Eon (Illustration) Entry: Michael Dashow

[ramy badie]

And he's e ntered the ring!

good luck in the challenge :) (and congrats on the last one!)

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161057741_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161057741_large.jpg)

Hi, all. After much delibiration, looks like I'm in.I'm thinking about illustrating the scene where Patricia, Olmy, and the Frant are fist approaching Axis City. I want a scene that shows the Way beyond the first 6 chambers, and especially Axis City, which I think would be really impressive. But I don't just want a landscape shot, I want to have people in tehre too.

Of these, 1, 2 and 9 are my favorites so far. The big cylinder is Axis City, and the 3 shapes at the bottom are the characters. What do you think?

-mike

[Dominus]

just letting you know that i will watch your work here :D
good luck!

[Ramitxon]

Hi Mike, I'm keeping my eyes nailed to your thread now I see You have entered the challenge. I consider it is a fairly good starting point, I myself am considering to portray the same characters but leaving from the third chamber. Good luck

[Ramitxon]

Maybe I like sketch 1 the best.

[GonzaloGolpe]

The most famous walrus in cgtalk is here!:scream: Welcome aboard!! I like the 9th sketch too. Good luck to you!!

[cgkrusty]

Mike...

I'll be joining you shortly, it'll be fun to "work" together again. I'm sure you'e going to come up with another beautifully executed piece. Here's hoping your level of polish and vision shine through again...

As far as your initial compositions, #1 seems to be the most dynamic of the bunch...

Looking forward to the struggle...

ciao

[nwiz25]

woweeeeeeeeeeeee!! :eek: very interesting concepts! cant wait to c it in full form!

cheers to dude! :beer: n good luck!:thumbsup:

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161101875_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161101875_large.jpg)

Thanks, folks... Gonzalo, Ramixton, Ken, and everyone else, good to see you all here too!

Not much time to chat this morning, here's a quick few sketches showing some slternate chapes for the Vanes of Axis City (anyone recall whether they're part of Nader City or another part of Axis city?)

Cheers...!

-mike

[coCoKNIght]

Hey walrus

I love your style but I have the feeling that this time you'll go for a bit a different style :)
anyway have fun, your pics are great to look at.

[beelow]

Hey walrus! I am interested to see what you come up with!:thumbsup:

[OKMER]

Yop, Walrus, nice to see you getting in the ring, loved you master & slave entry!!!
Good luck and loads of fun to you Walrus!!!

[makaron]

Hallo Walrus :bounce:

gonna be fun to see what you come up with this time... and good luck

[MichaelZHsee]

hey michael,its good to see u here mate:scream: ,i see u've started to progress here,i'd go for #9 for the dynamic composition.ahww i wish to start right now but i'm overpacked with works:sad:

keep it coming mike and i wish u luck!

[walrus]

Hi, all! Thanks for the comments!

cocoknight - yes, in fact I almost didn't join this challenge because it was going to be too different from my usual stuff. Not that I'm not up to the Challnege, just that my main focus lately has been filling my portfolio with similar pieces to make it more consistent. That's one reason i joined many recent Challenges: It gave me the opportunity to do more art to increase my portfolio. I suspect that if I do something really fitting for this one, it won't quite fit my humorous art portfolio. But what the heck, I'll do it anyhow. All my friends are here.
And I suspect that even in a different style, folks will still be able to recognize it as mine. :)

Michael - don't worry, there's a bit longer than usual for this Challenge, and you work fast. You'll have plenty of time. As for the thumbs, yes, I like #9 a lot too. I'm not hooked up to a scanner today but I did a version of it with the characters even smaller, which helps to emphasize the massiveness of Axis City. I like it. I have a tendency to always want to make the characters really large. I managed to get away from that last Challenge, but here I find myself doing it again, thinking that the characters are so important that they must be really alrge in the composition. They are important, but people will notice them and be able to read them even if they're not taking up the entire page.

I'm on a business trip right now and have had lots of time in transit to sketch, but it'll be a couple of days 'til I'm back at a flatbed scanner again, so no updates 'til them. Oh, well!

-mike

[OKMER]

Well Walrus, hope you have a nice trip and can't wait till you get back and see the sketches you have made during your traveling!!!
Big up Walrus!

[rawwad]

Good luck man! I wait for great work again:thumbsup:

[Vahn]

hiho mr dashow :)

cool that you joined ..im curious how you'll approach this one. the sketches look promising so far :thumbsup:

[Manzieri]

Hi Michael!

Its some time I've been admiring your style. Your performance in "The Journey Begins" Challenge was a pure State-of-the-Art artistic experience.

We met earlier in the year with two consecutive Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine covers - April and May 2006 issues -. It's now a pleasure to meet you again in an amazing contest full of unlimited spaces and temporal distortions... a top environment for two fantastic artists! :)

Enjoy your ride and see you in the Arena! MM

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161313942_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161313942_large.jpg)

Hey, all. Here are some doodles of Ser Olmy. He has no nose... how does he smell? (answer - terrible!)

(If you're not a native speaker of English and the above makes no sense, consider yourself lucky! :) )

anyhow, I'm not totally happy with any of them yet. I like the design, but am not sure about the personality. I kind of like the center one: He reinds me of a cheerful Scott Bakula (The Enterprise Captain from the last Star Trek franchise.) I think what I need to do is figure out what actor I would think of as playing Olmy. I can't decide... maybe a younder Ed Harris? Who do you see in the role?

Maurizio - Good to see you here! Is this your first Challenge? They're a lot of fun, glad you'll be taking part in it. I'll definitely drop by your thread and post in it!

Tibor and Adrian - good to see you back again. I'll be looking forward to seeing your work as well.

-mike

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161314197_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161314197_large.jpg)

And here's another page, mostly full of Frant sketches. Plus a lot of miscellany: My favorite sketches of Patricia so far, Axis City detail, and some outfits for Olmy (I've got pages of 'em, but they're all simple, undetailed costume doodles like these.)

The thumbnail at the top is the one I mentioned earlier, a reworking of thumbnail #9 earlier, only with even smaller characters. I've had to change the bridge of Olmy's craft in which he takes Patricia away: I ge tthe feeling in the book that it's not all that large, but I wanted a big window to show the city through. Blame it on artistic liscense!

-mike

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161319073_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161319073_large.jpg)

Spent some time tonight refining my favorite thumbnail layout so far. I've put Olmy ina seat and am trying to make it seem more like a ship's bridge and less like an observation deck. I could add a top to the viewscreen, but that would close off the city too much and I'd like to keep it feeling huge. Any thoughts on these?

Sorry they're so pixelly. I worked over the last JPGs I posted, not the PSDs, so I was working at about 200 pixels wide. i like really small thumbnails - it keeps you from getting too detailed and makes you focus on composition and value more - but this is a bit small even for me!

[TheFirstAngel]

wheeee the Walrus we love is in ^^ just came to subscribe and wish you good luck. love your toonstyle and its a great add to this challenge. good to see ya round.

great character sketches, hehe, and love the thumbnails, instant cinematic feel ^^

godspeed and goodluck, and of course hav fun, go flight!

[beelow]

I like those patricia sketches! Those Aliens are hip to. I am so lame I bet those aliens have a name... sigh. Waiting to see more sketches dude!:thumbsup:

[Manzieri]

Maurizio - Good to see you here! Is this your first Challenge? They're a lot of fun, glad you'll be taking part in it. I'll definitely drop by your thread and post in it!



Yep! First Challenge, first dive!

Best, MM

[brrrhmmm]

However you might want to play catchup with Nilesh,Nemko,Nathaniel And Prabath as
their Axis City designs and detail are very well advanced at this early stage.

[walrus]

brrrhmmm - We've got three months left, I'm not too worried about it. :)
It's not like a race where the first person to finish is the winner. When I work on a painting, I find it more helpful to have a goot layout first before you even worry about the details.

Bryce - the aliens are the Frants... 'though it doesn't even matter if you know their names as long as they loog good. ;)

Dunno how much work I'll get done this weekend. I need to start work on my Halloween costume! Maybe a sketch here or there. In the meantime, anyone have any thoughts about 11 versus 12?

-mike

[Nazirull]

I think i like no.1. It has the tube running one direction, and a character looking at the oposite direction. It creates some dynamic in the compostion. Glad you included that into your thumbnail study.

I like your concept sketches....

im subscribing fer sure...:)

[OKMER]

Yop,yop you're back and indeed, you did a lot of doodling mate!!ha,ha, love those frant's and Patricia in the left lower corner ,she's great!!!
Looking forward of how'll you put this all together!!
Good luck and all the fun Walrus, love your work!
:beer:

[DeeVad]

Hello Mike,

Finally you decide yourself to enter in Eon and it's great.
I like the sketch you did. I still didn't receive the french version of the book (I will kill my library, lol ). It's not important, I work better when I work lately.

Your study look good.
I didn't still know the characters, so I can't help you to say if they are accurate to the story.
That's why I try to not see and participe for the moment to not influencate my original vision when I will read book ;-).

Make a good one ! I will come back at the end of the constest for a speedy Wip ;-)

David

[MechaHateChimp]

Hi Michael!

Im glad you picked thumbnail 10... I personally liked 10 and 1 the best. For me its 12 right now, I like how the girls silhouette in the corner sits. Plus it helps direct your eye to the rest of the image... great flow. Looking forward to the next update! - J

[Falcorr]

Nice to see you around walrus :thumbsup: old chap :)

Looks like a cartoon eon is going to appear soon? What about doing a trailer entry too? It can be 2D animation too Just an idea.

[molossus]

hello,

Nice sketches, I personnaly like the number 12. because you have more the feeling ot the Corridor. I think it mainly because you allmost see all of Axis city. In number 11 you have less the "cylindrical" feeling.

anyway will keep watching!

[beelow]

12 over 11. Hope to see something new from ya!:thumbsup:

[walrus]

Wow, lots of comments! Thanks for dropping by, everyone, and for posting.

Interesting to see so much support for #12. There are things I like about it - like being able to see the design for the front of the city - but actually, i found Trikke's comment most interesting: "you allmost see all of Axis city." That's the main reason that I don't like #12: Axis City is huge, 40 km long at least, and the thing I like about #11 is that it's so large, it's looming above the whole picture, too large to take in the whole thing at one time. That makes it feel larger to me.

Falcor - No, I don't know how cartoony I'm going this time. I mean, I'm goign to try to play it relatively straight, not for laughts, but knowing me it'll still end up being a little cartoony. We'll see. I talked to a team about doing a trailer, but in the end, I've got a lot on my plate right now and don't want anyone to have to depend on me if I have to abort partway through. I've never half-finished a challenge yet, but I don't want to be letting others down in case I have to.


- mike

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161575152_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161575152_large.jpg)

Some doodles of Patricia. I still like the one from earlier, so I included it in the upper left. I like the ones on the left side more than the ones on the right. Not all of them are that great, but might as well share the good with the bad, it's still just sketching stage...

I'd still like to hear what folks think about the 2 layouts last posted too, please.

Catch you all later...

-mike

[morenike]

An entering the ring is.....Looking forward to seeing your work.

Your concept sounds good but I thought the whole point of seperate chambers was that the atmosphere is so thick you can't see through to the next level. I might also be wrong but I do want to see this so.....disregard what i just said.

[ChewyPixels]

Hey walrus. I really like your character sketches. :bounce:

You're right about Patricia. The left version looks best.

Man, I can't wait to see how this comes out. Really cool!

[walrus]

Buffichar - I'm guessing you haven't completed the whole book yet, but my image takes place about halfway in, right when we've moved far beyond the 7 chambers. That's when the book becomes far more interesting too, imho. :)

Jedi-juice - thanks!

-mike

[razz]

Hey, Walrus. I like what you're doing here. Quick but very nice sketches. I'm enjoying these pencil sketches, so don't rush into painting, please :D

[NH]

Hey Walrus ! I like your Patricia she's so cute :love: :D
Really nice work mate I like your style dude :thumbsup: Waiting for your next post man :arteest::arteest:
Cheers

[icedeyes]

She kind of reminds me of Eris from Sinbad in style (which can only be a good thing)... very impressive sketches Michael...:thumbsup: As a personal preference i like the two large sketches in the center of the image most (maybe i like the one on the right a little more)... They capture a very nice feeling and just look plain great...

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161721658_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161721658_large.jpg)

Ho hum, more Patricia sketches... though I like a larger percentage of them this time so that's something. I'm really trying to get her to look Latina, with the lips and the heavy eyebrows, but I think more of that will read even better with the proper skin-tones.

icedeyes - y'know, I never saw that Sinbad, so I'll have to take your word for it.

razz - no worries, I tend to sketch everything out pretty thoroughly before rushing into the painting step. I rely on decent sketches as the foundation for a good painting. I'll just keep doodling away at the characters 'til I get them right.

Anyhow, if folks feel like giving feedback on faces, I've given them letter to make it easier to talk about them. Not like it's a vote or anything, it just makes the conversations easier to follow! :)

-mike

[lofton]

I can wait to see more of the designs you have for the way. Your Frant sketches are really good I also cant wait to see how you handle the light. Keep up the good work.

