...nostromo....you know that could make an interesting book...random posts taken form forums across the net and compiled compltetly un-contextually into a book...the sinking into the bed is exactly what happened...i had made the matress indent under him and then when i converted it to a sheet overtop of him i had to walk the line between the sheet follwing the matress and sinking in where there's not tension from it rising up over him...so i'm still tweaking that...rest assured i'll have it looking better when things come to a head here in the next 27 hours...oh my :eek: ...and that must be once crazy movie...with a bed that eats women!...

...okay in playing around i decided to try a bank on the camera...seem to a little more tension to the image...let me know what you think...

Hm... I'm not sure...
Could you move the camera down a bit and point it upwards-ish?
It may hide the sinking in the sheet. Also could you move the clock closer to the edge of the... of that? Just an idea...

And the movie was actually an epissode from a TV series called Bedtime Stories or something... the bed was just a coincidence...
The series had stand-alone episodes, each one was a little horror story.. it was nice...
I also saw an episode about a thing in a basement... and I never got over it :eek: I'm still scared of going there.
Anyway...

Just do a quick render and see what you get...
And also try banking the camera the other way...
If not you can leave it leveled so it creates a bit of contrast between the calm of the position and what's in the scene.

Waiting to see what you come up with....

Just an idea... how about moving the camera near his head, and looking down on him and his 'pets'

P.S. If you could get the clock in the corner of the image, it would be great...only if you can

...nostromo...i've heard of that series i may have caught an episode or two actually...anyway as for the camera...i shall play and we'll see what i can get...its gonna be tought b/c of the way a lot of the things in the scene are aligned...but it never hurts to try...

...update...sheet fixed...tagged...and me thinks thats it this time around...back in a bit...


[can't believe i just left an away msg in a thread:eek: ]

nostromo...i checked out what you said about the camera angle...and it was funny as i was moving the camera i'm thinking to myself "this is where i wanted the camera in the frist place...why don't i have it here?...this is the shot form my sketch..." ...and then i hit F9 and 11 minutes i realized why i had changed...see the corner of the wall...that's was bugging my somethign fierce the way the light plays in that corner...and that's why i have changed...hmmm....i do like this more but that wall is such a distracion... :/

...anybody out there have anything to say about any of these shots....let me know...the sooner the better...thanks...

i was not shure between 1st and 2nd....
hmm...i think the second from the top looks better, even if you loose the lamp and kleenex.
the angle is better ... the rat is closer to camera and hides partially the problem with the sheets.
anyway...
NOW IS THE .... TIME to choose the best
;)
:beer:

Hi!
Sorry for leaving you like that but here the clock was almost 2 A.M. and I've been up since 6 that day so I was kinda tired...

Now... I like the last three renders.... so I will refer to them as the first, second and third, ok?

The second one gives that feeling of disconfort, like there's something really wrong with this picture. I like it... if you could move the snake a bit twards the ebd of the bed so we see it better, but that's my oppinion.

The third is also nice cause it really captures his face and the situation he's in. If the wall bothers you, make the room longer, wider or whatever... so the corner is further away.

So I would chose from one of these. Nice job anyway... Good luck and hope this reaches you in time.


P.S. When I said to move his camera close to his head, I forgot to give more details. So I ment move the camera where the bed column is, and lok down on him, twards his legs. It's a radical shot but maybe it would work... Also you could try banking the camera to the left for this position so you can see the clock (I know, I know, shut up about the clock already! But hey, I gotta have a hobby...)

...sandfish...that's kinda the one i'm leaning towards...but then after i look at it for awhile and look at one of the others i like that one better...i do really like the framing of the rat in the second shot tho

...nostromo...don't worry about it...you shouldn't feel like you've abandoned me...you've been more than helpful already...i know what its like running on lack of sleep...i've been up till 6 am the last three nights with this silly project...and have had countless other obscenely late nights on this project over the last 2 weeks...anyway...i'm definately leaning towards the 2nd image down from the top...or as you referred to it the first one i think...and for the record...it did reach me in time and i'm much obliged for the comments...also i did go for the extreme shots...they just didn't work...the one loses the expresion and the other loses the clock...so i kinda ruled both of them out...

