winged creature

[ZippZopp]

I've been working on this on and off for what seems like a year! I finally picked it back up the past few weeks and made some more progress on it. I'm still not completely happy with the background and the integration with the creature so I'll continue working on it.

http://zopfx.com/wips/demon_render_08_med.jpg

and some wip images. I went back and forth quite a bit with the sculpting and textures because I was never too happy with it. it was inspired quite a bit by the balrog from lord of the rings

http://zopfx.com/wips/demon_03.jpg

http://zopfx.com/wips/demon_render_01.jpg

[collings]

glad to see you back on this one Pete :) great design.

[Manki]

That's totally awesome !!!!
All of stuffs i like :love:

Very inspiring Peter !!

[PascalR]

Great project Peter!
I love the crocodile skin details. Did you use some of the xyzrgb stencils for this?

Well doneclap

[ZippZopp]

thanks for the comments. I didn't use any alphas or stencils for the scales. I sculpted them in mudbox. I used the extracted displacement map as a start for my bump map and I went through the bump map to amplify the scales. a lot of the tightness on them came from the bump map actually.

[PascalR]

thanks for the comments. I didn't use any alphas or stencils for the scales. I sculpted them in mudbox. I used the extracted displacement map as a start for my bump map and I went through the bump map to amplify the scales. a lot of th
e tightness on them came from the bump map actually.

Nice work Peter :)

[tiktok]

Very cool Peter!
This is looking great! My only critique would be in the rendering of the scales. It seems as if there could be more dark in the crevices to pop the scales forward a bit?

otherwise fantastic.

-Bayard

[kYk]

Gr8 modeling, good Shading, cool render...very good Work! :thumbsup:

[Porkpie Samurai]

Kick *** pete. Its sitting pretty nicely in the environment imo.

[bneall]

Pete secretly wants to make an over-sized crocodile that terrorizes small villages.

[cj3d]

This is very nice! I love it and the textures are kick ***! clap

CJ

[mjackson126]

This is awsome! Beautiful Texture work. Great Job:thumbsup:

[jasonlin]

glad to see u contiuned on this one
the outcome is really nice
love the scales :love:

[ZippZopp]

did a little bit more work on this one. modified the background a bit, adjusted some levels, added some creatures flying in the bg which I may need to add some variation to, but I think i'm almost done

http://zopfx.com/wips/demon_render_med_09.jpg

[Porkpie Samurai]

Sweet. Everythings looking great. The flying creatures in the background are a nice touch.
How did you go about making the background mountains? Are they sculpted or generated in something like vue or terragen?

[PascalR]

Great picture Peter, but I wonder if the version with no other flying creatures wasn't stronger, as it made you main character kind of unique.
I know they are far away but my eyes were crying for some motion blur on the bg demons :)

Anyways, love it :dance:

[mjackson126]

Automatic Inspiration! Great Jobclap

[El Burritoh]

Great picture Peter, but I wonder if the version with no other flying creatures wasn't stronger, as it made you main character kind of unique.
I know they are far away but my eyes were crying for some motion blur on the bg demons :)

Anyways, love it :dance:

Without other creatures, it does emphasize the beast's uniqueness. But the placement and direction of these creatures implies some great action, like an attack perhaps, and that adds something more dynamic to the image than if it were just the one creature. I guess it's a trade-off for now.

If you retain the creatures in the background, motion blur would help, but also some more variety in the wing poses, like maybe have one beast have his wings on the down beat. Right now they all have the same general wing pose (like they're gliding).

Heck, you might add dozens more and make this a full assault! It would give you the opportunity to offset the main creature even more by using motion blur and more depth of field, and maybe even tell a story.

I like the exposure of the BG, but I wonder if the main creature couldn't use a slight levels adjustment to bring the blacks down a tad. Maybe it's my monitor.

Great stuff!

[tonytrout]

Its all great, like the crocodile skin and the color and the modelling, clap but the look of the wing membrane texture isnt convincing imho

[collings]

the look of the wing membrane texture isnt convincing imho

It looks cool to me :)

[ZippZopp]

i'll give the background creatures a bit more work. there isn't enough variation in poses. it was kind of hacked together last night as test to see if it could work. I'll work them a bit more and see if it will work within this image.

the wing membrane could probably use a bit more work, what specifically do you guys think isn't working with it?

the background is all 2d elements put together. i really do wish i could use terragen or vue, but I haven't learned it yet. It is on the 'to do' list which I never get around to. it would have been handy in this situation

[tonytrout]

Im probably overcritical Peter, maybe its the direction of the gray striations, or maybe there should be some veins or something to break it up, to me

Heres a pic might show some other idea

[tiktok]

I agree about the membrane I think. It seems the skin would be quite thin and translucent between each of the finger bones. Also, it seems there would be a prevalence of veins in the area.
http://i.livescience.com/images/051216_bat_wing_02.jpg
http://www.nearfamous.com/Images/NearFamousWebImagesOptimized/NectarBats/06080474NectarBatFeed%2346283.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/26/59420131_d092585cd2_b.jpg

I agree too about the single character. Something about it seemed more striking to me. :beerchug:

-Bayard

[ZippZopp]

i added a bit more sss to the wings, i don't know if have it in me to go back into the texture process to re work them so I may be calling this just about final

i varied the poses of the background creatures and had a few small tweaks here and there along with adjusted levels for more contrast. i added a bit of a rim light to pick up some fresnel on the back wing while it also added a bit of a backlight for some SSS on the wings. i didn't want to overdo the SSS on the wings though for the sake of having the effect.

http://zopfx.com/wips/demon_render_med_10.jpg

for anyone interested the full res version it is here...

http://zopfx.com/wips/demon_render_10.jpg

thanks for looking and for the comments

[Porkpie Samurai]

Congrats Pete turned out fantastic!
:thumbsup:

[PascalR]

Looks great indeed Peter:thumbsup: My only comment is that fg rock edge looks quite sharp even though it is out of focus. Could it be a z thing in your comp?
Cheers

P.

[El Burritoh]

Nice! Much more dynamic!

[collings]

great final :thumbsup:

[ZippZopp]

thanks for the nice comments everyone. the image has been updated to fix that sharp edge on the rock due to depth of field.

[PascalR]

Looking beautiful Peter :beerchug:

[tonytrout]

Great job :thumbsup:clap

[cj3d]

I love it man! clap

CJ

[mjackson126]

Great work. Congratulations:beerchug:

[kYk]

Wow!

Gr8 !

[jasonlin]

awesome!!clap

[Intervain]

sweet dragon :)

[phoenix]

Ah very nice work indeed, Love the over all atmosphere of this pic :)

RegaRDS

[musashidan]

I always loved this piece. Saw it a good while back at Mudboxcentral. Really glad you finished it off. Easily one of my favourite renders of the last year.
Excellent.

[drummermenco]

nice! I can finally see it finished dude! glad to see your work again!