thebest
Hey thanks Tony. Much appreciated mate
Ferx
Cheers buddy. 
That’s a nice idea to attach a sticker to the stereo. I’m paying a lot of attention to the level of contrast in that part of the scene so I might put a fairly dark-coloured sticker onto it - I don’t want the sticker to stand out more than the other elements. Thank you for your encouraging words
(Click on the image for a high-res version)
I’m incredibly grateful for all the amazing advice you folks have offered in this thread. There’s absolutely no way I would have noticed all those things on my own. For example Fernando (Ferx) pointed out hippynaut’s right arm looking odd and suggested a fix. I’ve changed the arm now and I’m much happier with it. I’ve had a fun time making that and a whole lot of other changes and have rendered out the results. I’ll post a few details from the high resolution file. I’m sure the people suggesting the fixes would have also done a better job than me at fixing them, but I’m still happy with what I’ve been able to do
The changes include:
Here’s how the jeans are looking. I’m still not satisfied with their colour and so I’ll most likely work on these a bit more in Photoshop.
Hawk-eyed cgtalkers might notice that the socks are bigger now too. I don’t know what I was thinking last time - in the previous renders they were much too small for hippynaut’s feet
Finally, a bit more of an overview. If you click on the image you’ll see most of the scene at 50% resolution. I’ve had to degrade the image a fair bit to get it under 150kb but you’ll get an idea
Hey Mark, only one word: AWESOME! 
About jeans, i think you need to creat a sort of brush on PS to put a fabric texture note , only a comment Great and awesome work my friend!!
Still an excellent work, Mark !
Do you plan to light the scene with a space atmosphere ?
Looks fantastic Mark, it’s realy got that neglected hippy feel to things now. I’m curious as to how you are going to treat the background.
Steve 8)
Super nice work Mark. The radio worked out well, it blends right into the style of the rest of the work. I 'm with Handlebar in being curious about the background…
miketche
Thanks Michael. I guess there won’t be too many more details to look at from here on. I figure it’s time to get serious about how I’m going to finish this
Ferx
Thanks mate. That’s a really nice idea about the jeans. Some sort of fabric tex would definitely enhance the effect
gpepper
Thank you! Much appreciated mate. Up until now I’ve been planning on a cross between a daylight setup and space lighting. I find a space atmosphere setup a bit harsh so therefore I’m tempted to go for a bit of artistic license by filling in the scene with a bit more ambient light. To simulate the space lighting at the moment I’ve got a single parallel light source casting hard shadows and I’ll be sticking with that, although I might change its angle a bit
authentic
Thank you Vincent. Much appreciated
handlebar
Hey Steve, thanks buddy. I too am curious about how I’m going to treat the background - hahaha - more on this subject coming up very soon.
soapy
Cheers buddy. I’m finally addressing the background and I’ll be posting more stuff about it soon
Here’s how the hippynaut is coming along. That paint-over hair isn’t final - I just wanted to put something in to get an idea. I’ll spend more time on it when I do my final post work, and besides, the angle that I render him could change slightly, ummm, maybe …
New post coming this way shortly
Thanks Michael. It’s actually a real hair curl taken from a photo, then duplicated lots of times and turned into a montage to make up the whole hair-do. Then I scaled it down and ran Photoshop’s smudge tool over it to get the look I wanted
It’s Peter Fonda in outer space! :eek: :bounce:
The lasts updates are just crazy fine - nothing to crit here, just as the others I’m waiting for the secret of the background to be revealed… I also second the suggestion for a Stones tounge-sticker for the radio.
Love it all the way.
Gunilla
Hey thanks Gunilla. I’m delighted to think you’re happy with how it’s going.
With the Stones’ sticker a small part of me is wondering about copyright and licensing of their famous logo/image/trademark. So I was thinking of some more hippy art like butterflies or some musical notes symbols or something. I’m sure there’s a solution which doesn’t involve the risk of trademark infringement. A few times in my career I’ve dropped well-known symbols into my artworks only to have the riot act read to me by people representing the trademark owners.
Experienced cgtalkers might have assumed my reluctance to discuss certain things like composition and background for example, just might have something to do with the possibility that I haven’t worked them out yet. Now I’m mortified that they’d think such a thing, even more so because it’s correct.
Wiser cgtalkers than me would have no difficulty arguing the point that the best time to plan a job is before you’ve almost finished it. Memo to self: Next time, plan ahead.
The truth is I see competitions like these as a major opportunity to take some risks. You see, when I do a pay job I can’t afford the chance of a major mess-up up so I do my best to behave like a grown-up. And I seriously never considered this as a frontrunner (and still don’t) for the prizes so what do I have to lose, really? So I’ve been having a whole lot of fun with this, and not letting boring things like thinking about where I’m going with it interrupt my playtime.
My plan, and I use that word ‘plan’ in the same way that a 2-year old plans his snooker shots, was that I’d create a complex model and then figure out what to do with it. I’m aware that hardened pros might take a dim view of this approach - in fact I think I can hear some of them gnashing their teeth from here. My only defense is that I kind of, sort of, thought things would turn out just fine with the camera angle I’ve been using up until now. But I’m now forced to admit that maybe they didn’t. It’s bad enough that hippynaut got lost in space, but unforgivable that he should be lost in the composition too.
So I spent some time this morning trying some new camera angles. I’ll show the original one at the top (A) for comparison, and then the one I rather liked © at the bottom. I liked © because it allowed the clutter of the spaceship to frame the hippynaut instead of dominate him. Put him on centre stage, which draws better attention to the Strange Behavior. And then, in a triumph of indecision and wimpy compromise I came up with (B), which is a sort of cross between the two. At the moment I’m leaning towards B.
BACKGROUND
I’ll post some rough ideas for the background soon. No, really.
Rough tests (which I will post) have shown that all the foreground clutter of the spaceship makes a complex background look plain awful. If I wanted multiple layers of clutter I can see that any time by looking around my office. No, the backgrounds which worked best so far have been simple star fields. Or I might go with an asteroid or two. But the background has to be simple and clean-looking
Hey Mark, great details for the hippynaut (I really liked the dirty on his feets, nice touch!) awesome overall look for him!
Agree with the trademark problem of the Stones tongue logo… :sad: … 
I like your approch for this challenge, and agree to take risks and more fun with this “competitions” and if i can add, it is a great opportunity to release the creativity and the imagination in a great fun way, and share with others.
For the camera angle I think option B works well, with the spaceship in a nice perspective (and I realized that you move the hippynaut position, not only camera ). For your three angles you dont move the camera down (you maintained the same height for the camera) Maybe some tests with the camera more close to the horizon and some trys with camera banking and some few tests with different angle lens (i dont know… perhaps from 50 mm to 18 mm ) , only a large and crazy comment Again awesome work my friend !! Cheers 
Hey thanks Fernando. That’s a great suggestion and after reading your thoughts I’ve played some more. I’m liking this one a lot more and will call this one version (D)
