View Full Version : "altruism" :::: Surreal Reality challenge
The M.h.p.e.
28-Sep-06, 15:49
http://img431.imageshack.us/img431/6879/final07a834x349dm1.jpg
High-res version (1600x669 pixels) (http://img431.imageshack.us/img431/7736/final07a1600x669lb9.jpg)
The Challenge
I've been working for the last 2 months on an entry for a little challenge at
the Danish 3D community 3dmaxer.dk (http://www.3dmaxer.dk/) with the strange and mind boggling theme
"Surreal Reality". Deadline for the challenge is October 1st, this Sunday.
The Piece
"altruism" has a surrealistic touch to it and a deep message flowing through it
as well. It depicts an in my opinion very important part of life, reality, in a
surrealistic and symbolic way. Ultimately, it's up to the spectator what he/she
feels it is about. In the wip stage I commented on peoples interpretations for
the sake of critique being more pointed towards what I wanted to show, but
I will not do that anymore. This image is out of my hands by now, and the
spectator is now trusted with the task of making their own interpretations,
think if something doesn't make sense. I'm not gonna answer anymore questions
regarding this matter, though I'll still enjoy reading people's thoughts on the
image...
The technical aspects
Rendering times ended up being about 7-8 hours for all layers all together in the
native resolution 2868x1200 pixels. There is somewhere about 40.000 characters
in the image, the biggest part rendered on 2D alpha planes distributed by
particle systems. The foremost 40 characters are full 3D and posed by hand.
Post-processing + hand painting
The image is post-pro'ed in Photoshop and the background mountains are
hand painted in here as well (no wacom). Also, the clouds are a one of the
panoramas found in this forum (it's a sticky somewhere), yet I did some pretty
detailed hand painting and retouching to remove some of the 2D look and
add more volumetric feel to the clouds.
Thanks for the enormous and great feedback in the focused critique forum
everyone! It's been a blast working on this, having so many and great
comments to work with!
Hope you like it! I've been working hard and long on this baby, and will enjoy
hearing anything you have to say about it!:)
//Mathias
spiffyandy
28-Sep-06, 16:03
First Comment!
Great job, I love it!
Hope it wins, and even if it doensn't it will be one of my wallpapers for a VERY VERY long time
AWESOME!
-Spiffy
Very nice! I may be mistaken, but it appears that there are some small rendering artifacts here and there in the image. I watched your thread in the Focused critique section, and I really liked your idea about the planes and normal mapping for some of the crowd. How did that work without the full normal mapping support? Have any problems?
Really nice work. I especially like the lighting. :)
- Clean3d
ah yes i remember watching this in the focused critique section. wonderful image. you really pulled it together. wonderful image. impeccable in my eyes. 4 stars no doubt.
snelleeddy
28-Sep-06, 18:49
Verry nice, strong idea behind it
got manny stars from me
I've been following this one for a long time, and I'm glad to see that it turned out so wonderfully. Great work, onward!
-XrQLz
Hey Mathias,
I'm impressed...more with the technical stuff than the actual art. I like the color, though.
There is somewhere about 40.000 characters
in the image, the biggest part rendered on 2D alpha planes distributed by
particle systems.
Question. Can you tell us how you did that? Or, are you going you post a "behind the scenes" kind of tutorial on your really cool website?:D
Just a side note, I loved your depiction of the wise men and I also enjoyed the quality of your webpage and tutorials! Keep up the good work!
Nostra_Damus
29-Sep-06, 05:22
I like it very much!
The M.h.p.e.
29-Sep-06, 07:07
Thanks for the extremely positive feedback and the (for the moment) 5 star rating.
I'm blown away. Thank you!
A couple of answers:
Clean3D: The so called "rendering artifacts" are there intentionally, part of the
slightly painted look I aimed for. My last project (Starry Night) had a film-like
look to it, but this time around I wanted a more painted quality to it.
About the normal maps. Actually didn't ever really need them. Did no lighting
on the crowd planes (was already there in the diffuse maps), so they weren't
really used for anything.
fmkguy: Distrubuting objects via particle systems isn't really that hard. Have
a look at DupliVerts and you've got it.
Don't really know if there's enough basis for a tutorial this time around. Don't
like to try to repeat a succes. Would need a really good reason to do another
in-depth project overview.
If I do anything of this kind, I guess it would be more centered on specific
techniques used in the image, rather than the entire process as a whole, yet
I don't really know of anything to write about for the moment.
