Mentrix

[Rick 4F]

Start April 5
End: April 20
Wide view: 4420 × 2150
Normal view: 3822 × 2150

I've been trying since last year to do 2 updates a month. That is unfortunately not always possible but I do keep it as my goal. This month is one of those month's where I'm only able to produce 1 upload. My apologies for that.

I sort-off hit a creative brick wall, eventhough I knew largely how things where going to look and most of the 3D models where already present, it took me almost 3 weeks to get this ready.

You've seen this space before, I re-re-build it before yet I felt it necessary to rebuild the scene again, as there where many little things that needed to be fixed. Not big stuff, more a bit like mopped up dirt under the carpet. No-one else knows there is dirt under the carpet, but *I* know it's there, and it "burns", screaming to be cleaned up. Same for some things in here. :) 

The delay was largely caused, as weird as it may sound, because I had no idea how to dress the central character up. To get hopefully an idea, I had her 'hop around the room' in her birthday suit while I continued modeling, yet nothing wanted to materialize in my head and therefor onto her body.


You can see a bit of a pink string on her chest, that is because the original model was wearing a pink striped bikini. Now, I hate stripes and pink is só distracting I had no other option then to remove the bikini. Honestly! 😇


Nearing the final version of the background.

As you may noticed in the previous image, the 'tv-screen' is a bit too much 'there' so I turned it 'off' and *boom* Rebbecca showed up in the reflections wearing her rubber nightwear. Less distracting (in a way) but off-balancing the viewers view on the room. Easiest solution would have been directing Rebbecca back to the showers or into her bed-pod out of sight. 

But well, I'm not so much for 'easy' and I was curious how much work it actually was and how much time it would cost me to add a few more students wearing the same styled latex lingerie, into the reflections. And that given the fact everything is blurred so I don't have to deal with details like borders/rims/corset-bones etc. 

Two and a half days. I'm still not sure if that was ok, or I'm just too slow.

Anyway, you can see the end result in the final image. I've uploaded a normal, screen sized version and an extended version, the way it was originally intended. As for the reflected women, I'm not sure if I can create a proper render of them (I just assume there will be requests for them). Blurred I could get away with a lot, also the fact that their costumes where fit onto low-res images to begin with, but with enough requests, who knows? 

 

PS: next image may, or may not take just as long as this one because I'm trying to add Zbrush to my toolset. I've had it on my HD since 2016 and never really got into learning it. Every time I tried, I hit brick walls and felt I was wasting my time so I let it go. But I bought a really good tutorial now and think I can start getting the hang of it. It just takes time and (lots of) practise as it isn't exactly an easy app to learn. 

See you soon. :)

[Richard E]

So much effort goes into these.  Great work.  Especially as the women just drop mess all over your beautiful set!  Surely some discipline required?  And the TV (in the final image) really does seem to offer a lovely portrait session in the future.  Sorry if it gives you a lot of work though ....

[Rick 4F]

1 hour ago, Richard E said:

So much effort goes into these.  Great work.  Especially as the women just drop mess all over your beautiful set!  Surely some discipline required?  And the TV (in the final image) really does seem to offer a lovely portrait session in the future.  Sorry if it gives you a lot of work though ....

I've been rolling my thoughts about that, the efford, too. Mainly because these things consume (lots of) time. But without putting in this time the image simply would suk.  

Current mess is leftover from the previous group of women that lived/slept here before they graduated. So, yes there is indeed some cleaning up to be done by the new batch.

As for the 'lots of work', it's not a punishment. I'd do something completely else by now if it was. 

[XJ220]

So with a lovely naked woman in the scene, you had trouble thinking straight? How shocking! 

Seeing the progression from the first draft up top with a placeholder mode to the finals... whoa! You took a rough diamond and turned it into a brilliant 

All the details in the background are so intriguing. Esp. the abundance of high heels and skimpy lingerie. A place one can only dream of 

Edited April 29 by XJ220

[hebie]

@Rick: Don't worry about being too slow because it takes time to create some detail! What makes your images so special is - apart of having very beautiful women in them - that you put so much effort into the details. It's always a pleasure to look through the scene you have created and watch out for nice and interesting things. That's exactly what makes your images so ... I don't know whether realistic is the right word, because it is a phantasy world, of course, but hey, within your world they ARE realistic. So let's say they are rich and fantastic!

[Rick 4F]

On 4/29/2023 at 1:14 PM, XJ220 said:

So with a lovely naked woman in the scene, you had trouble thinking straight? How shocking! 

Seeing the progression from the first draft up top with a placeholder mode to the finals... whoa! You took a rough diamond and turned it into a brilliant 

All the details in the background are so intriguing. Esp. the abundance of high heels and skimpy lingerie. A place one can only dream of 

Hmm, interesting edit.  But thank you for the praise! 

You where right earlier though, turning that reflection into another large image is a lot of work. I regret now that I even hinted on it being possible before I gave it a good look. I feel by suggesting it, that I shot myself in the foot.

It works here, in the reflection, because their legs are cut-off and the tv screen is rotated down 7º. And it's blurred by the DoF camera effect.

But attempting to use the same models with the camera pointed at them creates the problem that all these models don't really visually match together. 

I also got away with using low-res images in the reflection, but using those same low-res for a high quality end product appears to be above my pay grade.

It's not that I haven't tried. It just didn't work when it comes to the faces.  So I tried a head-swap and then the image gets further off track because of the way things are lit.

Here is where I had to say that this isn't going to work:

 

It just doesn't work.  My work in progress folder is littered with these kinds of things, serious attempts that don't work out, -now-. Maybe one day they will but at the moment I'm not seeing it.

I can try to do the girls individually though.

[Rick 4F]

13 hours ago, hebie said:

@Rick: Don't worry about being too slow because it takes time to create some detail! What makes your images so special is - apart of having very beautiful women in them - that you put so much effort into the details. It's always a pleasure to look through the scene you have created and watch out for nice and interesting things. That's exactly what makes your images so ... I don't know whether realistic is the right word, because it is a phantasy world, of course, but hey, within your world they ARE realistic. So let's say they are rich and fantastic!

Thank you for that.  

I do indeed try to make my fantasy world(s) as believable as possible. It's a challenge and fun at the same time trying to translate the real world into the fantasy one.

As for worrying, that's just the way I am. There's a *lot* of competition out there. 

[XJ220]

3 hours ago, Rick 4F said:

Hmm, interesting edit.  But thank you for the praise! 

Hey, looking up the original comment just because you're the admin is unfair!! 

Quote

[...] Here is where I had to say that this isn't going to work:

# WIP image #

Not surprising, a background element can hardly live up to the quality standard of a full-fledged artwork. Otherwise, you'd be wasting lots of time and effort on things which become impossible to notice in the final product. Thanks for giving it a serious try, though!