View Full Version : Mechanicalion (May 3: 3rd new alternate angle render + Render Nodes View)
May 3 update: Please see page 2 for third/largest render and render nodes view.
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April 30 update: Please scroll down this page for the second render from this project.
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Original post:
This is something quick I made for Blender Artists Weekend Challenge 192 ("Mechanimal" theme):
http://www.artofinterpretation.com/images/wc192-mechanicalion-byrjt2006.jpg
The mechanical lion, Mechanicalion, usually sits in the shadows of this artificial forest, but the presence of the viewer has attracted his attention. He steps out, leans in closer to inspect you...
Grass/ground and environment are intentionally stylized for a different look.
This took around four hours to make. Pure Blender, no post-processing.
RobertT
This is exactly what i was going to make, but i never found time to do it. I'm sure yours is better than what i would have done anyway though. Good job. All your work is awesome
StompinTom
24-Apr-06, 19:36
really cool concept and execution. wouldnt want to meet this baby without a big gun of some sorts...
i love the black white and red color scheme and the composition of the colors. the only thing distracting is the red area (reflection?) on the very right. solid work.
Great work - the work on the materials is superb - * * * *
Amazing, can anyone say Mechanicalion vs. Asland (Narnia)? Good Job.
Excellent work as always Robertt. No crits from me.
Sonix.
Amazing. Especially love the stylization of the face.
This is something quick I made
This took around four hours to make.
.... and therefore you are my true nemesis and arch rival (it's been a while since I called you that).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/sago/Pics/Emoticons/big_smile.gif
Some times I am glad my time was taken over the weekend thanks to your entries RobertT, it will be a loooong time until I have the skill the defeat El Great RobertT! Awesome piece, somehow I think 'Lego?'
dodgydavec
25-Apr-06, 05:28
It's beeee-utiful :cool:
Indeed it is. Wounderfull work Robert. I love all your work, but this one, being strangely a four hour masterpeace, is amazing. Great work. The materials and overall feelins it has is lovely. And I love the scene too.
Great work. I hope you will win that contest.
Btw, could we (I) se a wire?
great work, bob, i love the environment. the legs just arent doing it for me though, they dont look meaty, or muscly enough, i think he would look more staunch with beefier legs.
Did you use the discombobulator to get the machined pattern on those trees, it's a good effect....
Yes, this is a lovely piece of art.
I have to agree with the thin legs remark.
The front paws seem the correct size, but the legs should be thicker.
Also (nitpicking) he seems to have the same set of paws on his back legs. This makes him look a bit 'flat footed'. I would prefer something a bit more like he's walking on his toes (which is of course the case in real life...)
But this is just detail. The overal feel is very nice indeed!!! (love the 'grass'...)
I think we should start a small shop selling big prints of some of these works man!
Execellent job!! Good materials as Claws said, and I love the background as well.
~Misfit
Wow, cool stuff as usual, Robertt! I'm actually really impressed with the eyes, because I can hardly ever get halos to look halfway decent, and yours are just excellent!
Fantastic stuff. :)
Wow that's so nice, Robert. Great work. ;) (Now this is something for the splash screen contest :D)
DracoFodder
25-Apr-06, 13:06
Robertt, Very nice execution. I like the black and white motif, gives it even more of a mechanical "feeling". As far as the red glow on the right side, to me that makes me think the lion is actually moving through his environment, and not just cut-n-pasted over a background.
Couple of requests though if you have the time.
1) could you post a render, sized to be a wallpaper?
2) would you explain your material settings in getting that very cool semi-polished aluminum looking lion skin?
Really nice work on this one Robertt. Shader work is especially well doen. Very metalic and not overly too much, which is tough to get some times.
Not sure I agree on the flare usage for the eyes though. I think more of just a general glow there would have been better. But that is just personal taste for the most part, I think.
BgDM
Fliberty: Thanks. I would have liked to see your lion too :)
StompinTom: Thank you. Some of the artificial branches on the right are picking up the red lights from the lion's eyes.
Claws: I appreciate that. Materials can make or break a scene, so I'm glad I seemed to have found a good balance in this and not mess it up by over-tweaking it.
3dak: That might be some matchup :) I think Aslan would do very well.
Sonix: Thank you so much, my friend.
Sago: Thanks, Sago. The face is where it all begins and ends in this one, as it often works out with characters, so I'm glad the stylistic choices here worked out. I was able to save much time on this due to the mane's placement, which hides the fact there is no body, only legs, head, and tail.
jackj: Thanks, jackj. Just hang in there and your skills will increase before you know it. I still have much to learn and improve upon myself.
dodgydavec: Thanks!
Roger: Thanks so much. I'm glad I stopped when I did and didn't let the desire to tweak and re-tweak diminish this piece. I may post a wire at my website when I get a chance. Right now I'm working on a bunch of other things.
traitor: Thanks! I scaled down the leg density because, while they initially gave a stronger impression of strength, they also worked against the sense of speed. So I tried to strike a balance between a thinner leg that was still strong looking, especially when taking into consideration artificial materials which could be many times stronger than a real lion's leg.
Roffey: No discombobulation, just good old fashioned extrusion in various areas along the branches.
UglyMike: Thanks! You're right about the front and back legs looking similar. They are from the same base mesh. One of the reasons this came together so fast is only one leg was modeled. The others were mirrored and modified from there.
misfit: Thanks! That would be great if there was a poster shop option for us. Maybe it could be a good fund raising mechanism for the Blender Foundation too.
Clean3D: Thank you. Halos are very tricky to get right. I often stack them up and play with the line count and seed values. I also, as I did here, place low distance lights right in front of them according to the same color as the halos so the model and the environment experience some color bleeding and reflection.