Everybody else: Thank you very very much!
//Mathias
This turned out very nice. Another great and emotional piece. You seem to havea knack for that.
BgDM
Nice work and nice concept for a scene, as everyone else has said.
Good usage of different 2D and 3D techniques instead of brute force rendering.
aah, lovely! This is what I think when I see this render:
Somesort of god created a lot of men, all with a cross on their head. The god itself had a circle on his head. When he had created the last one, he gave that one his own circle. The man is greatfull for that gift, and drops a tear:)
BleedForMe
29-Sep-06, 13:42
Great, 5 stars. Never imagined I'd look up to someone younger than me, at least never thought about it, but I admire your work.. awesome, looking forward to the next piece.
I have seen your hard work in the focused critique section already and I have to say, it is a very well exectued piece with wonderful compostion and colors. It is very obvious that you did not only think about technical details but also about the main aspects of traditional art, which is great, if you ask me :)
Is what you're saying is that some people try to be unique, but they really arn't?
I know you won't awnser, but I just wanted to throw that in there.
Wow... Great composition, and I really enjoyed watching the work in progress.
I never really understood how this is Altruism, though. Altruism means "unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others" or "behavior by an animal that is not beneficial to or may be harmful to itself but that benefits others of its species", but this shows no one benefiting?
I always interpreted it as one person standing out from the rest of the world, so he's a total outcast that no one really notices (thus the partial transparency). Everyone else in the world is exactly the same; same look, same hard emotion (no specularity in anyone's eyes but O's).
Definite 5 stars from me, I don't see a single flaw.
Great work Mathias,
Your Picture go directly to the message, and it's good to see someone use this informatic tool to express siomething. Receive my 5 stars
The M.h.p.e.
30-Sep-06, 09:54
Thanks for all the kinds words yet again!
Also interesting hearing different people's ideas of the message of the piece...
//Mathias
I've lurked this forum for about four months and never have registered. So quick blurb, I enjoy blender, I've not had much time to practice with it, so I am a complete newbie.
That said, I must admit, you compelled me to finally join the forum, Mathias. I've been watching this in the Focused Critique section and have loved seeing the progress. You have a lot of talent and I really admire your work. Now that it is finally complete, I felt the need to just say thanks for making this. For a few reasons, it's a very important picture to me.
Keep up the good work!
The M.h.p.e.
30-Sep-06, 18:04
Vadon: Thank you very very much for your (somewhat personal) post! I'm happy
that you enjoy my work and find some sort of meaning and inspiration in it. Good
hearing that I don't spend all my time completely in vain. Always is.
Welcome to the forums! Hope you'll enjoy hanging out here!:)
//Mathias
blendenzo
01-Oct-06, 02:15
Well you can add another name to your fanbase. I first saw your wise men picture on blender3d.org, and I was so impressed that I tried to visit your website, but it wasn't up yet (I've been back since you got it up, though). I must say, you are my favorite artist on this forum. Others may occassionally post a more skillfully rendered piece, yet they usually do not capture the thought behind it the way you do. You're still in school, right? This is impressive work. You definitely have a future in the field.
(P.S. - I would be interested to see you try your hand at animation sometime.)
The M.h.p.e.
01-Oct-06, 10:40
blendenzo: Thank you! Yep, I'm still in school. Only 15 you know (will be 16
this december...)
(P.S. - I would be interested to see you try your hand at animation sometime.)
Have actually thought of doing some character animation lately. Haven't done
that since my old poser days (when I say old, I mean like 2-3 years ago, heh).
Might take the challenge. We'll see...
//Mathias
blenditall
02-Oct-06, 10:09
Wow, you are only 15? I didn't know that... btw I love all your artwork. But then again, I don't actually know anybody on this forum, so maybe everyone is 15 0.o
The M.h.p.e.
06-Oct-06, 11:15
Just been away on a school trip this week (to Czech Republic). New publicity
stuff coming up soon on this image. While being away, I got a mail from the
online french and english magazine "IT'S ART magazine".
Further details will come this monday when I myself see exactly what it turns
out to be. Don't know if it'll be good or bad, but hope for the best.
Stay tuned...keep commenting!
//Mathias
You're creating some good artwork considering your age (or even not considering it :)). Are there any websites or books you've used and could recommend as good resources?
