Alien Artifact

Chickenator · May 23, 2015, 1:21am

Rendered at 1000 samples in cycles and modeled in blender:

Would appreciate feedback!

DigitalOpus · May 30, 2015, 2:46pm

Hello,

Looks interesting. Here are some thoughts:

The value range of the whole image looks dark. Even the glowing parts don’t seem as bright as they could be. Perhaps try for a greater value range.

Try to find a way to lift the artifact away from the background. Perhaps some rim lighting, or positioning it so it is against a background with greater contrast?

The shadow doesn’t read very well as a shadow for me. It seems to be coming straight at the camera. I am not sure if I am seeing the artifact partially embedded in transparent terrain or seeing a shadow on top of the terrain.

Would love to see the final result.

Chickenator · May 31, 2015, 4:12am

Thanks for the feedback! I will try to make a few edits and put up the result

Chickenator · May 31, 2015, 4:32am

Here’s a few changes in lighting and the artifact’s material:

Rendered at 100 samples

The website made it lower resolution for some reason.

JA12 · May 31, 2015, 5:50am

A scale reference could do some good too. Tiny light sources from an expedition, or if it’s the other way around

Chickenator · May 31, 2015, 5:53am

Thanks! I’ll see what I can do

anish · May 31, 2015, 7:11am

the pillar could use some details

Chickenator · May 31, 2015, 8:16am

Any ideas of what to add for details?

JA12 · May 31, 2015, 12:08pm

A few spaceshrooms and 50 shades of Predator eyeliner should do it.

Seriously though, depends on the scale and if it’s really big, might want to lose the dof effect. If you want to add something, maybe some artificial looking geometry could do it but I kinda liked the glowy bits in the first render.

Big alien artifact reminds me of Babylon 5: Thirdspace where they find this massive artifact
Inactive http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/babylon5/images/1/14/Thirdspace_artifact_01.png/revision/latest?cb=20090816004843
Active http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/babylon5/images/9/92/Thirdspace_artifact_07.png/revision/latest?cb=20090816011251
Maybe the geometric details could be like in that (inactive state) but subtle and mysterious. B5 artifact in active state is too glowy and over the top, although they pulled it off in the movie. To me, glowy things are more effective when used gingerly.

Chickenator · May 31, 2015, 2:37pm

JA12:

A few spaceshrooms and 50 shades of Predator eyeliner should do it.

Seriously though, depends on the scale and if it’s really big, might want to lose the dof effect. If you want to add something, maybe some artificial looking geometry could do it but I kinda liked the glowy bits in the first render.

Big alien artifact reminds me of Babylon 5: Thirdspace where they find this massive artifact
Inactive http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/babylon5/images/1/14/Thirdspace_artifact_01.png/revision/latest?cb=20090816004843
Active http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/babylon5/images/9/92/Thirdspace_artifact_07.png/revision/latest?cb=20090816011251
Maybe the geometric details could be like in that (inactive state) but subtle and mysterious. B5 artifact in active state is too glowy and over the top, although they pulled it off in the movie. To me, glowy things are more effective when used gingerly.

The glowing bits in the first render was just the material reflecting the light source and I’m not sure how I should remake it without the previous lighting