[OKMER]

nice sketches Walrus!!!
Kind a prefer The "C" and "G" for their regards.
Though they got a little asian, Peru feeling in the anatomy of their faces.
Maybe N° 6 with a more small nose like thumb "A"(like that one too) could give a more latin feeling.
D,E and F seems a bit more like teeners to me.

Looking forward fot the suite!!!:beer:

[TheFirstAngel]

c top fav, sweet innocent, dreamy, fragile, still kitty.

followed by f, a little less perky but very sweet as well.

thought i like the pointy nose of a a lot. the pointy nose makes her looks "smart" somehow ^^

keep up the great work mate :) I always enjoy your development, now looking forward to your next episode ^^

[nwiz25]

hehe ... yep ... :p .. C n D look really sweet ... d is more like .. she's pondering over smthin ..

very good variation in expressions! :p

btw .. for a majority vote thing ... C seems to be more promising! :love:


good luck dude! :thumbsup:

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161793712_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161793712_large.jpg)

Well, folks seem to like version 'C' up above... well, so do I! In fact, before I read half these notes, I was already throwing together some of my favorites, all of which Okmer pointed out. (Thanks, Remko!) So here's a version of her headf with the bones of 'C', some fo the more Latina features of 'G', and a small, slightly pointy nose.

I'm trying to throw it all together into a layout including the Frant and Olmy too. I know it's not working yet, mostly they're 3 seperate sketches not drawn together (well, four if you could Patricia's body.) I still need to make them all work together better, but if you have any feedback on how to make that happen, as always, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

-mike

[Try]

Hi Mike.

Looking really nice I think. The Frant is really cool!:thumbsup:
This is the most correct (from the description of the book) version I have seen so far.

Personally I would consider covering up the actual shoulder because it gets really difficult to make the anatomy look sort of right on a figure like this.
Much like when people try to put more than two arms on a character (seldom look good if the character is naked).

The characters are all great! But dos not seem to be standing/sitting on the same level here.
Is this inside the ship by the way?




Keep it comming :)

[Conkrys]

I sure do hope you do an awesome job on this one like the "farewell Kiss" because the last one was a very special treat for me. I have studied it alot and must say congratulations on a most excellent job! Praticia is looking good in the last sketch and the frat is cool-funny looking! Can't wait to see what you will produce this time man!

[paperclip]

Hey mike!

Glad to see you up and running here... I was starting to get worried! Even before I looked at the last page, I'd decided that C and G were the best of the lot and you must have pre-read my mind....
I love the alien with the tiny square head. That's the best part so far imho, lol. It's hilarious! Right now when I'm looking at the sketch I'm trying to figure out what they're talking about- I hope you're going to give clues, as it's looking kinda vague that way. But, hey, early days yet and your hands are mightily capable, so I guess I can trust in them. :D

*settles down in the couch in the corner to watch the ensuing artistic angst* Nice place you've got here by the way...

[Runecaster]

Heya walrus - I'm mostly a lurker, because really I've nothing useful to say, and I learn a lot from reading -- but I've been lurking around your stuff for quite awhile and I just wanted to pop in and give a show of support and express my interest in watching you create yet another beautiful inspiring piece. :)

I'm so out of my league trying to do this as well, but it's fun anyway!

[NH]

Hey Walrus ! Excellent I like patricia and the Frant. Nice work as usual :thumbsup:
Waiting for your next one dude :beer:

[morenike]

:)

Okay so far I'm interested. No I haven't read the story yet. (Thinks a few seconds) No point making excuses i just haven't.

You've got the character's more or less flseshed out. Looking forward to seeing where you go next.

:D

[GonzaloGolpe]

This frant is great!:scream:

[Ernest Burden]

I'm re-reading the book, deciding if I have time to make an entry. But reading the threads, enjoying watching others working on the same problem I am.

Of the threads, I'm moved to make my first comment in yours. Your drawings are wonderful, glad to see another fan of non-photo blue Prismacolors. Will your entry be hand-drawn? If I enter, mine will.

With your most recent character sketches for Patricia--you nailed her with F. Perfect. The rest--the composition thumbs, the aliens, really good work, really good process.

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161911504_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1161911504_large.jpg)

Here's another redrawing of the charactes - hopefully they're starting to fit together more? Things are still somewhat sketchy here and there but certain parts get "frozen" as they become approved, like Patricia's face for example, cut and pasted from the earlier "approved" version.

I really would like to hear what people think about these layouts and how (or whether) you think the characters fit in there. What I'm trying to show is the scene where Patricia is in Olmy and the Frant's ship and they first arrive at the massive Axis City. That's why the city is so large in the composition, and why I've cheated the window so large, even though it's described as a smaller ship. I'd really like to hear from people whether they work, which ones you like, and advice for making it work better.

I have a bad habit of separating characters from background to the point that they don't really work together. I fear I've done it again here: The characters are in a ship so they have no relation to what's behind them (aside from the ship dashboard.) But I really wanted to show both the human element (Patricia, Olmy) and also the scale of the Way and Nader City. Tough things to reconcile. Should I make the characters smaller? Should I kill the foreground, or the background? Or should I just toss it all and come up with a new layout? Help!


On to comments, briefly:
Per - Thanks for the notes! Hope the characters are sitting a little better now, what do you think?

conkrys - Thanks!

Theresa - Really glad to see you back! The alien is a Frant, described as having a thin head like a board. Guess he's got skinny brains!

Runecaster - thanks for the support! Hope you have fun too.

Ernest - thanks for the first comment! Yep, love that blue prisma-color. I use the darker one, not the non-photo-blue, but it lightens when i scan it in. I will definitely hand-draw the characters before I color them. I haven't decided about the background yet.

See you all later, and please leave your thoughts on the laoyouts and whther any of this works, I'm so unsure...

-mike

[Nazirull]

I think "g" the best.........she has the awe-look standing before and outstanding and piece of artifact of mega scale.

Great work walrus...

[beelow]

Hard to tell because of the mediums you are using and the layouts are almost similar but I still think that 12 is visually pleasing so far,. Try to a do a black and white sketch or an all greyscale for the sake of getting the composition right. I think will help me get a better read. I usually see better that way. I hope I am not asking to much of ya. Still waiting to see how u will handle this subject!:thumbsup:

[GonzaloGolpe]

12b..BINGO!:scream: And from my point of view I´d increase the topo size of the composition:thumbsup:

[BC1967]

Hi Mike,
12b. I think the compositon works well towards the goal you've set to show the human and alien elements as well as envoking a sense of scale.
One thought I had to marry the characters and the ship better would be to add some extreme foreground element, maybe another panel structure, or a bulkhead.
Great stuff, as always. Looking forward to the finish.
Cheers.

[Ernest Burden]

I'm trying to show is the scene where Patricia is in Olmy and the Frant's ship and they first arrive at the massive Axis City...

I have a bad habit of separating characters from background to the point that they don't really work together. I fear I've done it again here

Of the compo's 12B is the winner. But I agree that you are not relating the figures to the background. If they have just arrived, and are seeing the city for the first time, then what are they looking at? We see the city ahead? They, she in particular, are looking back, Olmy is motioning but neither other character is following the gesture. I actually like the composition a lot because it cuts a diagonal that provides a tension interface. You could say the glass is that interface. I wonder if you could use the trick of showing the faces of the characters as well-defined reflections as they, and you, view the city for the first time. It's hard to pull of without looking like a cheap cliche, but maybe you can do it.

For a darker Prismacolor, I love the Indigo. The Raisin Noir is pretty nice, too.

So you plan to draw, scan, then color digitally? I've done that for figures in my illustrations. Do you prefer Painter or Photoshop?

[Conkrys]

Yup... I agree 12b it is!

[Try]

Hello Mike.

I know these things are hard!
Generally the group of characters seems to work fine now.

I like this Olmy better than the last. Of course this one looks almost aggressive and Olmy in the book seems more quiet and gentel.

Most of the people here seems to prefer 12b. I don’t know….
I really like the big structure in 11. The only problem there is that the ship seems to be not heading down the corridor.
Personally I would prefer to get the characters up close and personal in the foreground.
But the scene definitely looks more breath taking when you pull the camera back a bit.

Agony is what this is.:)


Mostly the best thing is just to go with a gut feeling and try to stick with it.
But always one sits back afterwards and feels things could have been better if only I did this ore that…..

Either way you go with this Mike it looks like its going to be an interesting image!:thumbsup:

[MrFreeman]

:drool: Fantastic Sketches Mike

Very Very nice - I'm a real fan of pencil sketches and the way you make subtle changes to the characters is really something.

What more can I say - keep up the great work :applause: :bounce:

[paperclip]

I'm afraid I'm gonna have to go against the crowd here, but I much prefer 11b and here's why.

In 12b, the people are on the left hand side and the ship goes from them right out of the picture- so you have your eyeline going to the people, looking at them briefly, then rapidly going over to the giant ship and out on the right hand side. Your eye doesn't wander around the picture enough.
In 11b however, you have the people, the arches following the line of the ship, down to the 'circular' horizon and back around to the people. There are enough diagonals to hold interest and it's not so simple that you're in and out like a shot.

Just my opinion though. :twisted:

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162059556_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162059556_large.jpg)

Thanks for the notes, everyone!
Some interesting points, but Ernest, your post was especially helpful. You're right, no one's really looking at anything: I'm using the time-tested sci-fi book cover cliche of having characters face outwards, "looking into the future" even though all the action is behind them. But it's okay: They're looking into the future! :rolleyes:

Not that I've rid the image of that problem with these new comps. Just trying something different, not putting all the action behind them. Instead just trying to make a nice, cylindrical landscape behind them. And making it all more directed off stage-left. It's a different approach, but at least it's not as confined as the ship cockpit was.

A few other notes:
Bryce: How's this for greyscale(ish)? Do I earn a comment now? :)

BC - I do like the bulkhead idea, I think that would help a lot, thanks for the mention of it.

Ernest - I usually sketch a lot like this, a combo of pencils and scribbling over it in Photoshop. When I get my final layout, I'll redraw the whole thing with nicer line art. Then I do all the coloring in Photoshop. If you really want a more detailed description of my workflow, there's a 3-page tutorial of my last Challenge entry: follow the "Tutorial" link in my signature.

Try - Thanks for your support! It is pretty agonizing. But the subject matter moreso than anything. If this were a "typical" Challenge, I'd be doing fun, humorous, silly images: I'm sure you can relate! ;) Only for this one, I find myself wanting to be really faithful to the source material and doing a "serious" image, even though it's not as much fun. Oh well, gotta try all sorts of images...

Anyhow, let me know what you think, all.

-mike

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162060819_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162060819_large.jpg)

...and one more try on the Axis city thing...

-mike

[BC1967]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/bc1967/WALRUS12B.jpg

Mike,
I still like this one best because:
I think it works well not only as a cinematic image, but as a wrap around book cover as well!
The first subcomposition works well on it's own. I think the moving the Frant over slightly as you have breaks the hard visual circle that was in 12a. From ther the eye is drawn into subcomp where the rest of the story is told ( Axis City ). The viewer can wander from one to the other.
However, my wife made a good comment: The compositon would have to flopped for a book cover. Also she wondered what Patrica is looking at. Maybe angle her more towards the city?
My 2 cents.
Cheers

[morenike]

Hey what's wrong with 15 i like 15. I know i know the whole sci-fi placement on te cover and all that. But the expressions on their face is pretty important in how I (not that i'm a critic or anything) read it. You could play around with the scale a little bit but Please ( hands clasped in plea) Don't loose the detail on their faces.

I know you've thought about it but the lighting is probably something that will tie the wow factor in there. Right now i like the focus towards the top of the right of the page and there seems to be some sort of tension there i can't quite figure out. the scale maybe. You need to but more pressure there to give them something to be worried / introspective about. Also seems like a nice way to tie humour in there. :D

Insights not dictations by the way. Now i've got to get my tush in gear ans start working on mine.:shrug:

[nwiz25]

hey dude! amazing concepts i must say!

i wish i cud suggest a couple of things .. but, me have no knowledge of the book ..

one thing tho ... as BC1967 suggested ... moving the Frant does help the second composition in terms of 'continuity and harmony' .. plus the viewing angle of patricia as to what she's looking at can be resolved ..

all in all ... very well conceptualised! :p

i love it! :p :love:

[Ernest Burden]

follow the "Tutorial" link in my signature.

I will, thank you!


How about this:

Take the figures from 14 and use them in 15. I like the Frant on the left, have him going out of frame, and maybe even bend the hand back in, which will create some fun tension by hinting at a threat to the human damsel by the unscrutable alien.

[adib]

Nice composition!I wish you good luck!:thumbsup:

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162185207_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162185207_large.jpg)

Bill, buffichar, nwiz25, Ernest, and adib - Thanks for your notes - very helpful indeed! So to respond to them, let's try this image. I've take the figures with the Frant on the left, as Ernest suggested. But I also sketched in a new version of Patricia turned more towards Axis city. Don't worry - if this is what I end up keeping, I'll redraw her to look like the character the way I made her look before. But as for layout... see what you think....

-mike

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162185332_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162185332_large.jpg)

...and here's the same kind of take on the characters, with the more-turned Patricia, in a vertical layout. Much more liek a book cover and less cinematic, perhaps. But one of the things I like about is is that Axis City is so long, it stretches so far off into the distance.

