[laps]

Hi, my first post. been following this board for some time now, and its very very good. I love the art lessons from the gurus here, very interesting. I haven't really thought much about composition before. Just done with what I've felt was right.
Anyway, it would be nice if I could get any pointers on this picture..its kinda old, but I'd like to know more...what is right, what is wrong....what could have been done better with the composition here.
Its done in MAX btw...not 2d. hope that's ok. I assume the composition rules are the same for both 3d and 2d.
Here's the pic... http://www.3dluvr.com/lapskaus/3d/lapskaus.jpg

Kjetil

[samdragon]

I've been wanting to get more involved with max. Currently I'm using Maya..anyway...
Yes, composition is just as important in 3d. all the rules apply, as well as good cropping. Most people, when working in 3d, tend to put the main object centered in the frame, especially if it's animated, they then rely on depth of field to focus on objects and stuff, you know the bells and whistles thing.
Outside environments are hard to do correctly in 3d, you've done a good job with the ambient lighting. The black in the penguins maybe alittle to dark. Good exposure will yield details in the dark areas, so maybe some more detail in the black of the birds, some more of that "fuzzy" stuff should show in highlights maybe.
Very simple composition, with the figures to the right and the horizon going off to the distance on the left. The figures break up the horizon line adding more focus to them.
You do have a hotspot on the birds neck, try to avoid those when possible. The bird closest to us.
I'm curious as to where the camera is in this shot. Maybe if the camera was from another birds point of view, as if it where also standing on some rocks, this would help "lead in" the viewer, add more to the foreground also.
Good work, I'm sure I'll be bugging you when I start doing stuff in max.

[laps]

Hey Samdragon, thanks a lot for the feedback, appreciate it.
And yes, you are right. I should perhaps have added something to the foreground..it is a bit empty there..the camera in the pic is just floating in space in front of those rocks..a couple of more rocks there would make it more interesting..I see I have the same problem in one of my other pictures...that there isn't really a proper foreground... I added the link below..
The birds are maybe a bit dark, yeah..but I did it that way for technical reasons too..was quicker to map them with a dark texture..My mapping mistakes don't show so well then
So I put more detail in the brigher areas instead.
Well, thanks and feel free to bug me when you start with max
Here's the other pic: http://www.3dluvr.com/lapskaus/3d/Lapskaus2.jpg

[geelimp]

Hi Laps
I've seen the image before, but I sure don't mind having a second look..
I think you did a really good job with the ice and the water in the first pic. Ice (and water too) is not the easiest thing to create in 3d. And they often render quite slow which makes it tedious to work with. The lightning is also good, it looks especially nice on the icebergs in the background...You won a 3d contest with that pic, din't you?

Nice to see the update on your page too. I like the rough style on those new images. Thats Painter youre using right?



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Even, http://www.3dluvr.com/glimp

[laps]

Ah, hey Even. Been a while.
Thanks for the comments, I'm satisfied with the water in the pengu pic. And the ice too, it just ended up like that. some luck involved probably. And yeah..some painter pics there..experimenting mostly..its fun though. Just want to finish the beta on our game now so I can do some more involved personal projects, haven't made a big 3d scene in months.. I saw the new stuff on your site. very nice. Love the bones model. )

Kjetil

[Nex]

the second picture posted reminds me of "Ages of Empires" from Microsoft. THey have similar scenes, all with this crisp look.

I wonder how you do the grass in max.. is it an opacity max you are using or are you really making shapes of every grass strand?


The first pic (with the penguins) has a quite popular max-error.. its the extreme ly sharp line between the water and the objects that interfere with it (the stones and the ice) I guess there is no way to fix it in max..

Compositional I would say that there should be something in the upper left corner of your picture-

Very good stuff all in all, the rest of your site too btw.

Cya



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- Nex

http://on.to/nex

[laps]

Nex, I did the grass with the Shag:fur plugin. Its originally for fur, obviously , but works fine for grass too its a must-have really...updated now to Shag:Hair..creates some really nice results on hair..nearly impossible to do this in MAX before. http://www.3dluvr.com/lapskaus/3d/jean4.jpg
and now its quite easy, you use control splines so you can shape the hair as you want. and you can use any mesh to cut the hair. You should look into it. Very cool.
ABout the water edge in the pic..hmm..I'm not sure how I understand..I could perhaps use an extra layer on the stone texture and add a wet area closest to the water...it could make the transition better.

Kjetil