...they've all got something unique that makes them look good...but none of them really seperate themselves as "the one"...like the first one kinda establshised the scene nicely...the second frames that rat really nicely and places you into the scene...the third loses the framing on the rat but adds the discomfort with the camera bank...and the last one really shows his expression and the other large snake but loses two of the rats when it comes down to it and i really like the one on the headboard :( ...so it would seem i've got it narrowed down to between the second from the top and bottom one...i guess there's enough time if i stay on top of the ball i could render out both...hmmm...anybody got a coin???

...alright...i'm callin' it a night...i'm gonna let them render and we'll see what the morning brings [here anyway]...thanks again for your comments guys i very much appreciate the help you thrown my way over the course of the competition...

...oh yes...and nostromo...i can't lose the clock in any case!

Hm...now that you've rendered them, they don't look as good as they did in my head... Well, I guest the 'real' world is not exactly like in your head...I admit I was wrong, I wanted too many focal points, something that isn't always a good thing.

So, in the end I would go with about one of the three above.
One thing though: I like the glow in the rat's eyes, it gives him a more sinister look. Mabe you could incorporate the glow in one of those three. Maybe...

Anyway.... good night, sleep well and wake up tomorrow with new and better ideas...:zzz:

Cheers :beer:

And thanks for the clock.

...ah the glow in the rats eyes is far more sinister than what you see in those two shots...they appear that white hazy look b/c its only a quickshade render...the only problem is you can't se any of there eyes! :eek: ...i'll look into fixing that tho...

...what the glow is in the acutaly shots is a gradient from red to black set on and incidence andgle so that the middle or perpindicular to the camera always appears red and the outside black...and their diffuse is set to somewhere like 150% so they almost glow...its really pretty cool if i don't say so myself...;)

...no prob...i wanted the clock in there too...:)

hey guys...thanks...for all you help...i've finally settled on an image and went with it...hope you like it...i'm pretty satisfied with it...

...nostromo...i made a cpl tweeks and got the glowing eye of the rat in there...and if you look at the full res you can see the eyes on all three of them...and of course the clock's definately readable...

...cpl versions so you can see what's goin on...the contrast is a little rough against the white forum and there's some small details you might not be able to make out on the 640 version...

...the 1280 version...large enough to fill the screen...
http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/5...g1280010ot.jpg

...and for the thrill seeker...here's the full res...
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/2...g1600015gv.jpg

...i'm working on gettin' some wires posted up here and what not...give you the full break down on my scene...for now tho...here's the details...

...3 area lights
...raytraced everything thats raytracable
...50 or 60 thousand polygons
...about 15 unique objects
...250 to 300 bones
...more IK nulls than you can shake a telephone pole at
...5 image maps
...3000 and some odd procedurals [nah...just kiddin't but there's a lot as its almost all procedural]
...more hours in the last two weeks than i can count...and probably than there are in two weeks...at least that's what it feels like...
...final render time...197 minutes and 6 seconds for the 1600x900 version

...here's what i've been staring out in layout for awhile...front face wire shade mode...

...bones light and nulls...

...as promised...wires...kept my lighting scheme...kinda like my image like this for some reason :/

http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/2...gwire036vv.jpg

...and one last one...i comp'd the wires over top of the final render so that you get sort of a taextrued wire look...kinda cool...

http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/8...irecomp4mu.jpg

...if anyone else has any questions or wants to see anything else regarding my image post it here and i'll see what i can do...

...thanks

I love it... you really chose wisely and worked hard on this image.
I wish you good luck and... I forgot :D

:beer:

thanks nostromo...its been a lot of work and you've helped a lot throught out it...:beer: