly forbid me... but isn't allowing me! :cry:
She says that I should finish up the details as I had had pleased to do so and to keep you guys in suspense in the meanwhile.

Well she IS the boss :sad:
(And she’s pregnant.. what CAN I do?)

Then hopefully in the galleries soon!

Black

TheFirstAngel

05-28-2006, 02:59 AM

So for sure I am late. Don't know what happened.
Actually it was a minute or something before ... So I guess it was JUSt when the timer did it's thing.. and that locked it all

happend before and happens every time. the server in the last min is usually stresst to the max. try contact a mod, to make sure were uploading and failed. means: if there is a slight chance you can upload it cuz your transmission didnt work, and they open a chanel for youm try it please. i seen you doing so much work and put so much in this piece it would be a shame to not being at least in the final jugments.

so far, best of luck my friend. crossfingers, and please notify robert mibus or someone of the moderators. your work deserves that.

Gunilla

05-28-2006, 07:12 AM

Nooo.... I'm so sorry to discover your final upload didn't work. But since you and Rebecca seems fine with it - and you want to add some more before uploading it I suppose it's for the best.
The last update is amazing - and as usual I'm curious as how you achieved the effects.

Good luck with finishing this now and please let me know when you post the final to the gallery, OK?

makaron

05-28-2006, 07:38 AM

She says that I should finish up the details as I had had pleased to do so and to keep you guys in suspense in the meanwhile.

but Rebecca... :cry: I thought black was the one that liked to tease :p well... gonna be a great moment when you show this as a finished image... and a shame that you missed the upload...

give Rebecca a huge hug and tell the baby and the hamsters hallo and I hope to see that image soon...

keep on fighting Mr Black

Cya

EdP-Art

05-28-2006, 09:49 AM

Hi Black, I'm really sorry to hear about the missed deadlien. But try what Angel said, it really is one of the works that should be there. You have done so much for so many others and we've watced with suspense and awe as details come together to give birth to a masterpiece.

You know, Rebecca is probably right about teasing us and keeping us in suspense but maybe just show us some little details so we know you are still working on it.

I was down the country for most of yesterday so I couldn't log in until this morning, Sunday. It'll be a real pity if it doesn't get into the final entries. Be sure to ask a mod to help.

It struck me that we could make a story with a number of pics from this challenge. Here's the bones of it...
A Soul get drawn down into the physical worlds (see EdP-Art (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=341974))
The Soul gets a physical body and is born (see BlackDidThis (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=351638) )
It goes through many tasks and adventures (here's just a few suggestions MrFreeman (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=323086)
- Omer-n (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=339627) - Cyberone (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=323443)
- Stahlberg (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=328432) ) If you have more please suggest them to me.
And finally the Soul finds its way back to its home (see Bryce (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=322671))

*Ed

Cyberone

05-28-2006, 10:29 AM

hi black...
this is a really cool idea...and im sad that you didnt get it in on time...
i know you put alot of work into it...and i think i saw your posts almast everywhere in this comp helping all the people who really needed it...

i really like EdP-Arts idea...and im up for it if others are too...lol

anyway good luck with finishing the details and i hope to see more of your work in the future

hdhcg

05-28-2006, 11:30 AM

HELLO BLACK：
It's sososo sorry to hear you miss the deadline.and you are so kind to support me from the very beginning.Your posts really gave me strength to insist to the end. Now it's my turn to support you,I'll wait to see your final image here,do not give up pls! and in the future you can show this image to your little lovely baby also,hehe !
Best wishes to your family,hope everything with your family is ok!See you !

individium

05-29-2006, 01:24 AM

hi black, i'm in some kind of same situation i was very near to finish it.

but im really shocked to see that you didnt finish it becouse it seemed already finished many posts ago.

ok im not going to talk about it anymore, i dont want you to go sad.

very happy to know you by the way.

looking forward to see the finished version.

see you later

BlackDidThis

05-29-2006, 05:48 AM

Everybody;

Firstly I Would like to thank you all for the support and your kind words for a work that means truly SO much to me. And your posts on the matter not only boost my ego, but help me share how special it was... thank you all so much!
BUT sadly I have to state that I am not going to disturb Robert (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=33432) this time for uploading my image if he can or if he can not.
Rules are rules and I have not qualified. I can not blame a "single" minute to CG-Networks connection technicalities. It is my fault that it was left to the last minute. No body else’s.