[daWinky]

Hey Michael,

a lot of really nice sketches to discover here:thumbsup: , but I think the both last pictures are the best so far and I find it hard to decide between the horizontal and the vertical layout:shrug: ...I've switched back and forth and finally I would say the vertical approach is just a little bit better to give an impression of the huge scale...and as you've mentioned before the stretched view of Axis City is very interesting...so you have a vote for #17:) ...

Cheers,

-sabrina

[TheFirstAngel]

17 and 15 both look great. thou, 15 for me has a more comfortable feel, things are in a great arranged room, there's all kind of sizes, ranges are huge, love the aditional ships filling the room and the american shot of the caracters works very well while 17 has a very dominant view of axis city. i feel lost somehow between the big hollow space the kind of feel i had in my empty colosseum back in spect*#!ar (sworn i wont use that word again) wich made me dislike and change my composition about 100 times. 15 is a perfect shot, i love it. my vote goes for 15
keep on rocking mate! :beer::wip::buttrock:

[Nazirull]

Nice compo...:thumbsup:

[morenike]

I like both. He he he. That's helpful right. :)

15 is very intimate and cosy. Well it is to me. The colour different also makes it abit more intense but it would only work if maybe something was on fire or....i dunno I'm fishing here.

17 is bang on for the whole (Angelic choir) Cinematic feel. I like how the background sweeps up from behind the charcters. Now that is awesome.

[Conkrys]

I find 17 to be better. It's more dramatic to me. Shows the scale and the "awe" someone would feel looking up at this flying structure of the city. Gof for it

[ChewyPixels]

My vote's for 17. It gives a good sense of the immensity of it all. Plus, I like how it places the characters closer to the viewer.

[Ernest Burden]

...and here's the same kind of take on the characters

Michael, is it OK with you if I draw over your image and re-post it in your thread?

[walrus]

By all means! I'd love to see what you come up with, and it's often easier to show rather than tell. Please, I'd really like to see your advice!

-mike

[molossus]

hello,

I like 15 more then 17. In 17 i think they all do overlap to much meaning: Patricia ,the frant and axis city are one block. 15 on the other hand shows more the spectacularity of axis city. but I think it's not so clear that the frants hand comes behind patricia, with an alien form its sometimes difficult to understand the form and especially when its partially blocked. So I must say I liked the previous composition of 15 more where the character were less overlapping. I could be wrong though.
The addition of lots of other vehicles really shows the scale of Axis city.

Anyway it is very interesting to see the evolution of it!! keep it up, will keep watching!

EON 3DSCENE (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=422523)

[Ernest Burden]

Please, I'd really like to see your advice!

Nothing major--I just took your last sketch and moved Olmy over. I was wondering about creating a seperation between him and Patricia. He isn't necessarily on her side. She's looking in wonder at Axis City, but he's looking with certain hidden purposes at her.

I also made the overhead city less linear, made it have a bit more S shape than what you had, figured it is a point along a line and should have some visual reason to linger on it.

http://www.architecturalvisions.com/EON/Walrus_sk-copy.jpg

Actually, I'm not sure its better. The first way, there is a big opening on the right, suggests possibilities. The revised one becomes a more overt dialog between the two (human) characters. Hummm. You may have had it right the first time.

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162242204_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162242204_large.jpg)

Thanks, for the draw-over, Ernest. Always appreciated. Itr's an interesting take, but it separates Olmy so much from everyone else. ( Also, he'd have to be standing ona platform over there too, given the camera angle.)

But you do have a point about the empty space on the right. Perhaps just a little creative cropping is all that's needed. And shoving folks right a bit so that the Frant isn't on two tangents with Axis City!

-mike

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162242496_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162242496_large.jpg)

Oh, and while I'm in a submitting frenzy, here are todays sketches of Patricia at this new angle and the Frant. Just thought you'd like to see the progress. I'm pretty much going with the bottom left Patricia (as you can tell from the 15c layout I'm about to post.)

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162242715_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162242715_large.jpg)

And here's the new revision of the Horizontal layout, using the character sketches above. Now more anatomically correct, and the angles seem to work a bit better.

One of the things i like about this one is that it's an actual scene from the book, when the three of them approach Axis City, not a made-up scenario (like the Vertical.)

It's also a little more interesting and more cinematic than the standard book-cover dimensions. So for that reason, I think I'm tending towards this one.

-mike

[JurajMolcak]

Great thread here Walrus! Frant - OMG - I love it! Keep going. Good luck mate :thumbsup:

[black-hand-77]

Hi! I like it more this way. Think I'll widescreen my composition too, although the theme I chose imposes me some 640x480 proportionality. And I love your characters. Especially your frant. I pictured my frant more organically, and I tried to avoid the obvious snail position of the eyes (dued to the narrow head shape), but yours looks awesome. You really pulled a fine character. And its magistrate outfit too. Good luck and try giving me some feedback on my frant and other characters I have imagined. Cool job!

[DeeVad]

Hello Mike,

I only subscribe weekly to your thread as you know to not be influencate by other participant till I wouldn't read the book, that why I don't know characters and landscape etc....
I just watch the evolving of your pictures.

In my opinion, your horisontal layout is not as efficient as the 17a layout.
Only one crits on the 17a is the head of the girl with the location on the center of picture ( in the big X of diagonal composition.
This make a poor composition, and the picture is suffering of only this for my humble opinion.
But the view angle is impressive and emotionnaly better.

I'm pro horyzontal layout for another reason : I think a cover of book or a poster of a movie/dvd cover are looking for this, and this is the subject, no ?

Great work on it, and see the evolution next week.

- your young padawan -

David

[walrus]

Thanks for the notes, David - some good point there. I might have to work on 17 before I make a final decision. I like that 15 is so assymetrical, and obviously, that's one thing not working for you about 17 too. I have time to keep fooling around with it.

There's no rule, though, about this having to be a movie poster. The instructions merely say "Your challenge is to create material for the promotion of a (potential) blockbuster film based on EON." That could be a movie poster, but it could also be a movie still, concept art, anything... I don't think anyone's forcing anyone to only do portrait-orientation pieces, and I'm sure anyone who doesn't won't be hurt in the judging.

Black Hand and Oweron - thanks! Glad you like the outfits and the Frant!

-mike

[molossus]

hello,

I like 15 more then 17. In 17 i think they all do overlap to much meaning: Patricia ,the frant and axis city are one block. 15 on the other hand shows more the spectacularity of axis city. but I think it's not so clear that the frants hand comes behind patricia, with an alien form its sometimes difficult to understand the form and especially when its partially blocked. So I must say I liked the previous composition of 15 more where the character were less overlapping. I could be wrong though.
The addition of lots of other vehicles really shows the scale of Axis city.

Anyway it is very interesting to see the evolution of it!! keep it up, will keep watching!

EON 3DSCENE (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=422523)

[NH]

Excellent composition :thumbsup: Keep it up ! No crits for the moment :thumbsup:
15C is my favorite one :scream:

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162314418_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162314418_large.jpg)

Thanks, bouboul and trikke - glad you like 15 more. I have to confess I do too. Whenever someone says they like 17, I grit my teeth and whenever someone says they like 15, I do a little (internal) cheer. There are a lot of other reasons, imo, to choose 17 over 15, but that right there is the biggest one. It's what is calling to me.

But still, always time to make revisiosn and try out some other things... So here's a version halfway inbetween them! (hence the number halfway between.) I used the fuller characters of 17 with the horixontal view of Axis City from 15 - which I think shows off the city the best. And I got rid of the problematic ship viewscreen/window. What I seem to have is the most massive version of the city yet. The characters are smaller, true, but not so small that they get completely lost.

I was looking through art books and noticing how, even in paintings where the characters are pretty small, my eyes go right to them. I often feel like I have to paint them really large (i.e. 15c) to give them the necessary weight, but it's quite possible to have them small (i.e. 16) and still have them read. I always have to relearn that one over and over!

Anyhow, no more comments on 17. What do you all think of these two?
And is anyone else bothered by the fact that 16 is now roughtly the same layout that I used on my LAST challenge entry, Farewell Kiss? :)

-mike

[ChewyPixels]

16 for sure. Has a lots more depth to it, if you know what I mean.

[beelow]

I like 16. I can agree that my eyes where drawn right to the characters! If the layout works it works! Waiting to see what other plans you are going to make.:thumbsup:

[Ernest Burden]

I like 16...If the layout works it works!

Can't argue with that.

However, if the characters are reduced in the frame like that, I would suggets seperating them some, they seem bunched up.

Ah, but now you're going to have to develop the details on Axis City! Smaller figure goup, more detailed city. The drawing gods giveth, and they taketh away. Its detail, strong composition, or prominent figures. Take your pick.

I'm not worried that you'll have trouble, of course.

[TheFirstAngel]

16 but with the cute face of 15's patricia? she looks soooo sweet on this one ^^http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162060819_medium.jpg

[graphicgolem]

Hi Michael - great sketches. The scale of the city is good in all the skeches, but I particularly like the distortion of the perspective in 16 - it seems to be through some sort of lens - which helps give the feeling of being on some sort of viewing deck (aboard Olmy's ship). Sketch 17 has a more dramatic sense of the city because of the visual weight with it looming over the characters. In terms of the character positions and profiles - 17 is the stronger with the frant towering over patricia (it has a nice ambivalence - is he protecting her or guarding her as a prisoner - this parallels what happens in the book very nicely). The profile and stance of Patricia is great with her clutching her tablet she really looks quite anxious - but Im not sure about the facial expression. Olmy's position is strongest in 16 and 17 where he is slightly distant from Patricia - I do like Ernest's flipping of Olmy to the right it makes the connection between him and the city stronger but perhaps gives him a hostile tone which is not apparent in the book. I think youve developed a very strong direction and look forward to see what happens next!

[morenike]

My only issue was if you lost the details on their faces(which you haven't) So so far. I'm watching with a smile on my face. Oh and i won't mention 17 either.:)

[BC1967]

Another 2 cents, that's four. I like 16, ( I'm a widescreen child ), but maybe with the characters a bit closer, so their expressions can read clearly. That would also serve to keep them from being overwhelmed by the rest of the elements in the scene.
Cheers.

[MrFreeman]

:applause: Great work Mike

My biggest problem is trying to portray the key characters in the final image, whilst also being able to show scale and character of the environment - and you've really captured both.

Looking forward to seeing developments

Dave :bounce: :bounce:

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162537465_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162537465_large.jpg)

Hey, all! Thanks for the input. Yes, I like layout 16 too... or at least I was liking it, 'til I started doing some 3D layouts. I build a rough version of Axis City and started placing cameras around to see how things would look. Truth to tell, there's just no way to get a layout like #16 with the characters standing on the surface of the Way. They'd have to be on a platform several kilometers above the way, as well as being tilted 30 degrees off of where gravity would be pulling them. So now I don't know whether I like it as much. That layout is the cetner one, now #19.

18 and 20 - with the close-up faces - I picture being on Olmy's ship, so at least there's a justification for them being so high up.

Anyhow, curious to hear your thoughs with these once-again rough mock-ups...

oh, and does anyone know how I would make circular lighting like the Plasma tube would cast in 3DSMax? The light would be coming froma tube surrounding the city, and I have no good idea how to do that... How 'bout you?

Thanks!

-mike

[nwiz25]

oh, and does anyone know how I would make circular lighting like the Plasma tube would cast in 3DSMax? The light would be coming froma tube surrounding the city, and I have no good idea how to do that... How 'bout you?

Thanks!

-mike


umm .. dude .. do u mean like .. u want the tube to cast light .. ?? ... maybe u can try out mental ray's glow lume shader ... ? assign the shader to the object (tube) ..
is it smthin like this .. ?

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/4766/tubeik0.jpg

please let me know if this it .... :p ..

cheers buddy! :beer:

[walrus]

Thanks for the reply... Well, what I mean is the plasma tube casts light, not the Singularity/Flaw going down the center. (Your pic makes it look like it's the Flaw that's glowing, not the hazy plama tube.) The light-source from the way is a hazy light being cast from the entire, wide, gasseous tube. Given that Axis City is also cylindrical, basically any given part of that cylinder would be hit by a light perpendicular to the normal of any of its faces. The plasma tube itself is not something solid or physical, so it's not something I would want to model, just something that light would be coming from.
Does that help a little?
Thanks!

-mike

[nwiz25]

oooops :P ... hehe .. well i havent read the book n all :p... really apologize for da mix up ...

but, umm .. if its a light source n all .. maybe u can use volumetric lights in max ...
is that ok ... ?? ... :p

[NathanielWest]

How did I miss this thread? This is great stuff, especially number 19. I'm looking forward to more!

[BC1967]

As I understand it, The Axis city sits inside the plasma tube. That's what the vanes do, they spread it aprart, and around the city. So, given that, wouldn't the city be ( from your characters POV ), bathed in an even, blueish, hazy light?
If you're thinking of simulating the lighting on the surface of the way, an omni or two inside a tube with the normals flipped should do the trick.
Cheers

[walrus]

Bill - Yes, that's how I see it too. I'm already using the tube with the normals flipped, but to really get the light accurate, I'm using a bunch of Omnis spread out in a ring around the way and then duplicated every 10km down the way or so. They're all set to pretty low amounts. I was just wondering if there was an easier/more efficient/more accurate way to do it.

