E.O.W Round #187: Underwater Research Facility

[IntoTheVoid]

Thanks to Veshkau and Balthazarn for the feedback. Wow, I didn't even notice how flat my piece was! And I was even trying to be mindful of that
Hopefully this is a step in the right direction.


And I also tried bluing it up a bit, but I'm not sure how well it reads like this.

[ashess]

thanks Veshkau & pixeltuner for the feedback.
I tried adding some random shapes to the foreground.
I also defined fore/mid/background
I tried adding some detail define what everything was.

I hope it got better!

[SnailsPace]

@ Ashess, i think your doing really well. I can see a big improvement in your work through this thread. Two Things i might suggest-

Your relying on stamping a little to much, like with the fish and bubbles. Pixeltuner's tech is more to use stamping to make random shapes and happy accidents. Over stamping gives it a graphic design look. So maybe try building up several layers full of random stuff, then play with the blending modes of each layer to just see what happens.

Also, try painting using masks and the lasso tool. Doing this, you could do the same technique you are now, but confined to certain areas. You'll get nice crisp edges if you want etc. This also allows you to paint with a big brush outside the line, so you can get those smoother gradients and such. Anyway, just food for thought, these seemed to me to be a couple new things that might go well with what your already doing.

[Luis Gama]

Again, awesome work everyone, heres my wip, still alot elements to add..somewhere in the artic sea....

hope to finish it in time!

have a nice weekend everyone!

cheers

[AustinC]

Hey guys everyone has great work so far!
This is my first attempt at an EOW. Almost done with it just minor tweaks now, still any comment is welcomed.

The bottom image is an enlarged thumbnail after I dropped my 3d model into it. I'm thinking my image may have been stronger if I would have painted the lab from scratch, o well tho. It was still fun.

Ocean floor research lab:

[Absorber]

Update! I'm totally not happy with the image and the process. I'll try to finish it and then burn it!

@ Intothevoid; I like the blue one but I do think the first one reads a bit better. And the perspective of your buildings is a bit off, especially the round one in the left.
Try to start off with the right perspective next round. You can still change it in this stage but it saves a lot of time to get your sketch straight before painting (although this round my perspective isn't that fine-tuned as well )

@ Veshkau: Thanks for the feedback man! You're right about the people outside. I had in mind that they were scientist with scubasuits on and magnetic shoes so they can walk in the water. But that's quite unhandy if they have to research the stuff they're growing. So thanks for waking me up! your work is coming along nice. I like the mood and the detail in the reflections. Keep it up!

[IntoTheVoid]

Thanks Absorber Oh man, I know what you mean. I've been trying to keep the perspective consistent troughout but all those slopes and angled surfaces kept tripping me up. I have serious trouble handling perspective when it's not arranged in neat little cubes

I really like your piece by the way; especially the light patterns on the ground. I hope that giant dome is sturdier than it looks, cause one tiny leak will wreak havoc on that facility

[SnailsPace]

So I've been messing with this theme as more of a personal 3d project. I've been learning a new renderer (keyshot), and working on my kit-bashing component collection. Anyway, I'm not sure now if I'll ever get this done, I keep running into problems and I 'm not sure if I can still make the changes I want to the model with out starting over again. I'm getting some tangents with that robot arm and the ROVs on the left. Anyway, I had panned to do some over painting and decaling on this, but it may not make it to that stage so I figured I'd go ahead a post what I have.

Loving everyone's work in this thread, there has been some amazing stuff posted!!

[Trespasser]

I'm stuck at this stage, don't know how to improve the picture. I wanted it more realistic, but it seems that I just can't get the lighting and the colors right

[Coool Brain]

Here's my final

Ruins of a vast city were found underwater. A research facility was built to study the ruins of the mysterious city.

[ashess]

@snailpace- thanks man! aah, truth is, I've been trying with working in selections. but I keep forgetting to safe them and then it's kind of pointless as the next time you want to continue it's near impossible to get the same selection. but I bet it IS the way to go, so I'll try and be a bit more disciplined and safe all my selections.
I think yours is looking pretty cool btw. if it leans breakin the piece apart and missing the deadline, I wouldnt worry too much about those tangents- just go for some sharp lighting now, and call it finished. if you leave the problem areas in the dark, I doubt any1 but you will see.

I tried breaking the monotome brushes a bit, fixed the ship up a bit. though I guess it's not looking that great. worked on it with the shape selection layers. for some reason I kept getting a little area in between my selection that didnt get any coloring in either of the layers... should I just let my selection 'grow'a pixel? or add some feather to it? I dont really understand.
anyway, the fish look nice now I think.

[SnailsPace]

Ashess ashess ashess!!! lol

I know what your saying, heres the solution, watch this video, use what he says in addition with this- Once you have a "selection layer" with multiple parts, you can then use the magic wand to pick out individual parts easily. He doesn't say that in the video, but i just figured it out, so I'm kinda excited, thus the bold type lol

creating selection layers


Btw, yeah, i'm going to setup another render here in a minute before i go to bed, maybe i can find a better camera angle, but it seems like once i get rid of one tangent, i make another one. I'll figure it out, just not sure when, lol.

[Christoffer]

Absorber - Thanks. I guess it kind of does look a little Trek'y. I agreed with you on the sub and the depth, so I moved it to the left and shrunk it a bit.