To put it in very cold words: Had somebody come to me with the prize in cash and proposed that I make an illustration such for them. I would refuse. Because the labour involved is much higher than the fee involved.

So what I have submitted here and until now was never really for the competition. It was to be able to share with you guys. It was to get to chat with Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228) over medical illustrating, to be able to get some good advices from ED (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=215175), to be able to meet my new friend Alperen (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=220606), and definitely not to forget to mention having an additional conversation subject with my old friend Andy (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=108025)(Who was there with me in so many other competitions).
And so much, much more important (No offence) it was for my little miracle that I already love so much.
In this perspective; I was always in a great advantage to compare to many who competed. I had a no-loose situation in hand. I had already taken the biggest prize home.

I am sure all of you agree and already understand.

So as happy as I am that you are all upset to my “delay”… I have to state that you have nothing to be sorry for ... I am very happy.

And secondly, the image was completed yesterday evening… al the elements were there... the details were some what readied… the child was adorable… but as I looked at it; I wasn’t at all impressed.

I really do not know what was missing… but it did not look anything like I had had wanted it to. Rebecca (Which had a blast about the “teasing” bit earlier today) kept telling me that it was fantastic and there was nothing wrong with it.
But I was just not satisfied. And had to keep staring at it… doubting… literally waiting for her to convince me to post it. Hence the reason the posting was this belated.
I want to gift our child a perfect picture… not a computer, or even worse... a ‘chance’ to win a computer with leaving an image at a “not perfect” stage.

Shall I go on with fine tuning it?
Well yes! I definitely will. But first I need a week or two break from it. I have spent too many hours in the stress of completing it. And a little distance would serve both of us healthy.
None the less I have another uncompleted WIP image from the last competition (which I shall hopefully finish within these few weeks), that can help take up any of my free time I would like to spend painting whilst relaxing with a warm drink in the evenings.
But once I am done, I intend on posting it on the galleries here and hopefully getting it submitted to viewers with my own standards met.

As for a sneak peak;
I have taken a screen grab of a detail for Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228) a little further along this thread.
Other than that, I am afraid you are going to have to wait. And I am not planning on posting it on the WIP forums, since the most of it is already well complete, the work to be done on it now is all going to look the same from the image size you all shall be viewing.

Soooo wish me luck and thank you all so VERY much!

Individual replies;

Bryce[/B][/URL];
Thank you for the kind wishes.. and oh boy was that NOT less than a day! IT was a hole different time zone… it felt like it was never ending, and going too fast at the same time. I was literally overworked in the end of it!

Alperen (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=220606);
My good friend… Well unlike you, I was not able to be satisfied with my image. I wanted so much more for my child and my painting. And the two just put the quota so much higher.

Again I have given you a lot of reading to do in this post above, but in short I believe you would understand why I wasn’t able to give my image in.
Thank you so much for being there along this difficult, demanding and yet fun journey!
It meant a lot.

Yaroslav (http://yaroslav/);
If it is any compensation.. I literally felt the energy! But I guess it was just not enough.
Something in me didn’t want to give the image in I guess. I even felt a little relieved when I had seen the rejection text.

Gijs (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=61201);
Well isn’t it later on yet?
Com’on tell me more about what you love about my image!
:p

As I stated in the longer reply above. I am not going to offer Robert (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=33432) to fix this. There is nothing to fix. The mistake was mine and I am fine with it. Completely!

Sacha (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=45629);
Last time in the Master and Servant challenge, I had been given a chance such. In fact even though I was almost 2 weeks late in reporting my “upload problem” because of my being hospitalised… Robert (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=33432) made no problem and helped me out.
But that was a different matter. That time there was a serious lock up all together.
This time I had the calculated risk of not being there on time as it was seconds in play when I logged in. It would not be right for me to bother him over my hesitating to upload or not.

