Wallpaper Wips

[Vlynndar]

This is DEATH in Hogfather:

Spoiler

 

[Monk]

While I'm not, strictly speaking, trying to re-create that particular version of Terry Pratchett's DEATH character, I think you will find that he is looking pretty much "at camera" and that, were he looking down, any pupils would indeed be further down in their sockets. I'm messing around with the texture some more, but I'll try and get an image up later or tomorrow to show what I mean. I may be able to move the Pandora logos a little, but I cannot make them pinpoint size without making them not logos (much smaller than I've done them and I feel they would be indistinct, MUCH higher and I feel the skeleton wouldn't be looking at the screen).

Of course, as has been pointed out, DEATHs eyes probably aren't pupiled at all, those glows being far further back in the skull than true pupils would be. In that kind of situation the logos could presumbably go anywhere at all, including (most likely IMHO) further back and higher up, as they are an indicator of there being something in residence rather than ocular equipment per se. I'd put them a couple of miles back, though rendering that might be tricky.

Currently the eye logos are simply painted on in post, and while I'm tempted to make them a part of the 3d scene one way or another (either as 3D pandora logo emitting blue light in the eye sockets or as a texture applied to otherwise invisible eyeballs) I think the postwork versions work reasonably well

 

[Monk]

OK - here's another test, with the bones baked even longer (possibly a bit TOO long this time - they look like they've been drying out for quite a long time here! I'm going to reduce the effect a bit for the next render).

Note that the logos are a LITTLE bit lower than the iris and pupil of the eyeballs - but really not by very much at all. They are pretty close to the correct position to be staring at the Pandora screen (which is what the eyeballs are doing). I could shift them up by perhaps 2 pixels to be more accurate?

Ta,

*Not the final bones texture.
*Not the final background
*Not the final eyes - probably going back to empty sockets with painted on pandora logos.

 

[JayFoxRox]

Its just too centered imo, try to rotate it around a bit

 

[wardred]

The eyes seem to be looking down all right to me...but wow those are some bugged out eyes when the whole eyeball is there! Maybe if you brought the pupil into the skull a bit more?

Edit: It's not where they'd naturally be, but without the ball "supporting" it, the logos look like they're floating a little.

 

[Monk]

Eyeballs gone, as previously mentioned.

Fake eyes glowier (slightly) and raised a little.

Back to simple black background - for now, at least!

DEATH NEEDS A HOBBY: Two Weeks after Delivery

 

[Vlynndar]

This looks better. But looking back at the previous picture, that one looks better too. How curious.

You have mastered the art of making things prettier by not doing anything with them.

 

[mali]

The latest version is clearly the best
The eyeballs of the previous felt too unnatural. The open mouth makes it more 'emotional' and the further reduced brightness fits perfectly now.

 

[wardred]

That last one looks awesome. Happy New Year Monk and all! Monk, thank you for all your work on these, and I hope that you're feeling well.

Edit: I have to admit, I also like the long baked eyes popping skele too.

 

[Wolenber]

Monk, I'm loving your renders (and happy new year, by the way), but I just can't stand the Pandora logos in the skeletons eyes. They just look so out of place...

That being said, it's still awesome, I just think it could be so much better.

 

[Monk]

Many thanks - and the very best of the season to everyone!

One of the benefits of creating these images in multiple layers (like using a couple of layers above the render to paint the "eyes" onto) is that it's dead easy to make some changes. Removing the eyes, for example, is a doddle as they are deliberately not "baked into" the main image.

Large:
http://i45.tinypic.com/ay3l7p.png

Small:

Practically no work at all.

There's a fine line, somewhere, between getting all arty farty and 2I have a vision" and being so gutless that one tries to pander to everyone (and please no-one). It's a line I'm trying to balance on, partly in the hopes that if ED (or other OpenPandora team member) has a specific request for a change that they'll feel they can make it. After all, I'd like Pandora Wallpaper to be the best it can be, and OP are the guys who determine, at the end of the day, what the Pandora is. Some changes I've already tried to incorporate.

With that in mind, while I like the idea of the blue logos, it isn't mine. It's a lovely idea, but it's not my original (arty farty alert!) "vision" - so the direction I was originally going is still there (as you can see above), with the glowy blue logo eyes added on top as extra layers that I can make invisible. The lighting for some scenes - the fishtank and a couple of the GIRL images at least - is done in such a way that I do not have to re-render in order to make the lighting brigther, or darker, or more global, or more "spotlight" like... to a degree, at least, these variations can be produced simply by altering the way I mix several different renders, and take minutes (even seconds) to produce. No worries!

