Steampunk Myths and Legends Entry: Michael Dashow

[RandyToons]

Absolutely amazing...Great Illustration! This has been a fun one to watch as you have progressed. Lots of work with a great payoff.
Thanks for the show, Randy

[paperclip]

Well- you know- it looks done to me! Perhaps someone with more skillz/sharper eyes will bring something up, but I think it looks finished....


Congratulations! :beer: :D

[guterrez]

you`re almost there man, spend 1 more hour for detailing the houses and the sky and this is on the next level
get some light on te front of the houses; there`s such a strong light on the bike, let it hit the front behind the characters to get rid of this brownish tone

characters, mech, gunfire and smoke look awesome, very good job sir
cheers

[Rivenis]

congrats on finishing man. I agree with guterrez though, spend just a little bit more time tightening things up and it will be perfect. Anyway this is an amazing image and its been fun watching it progress from the beginning (now to try and finish my entry). All the best and Good luck on NOT winning the challenge:D

[walrus]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16497/16497_1231610824_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16497/16497_1231610824_medium.jpg)

See? Now this is why I'm still here working even when I can't win? It's the awesome feedback! Mathias, thanks for the terrific and incisive comments! You were right about all of those things, so I have redone the lighting on the buildings, adding in the green light that you see on the foreground characters, and have done another major pass on the clouds. (well, two actually - I did one, didn't like it enough, and redid it again.) This time around I'm even happier with this. Of course someone else may come up with some more insightful (or even insiteful) notes to add... Let me know.

Also, I still don't have a name for this piece. Any suggestions?

Rivenis - Thanks! I got a decent portfolio piece out of the experience, so I do feel like a winner.

[walrus]

That's weird - I just submitted this image, it was accepted, but my thread didn't automatically bubble to the top of the list the way it normally does when you post a new image. Okay, then: Manual bump!

[Tarolp]

Excellent!!

[MartinNielsen]

I think you can call this a final. Like always, you have created another masterpiece to the collection :thumbsup: You're truly a master!

Here's a cue: "banana" Feel free to fill in...

[angel]

Awesome image walrus!

I'm having the same problem when submitting images as you do... it is the time stamp things are not getting time stamped correctly... look at the time of your image and your post for the manual bump... definitely an issue since people could still upload images 5 hrs or so after the deadline.

for images names... how about "Goliath's slippery fall" or "Follow the yellow brick road" :D

[Jakyll]

Wonderful pic.
I can see the story around it.
You have a awesome talent.

[Thaldir]

I definitely see a CG Choice coming your way, Mike. Fantastic work! You are going to submit it for Exposè, right?

[guterrez]

gratulation man, you`ve got a new beauty for your portfolio and set a high bar for rating the others works^^
glad I could be of use when I didn`t contribute anything else to this Challenge
take yourself a beer, you deserve it :beer:

[sagleon]

Looking very nice and the character expressions in the scene definitely captures the moment.

[mr_carl]

That's weird - I just submitted this image, it was accepted, but my thread didn't automatically bubble to the top of the list the way it normally does when you post a new image. Okay, then: Manual bump!

I have the exact same problem with my last 2 updates.

Anyway super excellent, cool and fun image you have done here. I absolutely love you're idea.

[Elendil_le_Grand]

Wow good final man. Really love it :)
Congrats ...

[paperclip]

The work you did on the background certainly paid off- I'm learning myself here about just how far to push pieces. I thought it was finished, but it appears not!

Names?

'Slippery ammo'
'David VS Goliath' (for the easy shot)
' Go faster! '
'What do you mean, we're out of bananas?'

.........ahhh, this is harder than I thought. I don't envy you having to come up with a name for this one! Good luck with that! :D

[JackZhang]

"Eat that! You piece of junk!"

[walrus]

Thanks for the comments, everyone! I appreciate the title suggestions. The title I am currently leaning towards is "Escape Plan B." Good to hear no crits left on the art itself... but I'll let it sit for a day or two more before posting it to my gallery here and callig it officially done.

Thaldir - yes, I will submit this piece to Expose... if I can submit anything! I've been trying to upload art for Expose via FTP for a couple months now but can ever get through. I suspect that the problem is related to all of the server issues that folks are experiencing here in this challenge too - ouch!

Anyhow, if anyone sees any more last minute fixes on this, please let me know. Good luck with all of yours!