About the rendering artifacts, I wasn't really referring to the painted look. That's nice and look good. If you look at the two heads that are to the right and down from the "O" head, you can see a couple spots of the edges, but maybe I'm wrong and it's just more of the painted style.
Cool news about the magezine. :) Hope it turns out well.
The M.h.p.e.
06-Oct-06, 14:17
Clean3D: There aren't really any specific sites or tutorials I've used. Mainly just
googled on and on and read and searched through various forums. My "philosophy"
is to learn as much as I can by myself. No need to overflood forums like this one
with questions answered thousand times before...
The spots are just more of the painted style (shows how the size of the brush
is a bit too big to do the sharp edges 100% right).
I'm too hoping this magazine stuff will turn out well. While you're at it, be sure
to check out the earlier issue at http://www.itsartmag.com/
//Mathias
Very nice work.
My first interpretation is this guy is gonna have a helluva time winning a game of tic-tac-toe...just kidding.
Actually several ways for me to interpret this.
If you looked at the X's and O's as windows to the soul instead of literal X's and O's you could say much about the alienation of "the different" from societies "normals". The tear represents the feelings of being alone in a world where your never sure of your place and your ability to find a mate such as yourself. These are definitely feelings that I'm sure a lot of 15 year olds and former 15 year olds including myself felt at those stages of life (and a lot of times still do). Not to disparage your age, but lets face it with talent like this I'm sure you have felt "different" at times. We all inherently make ourselves into a centrally unique image that others fail to understand.
Another interpretation. If the X's and O's were removed you would have a generic form that no one could distinguish. This greatly enhances the importance of those symbols and actually better conveys your title for me. What could be more altruistic for any race than to maintain a "difference" despite the ease with which it would take to just "blend in". Society, in general, benefits greatly from those who take chances at great risk to themselves.
With the dream-like qualities and the generic characters the piece for some reason reminds me of a Joseph Conrad quote in "Heart of Darkness"..."We live as we dream, alone.".
Very nice work and I'm glad you've shared it with us.
Actually I was referring to tutorials that are more geared towards the artistic side. You're right, though, there are a lot of tutorials made for Blender.
Of course, maybe there are many art tutorials as well, and I just haven't found them.
The M.h.p.e.
09-Oct-06, 16:26
Clean3D: Actually, coming to think of it, there is one tutorial describing well-
known traditional art compositing techniques, I've found useful. Things like that
is kinda what I tend to read, if I read anything. At least, it's good knowing the
rules before you break 'em (so that you can do it properly) :D
It was featured on CGSociety about a year ago. Gives a pretty detailed look at
some techniques. Search on some of the terms on Google and you'll get even
more info.
http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3275
Hope it's useful...
//Mathias
Moved to the gallery section.
BgDM
Thanks for the link! I've seen that tutorial before but had kind of forgotten it existed, and I can certainly learn more by reading it again. :)
Congradulations on getting this in the Forum Gallery!
- Clean3d
The M.h.p.e.
10-Oct-06, 10:22
Clean3D: Happy to help. Just had a quick look at it again when I posted the
link. I'd forgotten how great a tutorial it really is. More tutorials focused on art
rather than technique in the future would be nice...
Wow, thanks BgDM!
Awesome really. I'm very very grateful!
//Mathias
Aint that cool, I will turn 18 in December 5
Mathias,
You have worked really hard on this one. You have taken much critique, and
made many decisions, heard many opinions. I bet you cannot count how many
hours you've been working with this. And the result is as might have been
expected: excellent!
You are very gifted, I hope you know that. I'm looking forward to your next
project (christmas-competition on 3dmaxer? :D)
Marve
In the gallery, of course :D
The M.h.p.e.
12-Oct-06, 07:56
Image of the week at IT'S ART magazine now....
http://www.itsartmag.com/news/
Thanks for the nice posts guys!
Marve: 3dmaxer.dk's christmas compition will defidently include me once again,
if nothing comes in the way. Was very fun last time!
Cowdude: Don't think I have enough new stuff in this image to make a tutorial
like the one I did with Starry Night (wrote about 12 A4 pages of text and images
in about 2 weeks - man, I just suddenly had the feel for it...HAD to write!) :)
We'll see about it this time around. Might do something covering specific techniques
if I can find something that I feel hasn't been written elsewhere, or could need
an extra point of view on it. Atm nothing really "clicks" enough for me to wanna
make a tutorial. If I find something though, it'll defidently be considered...
Thanks again!
//Mathias
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