Environment Design Rocks!

[Broadway]

Hey TwilightExplode, looking good so far, keep pushing! Your post reminded me of a video I found helpful a few months back while trying to do crystals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA3nJ-XkBBU

It's probably more of a "starting point" than a straight up explanation of what to do, but maybe it can give you some rendering ideas. Ofc the main thing is just to get good reference for the crystal.

[Amit Dutta]

Broadway you beat me to it again. I knew there was a video like that somewhere too but couldn't remember where. Thanks for posting!!.
Twilight, keep pushing man, use the art as your oasis away from the shit if you need to. It has worked like that for me at times, though it isn't a permanent solution to life angst. Definitely figure out the environment lighting as that will dictate a bit about your rendering. :)

[TwilightExplode]

Haha! I actually watched that a couple of times yesterday.

EDIT:

Thank you guys anyway.

[TwilightExplode]

Didn't end up getting a whole lot more done. Not so sure about the colors, but for now they'll have to work. Ended up having to deal with divorce stuff for most of the day and won't have much in the way of time before the due date. If for whatever reason I DO get a chance to work on it some more, I will totally post an update.

EDIT:

Just for the record, the stepping stones are going to be more cobbled together looking, maybe with a 'magical' looking light emanating from the cracks to give a hint as to why they are floating. I am also going to be detailing the walls so they don't look as plain.

[Aumes]

Hey peeps! What's up? 

Well. i think i'll call this one done. Although i recognize so many flaws since last crit (thanks Amit), right now i just feel burnout about it. I might do a retake on it as i said. 



It has been a good experience. Thank you all for the momentum, awesome blast!
Alright, back to practice...

Cheers

[Cyprinus]

@voss: that is one huge post with a lot of amazing stuff!! *_*

I might pause this week, I've already started working on my piece, but I'm not very far into setting everything up. I hope I can at least put everything into a presentable piece to get at least some feedback if I'm going in the right direction. I've got some health trouble and I'm not able to work on digital stuff as much as I'd like to ): I feel so conflicted because I was really excited about putting everything together but I want to heal out my damn nerve before it keeps on bothering me for longer in the end ))): GAH.

[Amit Dutta]

@Aumes: No worries man! Thanks for being an awesome participant and being so open to feedback. I hope you got a lot out of it. If you do rework it or want crits later on, hit me up anytime!

@Cyprinus: Take care of that arm!!! And when you get back to the piece, hit me up for crits as well, feel free to message me on facebook or email me directly for that, it is more immediate :)

@Twilight: I'll give you some crits this week so you can continue on when you can. Separations are tough, I am with you and understand the rollercoaster. I went through one 5 years ago and it still has lingering effects on me in ways even today, though I am emphatically happier now for it.  In fact I probably only made it with my art to this stage as a result of it so just gotta carry on!

@voss : your crit is uploading to the week 06 folder...should be available soon.  Again this is less a crit and more a thorough enjoyment of your work, sorry, you are testing the limits of my ability and skills to help you more! :)

[Amit Dutta]

Q&A stream!

I will be providing individual crits to people who submit their work this week, through recorded videos as before. I'd like to hold the final stream of the course sometime in the middle of next week. I will send an email out when the time is finalised. 
I wanted to open the floor up to just having a general "shoot the shit" session, where you can and should ask me anything you want me to talk about. If you have general or specific questions about freelance, self-teaching, building folios, the mental game, life balance, procrastination...anything you like, please just add it to the spreadsheet linked below. 

Submit your questions | topics here

I'm happy to do folio reviews on the spot or talk about your own ideas for your own career direction. 
Basically, if there is any way I can help you from my own experience about the non-technical side of art (or the technical if you still want) please use this opportunity to do so!

[wasgodx]

Working on that last video to improve the comp in general. Although I hid the foreground icebergs before saving the .png.. *facepalm*

[monkeybit29]

Well, this is about all the time I will be able to work on this for this week.
There are quite a bit of issues, I think I even messed up the perspective again for the person, but I can still fix them for next week.

I don't know why, but I felt like it made sense to put a hand near the bottom of the rock structure. I can't decide if it would look better without it or if it needs to be executed better, but I figured i'd try and see what it would look like because why not lol
Anywho here is my submission (compressions suck D^: )

[DomSinkevic]

Having troubles with rendering, any tips guys? Should I start adding colours now or  render it out before I go to that stage? Here is this weeks submission :)

[Lordminkx]

Wait? is this last week? lol Amazing job everyone.

[Amit Dutta]

@Wasgodx: Damn son, that's some stellar improvement!

@DomSinkevic: Start going into colour, your general values and comp are fine. You don't need to do more rendering in value. Start with the sky and get your overall lighting and colour palette down. Then go through each 'layer' and render it out. Make sure you spend much more time into rendering your chosen focal points first as these will need to get the most detail. Make sure you use reference where you need it.

Lordminkx: Yep, last week of official crits. Because of my busyness I haven't been able to keep to the schedule I set out initially. It has run over a bit longer than I anticipated. But as I said, I'm happy to keep giving crits to any of you guys in a more informal way if you like. Just none of this weekly submission business.

[Adam Lina]

Everyone is really killing it! I was sick this week and didnt get as much done as Id like. Its unintentionally stylized looking I think. Especially the lava, but I was trying to push myself to go more saturated. I guess I over did it. Lava is hard. This mentorship has really pushed me though and I never thought I'd make it this far going in. Thanks again Amit!

[Broadway]

Welp, I didn't get as far as I was hoping this week. Got wrapped up in the taxidermist piece and didn't even touch the barn yet, sorry Amit! I will finish that one after this one is done, I promise.

It probably looks like I didn't do a whole lot on this piece but I actually spent many hours (with many more to go probably). I'm trying to go full-on with the photos and it is taking a while to find the right photo for each element. I included my Photoshop layer stack so you can see the level of insanity I'm at :). To get in all the 'detail objects' I'm planning will probably take quite a few more photos too.

Unfortunately the painting (photo-ing?) doesn't look very good at the moment because I'm just leaving the lighting totally broken and not worrying a ton about integrating the photos with each other until I've got them all placed. I also moved a vanishing point halfway through this process after I realized that my perspective grid wasn't gonna work for the viewpoint I wanted to show, and I still have a couple photos in there that still need perspective adjusting after that. That being said, I feel like I am on a good path and I have a nice mental roadmap of what needs to be done. I'm feeling pretty positive about this turning out decently so I'm just kind of ignoring the fact that it looks terrible now :P... all part of the process I hope. 

Once I get everything in I'll try to unify all the photo colors, throw in a bunch of ambient occlusion, try to paint in correct lighting on the photos, and add extra detail on top of photos - finally some painting!

[U-3C]

Because I'm technically late again (by an entire month, give or take a few minutes), I'll just post here and upload the references I used after I get some sleep.

I'm seriously confused about the schedule as I haven't really been following what's going on for about a month.

These are the 4 sketches for Week 4's assignment. I'll try to work on these once I watch the livestreams. T-T

[monkeybit29]

@Broadway
Definitely looks like you put in a lot of hours into your piece. I'm really digging it dude, i'd love to see the final result

[Broadway]

@monkeybit29
Hey thanks man! I appreciate it. Hopefully I can pull it off :)

[KurtJeremy]

Wow you guys im appalled as to how much youre works have progressed, compared to mine at least.

just here to update. i can feel the frustration so i am working on this on or off. but im definitely gonna finish this no matter what.

[U-3C]

@Amit, is it okay if you give some advice on time-management and self-discipline?

I think one of the main reasons why I'm so behind is because I suddenly moved out of my parents house, which suddenly gave me way too much freedom. When something unexpected hit, I kinda just stopped everything I was doing to tackle the new issues because I thought I had the time. However, due to the delays over time, small things like school papers, sleep and feeding myself became real issues. I think if I was more disciplined and organized, I might have avoided a lot of stress. However, during the last month, despite working non-stop, I was very unproductive and my health condition has decreased quite a bit. I think others might benefit from some advice as well.

Cheers man!