"Watch Maker"

while browsing the web I saw an image of an pocket watch and just thought to make one and here it is :slight_smile:


wireframe with 2 levels of subsurf, except for the watch body it has 3 levels of subsurf, i put 3 levels on it because i’m not satisfied with the reflections of the 2 levels of subsurf on the body


wireframe


very nice!! how did you make the chain ?

For some reason I like the middle wireframe version, especially with the title watch maker. It has a more conceptual meaning to it, that refers back to the cg artist as watch maker. To me there is a little bit of play as “watch maker” is an allusion to the creator(God).

One thing I’d suggest to easily enhance the composition (if you meant for this to be an art piece, that is) would be to let the chain fall naturally onto the table using rigidbody physics. It would break up the smooth line you have now (following a curve I assume, which is a fine way to position the chain before letting the physics animation fly), and would be a big step toward selling the realism.

Another good tip for composition (I don’t know any less clumsy way to say this) is to never allow two shapes to come really close together (on the 2d plane) without clearly intersecting. By this I mean the chain that’s sailing right around the shapes of the watch, and just a little bit by the screwdriver head. If you’re not sure what I’m getting at, imagine if your shapes were just filled in with flat colors (like shadeless materials). You wouldn’t be able to tell if the chain were behind, near, or in front of the watch.

I also like to take into account the borders of the image when considering this “rule”: in this case, the bottom edge of the watch and the clip on the end of the chain are the offenders. If you take my meaning, all of your other shapes decisively enter and exit the frame, but the edge of the watch and the clip can’t seem to decide if they want to be in the picture or out.

I hope that made some sense. I know I’m very bad at explaining these concepts in words! If you’d like, I’d be glad to scribble over your image to illustrate.

@BlendRoid About the shapes that are close-by, but not overlapping - the term of such proximity is tangent. And the reason it is bad as you already stated is that it creates confusion in the viewer and draws the attention from the focus of the composition. :slight_smile: Nice catch! The second part of your tip is also very precise - again there is a tangent in the lower part of the watch. In this case it is better to cut off part of it, or pull it inside the frame. This would depend on whether you want a more general shot, or a closeup of a specific object. :slight_smile:

Generally if I continue the train of thought started by BlendRoid, what would help your shot compositionally is that you have more overlaps. It would make the scene seem more natural and convincing. Look around you. I bet if you look at the desk in front of you, or a library shelf, or a drawer nearby, you would see tons of overlaps. That is how the phisical world work - you have three dimensions. It is easy to forget about it if you always sit in front of a 2d screen.

Compositionally also I would like to either have more information about the object on the top left, or leave most of it out of the frame. Now you have it as a heavy dark area that draws attention, but it doesn’t give me any information about what it is and why is it there. It would be either better to crop it out more, so that it sits there as an abstract shape with no meaning, or put it more into the frame, so that the viewer sees what it is and makes sense of why it is there.

That’s it from me. Hope I helped.

@BlendRoid and @ignilibrium thanks for your tips, this was my first TRY on making an “artistic” style of render, and I don’t even know what the hell :slight_smile: you’re talking about but I get your point, like I said this was my first try on an “artistic” and yes I was trying to make it look “artistic” :stuck_out_tongue: , I didn’t know about the proper way of doing a composition of an artistic image

Oh man… I guess I got to do some research of all this stuff you talk about

And about using riggidbody physics on the chain, I forgot that there’s already a physics sim on blender

thanks again for your Tips guy :slight_smile:

to @blue box , I used array and curve modifiers on the chain

I’d recommend setting the loupe on its side so you can see through the lens a bit. Just enough to tell that it is a lens, y’know?