Your valuing my image this much means a lot to me, thank you… but as much as it deserves to be valuated, it also deserves to look it’s best… and I was personally not convinced that it had had.

Thank you for the advise none the less!

Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228);
Oh no… sorry Gunilla (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=78228)... no special effects this time, nor an easy way out :sad:.
It is an effect you are going to have to take the brush in hand and do yourself. I think it is more related to style and your “painter” abilities. I have been working with effects such as this wrinkling skin for ages almost. Shall you be too curious I can try scanning my sketches from when I was in the academy still… years ago.

Though there are some ways of making it easier digitally… like taking segments and duplicating, transforming, and then blending in… or painting a suitable underlayer and then using the healing brush/clone tool to paint segments and then again refining them.

Here is a close up… unfortunately the close up does not look as “Realistic”, and does lack the amount of convincingness the smaller screen grab had.
http://blackdidthis.com/CGNetwork/TheJourneyBegins/SkinCloseUp.jpg

This image is a grab from half the resolution. You can sort of see how I have worked it all out.
Actually I also took the liberty of it being cross hatch skin, and really randomly stamped pieces from one side to the other. You can’t see the effect of that on this particular half of the image because it has been painted/smudged on at about 85-90 percent of it; and the rest duplicated and transformed, but again smudged to fit. But on the other half it is unfortunately much more obvious.
Well as I said.. not trying to make a realistic image.. just trying to make a good one!

Shall there be many requests to post a step by step “how to” on this thread… I will try to prepare something to give you an idea. But I sort of doubt there will be too much a curiosity, as it is a very distinctive effect that is really a style than a simple texture this time.
(Actually you can see how I simallarily pained out the knuckles for my character in the WIP forums HERE (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=243981&page=1&pp=50))

Mona (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=129166);
Well she is the teaser all right… our whole marriage was a theatrical trailer ;)
Think of it: she even kept the baby til our 5th year!

I’ll keep the fight up... don’t worry!

ED (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=215175);
Some how I feel more upset to have disappointed you than to not have submitted it.. I am so sorry!
But it has had really not matured correctly. And needs some time to develop into what it deserves to be. My biggest gift to such an image would not be to have it compete, but to try to make it timeless, and hopefully immortal! :)
No one can ever guarantee such a result. But I can at least try to give it my very best for starters. And I think I have not exactly been able to do so. I really hope that your interest in the results will still stay as fresh when a completed form of it is once again introduced to the community.

Hey maybe I’ll get one of those trophy thingies every body has :p

Simon (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=129238);
Thank you both for the compliments and your good wishes to have had seen me make it.
Yes I had put a lot of work into it. And I definitely plan on putting even more!

About helping people… hahaha.. you should have seen me in the Master and Servant challenge :p I was reading posts when ever I had free time or waited for a render. But in this run, I REALLY lacked the time (was VERY busy) and my new hardware renders so much faster without locking every other appliance… I even felt bad to not have been able to be of use like I was last.

I am so happy that you still thought me helpful enough to some degree.

As for ED (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=215175)’s Idea… hmm… why not? I learned the hard way not to argue with him :)
He comes up with good ones!

Dehong (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=212684);
Aaa .. creator of one of my favourite images! Thank you, coming from you and someone of your abilities… I am flattered.

Supporting you from the beginning was not too difficult a task. As the word “impressive” was simply put into a visual image from the earliest moments. But the bad news is that before my favourites in 2D don’t manage to make it to the tops list. I hope you shall be of the first!

Thank you so much for the kind words and good wishes to my family and myself!

Berkay (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=214501);
Well the challenges loss!
Now they are going to be missing two amazing masterpieces :p

Well no… as I stated at the top; I am very fine with not being able to submit it. I hadn’t found it finished enough. Hopefully though; I shall finish than post it in the galleries.
It’s just that it has been a little too much the last few days. I need to get a break from it.

Possibly mid or end of June.

Wooow that was a LOT of people to have to individually reply!
I lliterally got tired from it!

Well thank you ALL for everything, it means a lot!

Black