It's a really washed-out light, but then, I suspect that's accurate to the way... I probably should just forego the realistic lighting and go with whatever looks dramatically correct.

Anyhow, any more thoughts (anyone) about the layouts above. For those of you who liked #16... does #19 work for you, even when it's clear that such a position/camera angle would be physically impossible in the Way? Again, should I toss the physics of the world and just do it anyhow because it looks cool? Or is doing that just disloyal to the story? Hmmm...

-mike

[adonihs]

Awesome job so far! I love the composition in this image, especially the creature design. And the plasma looks pretty cool itself!

[ChewyPixels]

Hey Walrus. I like 19 very much. I say go with what looks good, even though like you say the camera's position would be impossible. In fact, the camera's pos didn't even cross my mind when I first saw the concept. Looks rockin' to me.

[beelow]

Going off what is visually appealing !9 seems the best. It seems like I am not the only one who thought that! Waiting to see more!:thumbsup:

[tastatura]

very nice work so far
here is how I look at it:
18 is somehow to crowded
19 is better on that side but when I look at it my eye stucks just on the left side with no need to continue right, if you pursue this angle then my sugestion would be to put one of the characters slightly on to the right side and with that to bring some interest in that part of the picture
20 is good composition it drives your eye around the picture starting from the character and ending to right to the vanishing point following the Axis
I like how you have put the charaters in 19 so my final words - try something between 19 and 20 :)

[Nazirull]

I have an idea on a compo,

The three friends standing and facing as it is, looking up to the right, and from the right, this gargantuan tube, Axis City, approaches, thus creates a central composition. can be either portrait or landscape.

About the lighting, i have VRay at the office and i would use it as it has light shader and can be applied to any mesh.
Default max, i dunno, perhaps just light it as per mood and dramatical value, doesnt have to be accurately lit.

Just my two cents, :thumbsup:

[tastatura]

well about light personaly I think that it'll be interesting if you manage to do global illumination it should create some interesting ambient, even more if you make some cool worm contrast using the lights :shrug:

[walrus]

Thanks for the notes, folks!

Bryce, Jedi, and adonihs - thanks for the posts about the compositions. Glad to hear folks are all tending towards one particular image!

Nazirull - You're right that it could be portrait or landscape... and portrait would even let the composition be more "spacially accurate." I tried a few like that and just wasn't happy doing the portrait composition this time. Landscape felt more cinematic to me, and as the challenge is supposed to be about pitching a film, I just like landscape for that.

As for lightting, I think you're exactly right: Go with what works dramatically, not necessarily perfectly accurate. I just figured, if there's a way to easily do both, it'd be nice to give the more diffuse lighting a shot.

tastatura - good points about the lighting and composition. I've never done GI before in Max (which is what I have access to at the moment. Any recommendations about how to set this up?)

-mike

[TheFirstAngel]

and does anyone know how I would make circular lighting like the Plasma tube would cast in 3DSMax? The light would be coming froma tube surrounding the city, and I have no good idea how to do that... How 'bout you?


Hi mate.
Took me a while to figure it out and thanks go to m@ who helped me solve that.
here's how you can do it in vray. create any object, assign a selfilluminated material. activate gi. in renderrollout, go vraysystem, hit object properties and burst the gi-multiplyer. the result should look like this:

http://www.angel3d.ch/content/challenge/xtra/geometrylight.jpg

hope that helps :)

[DeeVad]

Thanks for the notes, David - some good point there. I might have to work on 17 before I make a final decision. I like that 15 is so assymetrical, and obviously, that's one thing not working for you about 17 too. I have time to keep fooling around with it.

There's no rule, though, about this having to be a movie poster. The instructions merely say "Your challenge is to create material for the promotion of a (potential) blockbuster film based on EON." That could be a movie poster, but it could also be a movie still, concept art, anything... I don't think anyone's forcing anyone to only do portrait-orientation pieces, and I'm sure anyone who doesn't won't be hurt in the judging.

Black Hand and Oweron - thanks! Glad you like the outfits and the Frant!

-mike

Thanks for info about orientation/size of art, I was lasy when I read it maybe and I invent a crasy rule in my head , lol :-)

I like the 19 in your progress, make me think that could be printed in really big only with the composition.

Good luck !

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162881730_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162881730_large.jpg)

Sacha - Thanks for the walkthrough! Dude, you rock! I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I definitely will. Thanks!

In the meantime, I've been scribblign some really rough color tests. I will likely do a bunch more, these are just trying to wrap my heard around what colors I may want. I'll try more. Don't mind the wacky number schemes - when I do color tests, I put all of them into one file, and the numbers correspond to the level numbers, so I can find them again!

-mike

[morenike]

6 has that this is just simply amazing look to it and 9 has a sense that something is abut to happen. The others didn't grab me as much as these two so i reserve comments on them. Looking good so far.:thumbsup:

[angel]

Hi there Michael!

From your color palette tests I like 6 or 9 the best although I don't really like the plasma color on 9.

Does the novel describes a specific color for that? I've been wondering about that for a while...

[tastatura]

yes number 6 looks like moust promissing colour palete pick with those cold warm mix, that makes nice soft harmony over the image. looking forward for next update mate :)

[walrus]

Thanks, guys. Looks like a couple of votyes for 6 & 9... But I'd like to try some lighter options, something clean and light and cool... give them a try later.

SNoWs - In parts of the story, such as when a ship is approaching Axis City on the flaw, the flaw is described as glowing red, or red in pulses. The implication is that it isn't always red. It's not necessarily described as self-illuminating either, except when it's described as glowing red. I'll leaving that as open enough to make it whatever color artistically works well in the scene! :)

-mike

[nwiz25]

yep! me with 6! pretty dramatic! .. i even like the colours in 1 :p .. but 6 is in the lead!

good luck mate! :thumbsup:

[angel]

Thanks, guys. Looks like a couple of votyes for 6 & 9... But I'd like to try some lighter options, something clean and light and cool... give them a try later.

SNoWs - In parts of the story, such as when a ship is approaching Axis City on the flaw, the flaw is described as glowing red, or red in pulses. The implication is that it isn't always red. It's not necessarily described as self-illuminating either, except when it's described as glowing red. I'll leaving that as open enough to make it whatever color artistically works well in the scene! :)

-mike

Well whatever color palette you pick I'm sure it'll be an awesome pic!
BTW thanks for the flaw description. :thumbsup:

[ChewyPixels]

Hmm, difficult choosing which one's the most appealing. You have a nice color pallette for all of them. I think I'd go with 6, but 9 is good too. Perhaps a mix between the two. :shrug:

[razz]

Mhm, I'd say 6 for the background, 9 for the mechanism and 1 for the characters. Just thinking. You should make a mix between some of them. Ah, nice to see you doing studies of everything to help you on the main big painting! I'm sure this will turn out great, because you're choosing the best from the studies you do. That's just amazing :bounce:

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1163216145_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1163216145_large.jpg)

Hey, all. Glad folks are still digging the color palettes. I will get to more experimentation with them. I'd like to try some that are a lot brighter and cooler, like a city lit from above by flourecent lights: The colors of bright steel and polished robots. At least I know people want me to use 6 & 9 as starting points for continued experimentation! :)

In the meantime, need to refine the chracters too. Here is how the corner with Patricia, Olmy and the Frant are coming along. I keep printing out verions, tracing over them and refining with blue pencil, scanning them in, and overlaying on top of them in Photoshop. This is about 3 iterations here. Still foolingaround with Olmy's head as you can see on the right there. And refining the details of Patricia's ISSCOM-issued jumpsuit too.

Cheers!

-mike

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1163270888_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1163270888_large.jpg)

Wow, such a huge response! Oh well, work goes on. I am continuing to refine the sketches. Lot more work on Olmy, and I noticed in the last post that Patricia's head was too far forwards. I've also moved her hands up closer to her heart. I did a photoshoot last week to help with the angles and folds. I haven't been relying on it too much, more winging it, but now that parts are getting refined, it's helpful reference for what I'm working on. So I thought I'd share some of the photos from that shoot.

At this point the characters are close to done for layout, all that's left is to rework the line-art and tighten it up (because as those of you know know me know, I like my line art pretty tight before I start coloring, even if half of it will be erased by the end of the piece.) But this is your cue - if you see things to change with the anatomy, please speak up soon, now's the time!

Is it just me or does this Challenge seem quieter than most? It doesn't feel like there's as much solid C&C and gabbing going on... I'm not just saying it because of the responses in my thread, it seems to be lacking from many (although not all - some are still gabby.) Just wondering... just doesn't seem like the same level of intensity as the last several Challenges. Anyone else think so?

-mike

[beelow]

Like the sketches and color comps Mike. I think that everyone may be either reading their books or working somewhere hehe, it has been a bit quite the past few months. I think maybe this particular contest is a bit of a different approach as well. Which may have turned people off to entering. It can be a whole bunch of reasons hehe! Waiting to see what you do next Micheal!:thumbsup:

[nwiz25]

Wow, such a huge response! Oh well, work goes on. I am continuing to refine the sketches. Lot more work on Olmy, and I noticed in the last post that Patricia's head was too far forwards. I've also moved her hands up closer to her heart. I did a photoshoot last week to help with the angles and folds. I haven't been relying on it too much, more winging it, but now that parts are getting refined, it's helpful reference for what I'm working on. So I thought I'd share some of the photos from that shoot.

At this point the characters are close to done for layout, all that's left is to rework the line-art and tighten it up (because as those of you know know me know, I like my line art pretty tight before I start coloring, even if half of it will be erased by the end of the piece.) But this is your cue - if you see things to change with the anatomy, please speak up soon, now's the time!

Is it just me or does this Challenge seem quieter than most? It doesn't feel like there's as much solid C&C and gabbing going on... I'm not just saying it because of the responses in my thread, it seems to be lacking from many (although not all - some are still gabby.) Just wondering... just doesn't seem like the same level of intensity as the last several Challenges. Anyone else think so?

-mike


hey buddy! i really love the way u use da reference photos :p cant wait to c the final lineart and then the rendering! :eek: hehe ... suspense is killin me softly! :p

well as for the interaction n all ... looks ok .. but then again .. this is the first time im entering .. :p .. wish me cud say smthin :( .. havent seen the way members interacted in the other challengs .. :(

but, in the end .. GOOD LUCK is in order! :p

cheers Mike!:beer:

[Anatomista]

Your drawing style is very cool! I am enjoying watching the steps.

[rawwad]

NIce update! Haha, it´s funny how something stay in my head, as your Frant design. I see him beafore I start read EON and now when I reading it he looks like yours. But I think in my scene he won´t be, then is everything O.K.
Also very nice using of reference, well done Mike :)

[TheFirstAngel]

you're unbelievable, you know that? tha characters take shape greatly, still love your priceless frant design. sidenote - erm, how comes all tend to look grumpy now? patricia looks a bit like a bird, wich really well discribes the characters picture i have of her (fly a bird to the stone and take her away her ground, desperately would like to find a way back but keep on flying... omg I almost cried when i finished eternity). oh lol, still am in love with her pointy nose :) make sure you keep that ^^
there is one or the other spot but nothing not fixable in 1- 2 strokes, patricias left leg around the knee, could be the folds there might be the shading, looks like its heading into different directions. frants right arm looks much longer than the left arm olmy's left arm looks slightly too short.
might be my overtired eyes, if so, never mind. hope that helped if so, and i am looking forward to your linearts very much :) your piece looks promissing and its always a pleasure to watch your progress mate. keep on rocking, ready to take off! ^^ go go go Mike! :beer::buttrock::arteest:

[walrus]

Thanks for the comments, folks, especially to you, Sacah, for the meaty crit and run-down on the anatony. Thanks!!! you have just been such a help in this thread so far, I really appreciate it.

For Olmy, I assume you mean the screen-left arm, not his left arm, right? And similarly with the Frant? Actually, the Frant has a lot more troubles than that - I was looking at this post last ngiht and noticing how un-symmetrical the Frant is. Not only are his arms different lengths but they start at different heights, the chest is uneven: I need to draw in some guide perspective lines and reposition everything! :D

I'll have to work on the expressions more... that or else post close-ups. Olmy iand the Frant are actually the happiest he's looked in any sketch! They're just so far away it's hard to see the sutleties in just the corners of their mouth. I think they may also look grumpy just because it's hard (for me) to capture other emotions from this camera angle. I'll work on it...

Rawwad - Thanks for the post, glad you think I have the "definative" Frant. I tried to stay really faithful to the text, and I just love drawing aliens!

NWiz - Thanks for the notes. This may be your first time entering but you're doing exemplary work interacting, both in posting your own process and commenting on other peoples' threads. Wish more people were as good as you about that (but then, I wish that every challenge! I miss the earlier challenge when "audience participation" was actually part of your final grade.

Bryce - I agree, some people are still reading the books. And I think a lot of people who might have otherwise commented likely feel they can't because they haven't read the books. But whatever the cause, it's just less bustling around here than usual, and I prefer the constant frenetic activity of the earlier Challenges more than this one. Maybe it'll pick up in a month or two, but this far into M&S or Journey, it was sure a lot more loud. You actually had to work to keep your piece on the front page or 2 of posts! :)

sigh, the good old days, hee hee...