[paperclip]

You have a few days left, Mike- the deadline's been extended to the 19th! Now you can render the banana skins photorealistically....! :D

I like 'Escape Plan B', how about 'Escape plan F'? Original, eh?

[walrus]

As for having time left, I have all the time in the world, as I don't need to submit a final for this Challenge. I'm just waiting for someone to tell me something to fix aside from the letter of my plan. 'B' stands for Bananas. What does 'F' stand for? (I hope that's not the grade you're giving me on this assignment! :D )

[paperclip]

Hmm...well, I can't think of anything, except maybe a bit more intense fire in the grille/ flamesmoke....but that's more a matter of taste than anything else.

'F' is for 'Fruit', of course! Even if she runs out of bananas, I think she probably has a stash of oranges in there- a tripod type of critter with a tiny contact area with the ground like himself probably only needs to slip on one rolling orange to be put out entirely. Alternatively, the 'F' could stand for....wait...hm....no, I'm not quite THAT cruel. :D

Meh, no way not to be pendantic about this. I think it's great. :D Go and have a :beer:

[RogerNobs]

Michael, this is a masterful piece of work. I love all the little details, and they've all been put in with the same intelligence and feeling for story. This is what makes it masterful.

Thanks for being so generous with your comments and WIPs.

[BaronImpossible]

Very impressive! No crits at all. I guess there are a lot of people thankful you're not entering this time :)

[omoro]

great work, i really like the painting technique, i like the way the back kinda emphasize the movement of the characters, but maybe more of that movement could have show with the dust & smoke coming off the foreground characters.

[JackZhang]

Every time when i look at the girl eating banana i feel like laughing. Her corset is probably going to pop after eating all those bananas. maybe she should switch with the fatty since he can probably eat more. ha ha ha

[Guilome]

As everybody says you've done a really good picture. Love your style.
There is just a little thing that I wonder, what do you think about adding some movement in the robot's arm that fire and maybe around the moto (especially in the smoke) wich is going very fast?
Impatient to see the really final image:thumbsup:

[OZ]

still need a name?...ummm...what did u think of... W I N N E R !
this is amazing...i say: A. M. A. Z. I. N. G.
seriously...fantastic job from every point of view!

[beelow]

Well executed as always Micheal. So you're not entering your image as a final?

[mdavid]

Wonderful work again, Mike. It all seems just perfect now. Since you added those people alongside the wall the feel of the perspective just works perfectly now too. As for a title, I really like your idea of 'Escape Plan B'. Otherwise, perhaps 'The Escape Plan Bears Fruit'

[walrus]

Hmm, 'The Escape Plan Bears Fruit' isn't bad, but I'm pretty happy with 'Escape Plan B,' so I think I'll stick with that. Thanks, though, that's a good one! Glad you like the people, too. I also resized a lot of the paving stones in that area to help with the perspective too.

Beelow - nope, no reason for me to submit a final image. I'm not eligible to win anything, so there's no reason to. I got what I wanted out of the experience, which was a new painting.

Guilome - That's an excellent point! I'm not going to make the "hands" spin because I really like how it looks right now and don't want to make that section harder to read. So maybe his guns aren't exactly proper gatling guns, that's okay with me.

Omoro - That's an interesting point - I'll give it a try and see if I like how it looks. Thanks!

Simon - Thanks, pal! Glad you got to see it, as I'm not entering a final: We'll have plenty to look at soon enough! :)

Roger - Thank you! You've got a great touch for the storytelling yourself, so it's nice to hear.

...And good luck with all the rest of your entries, everyone who's still painting!

[llama-d]

Wow, I think this piece is beautiful. I love the detail on the front of the one wheeled bike! Congrats on a great piece.

[Squibbit]

cool stuff, walrus :thumbsup:



.

[Comlock]

Man, this is looking really great now :buttrock: Loving the details.

if I had to squeeze out one critique-suggestion, it would be all those tiles making many horsizontal lines that are all straight and parallel to the picture frame. I don't know if it was a choice you made later on, but I just think it fits well for this piece to have them a bit more diagonal for a more overall dynamic feeling to the whole composition. (just some simple rotation on the background or the intire image etc..)