Veshkau - Thank you. Not sure if I could pull it off. The surface might get too cluttered. Perhaps the structure doesn't look sturdy enough as it is but it'll have to do for now, I think. I'll have to practice more on industrial designs.

cool_brain - Looks really nice - almost like a film cap. Hope you don't mind I kind of used your border as ref.



Here is my final. Crits are welcome.

[Coool Brain]

@christoffer: its ok dude. "Unsafe At Any Speed" lol. Thanks.

[android411]

here´s my designated final, I tried to work on some design issues some of you mentioned, but perspective is a bit off right now, will try to work on this image some more if I find the time

[Hideyoshi]

I had time to do one, too
Nice work all around!

[hekatoncheir]

Squeeeeal, so many sexy entries. rock on eowwies.

hideyoshi: Rockkkinnng, but the only issue I have is that although everything's nice and foggy/murky (which it should be because you're underwater right?) that lady swimmer is the biggest blackest thing on there. I wanna look down and around the piece but I'm drawn to the boobs and booty. :| ... It could just be my fault I guess..

android411: I think it got better.. but other issue is there's really no point to that fish weathervane up there because when it comes to currents, they only change when temperatures change. So in other words, say Current A originates in the deep waters, but as it goes higher in elevation, it changes into Current B. But a certain point, Current B will start going lower in depth, and it'll become Current A again. So unless a facilities is built in turbulent currents with bi-polar weather, an underwater weathervane may not be the best of choices. (If I'm wrong, correct me! ) Also match up your ellipses. Perspective lines are fwiends.

christoffer: I dig the design. It looks functioning, I wish I would;ve thought of spheres... Anyways, not the hugest fan of the sub sphere being all the way in the corner of the picture, since it's the brightest thing there in a really dark sea. All my attention goes that-a away...

ashess: I think you should first figure out the value and structure of your painting first before diving into the colour. I see the ship, not sure where the facility is? Also what do you mean 'shape selection layers'? Because keeping them as vectors/smart objects takes up a loot of space then needed. There is an option to just "draw" with them

coool_brain: really dig it dawg. I wish there were more colours, but that's just me.

trespasser: awesome design. You should make a colour balance layer and play with the sliders for the shadows/mid tones/highlights if you're still bogged down by it. Sometimes experiment with the overlay layer can give you an epitome too haha

absorber: one of my favourites!!! When I first saw it I was like BRO, I WONDER WHAT THE COLOURS ARE GOING TO BE LIKE. And then you posted again and I just gotta be like, Bro, so cool. Love the texture on it.

luis gama: another one of my favourites! So dark and spooky.. it's like an angler fish is going to come out of there..

Amongst others are yatzenty's and veshkau's!! I really want to know how you did yours veshkau because I see some 3D elements in there (or at least I think so) and I always have trouble incorporating them into a painting.


Okay late into the game, I know, but I saw Pixeltuner's tut and I was like gotta try it. And being the awesome bro technique that it was, I ended up liking the first few thumbnails I did and decided to take it further. Also the first time I tried to use photo textures. It started as a matte painting and then.. it's now a painting.

Love to get crit....because I'm also stuck. :|

[Coool Brain]

@hekatoncheir: I felt the same about colors, but it seems fine this way too, at least to me . Thanks for the comment.

[SnailsPace]

@ hekatoncheir

what do you mean 'shape selection layers'?

Check out the video, its the easiest way I've seen to deal with the problem, it has nothing to do with smart objects, its basically just using a solid fill layer to retain your mask.

[rissking]

here is my final for this week. Didn't have enough free time to polish it properly Would have liked more hours in the day to spend on it.
Whats you see here is an underwater lab belonging to an aquatic species discovering a new energy source

[Balthazarn]

My final as well, I have lost my fuel to work anymore on this I must admit... it took long and could have been better.

[Luis Gama]

Hi everyone, managed to kind of finish just before the deadline.

As usual lots of fun and learning.

keep up

[ColdDegree]

woah so many good ones :0

[SnailsPace]

Sketchup>Keyshot>Photoshop.

Final and clean render. Hope no one minds that a used a render, probably won't do this much, like I said, I had several educational reasons for doing it this way. Open to any c+c fo' sho! Awesome stuff everyone!

[SnailsPace]

The FINAL final...? lol

[Veshkau]

hekatoncheir: Looking good! Yep, I built a really basic sketchup model to find a decent camera angle then just painted over the lines from that as if it were a normal pencil drawing.

Some really nice entries in here so far. Still a ton to do on this (including replacing happy and sad pipe faces - Frank and Derek). Does anyone know how long we have before the poll goes up? Thanks in advance!

[Incinerated]

Veshkau In my experience usually late CET, Vulgar is pretty good at keeping the deadline. Good entry by the way.

[Step]

My option. It turned out not quite the way I conceived. But due to lack of time stopped at the same time, later on I would like to finish
People I have not had time to draw well, so do not judge strictly: P

[Rob Powell]

Very cool enviro so far Vesh! I think it would be kinda freaky if you added a figure standing in the doorway at the end of that little throughway.
btw I just love those little x-rays you added. Very neat stuff, man!

[IntoTheVoid]

Guess I'll call this my finished one.
Next time I definitely have to plan things out properly from the start. But really I'm just happy it didn't turn into a shapeless blur like usual


@ Veshkau - are Frank and Derek indicative of the researcher's progressing dementia from being stuck in an underwater facility for extended periods?

Great work from everyone!