Splash WIP - Desk Fan Meets ...

[g60]

Here is the final pose in an overnight render. The finger at the compositional center is meant to have some blur from its (original?) position in the background --- I blew it on setting the keyframes. I also restarted with a darker background so that the flying finger will be more apparent. The eye-emitters now have a matte black background and I changed from an icosphere to a half spheroid cube.

Almost there ...

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy the progress. It is typical for me to make a series of errors before I close in on a final. There is a large pile of pixels in my trash bin right now.

[zsouthboy]

Hey, I like that! It'd be a great splashscreen

[Poncho]

I like it, but the pose feels unnatural. Perhaps you can put his right knee down on the ground, like he is leaning on it. What would really improve the scene, would be expressions. Give the robot some kind of face expression to let him 'say' that this hurts or what the *peep* happend...

The current scene/image just takes a bit too long to quickly understand what is going on, in my honest opinion.

The background isn't that spectacular...

[zsouthboy]

Make it look like the robot has fallen on the ground and is reeaaaaaaaching up and out towards the fan?

[Carbonflux]

I think the issue is that the arm is too straight, a tiny "wrist" curve or something might go a long way.

I think this is looking good, I like the work on the visor, I LOVE the fan, just love it.

Really I think the stiffness of the robot pose is the only real awkward part, its subtle though and of course he is a robot so he should be stiff etc.

Thanks for sharing your WIP

[Radiance]

Maybe try adding some subtle motion blur to the robot too ?
I think his right arm could have a reaching/grasping motion to it.

Other than that it's getting really cool

Radiance

[g60]

I like it, but the pose feels unnatural. Perhaps you can put his right knee down on the ground, like he is leaning on it. What would really improve the scene, would be expressions. Give the robot some kind of face expression to let him 'say' that this hurts or what the *peep* happend...

The current scene/image just takes a bit too long to quickly understand what is going on, in my honest opinion.

The background isn't that spectacular...

I had originally wanted one knee on the ground but with his big butt and all I was hoping he looked somewhat balanced. Expressions would be good but time got to be a factor and that is what happened with the background. It is great to have an idea about a cool background but I was struggling to get something done. I didn't have time to spend to do complete rigging.

I think the issue is that the arm is too straight, a tiny "wrist" curve or something might go a long way.

I think this is looking good, I like the work on the visor, I LOVE the fan, just love it.

Really I think the stiffness of the robot pose is the only real awkward part, its subtle though and of course he is a robot so he should be stiff etc.

I opened his arms up because the hand in the background was looking too small and I needed a visual trick to lead the viewer across the robot to the hand. With the first light background, that center area needed some space to make sure the finger is seen. I'm not sure it all works. I'm digging the fan too.

Maybe try adding some subtle motion blur to the robot too ?
I think his right arm could have a reaching/grasping motion to it.

Other than that it's getting really cool

Radiance

I was worried about the motion blur of the hand leaving no detail at all in the arm. I had a very tough time just getting a motion blur in the flying finger. I'll play with the pose and everybody's comments, but here is what will probably cook tonight:

Darker background, mblur on the finger

It took quite a while to get to this point and part of it is because of the fussing with the multiple bits of mblur. The finger was one cause of a "reset" when its blur didn't show up because of a last minute adjustment.

@Radiance, something that responds to gravity would let me have some blur with an arch

Hey, thanks for the crit's and the comments. It really helps me find the important areas of focus.

[Radiance]

I think it looks great \
Maybe try to make him have a bit more of a 'crawling' posture.

Have you tried to see what it looks like if you make his visor clear/fully transparent glass (but with thin film coating) ?

You can also try to use a propper spectrum for the led emitters (his eyes)
on the wikipedia page for 'LED' there are multiple measurements you can model with the gaussian spectrum texture.
(for details see the WIP post of philbo's computer fan competition entry)

Also, i'd zoom the camera out a bit, otherwise i don't think we'll be able to fit the robot propperly on that splash,
so should your picture get chosen as the winner, we can crop it a bit if needed.

greetz,
Radiance

[g60]

I've started the final render with a new crawly pose. Same boring background, unfortunately. While I was fussing with the new pose I let the current one go to about 2132 S/P. It probably needs a little more time to resolve some of the metal detail but it is fun to look at.

MTL + BiDir 8/8

I realized well into this that I should not have made the finger's motion blur so long, maybe 1/4th of the current distance would have worked much better. And if anybody is wondering, that is a second finger object laid on top of the flying finger's end-of-blur point.

The new pose is a full crawl and I rebuilt his head with a smaller visor and smaller LEDs for the eyes. I'm not sure I like the head any better but I guess that is the way it goes. No flying finger this time, it is already on the ground, the only mblur is on the fan. I may post an interim sample but it is getting close to my render deadline so I would probably not be able to apply any suggestions. I do think what this image needs is a little more context in the way of a background and an expression of surprise.

[psychotron]

if you mean this one serious you must add a power cord to a fan
anyway if I close my eyes about robot nonfunctionality (which would definitely occurs in real life) it's a fine image, really like the fan