I only really bleat if it's TOO far from what I want, or if a good quality render of the change would be too much. I'm tempted to redo the skeleton with the texture a bit harsher again - halfway bewteen the current state and the eyeball-popping state, but I'm FAIRLY happy with it as is now, I think

 

[Wolenber]

Did I mention you're awesome?

 

[Monk]

This still has a fair way to go IMHO, but I reckoned it was worth a first early WIP render:

Bones!

Ground - temporary quick hack to produce the render, not final at all
Bones textures: not final, I want to work on the displacement (age them/make them bumpier) given the time.
Lighting - temporary, default lighting - nothing like the lighting I'll end up with
Bone positions - going well. I might want to swivel the feet around so that the toes are resting on the ground rather than floating in mid air (or I might not! Hard to tell with me, sometimes).

Thanks for looking,

 

[wardred]

I don't know why, but that dislocated, half buried jaw makes me cringe more then the dismembered and unnaturally placed limbs. :-b I'd definitely keep it, but maybe make the lower jaw a little more centered - with that right hand joint sticking out a little past the right side of the scull. It should keep the cringe worthy aspect of the dislocated jaw without pulling the eye off of the rest of the picture to it, as it seems to do now.

 

[Monk]

Did I mention you're awesome?

Nope, at least not before AFAIK, but that's the best kind of straight-talking, hard-hitting critique IMHO!

I don't really want the grotesque to be too extreme in the same way that I don't want the girlie pictures to be too sexy - I'm aiming for fairly middle-of-the-road rather than porn or shock-porn. If I can nail "interesting" from time to time, or get someone to do a double-take to see what the scene is "REALLY about" then I'd be well chuffed. Thinking about that, and about Ubuntu's fondness lately for slighly bland brown as a background colour, has guided the progression of the scene somewhat:

As for the narrative behind the image... I'm guessing that this is what Craig did to the first Bank Manager that OpenPandora dealt with

It's possible that some of these take up too much of the screen, and that I'll need to draw the camera back a little further. I'd love to see how some of these wallpapers look on the actual Pandora GUI, and/or Pangea.

 

[Prometheus]

The lighting and the shadows really give that image a lot of atmosphere. For some reason it's putting me in mind of something from some sort of Western, though I don't know why.

(And for what it's worth, I had my screen tilted back a little too far just now, and it gave the whole thing a late evening/sunset sort of look. It was pretty neat. )

 

[wardred]

It's possible that some of these take up too much of the screen, and that I'll need to draw the camera back a little further. I'd love to see how some of these wallpapers look on the actual Pandora GUI, and/or Pangea.

Or simply move the skele up and / or to the left. (Forget exactly where the icons are going to be.) For some of your images, like Christmas, that'll be more difficult and you might have to zoom out.

Edit: I like the new jawbone.

Maybe partially bury some of the other bones so they're not just lying on top of the dirt? Maybe not too. Would mess with the shadows and possibly make the logo less clear. I wouldn't bury any of them all the way, just make it look like either the desert is swallowing them, or if Craigix burried the guy, then it's slowly getting uncovered.

 

[WizardStan]

I agree. The shadows almost make the image, to the point that you could almost use bone-like wood to achieve a different but still interesting effect. Like if it was obviously just a bunch of wood laid out, but then the shadow was hands and feet and stuff. An interesting idea in my head, but I don't think it'd come out as well in practice to make it worthwhile to attempt.
All in all, I like the second one as well because of the slightly off center jaw more than the way off jaw. I wonder if there's a way to fit the rib cage and pelvis in there. Probably not.

 

[Vlynndar]

I'm wondering how it looks if it's less symmetrical. I don't mean bones out of aligment, but different bones on opposite sides. Almost as if they just magically happen to fall that way.

 

[Monk]

Between WIP1 and WIP2 (which is probably the final, given the timeline I'm working to - Pandora's nearly finished!) I did actually try partially burying some bones. Not covering them, but just having the dirt come up partway along the bones, or rather having the dirt come up higher than it does now - and it did indeed ruin the effect IMHO (and that was before the shadows really fell into place), so I doubt I'll be going back there.

As for the symmetry, this image is influenced by the tropical island version of the logo and by the TV series "Bones", and the concept of a ritualised killing and/or burial is so strongly rooted in the original idea that I wouldn't like to try and rearrange the bones to give a less symmetrical appearance

I'm tempted by so many ideas that the lack of time is a bit frustrating. In addition to ideas already mentioned, I have this idea of a "Wonder Woman" style image with the Pandora logo on her clothing a la Superman. A fair bit of work to pull that one off, methinks, so probably won't make the cut