Catch you all later...

-mike

[shattered-fx]

Is it just me or does this Challenge seem quieter than most? It doesn't feel like there's as much solid C&C and gabbing going on... I'm not just saying it because of the responses in my thread, it seems to be lacking from many (although not all - some are still gabby.) Just wondering... just doesn't seem like the same level of intensity as the last several Challenges. Anyone else think so?

-mike

It's the book ! I guess a lot of entrants (I'm one of them! ouch!:eek:)) find it difficult to spark off and interpret the scale of the story .. for me it seems like its a challenge within a challenge! hehe..

However, it really feels good to see someone like you instigates and blazes trail for others to follow!

I really admire the way you sets example on "strategic" illustration development!

Keep it up mike!:thumbsup:

my EON entry

[naetronic]

Hey Michael youre characters are looking great really like the way Olmys turning out! Great color passes too so far i like #6. Keep it up bro!:thumbsup:

[chaitanyak]

great sketches, love the composition so far. looking forward to more of it.

[Greatto]

Hello Mike.. Great eon entries, I prefer the first sketch with blue color haze in bacground.... But the red one looks fantastic too. I really treat with respect to method of your work. Great and wonderful blue sketches...
Nothing to crit. only Good wishes... Good Luck...
Thanks a lot for help...

[aurora]

First your color tests I would try a hybrid between 4 and 9. At this point in the Way everything seems as if its underwater so you want that great blue look, yet I agree with your comment on trying something lighter, hence where 4 comes in a bit. The thing that should prove interesting is that Axis city lies almost completely nside the plasma tube and you like me are looking at it from the corridors floor. So I'm wondering what the physical effects for the lighting due to the plasma tube would do to the view of the city from the corridors floor?

As for the Frant, he rocks. The one crit I have is on the hard edges around the front of his face. To me while I can see where it could happen physiologocally speaking, ascetically it distracts from my overal view and emotional feelings of him.

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1163812079_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1163812079_large.jpg)

Hi, all. Thanks for the notes. I haven't updated ina while so I thought I'd drop a new image, show that I'm still here...

The biggest number of changes with the characters here are with the Frant, thanks to Angel's good feedback. I'm leaving in the perspective lines I drew in so you can see where the problem areas were and how they were fixed.
(Sorry you don't like the hard edges, Aurora - when I get around to rendering the Frant, he won't have really hard edges, not like a cube primitive, they'll be rounded over. But several times in the book Bear describes his head like a board with eyes sticking out of it and I really wanted to capture the head of a creature that would engender that kind of metaphor.

As for the area on the right, the other thing I've been working on is a texture map for the surface of the Way, coverred with highways and roadways. I'm building this by editing and copying and pasting paths on a large file. I just stroked the path here to show you how it's going. Pretty boring right now, just one of the small details that will come together when I work more on the Way details.

-mike

[prabath]

Hey Mike,it`s prabath,nice work you`ve got here.When I consider the work in your portfolio I just can`t wait to see the colors in there.

Cheers!

[OmeN2501]

First of all I just love your character design. Really really well thought out and put together

Second of all - now I see that my idea is way to close to yours... i have to rethink whole thing :/

You got really nice pic going on here, Im gonna pop in from time to time ;]

[Ivy00]

I love your Frant, he has such a gentle expression about him I can't wait to see the next steps you post.

[TheFirstAngel]

glad my little review helped :)
so you plan make the scene's skeleton more or less in 3d? the pathmap actually looks like an advanced version of LA's freewaychaos i almost can smell the smog :p dont overdo it since that part of transportation might have took less weight in a 0.5g's environment where public use of flying vehicles have become natural and hispeedtrains do the rest on miantransportationroutes. If i was a landscape architect i'd put as much focus as possible to create much green, lakes, mountains - basically places that are nice to take a walk and to live in and hide or avoid complex roadnets. thou i had much fun too to create a mini technokremlin by the thought, Korzenowsky the architect built the controllcenter of the 6th chamber and prolly has russian roots judged from his name.
since the way was designed, i think there's no need for an urban complexity level in the amount of roadconnections.but thats just me of course :)
still amazed on your detailed prepares. ^^ can't wat to see ya start painting - go go go mike!
:beer::buttrock::wip: rock on!

[Nazirull]

It's the book ! I guess a lot of entrants (I'm one of them! ouch!:eek:)) find it difficult to spark off and interpret the scale of the story .. for me it seems like its a challenge within a challenge! hehe..

However, it really feels good to see someone like you instigates and blazes trail for others to follow!

I really admire the way you sets example on "strategic" illustration development!

Keep it up mike!:thumbsup:

my EON entry

Yep...its the book no doubt....im sure by end of this month, we can see some serious progress...including mine i hope...still trying to digest the mood.....especially the politics and emotion of it. I regrard the stone as a character more than a structure. Its presence signifies something...a lot of things...i dunno which one to show really.

Your updates look wicked. Im watching. Frant design is unique.....ure pretty good at character, as we all see in ur JB entry.

Later!

p/s: ahah! drawing up a map texture i see! :thumbsup:

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1164056694_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1164056694_large.jpg)

Well, everyone seemed so excited about color comps #6 and 9, here's the comp taken to the next step: With some of the texture from the last post and some clouds added in. I think I like these colors. I remember doing a really turquoise color comp for the Grand Space Opera challenge ands really loved the colors, but ultimately didn't end up using it because it was too cool and calm for the excitement of that piece... And when I was working on that Zombie/Robot piece (follow 'brainbots' link below) I always picuted it in cool blues... and it too ended up as bright red. so now I finally get to do a cool-toned image! :)

Thanks for the piles of notes. Angel, the texture for the floow is merely a starting point for me to start painting in real details. I want it to look really high-tech and coverred with freeways. There are a lot of descriptions of them in the book, with all of the commerce going to and from gates, so I want to capture that, not just lakes and grass.

My next small task is final line art for the characters: that's the EASY part. The real work I need to get done now is to do some redesign work on Axis City and actually model it out. All these rings around the city are a rough semblance of what I wanted it to look like, but it's all primitives. The Vanes in the back are just distorted cubes. Now i need to really flesh out all of those details before I can really start painting.

-mike

[OmeN2501]

What you really need to do is add depth and size tho this pic - cuz I just dont feel that this tunnel is 30km in height, more like few hundred meter at most. You need to add some haze and atmosphere here otherwise ints not gonna be as impressive as it should be
Other than that I really like the colours - thou the light at the end of a tunnel is a little strange... why is it there? Also how about totally different lightning approach - like in bright little cloudy day - nice worm light from plasmatube. I think you could made it into massive scene with axis city coming out from clouds... but it just my little suggestion ;]

[BC1967]

Now that's the good shoeshine! I do have one thought though. What if you moved Olmt a bit to the left, so he was back lit by the light of the way's plasma tube. It might be an oppertunity to balance his improtance with Patricia's in the composition by pulling a few Godrays out of his shadow. Just a thhought.
I'm really looking forward to your finish!

[mdavid]

That's a wonderful composition. And I have no doubt that you'll capture that sense of scale that OmeN2501 mentions. I'm thinking the ceiling of the chamber would be like the view out of a plane window, wrapped around you. You're almost there. Fantastic stuff

[element5]

Hi there Michael, Looking awesome my friend. Last render is looking very powerful....no crits from me :-)

[Greatto]

Hi Mike great and wonderful...
But the it seen not to big in scale (tube). Maybe you need to add more for in foreground to show more distance... Will you use any 3d? nothing more to crit only comment , but if i'll start comments, i'll not stop, that why I'll wait for next update :D Good Luck Mike :)

[ChewyPixels]

WOW! That's freakin' fantastic! It's coming along very well, Mike. The "freeways" along the chamber and the hint of an atomosphere really punches it up a bit.

However, there is one thing that bugs me. I'm still having a bit of difficulty getting that sense of scale. If you can pull this off, you'll have a winner. Don't know how to really help you with this. Still, your entry is one of my favs. :)

Keep on rockin'! :buttrock:

[molossus]

hello mike,

I like the way this is going!:thumbsup:
The clouds give a great sense of depth.
I like the ligthing on the people in the front.
But I must say I still think the hand of the Frant behind Patricia's back works confusing. If you look at it for the first time you might think it is her hand.

looking forward to the next steps:)


EON (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=422523)

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1164144837_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1164144837_large.jpg)

Thanks for the notes, all. Seems like a lot of you feel that I didn't really capture the depth and scale of the Way well enough. On top of that, my wife didn't think the whole composition worked: If we can see all of those clouds, where the heck are the characters? 10km above the atmosphere? My wife is not the sort to say "WTF?" but the general gist was there. :)

On top of all that, the one part I AM happy with is the characters. So just for the heck of it, I decided to throw in one of my earlier, vertical renders and try a mock-up with that. There's some city on the surface fo the way on the bottom right, which our characters are standing in the middle of. There's a large pyrimidal gate in the center. And then there's Axis City, looking, I hope, suitably large?

Be curious to hear what you think...

-Mike

[OmeN2501]

To be honest i prefer horizontal one - it just suits your picture better. What you should do is go with the "they are in the ship" idea. There were many transparent materials in Axis city - Im sure they could made wall of a ship transparent. Plus if they were inside flying ship - you can cast any light you want on them ;]n

And if I remember correctly - there were no cities inside the corridor whit axis city - only sands and few trees and a gate from time to time

[tingham]

This version definitely has a more immediate sense of drama to it. Can't put my finger on why exactly but maybe I can use further revisions as inspiration to communicate more effectively :)

[icedeyes]

Hey warlus... I have to go with OmeN2501... The scene would be great if they were inside a Olmy's ship... The one with the milky transparency effect... Even though, the last one is not half bad... It does have a nice perspective... I love your work on the characters too by the way... great work so far...

[Squibbit]

looking good there Mike , good work with the alien, lookin forward to see some
detail on the constructs


.

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1164215196_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1164215196_large.jpg)

Here's a really quick mock-up of the horizontal layout with some changes as some of you suggested. There's more distance fog, but I think to really do this one right, I need to rotate the camera more. One of the things I like most about the verticla layout is how long Axis City looks, even though the most distant parts are fogged out. Here there's so much foreshortening than it looks a lot shorter (even though it's the same model.) If I turn the camera more, the city can extend further to the left.

I think I may try expanding the diameter of the Way geometry also, see how that looks.

I've done a really quick, cheap version of "Look, we're in a space ship!": Rings around the windows and glare on the glass. Not that there would really be glass with their level of technology - hey, it was a quick fix just to test out the look. As icedeyes pointed out, it's certainly not how it's described in the book. (Actually the ship in the book is quite small, but I'm pleading conscious choice and artistic liscence on that one.) I'll have to make more sketches of the interior and refine that some more, but at least now it gives them a sense of place... you think?

Marek - Parts of the Way before they get to Axis City are described as barren and empty, such as where the VSTOL touches down and where Patricia makes her last gate, but areas further on, near the city and beyond it, are described and being coverred with tons of freeways and people and gates and traffic going from gate to gate. This part of the Way I'm drawing is based on those descriptions from the book.

And no, Trikke, I haven't done anything about the Frant's hand behind Patricia yet, but it's a good point.

So, comments?
Thanks!

-mike

[OmeN2501]

May bad about the Way description :D I forgot about freeways and stuff.
About new composition - I know is early in development but I just love it :] Just remember to add more and more depth. 30km is alot, human eyes barley see anything at that distance. Also keep in mind that no part of axis city should be black or near black color. Darker something is in a picture - the closest it appears. So if you light up and fade colors of axis - we will have feeling that its big and far away from us. I know im teling you the basics I just dont want you spoi this part - you really have something here

[BC1967]

Well, I guess there's no delete for posts!

[BC1967]

What I was trying to say was: In my humble opinion, I think it's coming along nicely ( I wish mine were doing as well, I'm doing the same sort of view, above the way, but I'm taking a bit of licence in that I'm combining the flawship party with the scene where Patrica and company view the projection of Axis city. Ahh, maybe I'll get some time over the holiday. ).
Anyway...the way if I remember, is @ 50 klicks across and the city is 10. So I agree that the way should be bigger. Think of all the traffic you can paint!
Cheers.

[Anatomista]

That's great!

I am not sure about the scale but have you thought about trying to enlarge the circunference of the background - the width of the city -, what would appear more like a concave roof.
The way it is now looks pretty cool and the "artistic license" allows this forced perspective for dramatic porpouses. But, if you want to hear a little suggestion, this is mine. Your work is amazing anyway.

Good Luck.

[mdavid]

I'm sure the sense of scale will come as this scene progresses. With lots more clouds in the distance appearing much smaller due to perspective, and fading into haze.

The crisp sharp focus and colours of the foreground elements should make the hazy background appear even more distant, I reckon.

Here's a pic I took out of a plane window recently to show what I mean about clouds in the distance. You'll see that in the foreground you're looking down so you can see through the gaps in the clouds. In the distance you're looking across the tops of the clouds so you see less of the landscape. I think details like that make a big difference.

