Firing Phasers

[ghall]

Just a little image I put together yesterday. Hope you like it.

[ghall]

Any comments or anything? I know it can't be perfect.

[Nebula]

I like it

[ghall]

Originally Posted by Nebula

I like it

Thanks.

[Nadesico]

lighting could use a little bit of a tweek, so could the bussards, but it's good otherwise. Nice camera angle and good phaser FX.

[ghall]

Originally Posted by Nadesico

lighting could use a little bit of a tweek, so could the bussards, but it's good otherwise. Nice camera angle and good phaser FX.

Could you be a bit more specific about the bussards? What about them needs tweaking?

[today]

Originally Posted by ghall

Could you be a bit more specific about the bussards? What about them needs tweaking?

They seem to be missing the spinny parts, like this

[Nadesico]

They also seem to be a constant colour, the bussards should really be more of an orangy-white mix and have maybe a few gradient falloffs.

[ghall]

Thanks for the input. I'll see what I can do about the bussards.

[Samurai]

Right-ho, I see an image that has great potential, but is being let down in a couple of key areas- the advice I'm going to give you will hopefully help you address those, and improve not just this image, but others too.

Your final piece is well composed, and you've done a good job on the laser effect, though the overall image is somewhat "flat" and due to this doesn't capture and hold the eye of the viewer.

Straight renders from any 3D App are very rarely "ideal"- most need tweaking with a 2D editing app of some kind- Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and GIMP would be examples of these apps. That said, it is important to get the fundamental aspects as close to correct as you can- good image processing will not rescue a bad image.

In your image here, the first fault I see is the lack of contrast across the ships hull. I know TOS was shot on prehistoric equipment with cables and pulleys and models made of papyrus and stone, but details weren't completely flat- there was often strong shadowing and contrast present on the stock footage. the hull in your image is almost a solid grey all over, with little change for contrast or lighting direction. I'd hazard a guess that your key light was either too far away, or not bright enough.

In the attached image, you'll see I've imported your render into Photoshop. Once loaded up, I used the curves tool to manipulate the contrast without sacrificing detail. I then adjusted the colour balance just slightly to introduce a bit of warmth, and banish the "allover matte grey" look that was previously present. While the colours might not be completely accurate, hopefully it shows that a little bit of colour can even make grey interesting.

The second thing I'd like to help with is presentation. There's no point in spending hours, days or even weeks perfecting your renders and tweaking them in your 2D app, only to let the credits hang there like an unwanted accessory, smeared across the image. Credits are a necessity, not just here, but on most galleries. One thing I was taught at college that remains especially true in this case is this; "If you can't hide it, then make it a feature."

You need your credits on the image- the mesh creator said so, and you should be using them as an opportunity to publicise yourself as well. With that in mind, spend a bit of time developing an attractive format for your credits- some people like to develop a signature style that they apply to all their images, while others just go with the flow- but good presentation can be the finishing touch that elevates a gallery render from "a nice picture" to Header Material or someone's next Wallpaper.

Hopefully you'll find what I've said helpful- if you've got any questions about it, don't be shy about asking.