Christmas Scene WIP


CRITIQUE PLEASE!!!

Critique me like you hate my guts… But want me to improve XD I’ve only worked on this a couple days, and during those days, only about 2 hours per day, was actually dedicated to working on this :slight_smile: I have high hopes of winning, but my goal is not out of reach. With your critique, I have a half decent shot at winning… And please, if you’re competing, don’t critique me so I’ll loose.

Anyways, don’t critique me lightly, give me it straight… Thanks!

-Joey

Um, this is the first stage of my submission to the Blender Guru Christmas Contest! :smiley: (Yes it sucks now, but I want it in the Staff Picks here, when it’s finished!)

Since you asked for it :slight_smile: Im competing too but I play a clean game so i`l give you my best!

It is hard to to critique on the scene since it is far from finished, so i`l go with what i have here.

First of all the scale! The scale of the objects and the scene look way off to me. Do some research on this since the scale problem often kills a scene.

Second, is the lighting, this is a difficult subject but one of the most important. Your scene is lit almost identically all over and the shadows are wiped out. The fire lighting doesn`t quite do it, you need to post prod it, or add some lights in there.

Third, speaking about fire, you should pump that resolution up and look at some references when you work, there is a lot of details you aren`t taking into account.

For now just work with that, il be glad to give you more critiques when you post more, or just pm me if i don`t see it.

Im trying to give constructive critiques rather than opiniated so that it could help you out. I say keep working on it and yowl have something to be proud off ^^

PS (this is my own opinion on the critique :wink: ) Good luck!

Okay, thank you very much sir… Um the lights are temporary… But scale is something I didn’t consider… Also, I have a very slow computer, and high res fire is a pain in the butt for me :frowning:

Thanks!
-Joey

i agree with effinmeow
i’m entering to

on the lights its about the only thing to Critique right now
you might want to add some more stuff

when you get started you might change stuff like i do

my scene was thought up and i started changing stuff and adding and subtracting then multiflying


This is the update…
What do you think? :eyebrowlift2:

Your scene is too dark. I am not sure what you can do about the fire but it has that bright glob at the bottom that doesn’t look natural. The gift blends in too much with the bricks. It could probably use some gloss.

That said, I do like the improvements from the first picture. The bricks look good and the other detail you’re putting in are excellent too (moulding, rug, candlesticks, etc)

I am jealous that Andrew Price, Kent Trammell, Gleb Alexandrov and Jonathan Williamson are in your family :slight_smile:

All the best! You’re a talented kid. Keep it up!

i kind of disagree with sweenist
if your trying to do a fire light its to bright in the scene if not i thank its about right
the color on the present looks flat or BLAH
you might want to look at some references for chimney fire yours needs a little smoke goinig into the tube not alot
and you might want to make the bottom half of the fire transparent

Thanks!
I’m actually quitting this scene though… I think
PS: I’m not related to Andrew Price, Kent Trammell, Gleb Alexandrov or Jonathan Williamson.

I knew that. I was just making a reference to photos on the wall. Typically people hang photos of their family up. Anyway, I was just being silly.

Well, sometimes starting over is a good thing. May I suggest sketching out a few ideas on paper first and then attempt to model afterwards. I heard that advice in a Blenderguru podcast and it has helped me out. I found I was able to work quicker and I melded a few of my sketch ideas together.

Again, good luck!

This is a similar to a scene I made a few years back and I had much the same problems as you do: I found that the best way to do the fire was to use an alpha mapped flame texture (look on cgtextures.com for these) running along the top of the logs. This is also much easier on the CPU/GPU than a simulation or volumetrics. For the scale, I found it was better to zoom in more, to the point of not quite all the fireplace being in frame.
Hope this is useful,
52hider3d

Wow I like the sweet improvements, especially on the scale good job! How come you are quitting the scene? Don’t tell me it cheated on you :P? I’m not one to talk I just changed my whole idea but yeah, i’m looking forward to your work m8 :)!

@effinmeow

My scene is way off from the original its killing my computer right now i can only get 800,000 verts after that my computer is done for

@joey
and i was wondering why quitting scene too you could turn this one into something good if you keep at it

Okay, I’ve decided to revisit this scene… I’ve converted it from a Christmas scene… To a regular winter scene :slight_smile:
I’m rendering an update now, that I think you all will love :smiley:

I am glad you have decided to revisit the scene because I like seeing the improvements.
For Fire and smoke simulations make sure you are using adaptive domain, this improves the bake times immensely.
Also try setting up your bakes to go over night if you need to.
For the Rug add some more fluff, possibly use a hair particle system to do this, SSS also might help.
Keep adding details, Christmas stockings hanging on the hearth, tools for the fireplace, light switches and outlets on the wall.

There is a saying at Pixar: “Here at Pixar we sand the under sides of our draws.”
This means paying attention to details, so really try and include all the details of a real room.

Good luck, I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Oh and change the pictures on the wall, as much as I like all those people it looks sort of creepy.


This is the update…
Your thoughts?

its starting to look better

you might want to put a grate in front of the fire place to keep the ashes from getting on the floor and the poker tools

i would put some trim about wast high and use a different color for the top or bottom of the wall

if you can do hair particles on the rug “do it”, use the tut for turning textures into hair

the couch needs some creases not real big you can use a noise texture and run it into the displace to get the effect dont need a big scale about 5-10 should do

after that i believe you should start on decor took me about a week to do decor:spin:

i would show my scene but this in Critiques.LOL:D

Yeah…
Thx!

hey again, for the latest image you have a scale issue again, the lamp base thickness i think, and the coffees look weird, double check those i might be wrong. Otherwise i’m not a fan of the new camera position, doesn’t look interesting, look into photographs and search what makes a photo interesting on Google it, it will explain it better than i will.

I will give you a little personal tip, you know how you shouldn’t sculpt high level details before you finish the low level mesh, i personally think that goes for everything in general. I wouldn’t bother with simulations and textures for the moment, i would model the scene and stay on ambient occlusion, no lights. A low poly one first to see if it will look good and then hit the details, once it looks good on ambient occlusion, hit the textures, shaders and lights. This is my personal workflow, it helps me advance faster and stay motivated, that said keep up the good work and keep posting :)!!!