First Place Winner
Under Sea Adventure - (GMLehmann)
| Description: | Wasn’t sure I was going to get this in on time. This is my first attempt at an underwater image and it involved a lot of trial and error, any suggestions or constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. Parts of provided images 1, 2 and 4 were used. The tall slender plants are from image 1; the more prominent fish such as those in the foreground were created from parts of image 2 and the funny looking plant/creature thing was created using an item from image 4.
From: Barbara Garber (thebags) (Wed Aug 31 19:03:23 2011)
My personal opinion ... I love how you did the lights ... if I had done this I would have given it a very slight rippling to create the motion of the water as things moved around within it.
From: Mikey (Mikeywizad) (Wed Aug 31 21:17:40 2011)
excellent work n the lights ! ......a superb image .....and I love the atmsophere of this! |
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From: GMLehmann
(Wed Aug 31 21:53:51 2011)
Thank you Barb and Mikey. @Barb: I took your advice and gave the light beams a “very” slight ocean ripple effect (Filter => Distort => Ocean Ripple), just barely noticeable around the edges but I think it did actually improve the look to the atmosphere. @Mikey: I set up a lot of the elements using Bryce, then did plenty of post production in PS. I had to add, tweak the position and set the opacity of each light beam individually. The final image layer was black with noise added and the blending mode set to ‘Screen’, this helped give more of the look of fine sediment floating in the water.
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From: Dennis Windt (dwindt)
(Thu Sep 1 11:10:57 2011)
Glen, I love your submarine. The lights really work well and owes to the underwater feel of the image. It may help to position the submarine more and blend it to the environment if you illustrated the light beams on the sea bed and around the right side of the plant in the middle ground (cactus). It would be exciting to play with the light around the helmet. Not on but through. The light would pass through the left side view port(left as in wearing the helmet), be visible through the front view port as it crosses throught the helmet and escape through the right view port. You could also try radiating caustics on the seabed. The base of the seaweed near the right view port will then need lighting. I learnt a depth trick from David Mac and is very useful in a scene like this. It consists of many layers. Start in your fore ground and place all items within this plain; atmosphered and colored in the appropriate mood. introduce a layer with the entire screen graduated from dark to light, the darkest in the bottom right corner(in this case)and the lightest in the top left corner. Give it a transparency of say 20% and layer it behind the front plain. Do your next distance plain (forward middle, then forward back,then middle front, middle middle etc) After every distance plain, introduce the same transparent layer all the way through to the last distance plain. You may have set up a light in the fore ground in Bryce to show the detail of the helmet. It['s throwing shadow and light in the direction of the submarine whereas one would assume that the sub would be the only source of light (apart from the surface light)at depth. Turn your light to simulate the light illuminating from the sub This will marry the helmet and the sub. There's nothing wrong with a light where you have it. Just my humble opinion. Hope this not only makes sense but helps as well.
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From: Dennis Windt (dwindt)
(Thu Sep 1 11:17:57 2011)
An after thought and one that would play on size and distance is that if the sub was small, the light cone would sign on the sea bed however if you wanted the sub to be huge, introduce a semi-circle of light on the rock face above and behind the helmet. The detail and rock type of the rock face and the formation of it will owe to size as well.
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From: Dennis Windt (dwindt)
(Thu Sep 1 11:21:08 2011)
Shadows cast in the sediment in the same direction as the light from the sub, behind the plant, fish and helmet.
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From: GMLehmann
(Thu Sep 1 13:16:10 2011)
Thanks Dennis for your comments and tips. Most of what you’re saying makes sense to me but I will come back and reread more carefully to make the steps you mention more clear in my mind. After this render I too was looking at the plant shadow on the helmet as well as the lighting I placed in front but since time was running out to place another entry as well as I own time constraints I didn’t bother to make other corrections as I would have liked. In my own mind I tried to explain the front lighting as there being perhaps more than one sub. The lights on the sub weren’t created in Bryce using light cones, this I actually did in post production in PS. I used a lens flair first to simulate the individual light bulbs and then created the beams in different layers and adjusted opacity of each until I had a result I was happy with.
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From: Dennis Windt (dwindt)
(Thu Sep 1 13:51:18 2011)
Not taking anything away from your image as it is very easy on the eye and appealing to look at. What I like about it is that it has a story all on it's own and has the ability to grow on you. Almost expect Haddock to start cursing " Blue, blistering, barnacles.....!" and see Snowy pop up in the helmet. Where's Tintin? Well done.
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From: GMLehmann
(Thu Sep 1 18:16:17 2011)
Dennis, it was never a thought to me that you were taking anything away, how else to better ourselves if we’re not willing to listen and learn from the insights of others, I truly appreciate and value yours and everyone else’s comments. As for the question of “Where’s Tintin?” Although unseen due to the waters atmosphere there is someone piloting the sub and the sub is in actuality a two seater (front and rear). I’m surprise no one thus far has made mention of my fish; which way are they facing? That’s a question only the viewer may answer for themselves.
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From: Dennis Windt (dwindt)
(Thu Sep 1 22:54:29 2011)
Very clever. Did you construct the fish from the leaves?
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From: GMLehmann
(Fri Sep 2 06:58:06 2011)
Thank you and yesDennis, the shape of the fish were constructed from a couple leaf images.
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From: kiwi2 (kiwi2)
(Fri Sep 2 14:52:09 2011)
Wow -incredibly clever. My grandson is going to love this one. Well done...
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From: Eftelibra
(Sat Sep 3 12:47:13 2011)
This is a lovely peaceful atmospheric image. I love the idea of the fish made from leaves. :)
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From: Barbara Garber (thebags)
(Mon Sep 5 08:12:16 2011)
CONGRATULATION GLENN!!!
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From: Dennis Windt (dwindt)
(Mon Sep 5 09:29:47 2011)
Billions of blue blistering barnacles. Jolly good show Glen ol' chap. Well done and congrats.
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From: Eftelibra
(Mon Sep 5 14:13:42 2011)
Congratulations Glenn. :)
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From: GMLehmann
(Tue Sep 6 14:03:57 2011)
All I can say is "Wow"!!! This was truly an unexpected surprise as I just arrived back from a short trip and found that I had won through an email. I'm not sure that I feel deserving of this as I feel everyone’s submissions were as good or better than my own but thank you all for the wonderful comments and wishes
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From: Nancy Conley (beachbum)
(Tue Sep 6 14:31:53 2011)
Congrats!
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From: GMLehmann
(Tue Sep 6 19:52:49 2011)
Thank you Nancy. :-)
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From: Siggi
(Wed Sep 7 12:47:28 2011)
sor ry mr lehman i did not get to comment on your image, but winning is the best endorsement!!!!
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From: GMLehmann
(Fri Sep 9 20:53:52 2011)
Thank you Siggi but no apology is necessary, late or not I'm honored to have anyone stop by.
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