Keep up the great work :thumbsup:

[thebest]

a real late congrats.............. but better late than never :beer: I like it alot it was nice having ur entry here u know very inspiring :cool:

[walrus]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16497/16497_1232011244_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16497/16497_1232011244_medium.jpg)

Okay, now I think I'm done (I think!) Comlock, thanks for the great suggestion. I originally drew this image straight vertical and then tilted it for more drama. Somehow I forgot about that as I was compositing in the bricks and ended up losing that important part. I'm glad you spotted it, so here it is fixed.

I've also responded to posts from several other people on other forums who all had good suggestions: The bullets explosions on the ground were too small to match the size of artillery those guns would be firing, so I made the explosions larger... which entailed making those banana peels get tossed around a lot more too! I added a bit more red in front of the grille and subtly emphasized the "facial features" of the giant mech.

Omoro, I did try adding more dust kicked up from the monocycle but it didn't work. I tried!

Anyhow, additional suggestions are still welcome, but at least I'm feeling even better about this! But thank you all for the great comments and notes too (even if you are all just trying to butter me up! ;) )

[walrus]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16497/16497_1232012199_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16497/16497_1232012199_medium.jpg)

Ooops! Right after I posted, I realized a few small mistakes, like I tilted the ground but not the buildings. And I wanted to push the mech's back arm more into the distance. This is better.

[paperclip]

It's looking a lot better- the building looks like it needs to be tilted a bit more though, as the tilt gets more extreme on the ground the further you go away, almost like a fisheye lens....

[yoff]

I get the feeling, that the (now not quite) horizontal lines between the tiles should get closer together more rapidly as one move up the picture. As if the ground right now is sloping down towards us...the dome is supposed to more than say 40 stones away, right?

[RogerNobs]

Michael, I totally missed the tilt in the perspective. Much better. Yoff I think the road rises to a height under the cycle and the camber slopes down towards the background. The perspective and sense of movement of the space looks good to me. Might be wrong though.

[yoff]

In that case the monocycle should be flying off road :bounce:
It seems, though, as if I can count around 12 rows back from the cycle and end up at the curb...but a downwards slope would explain that...

[paperclip]

Actually, now that I look at it a bit more, the perspective really only seems off in the lower right corner, where it looks as if the ground is headed towards a concavity in the road ahead of them and to their left....this is such a tiny area though, I doubt anyone will notice. It all depends on your level of perfection, I suppose.

I'll stop spamming your thread now. :blush:

[walrus]

I don't consider it spam, I thin of them as "helpful bumps."
Btw, just saw you interviewed in the latest ImagineFX magazine - woo hoo, really the big time! :)

As for ground perspective, thanks for the input. I'll look at it more when I'm not at work. I don't think of it as being 12 blocks to the right curb - I think things get pretty small and jumbled by the time you get down there. As for being 12 stones back to the mech - yeah, maybe i should compress that more...

[Womball]

So now he's attacking them in a victorian city? And bullet fire! I like the shot up bananas too.

[yoff]

Well, if talented artist say that the perspective is fine, then little can be wrong with it...it is also tricky, since the bananas ought to be further away, so there is a balance between reality and "locally consistent story telling" to be walked. Thus perception is the key here, and again trained people seem to perceive it as being fine...

Love the "air catamaran" by the way... :)

[walrus]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16497/16497_1232092712_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16497/16497_1232092712_medium.jpg)

Okay, I've redone the ground again. The horizontal had a nice cobblestone size but was,t skewed, but when I tilted it, I distorted it too much and the bricks all got large. For this I've stuck with a simple rotation (and painting in a ton more bricks, of course) to try to nail both the perspective and the stone scale. What do you think, is this working better?

[paperclip]

I don't consider it spam, I thin of them as "helpful bumps."
Btw, just saw you interviewed in the latest ImagineFX magazine - woo hoo, really the big time! :)

Are you talking about myself or Roger? Because I was interviewed, but I didn't know if it was in there yet- which issue did you read? Which article is it in? I THOUGHT I read it carefully, but it appears not... unless you're talking about Roger, in which case all this would make sense. :D

'Helpful bumps', I see what you did there... :D

[Elendil_le_Grand]

Nice man really great image ;)

[yoff]

I find this new ground much better... :)

[walrus]

Theresa - no, I meant YOU. It's the February issue, the one with the Ray Swanland (newsstand) or Adam Hughes (subscriber) cover. It's the article about getting inspiration for your art, and starts out talking to Simon (BaronImpossible) too. Dunno who wrote the article, but it was clear (s)he hangs out here!... but enough about you, let's talk about me! You didn't say what you thought os the new ground? (I fixed the buildings like you asked

Yoff - Glad you like it. Thanks for pointing out the perspective problems!

