The Hydra Terra

It’s another entry to the futurist BG contest. This is kind of the first draft. It’s rendered in Mitsuba, which I like for the glossy hard plastic shader. It doesn’t really look much like it’s hovering, I’ll need to work on that. I plan on redoing the text and design, this is just for testing. I think I’ll go over it and add medium details next. Any thoughts?

Edit: this is the final version, submitted:


Very unique and cool design. The ocean looks good as well. I haven’t heard of the renderer you mentioned, but it does seem like it does a nice job on plastics. How would you say render time is compared to cycles?

Edit: this is the original first draft image:


Thanks harley. It’s hard to say on the render times. I may convert them to cycles later and do some side by sides. The reason it’s hard to say is because there are a lot more (and unfamiliar) options in Mitsuba. This is rendered using the ‘path tracer’ which I understand is for general purpose renders. This rendered in about 3 minutes using it at 256 samples per pixel, using the sobol sampler. I may do a version with a glass windshield, in which case I would probably try the photon mapper, which is significantly slower. Maybe 3 hours for this size.

One thing I really like about the external render GU is that all the options have short documentation when you click them, so you have half a clue what you’re changing. In my opinion even this early render has a quality to it that you don’t see in cycles. Hard to put your finger on exactly what it is though.

i thank you might want to put a sky dome around it considering its in the open so you can get some reflections bouncing off of it.
thats what i did with my entry.

and show some sky:)

I’m struggling with the sky. Mitsuba doesn’t let you use an image texture for emission so a “dome” is out. You can use a hemi with hdri, which I have done with a high quality sky hdri, the problem is to get it bright enough it blows out the plastic. So I’ve wound up rendering in 2 render layers. The jetski alone, and the water with the hdri, but it’s still not right. I’ll figure it out, it is always shocking what a difference good lighting is with oceans.

Nice project Photox!

I agree that it’s not clear that it hovers surface, the only way out of my head is to lower the camera until you can see all the four ejections and the reflection on the water becomes separate from the vehicle.

Keep it up!

paolo

i ran into that problem in blender when i tried to use a sun lamp so i used environment lighting and reduced the distance then put an object emisson over top of the motorcycle
didnt have to emit sky.

Nice work I do agreen with sourvinos It isn’t clear what your goal is here.

@sourvinos, thanks. I think I’m going to change with scene entirely, and take it out of the water.
@midnightcpu, this version uses a 50/50 mix of sun/hdri as well as mitsuba emission objects
@spanishrose, thanks. Here’s my new concept. The colors and lighting are off a bit, but overall I think it’s more exciting and futuristic.


I went back to the ocean. It’s submitted, done, finished.


The jets or whatever you call those things came out really nice. The displacement on the water really helps sell the effect.
Nice job on this Photox, and best of luck.

Thanks harley.