WIP - The Beauty to Come

[Ariel DK]

I've been a bit absent around here lately, but as you know, im always around. I wasn't thinking participate in the contest, but some days ago i started a personal scene, and now i'm close to a final, more than a WIP, whatever, i decided that it will be a good addition to the contest so here we go.

Just one thing: the PW version have some sparks added in PS that it would probably on the limits of what is allowed by the rules, so if i should to re-edited i will do it. As always C&C welcome...

- Trees from X-Frog
- Tent from Free3d.com
- Characters made in Fuse and rigged in Mixamo
- Fire required a few experiments from Jordan's flame file (Thx dude)

[Dune]

If you want sparks in TG, you could try a localized cloud with very low quality settings, like 0.01. And a tiny, sparse PF.

[Ariel DK]

Thanks Ulco, i tried that, but it was really hard find a way to get control over the cloud layer in such little time.
Instead, i decided to go with a 2d card behind the fire, with some tranparent sparks PNG i made quickly in PS. it was a decent result, so here is my final...
Good luck to everyone!

[Dune]

That's a quicker solution indeed. I think the render is a bit on the dark side. Did you try one with a little more illumination on the immediate surroundings of the campfire?
Anyway, I wish you good luck too!

[Kadri]

Nice render. Good luck.

[Jo Kariboo]

I really like the idea. The lighting is pretty realistic for a night scene, personally I would have cheated by making it slightly brighter to see more detail. Good luck!

[sboerner]

Agree with the previous. I'm left wondering about what I can't quite see . . . but maybe that's the idea. Best of luck with this!

[Ariel DK]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

That's a quicker solution indeed. I think the render is a bit on the dark side. Did you try one with a little more illumination on the immediate surroundings of the campfire?
Anyway, I wish you good luck too!

You're right (again), i tried increasing the lightsource of the "fire", that create the ilumination in the foreground, but that only increase the contrast with less bright background mountain/trees, so instead, if every element keeps just a little bit more dark below wich ot would be "normal", i can offset it after in PW. Anyway i didn't that cuz is not what i want to transmit wich is: mysterious, curiosity. I know that a dark render is "less competitive" in any 3D contest, but if you make it interesting, the spectator probably gonna try to inspect the image looking for more details. this also work with foggy images. indeed, i gonna keep working on this all week

[Ariel DK]

I found out i was falling into a trap all this time. Due i'm not into a true-color monitor, my pictures was always more darker from what i believed. even when i was exporting correctly from PS, some of that Raw bright was losting without i cant notice it. I suspected this by your feedback here, and now, even after the deadline, i wanted to post the last one for now. I would like to know exactly how brigth or dark can you see this image guys. Thx again!
EDIT: Added some subtle fog over the water, more exposure, more saturation in the sky, better fire/sparks, and other minor changes.

[Barefoots]

Yep, that makes more sense. Looks really good. I sorry to hear that your screen was giving us all the wrong impression. 😩

Thankyou for posting this update.

[Dune]

I think this is already a lot better than before, on my monitor at least (because that differs between viewers, also if you look at it in a dark room or brightlit studio).
There are 'tricks' you could try (for another time). Hover a plane out of view (or holdout) over the scene, which can have some illumination. A local cloud may theoretically work as well, only secondary and a bit lighter than usual (local cloud certainly works, but I haven't tried only secondary yet).
Or crank up exposure in camera (if PT), or increase GI, or add an extra GI as Ambient Occlusion, say 0.1 on terrain only (if non-PT).

[Hetzen]

I don't mind super dark pictures. I remember seeing what looked like a black painting at an exhibition once. It wasn't until you let your eyes adjust to it that you saw three figures around a fire at the base of a cliff, and the more you looked the more detail you saw until you saw the castle at the top in the moonlight. It was called 'The 3 witches of Macbeth'.

[luvsmuzik]

I find my MAC devices view darker than my HP for some reason. I like this entry and the challenges you tackled. Good work and good luck!

[Ariel DK]

Thanks everybody

Ulco: The 'only-secondary' cloud, and the the extra GI as Ambient Occlusion, are very interesting ideas. you can be sure i'm gonna try it next time...

Hetzen: Thank you. I tried to find out the paint you mentioned, but it was difficult without the name artist. 

Good luck to everybody too!

[Hannes]

A very nice and moody image. Good luck from me as well!