m1kclark's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Demon Battle]

Motion

I like the level of gritty detail in some portions of the image, with well-chosen blurring in other portions. You've really given a sense of closeness and motion, and I really like the lighting on all the surfaces.

The only weakness really is the man's face, which looks a little ... beastly (I am most reminded of Blanka from Street Fighter II). I think, given that, the image would be better if we saw the demon's face and the soldier's back instead. Otherwise, great painting and a nice subtitle to go with it.

InsolentMinx responds:

cheers for the review :) Yeah lookin over it I would probably redo the face

[Inky and Brush]

Excellent quickie

It definitely isn't polished, but the effect is still striking. The environment has real ambiance, and that character seems to have a LOT of nuance despite the simplicity of the art. He glares as if to say, "What're you looking at?" while holding a paintbrush comfortably, like it's his instrument of ... whatever. I really feel like it's a single snippet of what is otherwise a big, dark story. Well done.

BinaryDood responds:

Thank you :)

I shall make more stuff with this character. The reason he is holding a brush is because he draws with it... USING HIS OWN BODY AS INK!!! IT'S INSANE MAN!

[Mandolin]

Again, awesome!

Again, you've shown prodigious skill with Maya. My one and only comment is that there should be a little bit of noise in the textures on the guitar's head: the tuning pegs and the glossy design are unrealistically smooth. But those metal anchors for the strings are *perfect*.

And you get extra points for the 8-string mandolin.

Whistler3D responds:

I appreciate your all your critics! But you don't have to give a 10 if you see the inperfections.
In any way, thanks for coments!

[Desk]

Great with flaws

It's an excellent image with good objects. But there's something about it that just makes me think it is a 3D image instead of photorealistic. I think it's the specularity and reflectivity settings on the wood and the books, quite specifically. Having said that, that feather quill is EPIC and the glass bottle below it is also quite eye-catching!

Whistler3D responds:

Thanks!
And yes... the wood looks like plastic.

[Ibanez Guitar]

Masterful lighting!

Between the lighting and the texture on the body of the guitar, which includes *fingerprints*, as well as some really awesome textures on the floor, the strings, and the wood ... I'm speechless, because I think this is such an AWESOME render!

Whistler3D responds:

Thanks! Im glad you like it!
Is not as good as you think, I not do intensional do the fingerprints there were just a rare efect in the material and the ligths... but the final result is what matters :D

[Things]

I like it!

Good textures, good geometry, excellent lighting, and the reflective floor really adds to the image. You beveled all the edges and really made photo-realistic objects in a 3D CGI environment. This is excellent and I'm excited to see more of your stuff in the future!

Whistler3D responds:

Thanks! I will upload more.

[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.

[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.