Scariest Salmon (ancestor) You'll Ever See

 So I've been working on some additional critters for my Dan Varner Tribute piece(s). Today sees the completion of my Enchodus. Despite looking something like a deep sea fish this fellow is actually a Cretaceous relative of modern Salmon. Have to say I'm glad they've toned themselves down a bit in the past few eons!

Thoughts or comments...

Kelp on Trying

Got the shape and colouration on my kelp a lot more in line with what I want.

I have a lot more to do mind you, but this is a lot more realistic.

Kelp on Dunking

As part of my on going goal of improving my lighting I've decided to retackle one of my usual strong areas, underwater.

I have to say I'm very pleased with my initial results. They are not perfect of course, but considering I 75% matched my reference in an hour I consider this a victory.

My main reference for your reference. This is a photo by Phillip Colla of Ocean Light that caught my eye on flickr. It has about the right scale and field of depth for a large Mosasaur to swim through. While this is my primary reference I do have some 30 other shots of kelp forests. There are a multitude of light types and murk depth.

Here is my beginning. I think I've nailed the overall water colour. One major difference is the depth of my murk, but this is mostly delibrate. I entend to stick some more bonus critters into the background so wanted to keep it (maybe) unbelievably clear.

The kelp is so far my one major problem. Both in that the models look like the plants you buy in an aquarium (in this form) OR when I try to fix that they crash my renderer. So going to have to fight with the kelp a lot more before I'm happy...

Initial thoughts or suggestions?



Posing for Success...

So after my previous water lighting tests I found a lighting angle I really liked. So I posed my Mosasaur and stuck it in this light setup. I'm pleased with the results so far.

Water Lighting Test

So took a quick swing at water lighting. Here we have a main sun source light, a caustic, a bottom bounce, and an array of ambient lights positioned in a grid. I will need to add rims to a final angle and rendering. Feedback...

New gallery challenge

Well, the feathered Dinosaur gallery is up. While I didn't get everything I wanted into my piece, it was definite progress in the right direction.

Next up we have the the Dan Varner Tribute Gallery. This is a gallery kinda close to my heart as alot of my palaeo-art is set in the sea, and for the past 6 years Mr. Varner's work has been a huge inspiration and reference for me. So I would like to do a few high quality tribute pieces.

My first step has been to totally update my Tylosaurid model. Gone are all my past attempt at a primitive lizardine critter, and now he is a purely aquatic tetropod in everything from body plan to colouration.

Bonus points for anyone who can figure out the analouge colour scheme. Also not the tail fin has not yet been shaded.

So my initial big challenge is to figure out the component of underwater lighting. Caustics and main source lighting I've got a pretty firm grip on. It is bounce and secondary light I'll need to research.

Transformers Ripoff #37

Transformative King
Sadly I once again got chased away from these (a common ending to Transformer hunting in China), but in good news there wasn't much English on them apart from the title board.

A sample of the lower robots. They all only had their name (if that) in English.

Transformers Ripoff #36

Armourrakker

Transformers Ripoff #35

Transformable A "Deluxe Class" of the "New Arrival" series and is of course "The Latest Film Version".

Transformers Ripoff #34

Taikongshenrs

So this fellow has a "Mcthcest Weapon System" and is "Biggest Power Robot Toy".

Sadly I was very aggressively chased away from this stall. So I only got the two shots of a possible 3-4. You'll note the figure underneath has an equally keyboard mashed set of text including the title "Traesfnrmors" who has a "Mcehtceh Weapon System"

I did manage to snap this from a distance before the vendor spotted me again. Here we see THIS ripoff sports a "Menglie Weapon System".

In all seriousness I think this particular vendor was very dodgey (and his wares support my hunch). I've been shooed away before , but this guy had an air of true violent aggression had he managed to catch me. Otherwise I would have risked a second go. So unfortunantely you'll just have to enjoy this sample of what seemed a gold mine...

Transformers Ripoff #33

Warlords Botos He is an "Intermediate Level 3" on top of it all.

Transformers Ripoff #32

Collect Them All

Transformers Ripoff #31

Change Robots III Change Opeman from the New Arrival Series.

Transformers Ripoff #30

Hero 2 Star Soldier

Transformers Ripoff #29

Super Change Robot

Transformers Ripoff # 28

Court Deformation Change Ball God

Prepare for his "Shock Debut". He really "come together". Though do be aware that "specifications colours and contents may vary from illustrations".

Transformers Ripoff #27

Super Warrior Warlords Robot Stealth Fighter

Transformers Ripoff #26

The Warrior Hero
From the Shinkansen Line.

What is hard to appreciate from this photo (I had wanted to take more, but I got quite forcibly chased away by the vendor!) is this is basically a Pixar Cars merged with a Transformer. You can see the big toothy smile along the bottom rim of the nose.