A scene like this wrapped around the interior of the chamber might look really cool.

http://www.mdavid.com.au/cg/sky.jpg

I took a few pics - send me a PM if you want to see a few of them for ideas.

[LightSovereign]

really accurate!. the frant to me is spot on!. i see the two cubes for the axis the three juts leading to the way, you even have the twisted pyramid motif! its just one nice looking turbine ^^.


gratz!

Marley

[tastatura]

o good progress walrus, I ahevnt been around home these days, :) don;t have much time now to read up all the new pages, but soon will do, looks very interesting keep up mate :thumbsup:

[brrrhmmm]

Side by Side comparisons So that you know who is doing

what in the illustration category of the eon challenge only.

Classifier followed by artists.

: Strong/Beautiful Foreground Potraits with EON elements in the background.

Movie Posters theme.

Characters in dramatic poses.

Characters have detailed skin,muscle and skeletal structures.



Marco Alejandro Castelan Morales

John Streider

Radu Bogdan Boeru

Tiberius Viris

Sacha angel diener

Niklas Frostgard

Michael van den bosch

sandra bott

michael dashow

nabil hamadi

alwyn talbot

timur kiryashov

damir g martin

Nathan L Bachelder

Daniel lu visi

Maurizio Manzieri

dale thomas

ego lataire

rune rask

guo jian

hugo araujo

: massive architectures,detailed cityscapes,plasma tubes,huge eon elements viewed in the distance in the style of grand space opera with miniscule,faceless,diminutive men ,women and all terrain machines reacting and responding to the environment.

Tiberius Virius

remko troost

tolgahan gungor

torsten wolber

nathaniel west

ramy badie

bryce smith

martin nielsen

emrah elmasli

mauricio alvarado kladt

prabath wijayantha

maciej frolow

nilesh ambekar

constantinos krystallis

greg kaperski

adrian fekete

reinaldoromero

marcin j. nikiforuk

james nelms

maurizio manzieri

jarek sznytzer

Derek wilson

Nazirull Safry Paijo

Daniel justin bird

dale thomas

erik linden

rune rask

david freeman

ori arad

markus graf

ali jalali

raffy encarnacion

alex kelly



: air ,sea atmosperics featuring natural elements of islands,skies blend into a grand sense of scale.Includes Tree elements.Gaia oriented.Mountain views and Spectacular chamber vistas. Sky atmospherics

adrian baluta

gonzalo golpe

gunilla elam

jonathan colvin

guo jian

oscar jostedt



: party scene with the character interacting and gossiping

Parties gathered at gate opening

Radu Bogdan Boeru

nekomouse

: wonderful sense of humor even black humor and caricature

Torsten Wolber

per trystad

mark david

: action packed conflict with eon elements in the backdrop and lots of machines,ships,cities and soldiers

thierry schiel

paul hume

: entire cities,planetary bodies,asteroids,weather systems,gates,singularities,flawships and space vehicles in awe inspiring perspectives with large scale explosions.Ships have beautiful designs.Space Atmospherics.

Dmitri G Michniouk

sacha angel

neville de souza

prabath wijayantha

greg kaperski

mona eriksson

attilla kurt

vladimir davidenko

paul b castillo

juha kamarainen

mauricio alvarado kladt

joel carlo

shawn andrews

matt benya

Derek Wilson

blaz porenta

oscar jostedt

pavel elagin





: detailed explanatory tutorials

sacha angel

matt benya

[walrus]

Hi, all! Haven't checked in in a while so I thought I'd pop in and thank forlks for their posts, comments, notes, and um, exhaustive lists of what everyone else in the Challenge is working on.

One of the biggest problems I'm having right now is that it's hard to show Axis City fading into the distance when it's too foreshrtened to even see the back two thirds of it! Right now I'm trying to work with the horizontal camera angle to get a slightly better position where you can see more of the back half. I'm also really starting to do some more final modeling, not just this placeholder stuff. I won't be doign a big fancy 3D render - I'm just makign a foundation to paint over. But I need to ge tthe geometry right for perspective reasons.

Marek - Thanks again for the comments and reminders.

BC1967, Anatomista, and Mark - Thank you for the comments on scale. I think it's not just a matter of making the tube larger, it's also about how large I paint the details like the clouds on the surface of the Way. Mdavid was kind enough to send me more photos like the one he posted (Thanks again, Mark!) and I think that'll be a huge help in painting a lot smaller clouds and surface detail which will help make the scene look larger. I'll need to do some atmospheric fading as well.

LightSovereign - THanks, glad you spotted all the parts. Right now I'm trying to modek the "Maltese Cross" which goes in the front - strangely enough it's not in Bear's first description of the City and shows up in later passages in the book. :shrug:I'll try to incude it too.

tastatura - Thanks for dropping by!

brrrhmmm - Thanks for posting the same comparison list that you've posted on just about every other person's thread in the Challenge. I don't think it will change what I'm working on nor cause me to rethink my concept, but thanks for the thought.

Cheers, all, and for those of you in the U.S., hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!

-mike

[Nazirull]

I kinna get what your prob is with the length of the Axis city. I think your composition is fine. I think you can try to show the length of it by putting some light glow or flares, since i think it is the only thing you can see through think distance fog.

I havent got to the Axis City part yet in the book so i cant comment much on how it should be or not. This is just a placeholder anyway.

I share your dissappointment about the list. I PMed one of the admin and hope same people with this kinna intention wont make it in the future.

Happy Thanksgiving to u Mike!

[Hideyoshi]

Very nice concepts with cool compositions!
I well remember your past challenge entries which kicked major a$$ already! :)
And this will surely turn out equally nice!

Good luck!

[brrrhmmm]

I assume you are not not being sarcastic as Your artwork reflects
a warm humourous character.I have given reasons for the list
to grin3d and await his permission to release the reasos.Message me if you want
an update and keep up the nice artwork.Also you have been very helpful
to many artists please comment on some of the artists in the list who have
great works but are in the low tens in terms of views and in particular have zero
criticism.Also Nazirull you rascal ,I have gone through all 1214 of your
posts and most of them are of the order hi nice work and nice to see you with some
lightweight criticism.
I am going to message the admin about you for flooding!Just Kidding.:)

[graphicgolem]

Really like the the way this is coming together. Just one thought that came to me. I really like the fact that the characters can now recognised as being inside the ship. To increase the drama of and scale of this scene I wondered if changing the 'camera' angle so that the deck of the ship could be seen a little. This windows of the ship could then run under the characters feet so that the lower part of the way could be seen - so suggesting its cylindrical nature and expansiveness. This could also give the appearance of the ship's hovering or movement within the Way's space and might also help to add to the scale of Axis city...? Great concept - watching in appreciation.

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1164674311_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1164674311_large.jpg)

Thanks for the notes, folks. I've been working away on my Axis City model, and banged out a quick render to show how it's going... Not something exciting, mind you, just the model. I've now got some surface detail, the "Maltese Cross" on the front, and vanes that aren't just distorted cubes. The characters are just on a flat layer in front of everything in the 3D scene. I'm not planning on doing fancy rendering for the final image, just painting over it in Photoshop. But still, it's be some progress to show.

Subha - I'm not sure I completely get what you're suggesting. If I think I have it, you think I should move the camera up so that I can see the floor of the ship, but it will be see-through so we can see the "floor" of the Way? Well, that makes sense -there certainll are ships in the book where you can see out the bottom, like the big discks they travel in to the Timbl Gate. But if I moved the camera up, We wouldn't be looking upwards at the characters as much and I really want to keep that: For one thing, looking up at them is kind of dramatic, and secondly, I don't want to redraw them all... again! But thanks for the idea.

brrrhmmm - I was being serious, not sarcastic, when I said that your list wouldn't change what I'm working on. It's important to follow one's own muse and not base one's entry on what everyone else is or isn't doing. I do my best to comment on peoples' threads but can't comment on absolutely everything, otherwise I'd have no time to work on my own piece! (which, as anyone can tell, still needs a lot of work itself!)

Hideyoshi - Thanks! I don't know that this one will be as funny as my former entries, but for some reason I'm working on it anyhow.

Nazirull - You're still not done with the book? Get to reading man! I hope all of our entires haven't given everything away for you yet! But even so, good ideas on how to help convey the distance for the city.

A general question: The earlier versions I have of this file have much larger rings around the city. Now it's more like surface deco. Which do you like? Should I bring back the big rings? What do you think? Thanks...!

Cheers, all!

-mike

[NH]

Maaaan I was on your website for the firt time and ...:eek::eek: :eek: I like all your works mate :love:really impressive !
Now your farewellkiss is my desktop image ( U know that it is my favorite one :D )
Your girls sketches are so cute ! :love:

Ok... about EON now :
Excellent as usual :thumbsup: but ... Big rings ! Big rings ! Big rings ! :D
And I think there is a little problem with Pat's right arm and right knee maybe you can improve these.
Keep it up Mike you rock mate ! :buttrock:

[walrus]

Well, sounds like 100% of people who responded to the last update like the big rings, so they stay. (I am, however, refining them and makeing them look a bit cooler.)

Bouboul, what specifically do you not think works about her right arm and left knee? I've been looking at it too long, so if you (or anyone) could be more specific, it'd be a help.
Thanks!

-mike

[mdavid]

I'm glad the entire vote went with the big rings. I was thinking the same way. Or you could even have both, so that small rings add interest to the inner layer of the construction but you see the big rings first. The big rings give the structure an instantly-recognisable point of interest. I always prefer a shape that has a strongly recognisable and interesting form when seen as a silhouette, and the big rings do that.

I'm also looking at the arm and leg and they look good to me. In fact the posing of your characters seems really, really good. It's not the easiest angle to draw them from, and I reckon you've done it just right

[NH]

Hi mike
You are right sorry I wasn't enough precise, so this is what i meant

http://bouboul.ifrance.com/12245_1164674311_large-1.jpg

the right arm seems to be broken, I think that it is too fat too... about the leg its position and the way you painted the light make it look broken too with an impossible little rotation on the knee...
I hope that helps, anyway keep on rockin mate I like your work very very much !
I am also waiting for your precious crits on my thread.
Cheers mike !

[walrus]

Thanks, Bouboul, but I'm still confused - do you mean Patricia's right arm and leg, or the screen right arm and leg?

Also, did you realize that what's pointing out from the screen-right side of patricial is the Frant's arm, gesturing at Axis City? (Trikke pointed out that it might be confusing, but I haven't done anything with that yet.)

Thanks!

-mike

[mdavid]

I think I see some of what bouboul is refering to. In Patricia's right leg (the one on the left of the screen) her leg looks a little thicker. But I like that because it's what I'd expect from it being closer to the camera.

As for the twist in the knee, I sort of see that but also sort of don't. The wrinkles in the fabric might be suggesting a twisting of the kneecap - or maybe not.

I've had a go at taking the twist out by changing/removing some of the wrinkles in the fabric. Please don't see this as how it should look because you're better at this kind of drawing than I am and I reckon each time I make a change to your art it looks worse! But maybe it illustrates what bouboul is refering to. If you compare the knees you'll see some of the twist taken out.

http://www.mdavid.com.au/cg/knee.jpg

But once again, that twist in the fabric didn't bother me. I like it how you drew it.

[NH]

Hi Walrus,
I mean Patricia's right arm and leg yes ( I wasn't talking about the frant's hand)... I attached a little image on my post : its bizarre the image is not visible on my Safari but it is on firefox ( I don't know why...) Hope you saw it .
Any way I understood very well your drawing and I like it very much.
Thank you so much for your sincere crit I understand what you mean and I'll try to explain this choice on my thread

Cheers Mike keep it up, waiting for your next one !

[fO_o]

Hi there. Just wanna say that i really admire the amount of effort u put into development sketches..exploration of ideas..drawing lots of thumbnails with varying composition and stuff, i myself dont have the patience to do all that :P...and thats probably the difference between a good piece and a lousy 1. Do you go through this process for every piece of your work? Your latest developement looks very promising..and i like your frant(i know this've been said quite a fewtimes:D). Looking forward to the next update.

Btw....i really like ur Farewell kiss piece!

Best of luck!

[ChewyPixels]

Hey Michael. It's been a long while since I've visited your thread. :blush: Just been way too busy with my entry and other things. Although I do agree with your comment regarding this challenge. I guess there isn't that much interest in this one as with past challenges. :shrug:

Anyway, looking at your last milestone, there isn't anything to say other than what has been said before. I see that you've decided on the larger rings, which is good imo. However, I still think you should add some surface detail, but I'm sure you have plans for that. :)

I must say that I do prefer Mark's alteration of Patricia's knee. Does make it look a tad better. Odd that I didn't notice this before.

Keep up the hard work! :wip:

[tastatura]

droped by and still not update :( I was hoping to see something wicked :eek:
anyhow here are some suggestions from me
-the composition looks nice, alltho' I found the cilinder (axis) to be some how to big and right in the viewers face, so try something with that :D
-also the light beam is kind of short it'll look more belivable and cool we see more of it ;)
-I like what have you done on the back (of the axis) with those wing looking things, so why not you try to repete them in the back (and may be one more close) to get and push the depth further away, the old cheap trick with things getting smaler in distance.:shrug:
-I don't know if you like to keep this camera angle its ok its stable it rgive us sence of calm moment, if you like you can try to tilt the camera angle a bit so you;ll get a more dramatic and dynamic view
waithing for updates man
cheers :bounce:

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1165071792_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1165071792_large.jpg)

And here it is, the model with larger rings. I don't think I'll be taking the 3D work any further than this. I could, but really, I just want to get to painting soon, not just modeling! Once I'm there, I'll add a lot more detail, this is just the framework to paint upon. I can add more fog, more details, lights, it'll be great (unless, of course, it's not.)

notes, notes, notes...

