dragonfly

[jelee]

Wow! Everybody sure is working hard around here lately. Very cool stuff.
jelee
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1018586507pzp.jpg

[banez]

thats sweet :tu: :tu:

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

Thats awesome :) How did you create those wings? They look so lifelike. It's amazing.

[Stonecutter]

What can I say, Joe...
Exceptionally fine work, fantastic and clean modelling, wonderful lighting and textures...Have I covered everything? ;)

:tu: :tu: :tu: :cool: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Belleski]

Wow! That is one amazing dragonfly! Such detail from the hairy legs to the fine textured wings! Love the water drops too. :tu:

[Digits]

This is so cool to see! Thanks for the trip to the Z-Macro-Lens!

[MrBraun]

Very very cool image !!! How u have drawing the hoarfrost???? Good work !!! :tu: :tu:

[Nova]

Exceptional work jelee. Every aspect of that is brillint.

[drjjwow]

what can i say jelee...im totally amazed... this is a awesome image.. i would love to know how you did those wings..

[Mik]

Fantastic image!! The detail is exquisite (good word!). I particularly like the water droplets on the plant - hows that done then?

[jelee]

Thank you to everyone for the replies. The Wings were modeled from the circle3D tool but only using 90 degree coverage. This way the texture will naturally converge on the center of the circle the same way the wing membranes of the dragonfly converge on the wing joint. The shape was then pulled out and shaped into the wing. The map was actually taken from a nature photograph but had to be brought into photoshop and adjusted. In order to reach the transparent appearance, the membrane cells of the wing had to be filled in white and the veins had to be made dark if not black. This will later play apart with the adjusting of the transparency slider in the materials.
I chose toyplastic for the material and raised the bump so that the dark parts were raised and white receded. Although you can't tell from this view, it helped give the wing a nice glistening look. Then the transparency was set to -100 which looked too clear for me so I opened the transcurve just below it and adjusted it to where it was just a little more of a foggy transparency bringing in more of the greys just slightly. You may find that it is necessary to go back in an image adjusting program and knock the whites down to an off white to achieve this effect. In order to see through the back wings, it was necessary to put two wings on one layer and two more wings on another. It sometimes can get kinda glitchy here with seeing transparency through transparency. As you can see the left lower wing loses it's clearness and is opaque when seen through the right lower wing but it didn't do this on the top wings. Has anyone else encountered anything like this?
The water droplet was a good ole sphere stretched into drop shapes where needed. It also had it's own layer where transparency was used. The base material I used was the reflected map material. You will need this material because of it's shader one (S1)properties. You will see an add reflection modifier and a sub reflection modifier. I keep these both at 100. At the bottom of S1, you have the option of adding a material texture. I used my painted backround in the scene except added more sky to it so there is an obvious horizon. I then flipped the image upside down before loading it. This helps create the prism-like effect that droplets take on when light comes through and reflects the sky on the bottom of the drop. The reflectCurve can let you adjust the intensity of the edges of the reflection. On S2, you can also load a texture at the bottom and here I did use the background painting as is. The transparency and specular were set at 100 and the reflectivity was set to -100 for this. One more thing that helps enhance the dewdrop also was having at least one radial light set to where it highlights the opposite edge of the object from where the sun light is positioned. I'll include a image to help explain this.
I apologize for my wordiness. Really I was just playing with sliders and I encourage anyone to just have fun and watch the effect these have on an object when in edit mode.
Thanks again for your interest.
jelee
btw Stonecutter, did you notice the 'malachite' colors on the D-fly?


http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1018630879phz.jpg

[DeeVee]

A Very impressive image :ex:

[Stonecutter]

You call that distillation of hints, tips, and graphic wisdom, wordiness Joe?

I suppose you'd call the Taj Mahal a nice little bungalow... :rolleyes: :D ;)
I definitely did notice the Malachite scheme, and the info on the wing construction, ie: using the mesh characteristics to help generate the shape was particularly interesting. Before I used the actual mesh, I stumbled on this method of matching the coverage, to make an axe-head for my Troll scene...I used 180 coverage to give me a shape that could be edited most easily into the shape I wanted...
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1018633382zgf.jpg
Of course, it is a lot easier to do if you work the mesh directly, but the point is that you can use what amounts to a preformed shape...In this case a 180 coverage, flattened sphere with 'smooth' turned off...
Thanx for the great walkthrough! :tu:

[aurick]

Absolutely stunning work! Those wings are amazing, but it's like a diamond among emeralds and rubies. The whole image is a true masterpiece. Well done!

[filament9]

Absolutely stunning work! In every aspect. "Impressed" just isn't a big enough word!

[picsas]

This is truley a masterpiece! beautiful, really beautiful.

picsas

[rhom]

wow!what an image.The details are incredible.

[boozy floozie]

Superb work indeed with an exquisite airbrush quality about it.You've certainly removed that "coldness" that can occur when working with 3D.
Look forward to seeing many more
:)

[Kathy]

THIS is gorgeous illstration work. I have never used the circle 3D to date. But this piece opened ideas and doors in my head.

Thanks!

I LOVE this piece. The water droplets are so believeable. Superb work.

[Mentat7]

Great bug J! I've encountered the same rendering problem you were faced with (the overlapping wings). Did you try selecting the layer with the back wings first, rendering, then selecting the layer with the front wings (keep best render activated)? If all went well (and you may have to try it several times and even try rearranging your layers) it will render correctly when it does the top layer. I love the water droplets!! :tu: :tu: :tu:

[jelee]

Thanks again for all the encouraging comments.

Mentat7, changing layers DOES make a difference in the final rendering of transparencies. Thank you for posting your experience.
jelee

[Slosh]

Jelee,
I couldn't send you a private message, so I'll ask you here...can I put this dragonfly on my website? I will, of course give full credit where credit is due.

Brian

[jelee]

Hey Slosh
Sure, your more than welcome to use it. I'll send you a version with the wings fixed to Mentat7's specifications. Thanks again Mentat7.
Thank you for asking, Brian.
jelee