m1kclark's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Monster Moped]

I love blender

I'm going to guess the extremely realistic-looking smoke was done in GIMP, because it would be so hard to do in Blender alone. I do like all the extra features in the room, like the crates, the barrels and the gas tanks. The cracked tires texture is also very realistic looking. That blue-marble look for the gun and the supports is a bit odd, neither a reference to a real manufacturing practice nor stylistically consistent with the dark nature of the rest of the robot. And why can't we see his head?

Really, I think that you have my problem in that you know exactly what you want the models and textures and lighting to look like for each object, but you're having a little trouble making an ensemble. I don't advice for that. But I do feel like this image isn't dark enough to be noir, nor bright enough to be caricature, nor detailed enough to be still-life. It's like Half Life 2 but with too much color, and I'm just not sure what "sense" you're trying to convey. By no means a bad image, but I can see why you are "not satisfied with it". (BTW, I love your other 3D work, too.)

Woolybear777 responds:

Thanks for your comments. The blue-ish look is actually blue flames painted on the body. It's the paint job. I know it's kind of dark though.

I actually didn't do any post-processing effects in Gimp. The "smoke" is just the Halo effect on the spotlights.

I'm not sure who's head you're referring to. There's no one in this picture. If you meant the top-portion of the Giant-Moped-Thing, it's just dark. I should brighten it up. You're right. The lighting is really the center of why I'm not satisfied with it.

[Game of Throne]

Brilliant idea, but

The execution is a bit flawed. I get a sense of vertigo looking at it, as I'm not sure what's reflection and what's "real". It looks very cool and stylistic, but also disorienting. Took me half a minute even to realize it was a toilet. Maybe it's all those stripes...

[Footpads of Impending Death]

Lovely and intriguing!

I love this one! Both low-res and high-res.

In the low-res, it looks like a real storm, an immense force of nature with huge clouds violently writhing in the sky. The ground gives reference with detracting, and offers a calm contrast to the conflict above. The tree is a bit hard to see at first, but you definitely notice it when you stare at the roiling formations long enough. It stands as the observer of this spectacle.

Then, in the high-res, you see that the maelstrom is actually polygons! It gives substance to what should be air, a roof representing the endless sky, and a thing with hard, man-made edges posing as the continuous vorticity of turbulence. The reason the tree isn't visible becomes clear: it's back-lit by the powerful "storm", or Thing, coming at it.

Now for the construction: Kinsei01 seems to think a randomly displaced mess is poo-poo, and I might agree if not for the texture and the coloring over top of it. The depths of the dark colors, the brightness of the light ones, the uneven transitions and deliberate noise superimposed over them, they all suggest a sky-like behavior that cannot at all be represented just by a mesh. The mesh may be the substrate and the vehicle of deliver, and its jagged edges are part of the manifold, but it's really the colors and the churning-heavens feel of it that drive the entire image.

I've given you bad reviews in the past, although nothing so disrespectful as what is below. But seriously, this work is a truly deserving piece of spectacular art. >>hats off<<

BenTibbetts responds:

Thanks very much. Regarding the sky--I originally thought of using atmospheric effects, as you mentioned, but in the end the render time was too long and the results weren't convincing. I tried a few different things but in the end I created the storm by making a transparent terrain map and placing the camera inside it looking up.

[Sapphire Sunset]

FEATHERS!

The level of detail in the feathers, the teeth, and the snout's scales is unbelievable! For some reason, though, the scales on the neck look unfinished by comparison. Excellent color choices and nice shading.

[Jennifer walcott]

Good + Bad

The anatomy of the body and the shading are great. There's also a lot of nice details on the underwear.

However, her face looks terrible by comparison. The lips are far too big and too close to the nose, making her look as if she had a medical condition that caused swelling. You may only have to fix the lips, since everything else is well-done. Unfortunately, good body or not, the inaccuracies in the face are distracting from the image as a whole, which explains why the score is under 3.

rickygonza responds:

thanks for the advice

[LEGO me]

One recommendation

Bevel your edges. Otherwise, NICE! I'm a big fan of Legos and of 3D art, so I'm pleased with the concept as well as the delivery. ^_^

Vertlain responds:

I beveled the edges, though not much, because if you look at a real lego figure, you can see the edges are really sharp. I'm glad you like it. Thanks! :)

[Hi(gh)]

A woman

An anorexic, cross-eyed woman with crazy-colored hair and a deformed right foot. Then again, the anorexia, the crossed eyes, and the crazy hair could all be because she's high! (Nice tags.)

Then again, maybe SHE isn't who's high... ^_^

[Revlovers 3D Render]

Another 30 minutes work in Blender

Hi there. I'm a big Blender user, and I see some things in this image that really *need* to be addressed. Fortunately, I can give you explicit instructions on how to fix them.

First, and most important, you need to "Set Smooth" all of your objects. I can see the polygons in the barrel, the handle, and the chamber. If you are willing to learn about Edge Weight (using the "Shift-E" command), then maybe you could even try "Add Modifier" in the Mesh Tools and choose "SubSurf". I also noticed that many edges are beveled, but not all (like the hammer). You should bevel everything to give it a more realistic look; it's a lot of work, but worth the effort.

The lighting and depth of field blur are excellent, and so is the wood of the handle. You made really good use of the built-in "Wood" texture there. Also, nice choice on the image for the floor's texture.

Finally, your materials. The floor: turn down the reflectivity and up the specularity on the wood floor. It will reflect just the brightest lights in a very vague and blurry way, like a real polished wood floor. Also, in Materials on the Textures "Map To" panel, you might want to click on "Nor" to make the wood bumpy according to the image texture. If you don't like that Normal Map, then try others (I personally like the built-in Clouds texture with NoiseSize = 0.050). The gun metal: again, too reflective. Turn it down, and maybe play with the Fresnel setting; the metal isn't a pure mirror, it'll actually "gray down" the reflection (like how a red Xmas ornament reflects the room in a red hue). Also, you could add a background image (go to Shading panel, then click the World button and assign a texture like usual) that the gun metal would reflect, adding an extra bit of realism.

On the whole, this is an EXCELLENT first go, and Blender is not an easy program to master. Best of luck, and I look forward to seeing your future stuff, especially considering the high quality of your illustrated works. Cheers!