Mark and Bouboul, you all ahve both been really helpful in pointing out the anatomy problems, Thanks! It's too bad no one else got to see Bouboul's attachment, it was actaully really funny, showing how Patricias' leg was eather broken or malformed... well, it doesn't sound funny, so I guess you had to see it. Fortunately I did and have made changes (though not in this upload.)

FO_o - Yes, I actually try to go through this much effort for every serious peice I work on. Maybe not quite this much because I never get quite as many people in my Work In Progress threads here giving my this kind of vital look-over. But as far as the rest of it, the concept art, the 3D work, the sketching and resketching until it's perfect - yep, all just part of trying to get it right! (And I haven't even started really painting yet!)

Jedi-Juice - THanks, glad you had time to drop by. Sorry I haven't swung by myself - I'm notoriously bad at getting to any of the modeling threads 'til the end! :) But hope it's going well for you.

tastatura - Thanks for dropping by again. Here's an update, though I suspect it's not as far along as you would have liked! At this point I'm pretty happy with the composition, and it feels a bit too late for me to strart reworking it again.I appreciate the suggestions, though. I think that if I were to show more of the Flaw (the beam of light) then the only way I'd be able to do that is to move Axis City further back, which would make it smaller and less impressive, or down, which would give less of a feeling of it looming overhead. I'm glad you like the vanes/wings: I can't add more because the description on the book was pretty solid about there only being those three, and I'd like to stay accurate to the text as much as possible.

anyhow, hopefully the next update might be sime line art for the characters... We'll see...! :)

-mike

[mdavid]

The comp and the larger rings look great Mike. I can't wait to see you take this to the next stage

[Nazirull]

I hope u put aixs city further back walrus, i mean by adding fog and desaturating...u know....atmospherics...environmentals....gosh what am i saying....of course u know.

coz now i cant relate the scale and distance...(of course u numbskull! he just finished compositioning!)

Just my 0.02 cents!

I'll be watching fer sure!

[walrus]

No, it's cool to be concerned and express that. But I can always add more fog: I'm pretty much done with my 3D work. From here, the plan is to do seperate renders for the way, axis city, the fog layers, and maybe even the light layers. They'll get composited together into one big PSD along with the chartacters (and their light and shadow and fog layers.) So I will always be able to add more fog on the fog layer, b ut I cna't take it out. All of the more fine points will be addressed in the actual painting stage, which I'll beging after I do these renders and the line art for the characters.
Soon... soon...

um, no, wait, I have to make holiday cards this week, I'm running really late this year.

Soonish...

:)

-mike

[tastatura]

hello, and yes man you right you have to stick up withint the book constraints, I must say the update with the larger rings represent the core structure better then the little ones.
So like you said we are waiting now for the painting, and I know that thers where the fun starts so...waiting for the new update man :bounce:
and ehre are my 0.02 cents!
we are watching :)

[AdamTSC]

Just checking out your entry, I really like the angle you chose as it gives a good sense of the size of the seventh chamber. The size and composition in general give a sense of the large and epic nature of the story :)

[Terro]

It's been a pleasure folling your thread Michael. I respect your comitment to detail, which shows from your starting sketches all the way to the addition of 3D elements. I'm looking forward to seeing where you will go with it next.

[yoff]

Great work, I always enjoy following your challenge entries (and usually read the entire thread). It is wonderful to see your thorough examination of every aspect of the piece; very educational (and usually entertaining). It is most interesting to see you doing a more serious piece :)

About the composition: You seem to prefer the horizontal layout, but observes the problems with having to have a foreshortened view of Axis City (not having it looking migthy). Have you thought about adopting a fish lense view? You seem to do that with success in post 96, obtaining a horizontal layout with a large view of Axis City. Since you have modelled the base geometry, it would be possible to render a base to paint on, and the characters could probably be used as they are...

[icedeyes]

Very very nice work so far.. love the rings... One thing that i dont remember reading about is the first cap before the two cubes but that really blends in nicelly... cant wait to see what you will do with your 2d work and how its going to shape up the final piece...

[brrrhmmm]

I think there is some confusion here.You are jumping to conclusions.

Who is talking about changing how you work and how you follow your Muse?.The idea is for
people to come to see your work ,learn from it and come away refreshed. And to do that you have to see who is doing what and give people a sense of what you are doing.
I.e there is always a hierarchy of skill according to Boris Vallejo.Some are better than you
and some are worse than you and you need to know where you are in order to improve.

Aha i see where you are getting.I think in my updates of the list i will not forget
to mention award winner.:).Also taking a look at other peoples work of art is certainly not going to pollute your artistic vision and why should it?

[walrus]

Yoff - What an interesting idea! I mean, I know I drew it that way myself, but once I got into the 3D model for help with perspective, I forgot all about the fish-eye lens. So here's what I don't know how to do (open question for everyone, not just Yoff:) Now that I have the 3D model done, how would I give it that fish-eye lens effect that I drew in post #96? Photoshop distortion filters? Or something in a 3D package? Or do I simply group everything in 3D and apply a bend modifier? I love the idea, I just have no idea how to implement it without "just drawing it that way," and I know the perspective would be all whacked if I tried that! (Why do you think I use a computer to figure out all the perspective for everything else! ;) )
If anyone has any ideas, please let me know, I'm really curious!

brhm - Beacause the sort of feedback we're supposed to give each other is constructive, I naturally assumed that you posted that list on my thread as constructive criticism, a suggestion that one look at the entries on your list and then change one's entry accordingly. In that respect, as constructive criticism, I didn't happen to find it very helpful. Seeing the list didn't make me want to go look at other peoples' threads, because I try to look at all of them anyhow, and comment only when I have something constructive to add. It's interesting to see the breakdown of the list, but I still have no idea why you posted seperate entries on everyone's thread instead of on one time on the group threads, like "about the book" or the FAQ. Posting the exact same post on every single thread feels less helpful than posting individual helpful comments to each person. So could we please just drop the subject? Because actually, I'd rather spend time responding to the other people above who actually did post in my thread to add helpful thoughts instead of discuss that list.

icedeyes - It's funny, the first time Bear describes the front of Axis City, there's nothing in front of the 2 cubes. In later descriptions, he describes a "maltese-cross" shaped something in front of them. Honestly, sounds like a goof-up to me (Sorry, Greg!) but I decided to go with the subsequent descriptions.

terro and ATSC - Thanks!

tastatura - I agree with you. I mucked up the big rings early on, and then spent some time detailing out just the smaller details. Once I had those and hid the bigger rings, it just didn't have the same personality. So now they're back (with a bit more detail.) :)

[brrrhmmm]

Sorry no more list to be discussed, subject dropped.Just some comments.
The dominating structure in your composition is the way structure which the frant
olmy is showing patricia.How do you plan to light chamber as the plasma tube seems
to be encased in some form of cylinder and the fins at the end make it look like
some sort of rocket or is it a flawship?Also based on your lighting the rest of the
chamber is going to be pretty dark obscuring the curves,have you considered some miniature light sources flitting about like fireflies to add interest?

[yoff]

(open question for everyone, not just Yoff:) Now that I have the 3D model done, how would I give it that fish-eye lens effect that I drew in post #96? Photoshop distortion filters? Or something in a 3D package? Or do I simply group everything in 3D and apply a bend modifier?

Glad you like the idea :) well, it was really your own after all ;)
I do not have access to 3dmax right now (which is what you are using, right?) so I cannot test anything, but a quick search of the net seems to indicate that the easiest way is to let the camera view the scene reflected by a chrome sphere as was done here:
http://www.astrofra.com/weblog/index.php?Rendering-techniques
(near the bottom, under the headline "Non Foto Realistic Rendering"). But maybe some of the max-users know of a better way..there seems to be roumers of a plugin..

[walrus]

brrrhmmm - Thank you. THe narrow beam you see isn't the plasma tube, it's the Flaw / Singularity. The Plasma tube in this part of the way is much larger, completely surrounding the main structure, which is actually Axis City. TEchnically, the correct way then to light it would be to have it equally lit from all sides, which is really pretty boring. Instead, I will likely follow Nazirull's advice and light it whatever is the most dramatic (but not necessarily the most accurate.)

yoff - Thanks fo rthe link to that article. I also dug up some threads in the 3MDMax section and found some good (similar) suggestions, so that's what I'm trying now: Reflective spheres. Hopefully I'll be able to post some tests soon (ish.)

-mike

[Slav]

hey mike

sorry for the lack of imput but i been stalking your thread more so then anything else. i am just wondering if a ground of somekind would help level the characters. justa suggestion. anywhoo ill keep doing so. :)

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1165648209_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1165648209_large.jpg)

Thanks for the note, Slav. Not sure I can get a floor in there and have the kind of camera angle I have, looking up at the characters so.

Anyhow, just thought I'd post some final(ish) line art for the characters.

-mike

[Nazirull]

Im sorry mike, i know this is kinna final(ish) lineart already. but the Frants lefthand pointing towards Axis City coming out from Patricia bugs me.

But this is just lineart...im sure the colors can differentiate between them.

Just my two cents! Very clean lineworks!:thumbsup:

[yoff]

Im sorry mike, i know this is kinna final(ish) lineart already. but the Frants lefthand pointing towards Axis City coming out from Patricia bugs me.
Well you could have the frant scratching his head with that hand, that would be very Walrus :)

btw should your avatar say "magenta"?

[mdavid]

Excellent drawing! I reckon you've captured each of the characters really well. It might seem odd but I especially like how you've done Olmy - that mix of haircut, clothing style and of course his missing nostrils fits exactly with how I imagined him. Cool update

[LightSovereign]

Yea, i noticed the missing nostrils aswell, they stoodout, lol. fantastic character design!. again, really accurate...btw thanks for dropping by my neck of the woods..that was really helpfull!.

cheers

Marley

[walrus]

Hi, all! Thanks for dropping by. It's been a busybusy week, I've been slammed at work, I'm interviewing new interns, I'm working on my family's (really late) holiday cards and some birth announcements, holiday shopping, working on concept work for an RPG. I WILL finish this piece, but it's been a lousy week for it. I basically stayed up 'til 4am last Friday to get the 3D parts all finished and the above sketch done, but I don't have those kind of hours to spend during the week.

Plus, it's been a weird week on top of all of that. Found some guy who had used alterred versions of my art on his site without permission and, after contacting him failed, had to go through this Copyright Infringement Form through Yahoo (who very diligently and promptly removed the art from his site - thank you Yahoo!) It was exciting to see me featured in the little article in the latest issue of ImagineFX... and on the topic of online Contests, no less! But the fun was marred by the photo on the bottom of the bio. No offense to whomever that is in the photo, 'cause it very likely could be someone here on CGSociety, but it sure wasn't me! I am much cuter in real life. No, really, I just don't scowl. I look goofy. I look like the kind of person who would have drawn something like my 'Master and Servant' or 'Journey Begins' entry. And I wash my face. I just have to say this because it's really unsettling thinking that now tons of people will be picturing that face that's not mine when they look at my art. And I'm sure whomever's photo it is is equally disturbed to be associated with my silly art!

Okay, sorry, had to get that out there. Back to the Challenge:

Nazirull - Nothing is final 'til it's submitted as Final and FTPed in. I've already moved the Frant's arm down a lot lower, and it works better. You'll see soon, thanks for the suggestion, buddy! (And credit also to Trikke who commented on it earlier.)

Yoff - Thanks. I'm such a doof, I can't even speel. As for the Frant, for some dumb reason I'm trying to play it strraight this Challenge. (I haven't even figured out why yet! :) )

Mark - Thanks! I don't find it strange: That's more or less how I pictured him too!

Marley - Thanks, glad you like it. Happy to help!

-mike

[Thaldir]

Just popping in to say that I'm following closely your progress, but up to now I've been too in awe of the amount and level of your work to hazard any kind of comment.

Love your characters and the whole scene you are doing, the frant's arm didn't disturb me much, taking in consideration that colors would differentiate better him and Patricia but I'm curious about the next update, now. :)

Just wishing you all the luck you deserve, and thanks for the very helpful suggestion you gave me earlier on, it made a world of difference. :)

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1166299526_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1166299526_large.jpg)

So with all the parts renderred, line art drawn, and references gathered, it's finally time to start painting - Yay!

I'm working on the Way itself. This is the detail in the lower right corner of the piece. I started with some sattelite photos as references for the land itself and the clouds. (Mark, your photos were a great start, but in the end I needed some shots taken from much higher up, out of the Troposphere!)

Layered on top of that is the hi-tech landscape line art from posts #143 and #162. That provides the details for the cities and highways. I painted with that, and then on another layer added some cloud detail, using a custom brush. This brush is made from using the Render Clouds filter in black on white and defining a round portion of that as a brush.

