Uplift Universe - Image Entry: Donglu Yu

#81

Donglu this willbecome one of the greatest boulots here!
Stunning!
…and I love it!

#82

Hi Donglu
Hard work is being rewarded. Lights are becoming amazing.
Good job.Want see that finished.

#83

I made a first pass for the female figures. Below it, it is showing how my whole composition looks like until now. Suggestions and critics are very welcome, since at this stage, I am afraid to get lost in details, I do feel the need to step back a little.

#84

i think thats a good idea to step back, your design is amazing. :buttrock: tell me though how do the humans and aliens interact. thanx

Will

#85

This is getting better and better. Great work and no crits. :applause:

#86

hey donglu for the two small dolphins in the background …i think they can get a bit more the sky color…reddish-oranges values can give more depth…also the dark values in those dolphins can be pulled out…that always help also for depth trying to keep different values of dark from back to foreground…

#87

neudecker: Thank you, it is very kind of you!

Thaldir: Thank you for the comment, I lowered the far dolphin a bit to make it less distracting. I will consider to adjust its color contrast or if I leave it in the scene or not during the final refining stage. I will keep your opinion in mind!

Ataulfo: Thanks for coming and your support!

Zazill8: My inspiration was from David Brin’s Uplift Universe. Selected few concepts from this series to come up with this image. The Neo-Dolphins are the uplifted species belonging to the human race. The alien is capturing those dolphins for the purpose of spying on human race to learn more about the Uplifting knowledge. The human soldiers are trying to counterattack the rivalries. The nymphs belong to the sea, being shocked and disturbed by such incident. I am using those figures to add more emotional tone to this piece.
I didn’t put the laser beams in yet, maybe that is why the feeling of the human soldiers counterattacking is still lacking.
Thanks for passing by!

MartinNielsen: Thanks for you continuous encouragement, it is highly appreciated!

Jaba153: Merci mille fois! Your feedbacks are really useful, I will keep this in mind for sure! :slight_smile:

#88

Coming along great. I suggest that you try adding some greater shadowing on the nymphs where the beam light does not reflect on? The dolphins are great examples of this, thus they look more solid and tangible than the nymphs. Or you can try to make the nymphs glow like fairies. The alien ship has a cool design, but from the whole composition, it seems that the ship is not big enough to accommodate all the dolphins. The sky is a great dramatic piece of work!

#89

Jeromoo, thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts! I will play with the contrast for the nymphs for the second pass. As for the airship, I think you are right about its size. However by enlarging it, I am also afraid to unbalance my composition and hide the sky too much. I will play with it tonight and see how it would turn out.

#90

I have made the airship bigger, as a result, I also reworked on the cropping and made few color adjustments here and there.

#91

Taking a completely new direction for the airship as I find the original one blocking the view too much.

#92

Hi Donglu,

I think the new spaceship desing is better ( the back is better, i liked the circular front), but i prefer the old direction of the spaceship because it was looking to the dolphins.

U are really doing a good job.
Keep it up.
:beer:

#93

Thanks Ataulfo for your comments. Effectively, many colleagues at work told me that they prefer the original style better. The second one is just too “stargate”. I am going back with that old one, but I want to push it a bit, found few reference pictures of scorpion, I will try to intergrate them together so the ship would have more depth to it.

#94

Hi Donglu :slight_smile:

Looks very beautifull :slight_smile: I also tend more towards the original ship design, you just need to flesh it out more (which you’ll undoubtedly will do anyways :slight_smile: even without my “smart” remark).

Keep up the great work!!:thumbsup:

All the best,

Dimitrij.

#95

Finally I am done with this new design. Tried to keep the “alien” look from the old one, but adding more depth to its volume. Also did few minor placement and color adjustments to some visual elements within the painting.

#96

The scorpion space ship get strength , (il pourrait être plus fin pour l’aerodynamisme je ne sais pas ) but I’m gonna wait en tout cas toujours un bel ensemble

#97

Dimitrij: Thanks! Here is the new design, what do you think of it?

Scala: Thank you for the feedbacks! I will consider the option to make the wings thinner during the final refining stage, I am going to work more on details for now. Merci d’etre venu, c ben gentil! :slight_smile:

#98

I like it, but it’s still very rough and you still haven’t worked out the symmetry (or do you want to make asymmetric design? I mean the wings in particular.)

But I think I preferred the original design, maybe you should just detail it and used as a base. I especially liked the “nose” or “snout” of the ship it worked really well with the “tractor beam” idea.

I’m sure you’ll work it out:)

Great work!!

Dimitrij.

#99

Dimitrij, Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the airship, they are really helpful. Nope, I didn’t want to make an asymmetric design, as you said, it was still rough, trying to block out the volume in perspective. I will see what I can come up with it. Thanks again!
Donglu

#100

I know that at this stage, I should probably just focus on refining the details of this painting, however I feel that I have to do this major change in terms of both visual and concept: no more airship. It is an gigantic alien monster trying to take in the dolphins as the human crew is counterattacking. This change should tighten much more the relationship between alien, human and a third species: neo-dolphins.