Elendil - Thanks!

[RogerNobs]

Are you talking about myself or Roger? Because I was interviewed, but I didn't know if it was in there yet- which issue did you read? Which article is it in? I THOUGHT I read it carefully, but it appears not... unless you're talking about Roger, in which case all this would make sense. :D

'Helpful bumps', I see what you did there... :D
Would have been nice, but it wasn't me! ;)

I think it's looking richer and more engaging as a space now, Michael.
Looking back, the really significant change was with the tilt of the building.

I think with the style you have that I'm prepared to accept quite a lot of 'inaccuracy' because it is a wonderfully energetic caricature.

Scale-wise, you might throw a very thin layer of atmosphere over the whole robot. Certain elements have the same saturation and tonal quality as the foreground figures. Now, I expect you've tried this, and possibly it doesn't suit your style: you are obviously the best judge of that.

[walrus]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16497/16497_1232092712_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16497/16497_1232092712_medium.jpg)

Okay, I've redone the ground again. The horizontal had a nice cobblestone size but was,t skewed, but when I tilted it, I distorted it too much and the bricks all got large. For this I've stuck with a simple rotation (and painting in a ton more bricks, of course) to try to nail both the perspective and the stone scale. What do you think, is this working better?

(I'm quoting this so some people don't have to page back just to see the latest version.)

Thanks, Roger! I appreciate the feedback. In general, mostly I'm happy with the values of the big mech. I like the fact that it's not all hazed, but that different parts are hazed more than others, which makes him feel large and stretched out over a space. This last iteration, I added a Levels adjustment layer over the whole pic that pumped his values up a bit, and I can see that I should add a mask to that and only have it affect the foreground, monocycle, characters, and bananas. But I wouldn't want to push the mech back any further than in the previous post. Thanks for the note!
...Also, sorry to hear you've had the flu! Hope you're feeling better and will be able to finish.

[cristinagar]

Amazing image!! I've been following it since the very first blue sketches, that grabbed me inmediately :)

I just re-read your first posts... out of curiosity, why can't you win, If you don't mind me asking? This entry definitely is a very strong contender.

edit: aah, I just saw, you are a judge. That makes sense. :P

[andrewdavidyoung]

I love the thought process behind every element in the image. You came up with amazing ideas based around how they would look in the composition and how they would be angled. Putting all of it together.. the final composite really reminds of Mariokart Double Dash set to an amazing steam Era. It looks like Mario and the princess. I dont' know if it was by accident or not.. but great work!

[beelow]

I think at some point there should be a straightening of things at the horizon line, something going straight across. I am unsure where it is at because there is no indication of that. The people that is in the haze to the left of the foreground characters may be a bit too large too. It is throwing off the scale of the buildings. Nitpicks though. You're still the man though.

[walrus]

Bryce - Hmm, i think you're right! The far-right characters in the background just a little, but definitely the ones to the rear left of the Monocycle. As for the horizon line, I'm not as worried about that - too foggy to see anyhow! :D

Andrew - Thanks! This hadn't intended to be any sort of a Mario reference or homage - if it had, I'd have worked harder to make "Madame Peach" blonde. As it is, it's just a coincidence that both Mario and this guy are portly and have facial hair.

Cristin - Thank you!

[paperclip]

Theresa - no, I meant YOU. It's the February issue.

:D Stardom, at last, lol. I'm very excited about this, in case you can't tell! Ok, time to calm down.

but enough about you, let's talk about me!
Okay!
You didn't say what you thought os the new ground? (I fixed the buildings like you asked.)
It looks far, far better! If I wanted to be super picky, I could ask you to make the cobbles between the banana skin and the central boss of the wheel smaller, like the ones in the far right, so we know the ground there is further away, like that other area.

But I won't. :D I'm not that cruel, or am I? :D

[W-I-L]

A very good still life study of bananas.



but seriously nice piece as always mate

[morenike]

Haven't seen yours in a while. The background makes it really pop. Were you planning on doing anything else?

Oh and I just noticed he does look like Mario. So that explains it. Must be the princess in the robot. She doesn't like competition.