After I painted the clouds on a seperate layer, I duplicated the layer and locked its transparency, and filled it with a dark green. I set it to multiply and offset it to the right to make shadows for the clouds.

So that's how it's looking right now. Lots more landscape to go!

-mike

[LightSovereign]

ooo, your really driving it home now. the way looks tremendous already. those clouds offer nice clues as t how large the way really is!...hhhmmm, back to the drawing board for me i think!.

well done anyway, mike :)

Marley

[Nazirull]

Yay....the frants arm is looking better i think...
I think its mentioned somewhere in the book that the atmosphere is actually only 5km from the plasma tube, but this is the axis city...:)

The scale still not doing it for me...cant wait to see some suprises from you!

[NinjaA55N]

Hi there walrus! Sorry for not showing more often here, but I supose u understand how it is working all day, day after day :) I see u did a great progress on the image, lots and lots of sketches. Its always a great pleasure to see a lot of them from great artists. Also I must say that the design of an alien is quite original and I like it a lot.
Now I cant wait that u start with painting finally, it will be so much fun watching it again :) Unfortunately I dont have anything to crit yet, coz Im quite late and the composition and everything works ok now so I'll wait for ur next steps and come back later when u'll start coloring it. Keep up the great work buddy! cya around

[mdavid]

Wow!!! No crits or suggestions from me. I love it. Your satellite photos helped you work wonders. In my opinion the scale is working brilliantly. It almost makes me feel a bit dizzy looking at it, which can be interpreted as a very loud vote of approval!

It's also nice to see what you'd referred to earlier, how the frant's arm had been changed. It seems to work heaps better now and there is definitely no more confusion with the arm and Patricia.

Excellent update Mike. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you manage with your painting.

[prabath]

it`s great to see how your image is taking shape.All the tiny details are sitting in well.All the best.

Cheers!

[element5]

That area is looking great, love the look of it. :thumbsup:

Cheers
Mark

[shattered-fx]

Hi Mike,

These are outstanding landscape details, I know the clouds are not yet finished but it already suggests the vastness of the cylinder!..no crits for now:)..

-raffy

[AdamTSC]

Nice work on the clouds, they really give a sense of the scale of the chamber. Also, great line art, hopefully I'll be able to do it that well one day! :)

[RaresH]

Hey I like the detail. I see what you're trying to do with the clouds. Maybe you could try some higher altitude clouds to give us some more stuff in all that space.

[cLos71]

Coming along really nice, keep it up!

[walrus]

Thank you, everyone, for the nice comments. Many of you said pretty much the same thing, so I hope you'll forgive my not posting a seperate thanks to everyone individually. But I am glad you like how it's coming and took the time to post encouragements.

Rares, I think I know exactly what you mean. I have some decent reference photos of the higher clouds, I'll just get around to adding them on a seperate layer later on.
In the meantime, still just moving forward painting little Way greeblies. Lots to cover...!

Catch you all later...

-mike

[kazziu]

Nice stuff so far walrus, you're doing great... as usual neat character concepts.... only thing that bothers me so far are the clouds and the terrain under them.
Keep it up. Cheers

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1166597585_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1166597585_large.jpg)

Well, here we go with the way background (or should I say, the Way background? :) )
I'm happy with it, but I suspect Kazziu, you won't be, given that it's more fo the same. Oh, well, can't please everyone... The details of the landscape and the clouds are pretty much done, now it's on to Axis City, the Characters, the Spaceships, and the foreground spaceship.

Honestly, I don't know whther I'll finish it or not. If I decide to complete it, I will, but another freelance job just came up and now I have to pick and choose which to work on, because I can only complete one in January, not two. So we'll see. I hope I'll get to finish this after putting so much time into it. But then this other thing is hard to turn down too...

Cheers!

-mike

[Nazirull]

Honestly, I don't know whther I'll finish it or not.


NOOOOOooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOO..........!! :scream:

Not really a usefull feedback but...try to finish it..its gonna be a lost if u cant....
You have a beautiful background already....I hope the characters wont block it much....

Great!

[Thaldir]

Honestly, I don't know whther I'll finish it or not.

I'm sorry to hear this, although the reason for it is definitely an happy one.:)
All the best to you for either choice, Walrus!

I just hope that if you don't finish this for the challenge you'll decide to finish it anyway at some other point, it would be a real pity otherwise.

[BC1967]

OH NO! Say it ain't so! iI really hope you find the time to finish the piece for the contest.
But, as they say... gotta eat. I'll look forward to seeing the final illo one way or the other.
Happy Holidays to you and yours!

[BC1967]

OH NO! Say it ain't so! iI really hope you find the time to finish the piece for the contest. It's looking so good with so much work in it already.
But, as they say... gotta eat. I'll look forward to seeing the final illo one way or the other.
Happy Holidays to you and yours!

[walrus]

Thanks all. This other isn't a done deal yet, it still may not happen. I just don't know at this point. so what I might try to do is just jam on this thing all weekend, and maybe finish it by Christmas. That would satisfy both this contest as well as freeing up my time for this other assignment... IF it even happens.

In the meantime, happy holidays to you all all of yours, too!

http://www.michaeldashow.com/forum_art/dragoncard.jpg

-mike

[Thaldir]

LOL!!! Same to you and yours, Mike!

[ChuckWadey]

Good luck on whichever project you choose. I know how that goes. Your EON piece is one of my favorites because it's one of the few with both great characters and a great environment and it's seems like you really read the material. So, obviously I hope to see it finished.

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1166650096_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1166650096_large.jpg)

Thanks, you too!
I managed to sneak in a little time during my lunchbreak today (and just getting one of those is rare enough!) to work on the characters a bit. i haven't posted anything of them in progress so I thought I'd share.

This is all still in dozens of layers: one for Patricial's skin, one for her suit, one for her hair, one for the blue tint, one for the shadows, one for the side light, etcetera, so it's all still emminently changeable.

-mike

[OKMER]

Whooo,I really hope you'll find the time to finish your piece, because it's really great!
But i understand what is, when you gotta work, you gotta work. and that's just like that.

Anyway love all those sketches and the way you figured it all out.
Great construction in your work.
And that depth in the pic is juste amazing.

Maybe just one tiny little thing about her chin, that feels a bit too much remoted too me(sorry ,dont' know if remoted is the right word in English) :-/
But want i want to say "a bit too much backwards compared to the rest of her skull.
Whatta you think?
Anyway, giant thumb up!A real pleasure to look at mate!

[LightSovereign]

HAH, yea i was initially really disapointed you may not have been able to finish your piece, it s been wonderfull catching up with all the steps and eyeing your process..To think your participation makes *us* feel better..how does that work..

Incidently i have noticed the steps for the twisted pyramid motif in your close up, something i missed in your overall scene...I can't wait to see how you "Paint" over axis nader...Go hard mike............for our sakes XD hahahahaha
happy holidays to u too..


Marley

[mdavid]

The new updates are beautiful. I sure hope you can somehow juggle both paid work and this (and also find some time for Christmas). Good luck

[unclehrum]

Hi Walrus,

As usually - great style :]. I like the light on scene ( especial green light in woman, looks great) . I am waiting to final image.

Good luck in the challenge:]

Andrzej

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1166694432_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1166694432_large.jpg)

Well, I'm TRYING to find the time to work on this... It's almost 2am here, and I'm up hustling on it. And on a work night too. Some people have no trouble staying up this late. I am not one of them. I'm one of those weird people who get up at 6am every morning, and go to bed relatively early. (Well, not tonight!) I consider it practice for when my baby is born in 2 months.

Anyhow, not much else to say: You can see what I've done since the last update, here it is.

-mike

p.s. I'm getting to the point where I'm going to need to do some heavy detailing on Axis City. I notice a lot of concept/speedpainters like Vyle and Stephan Martiniere and Sparth do this with a heavy arsenal of custom brushes. I'm new to the technique, and am still building up my own collection... Anyone have any good resources for these kinds of tech/architectural detail? Thanks...

[OKMER]

WHOOAAA, a cg baby soon bell born,amazing Walrus!Congrats to you,I've got kids myself and they are a giant source of love and so automaticaly inspiration also.:thumbsup: :love:

Great the new lightning you've put in there!

[Nazirull]

This is the Mike i know from the Journey Begins.....:)

Excellent attention to detail. Im obviously just learning how to use that trait. The backlighting for the characters are too green and colors should act differently on different surfaces?:D

Sorry to be a pain giving this this kinna comments, knowing you will do it anyway later on.:D

Really hope u can...:)

[ICHOMA]

I like very much the palette you are using.

good luck!

[element5]

I do like that, great poses and colouring. :thumbsup: I have to say that the arm of the Frant, the one behind Patricia is too long compared to his right arm. His hand would probably be just under Patricias left elbow and Please put some pants on the frant......lol

Cheers
Mark

[black-hand-77]

Michael Dashow is entered in the "Eon Challenge" update: View Challenge Page (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/eon/view_entries.php?challenger=12245)

Latest Update: Initial color pass or textured and lit model: characters further along
http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1166694432_medium.jpg (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=4085166#post4085166). So, what do we have here? A cool frant, an interesting Ser Olmy and a beautiful Patricia. All shrouded into a fine cone of light. U did a great job. Can't wait to se it finished! Good luck, Michael!

[Ivy00]

Congrats on all that is going on in your life Mike, I do hope you get the time to finish this, it is fantastic work.

[Thaldir]

Please put some pants on the frant......lol

Cheers
Mark

LOL, but why should he? It's clearly stated in the book that the only thing the Frant is wearing is the shoulder wrap..

[Nazirull]

No constructive feedback here...

Just to wish ya Merry Xmas and happy holidays mate!

[walrus]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1166926879_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1166926879_large.jpg)

Thanks for the notes, folks. No time to comment myself now, just wanted to update you on the character work: Olmy and Patricia much closer to inished. Bye, and happy holidays!

-mike

[beelow]

I know that Mathias has a set of custom brushes that he uses and they are downloadable at Conceptart.org. I think a bit of tracing and and taking bits of of photos should help, with the building of custom brushes. I am still trying to learn the art of speedpaint myself. You may want to ask Mathias himself though. He does relatively well at speedpainting. I hope to see you get this done. Good luck with this entry!:thumbsup:

[Ivy00]

do you have the link beelow? I searched around concept art and found a PS brush thread , but nothing there that would help for buildings.

[Hideyoshi]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162314418_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12245/12245_1162314418_large.jpg)



Sorry, I haven't been checking back more often in this great thread!
Just browsed through all of your pages again and I must really put my personal preference on what you did in No 16!
This is very epic and has the best composition from the whole bunch of layout sketches you did! I mean it! It's basically just small things that lead to that: the slight vignette on the left bottom showing some ground; character placement and alignment of certain lines. Plus, the rough value separation here has great depth. Jeez, there even is something really nice about Patricia's pose here with the strong shadow on her leg- in opposition to your other sketches.

Hm...sorry, it's pretty weak of me to crit at this late point where you have already dived into the image quite a lot.
I just felt I had to give my opinion nontheless... :)

Ah yes, another thing: I haven't seen you experimenting with color palettes that much. Have you tried other combinations? I feel there could be some improvement...

Merry Xmas!!

[beelow]

Ivy00- Here it is! Just click the link and download. I think they are for PS CS though.

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=73169


Sorry Micheal, for posting this in your thread. You may find these brushes useful. I hope to see some more progress in this image! Good luck!:thumbsup:

[walrus]

Thanks, Bryce! No need to apologize, I did specifically put out a call to folks for exactly those kinds of brushes. My only beef is that I had to register for ConceptArt.org to get them, and someone has already taken the name 'Walrus' but isn't using it at all. >:( (But for all I know, it was me long ago! But it doesn't seem to ahve any of my e-mail addresses... :shrug:)
Anyhow, I hope I'll find those helpful - now I just have to figure out how to use them (not install them, just what to do with them all.) Fortunately, this month's issue of ImagineFX also included Vyle's brush sets (I love his work, he's my hero!)

Hideyoshi - Glad you like rough sketch #16, as that's the one others liked too and the one I finally ended up using as the babsis for my illustration! As for color tests, sure I tried out different things. You can see some of my color tests in post #121, and everyone "voted" on their favorites on the next 20 posts or so in this thread. Everyone liked the greenish-blue ones, and I stuck with them because Bear specifically described this part of the Way as being lit as though the scene were underwater. But if you have any specific color suggestions that I could use to make my peice better now, with 3 weeks left in the Challenge, I'd be happy to hear them...

Element - good point. It's hard to see in the latest post because of how I cropped it, but I took your advice and shortened the Frant's arm.

Lots more comments, but I'll just offer a blanket "thanks" to everyone else, so I can use what limited time I have today before Christmas Eve dinner to paint some more. Bye!

-mike

[Nazirull]

Sorry mike but i have to agree with hideyoshi there....I think apart of the vignette, it is the slight spherical lens effect that u got there. It is quite sublime (at least for photographic people like us) that bent pic is due to the vastness of a subject. In this case it is the vastness of the axis city.

Sorry again mike...shouldve told you earlier.

p/s: Thanks bryce for the link! will be useful to me! (if i know how to use it LOL)
and thanks mike for letting us do it here! :D

edit: thanking Bryce... :)