Milky: Thank you. I still think the next splash should honor the work of Project Orange.
DracoFodder: I may post a larger render at some point at my website. The materials are fairly basic. Blinn, reflecting with some Fresnel, and several lights, some no diffuse, to generate interesting variations in the illumination.
BgDM: Thank you very much, BgDM. Shaders got a lot of help from the lighting. A simple color scheme really helped too. I'm glad I didn't go back and dwell on materials any longer because it probably would have gotten worse instead of better for this project. Sometimes that happens and that can be a pain. I'm trying more and more to get things mostly right earlier in a project rather than wait until later. Tweaks are almost always inevitable though. For the halos I was going for more of a subtle glint effect in the eyes. Always tricky to find a balance with them!
RobertT
Here is a larger image I created today from this project. It was rendered at a slightly different angle to bring a little more of a powerful perspective to the Mechanicalion:
http://www.artofinterpretation.com/images/mechanicalion2-byrjt2006.jpg
In this one I also applied slight DOF using the Z offset blur filter composite method in Blender CVS along with some faint screening/overlay filters and an RBG curve to tweak contrast and enhance saturation. So, as before, this is pure Blender.
Thank you for viewing my work,
RobertT
Just ... incredible
Good luck with the bunch of other things :).
Regards
PS I had a look at your site, somehow never saw it, there are some incredible stuff there (so everybody else, go there (http://www.artofinterpretation.com/)!)
PPS your newer version of this work isn't there yet ..
Thank you very much for the kind words, Roger.
In many ways I consider this one of my best projects ever in Blender, at least in terms of overall execution, from concept to render.
The time spent on this (now around 7 hours total, between the WC entry and my later CVS experiments and the new angle render), along with the way all the elements (modeling, shaders, lighting, composition) came together all so cleanly and optimally marks a new personal milestone in the way I blend, which is why I consider this project significant and am especially grateful to have heard back from everyone in this thread.
Also exciting was to get the exact results I wanted in the latest render using only CVS nodes, which will open up a whole new world of creative potential for us and enable us to get more done within Blender.
I will try to continue this flow through my next several projects.
RobertT
Also exciting was to get the exact results I wanted in the latest render using only CVS nodes, which will open up a whole new world of creative potential for us and enable us to get more done within Blender.
What do you mean with that? Sorry, I don't know what nodes are.
Hi, Milky. In the latest Blender (CVS version from a test build at http://www.blender.org/forum or http://www.graphicall.org) there are node options for materials and renders. Nodes let you create new complex materials and do new things to your renders (such as sharpening or blurring) right in Blender.
Check out this thread for more about nodes, compositing, and related features:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=60233
RobertT
awsome! I really like where u took it!
Hi, Milky. In the latest Blender (CVS version from a test build at http://www.blender.org/forum or http://www.graphicall.org) there are node options for materials and renders. Nodes let you create new complex materials and do new things to your renders (such as sharpening or blurring) right in Blender.
Check out this thread for more about nodes, compositing, and related features:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=60233
RobertT
Sounds great, thanks RobertT. I think I will try the CVS build out.
The new render looks fantastic RobertT. I believe this is one of your best works yet (And not to mention WC entry)
jackj, yeah I agree, but then again all of his art is fantastic. :)
Thank you to clvhines, Milky, and jackj!
I revisited this project again today with two things in mind: to create a larger render yet and to reveal the render nodes setup. Total time spent on the series of Mechanicalion renders is now up to around 11 hours.
Here is the third and largest render featuring Mechanicalion from yet another angle:
http://www.artofinterpretation.com/images/mechanicalion3-byrjt2006.jpg
As I believe these three renders show in ascending order, slight adjustments in camera angle and position can augment the drama of the scene by a few vital degrees and portray a character or object and its environment more effectively.
This is the main reason you will usually see several cameras whenever I post a 3D view of a blend, since I often like to test render scenes from multiple angles. This also helps me check on lighting, materials, and to explore the visual potentials of each project.
Here is the setup for the render nodes:
http://www.artofinterpretation.com/images/mechanicalion-rendernodes-byrjt2006.jpg
Jpeg artifacts aside, it is exciting to achieve this kind of render result right in Blender using the nodes. The possibilities with them are truly endless, especially when combined in different ways. I may have to revisit some of my older projects to try out some new techniques once 2.42 is officially released.
Thanks again to Ton and all the coders for making this all possible, and thank you all for viewing and commenting on my creations,
RobertT
Very impressive as usual Robert ! I like what you did with the nodes to give that DOF, I can imagine it's very tempting to apply it to prevoius works you've done though. I particulary like how you gave this image a great sense of scale and got the composition spot on.
Finally though just how you made this image in just 4 hours is beyond belief !:eek:
Levi
wow dude very impressive great work i think its one of your best 3d works so far
RobertT, seems like I overlooked this thread.
I think that this is one of your best works so far, it really looks great! The modelling style of the lion reminds me of Star Wars' Imperial Stormtroopers and I love the red glow on the white parts.
Only one small crit: I think the the mouth was best in version one, it's reflecting too much details now - this looks a bit weird.
mr_artshow
05-May-06, 02:04
sob, you know whats funny. I was working on somthing similar to this a long time ago (except my was a tiger) then my HDD had decided to call it quits. this is the only evidence i have for what i have done.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v187/mr_artshow/warrior.jpg
I congratulate you on your complete beatifull piece. the mane give sthe image great flow and greta contrast to the background helping the attention towards the lions face. awsome job.
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