July/August - norm - happymat27 - Page 6 - Simply Maya User Community

# 76 05-08-2006 , 10:15 AM

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at the end of the day it is what you think is best. i have just tried to bring out what i thought was your vision, the pump needed to be given fair due and the overall theme needed considering with the elements in the picture. if you like the slabs the way they are then iy means you really like them that way and you will not be swayed by anothers influence (or bright idea) and so this aspect of your vision is confirmed by you, and that is what counts. framing and sucj i think you may understand a little better now or it might just have neen a case of ,'when you live with something often we see what we want to see and miss things others see'. i think lighting is very important in this piece and also i think what is important is the finished product, if that means layering inPS or compoiting somewhere so be it. its about the image rather than the teqhnique.

as i said, i tossed up about mashing your piece (im hopeless in PS) and thought that this would give you the option to make a firm desicion about the grass and what not.

i hope you are not too possessive of your work, its like i write a peice for a film and it comes back as a jigsaw puzzle, i know some get upset but i really dont mind, it was in the pleasure of doing it rather than the exhibition.

i think you may be th same and enjoy the process. i

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 77 05-08-2006 , 12:57 PM

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I've got no problems with anyone giving visual crit using one of my images, sometimes it can be easier to get a point across that way.

Update time.....

The tree is no longer a 3d model instead I've made a shader from an image that I made in Photoshop. It seemed the right thing to do as it's pretty much silhouetted anyway, why use 3000 polys when 1 will do?

Here's how it looks, cheers,

Mat.

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# 78 05-08-2006 , 08:01 PM

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hey mat - the new tree is looking awesome - I am not so sure about moving the camera so close to the pump - I thought your previous composition was working fine - I thought the paving slabs looked ok and I think it is better if you can see the whole pump, just so its not so in your face, if you know what I mean.

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arran3D

arran3D blog

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# 79 05-08-2006 , 08:20 PM

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Thanks arran,

there's no need to fret about the camera angle, I just framed that section to illustrate the new tree. All will be back to normal for the next one.

Take it easy,

Mat.

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# 80 05-08-2006 , 08:48 PM

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ha ha - sorry mate!

arran3D

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# 81 08-08-2006 , 01:30 PM

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Hello again,

I think I'm just about done with this, it's got to the point where I'm having trouble seeing the picture because I've looked at it for too long! I took a couple of days off from it to clear my head but I still can't seem to see it.

There are a couple of small touches that I need to put into it before I submit it but that's about it. I've had a play with it in photoshop to get an idea of how to dirty it up a bit, tell me what you think.

I'll get the final bits done and sort out a couple of high res renders to submit. How does submition work, does Mike start a new thread to post final pieces on?

Cheers,

Mat.

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# 82 08-08-2006 , 01:53 PM

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I think I'd suggest playing with the lighting a bit. Everything right now is all kind of the same range of hue and color and it might be interesting to get some color variation in there some.

Also, there's not a good sense of depth to the image. The water spout almost looks like it's 2 stories tall next to the trailers, for example, haha. user added image

Obviously that's not the intent, but perhaps play with depth of field and camera lens settings.

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 83 08-08-2006 , 02:50 PM

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Thanks Mike,

I knew that there was something that I was meant to do, D'OF! I'll have a play with that now, cheers for the suggestion about the lighting too, even though the HDRI isn't emmiting light it still washes the whole stage with reds and oranges. I've tried to break that up using the blue/green tinge to the mist and a pale blue light at the front of the scene. I'll have a bit more of a mess before I give in.

Cheers,

Mat.

Oh yeah, how does submitting the finished piece work?

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# 84 08-08-2006 , 05:54 PM

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Ok I've been playing with depth of field.

I had a go with the Maya software DOF which has nice easy to understand controls. However, as I'm rendering in mentalray I needed to use the less than intuative DOF lens shader. After much messing around I have come up with this. Does anyone know why the main lights (2 area lights with quadratic drop off) have been affected so much?

Cheers for your thoughts,

Mat

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# 85 12-08-2006 , 12:45 PM

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I sorted out the lighting issue, well I say sorted out but I have no idea what happened it's just rendering correctly now.

I decided to put a small living thing in the scene and plumped for a lizard. He's not based on any living lizard but I figured that would be ok as long as the basic shape is there. I've rigged him very simply so that I he's posable for the scene.

Cheers for your thoughts,

Mat.

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# 86 12-08-2006 , 12:50 PM

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Here he is in position.

I've pretty much finished this now, I've got a few bits and bobs to do in photoshop but overall I'm happy with the scene.

My next image will be the finished article.

Thanks again for your thoughts,

Mat

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# 87 13-08-2006 , 01:36 AM

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Ha ha - Great work mat! - Really like the Lizard - looking forward to seeing the finished image.
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arran3D

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# 88 14-08-2006 , 07:35 PM

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Cheers arran user added image

.

I have finally got round to installing my scanner software to my new computer so, as I've now completed my picture, I thought I'd share a couple of my idea sketches.

You'll have to excuse the scrappiness of them, they were initially meant for my eyes only!!

This first one is what eventually became the finished piece with..... ahem.... a few minor alterations. It's meant to show how rough some poeople have it in comparison to us with our running water.

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# 89 14-08-2006 , 07:37 PM

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This second one os meant to represent how we all rely on fuel of one sort or another and how the 'civilized' world would run to a standstill with out it.

I guess I sort of used a mish-mash both ideas in my final piece which will be posted when the thread is available.

Cheers,

Mat

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