[Moonias]

Very interesting to see how your work has changed radically from the original concept but the roots of the scene remain the same.

Its a very fun picture.

Good luck and Happy Judging.

[yoff]

I have a slight problem reconciling the furthest away ground hit with the position of the shooting hand of the mech, unless the mech is gigantic, in which case the figure on top of it (great job with that one, by the way; loads of personality and intent in very few pixels) seems too big...

Great use of various techniques to create depth and I love the rendering of the womans jacket...

[walrus]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16497/16497_1232167375_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/22/16497/16497_1232167375_medium.jpg)

Okay, here we go again! (or as we used to say when running programs in the computer lab back at college, "This time for sure!")

So I've listed to everyone's comments and made the small changes suggested - scaled down the nemesis at the top of his mech, scaled down the people in the street, scaled down and repostitioned the explosions to work in the space more, and even added some more haze over the mech. It's feeling like I'm getting diminishing returns on the teensy changes, as well as running out of them to do. So is it soup yet?

[Korendo]

True Steampunk essence

[ace4016]

Stick a fork in it, I think this turkey is done! Looks great Walrus; yea, most of the changes made now seem like they would be a diminishing return. It's a great piece of art :D

Also, the bike looks a lot better than this one wheeled motorcycle :P
http://www.geekologie.com/2008/04/28/uno-cycle-1.jpg

[OKMER]

Absolutely great work again Mike!Great colors, dynamics & storytelling.:love:!
THat's another great piece of art for your portfolio again indeed!:)
All the best!,

Remko

[BaronImpossible]

Yep, that's done. It has it all, concept, excecution, humour, and it fits the theme. The bit I find most funny is the heroine's idea that she needs to eat the bananas before she throws the skins. That'll be a DOH! moment for her to reflect on during her inevitable lengthy spell on the toilet tonight.

Top job :buttrock:

[gpepper]

Another great one Michael !
The sound of a future front page, uh ?
...again... ;)

[paperclip]

:beer: :arteest: Off it goes into the Choice Gallery...and yes, I agree with Simon- plenty of people here are glad you're unable to enter this time round! :D

[Rupy]

hey Michael,

It turned out beautifully, haha still love the banana peels!

Rupy
__________________
steampunk (illustration) (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=278&t=694324)

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

Hey great picture here. Thanks for the input:D

-E

[Donglu-LittleFish]

Congratulations! I have followed the thread since the beginning, it was a very inspiring journey and it is great to see the final image!
It is wonderful to have someone like you who is always actively helping the artists in the challenge to improve their works by giving highly constructive feedbacks. Thanks! :D

[Goro]

Hey walrus you pulled it off again!
And it turned out well! I was about to give some suggestions about the lighting
but I ran out of time lol. Crunch time at work and I didn't sleep much in the last
two days ^^.
Although the journey begins entry is my personal favorite of your's you pulled off a solid
piece again.

Cheers!
Goro

[Markyzan]

Im really liking this one..i love the mono-bike with the fat rider. Nice depth on the big robo walker in the background.. I was dealing with similar techniques on my entry.A bullet hittting the side of the bike would have been cool:)very nice, this is one of my favourites.

[Elendil_le_Grand]

Like this one man :)
Good work ...

[walrus]

Hey, thanks for the comments, everyone! It's really nice to hear people's reactions to the finished work... and it is finished, too. Whew! Not that I really had to have it finished by the deadline but I suspect I might be a wee bit busy for the rest of the month. (or two)

Anyhow, great appreciation goes out to everyone, especially all friends, both old and new, who stopped by and gave me such valuable feedback in the making of this piece. I couldn't have done it without yo, which is of course why I'm still here even for this Challenge. :) Cheers, and Thanks!

[yoff]

So many nice details in this picture, love the tumbling banana peals. And now the space has really been opened up, so the whole scene feels massive and consistent. That lets all the details shine :thumbsup:

[balasa]

wow, this work is so great. i love the design of the characters and the humor and everything else in between. it makes me both happy and sad that you're not in this competition. well for one, this entry would surely be a strong contender to win

[davidbernal]

I LOVE this thread Walrus! it was amazing fallowing the progress on this piece!

[TwiiK]

The mustache, monocle and evil grin on the robot is hillarious. :)

The colors of the piece are spectacular.

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