Just thought I would give you all a glimpse at my next project. I already have several more major features developed for it. It is definitely different from my usual head studies and I am planning on taking it to another level. I am pushing myself in a new direction and you will be able to see that in the final rendering.
A nightmare comes alive!
This image rocks Mentat! 
WHOA!!! 
Thanks for the peek!!!
Scary…Spikey…Colourful…and it has lots of eyes. It will be a treat to see the finished product. 
Very cool. I love the Wolf Spider type eyes. Fantastic modeling too.
Good work Mentat!!! Your style are very good !!!
i love your style already i cant wait to see the change.
Neat work and the colours are great. 
Dave
very nice teaser, i suppose your going to have us hang out for weeks to see the final image 
can’t wait to see it
a sneak preview of greatness mentat…cant wait to see this one…
I’m looking forward to this one Mentat7.
I like the sheen on the shell-like skin and the beady eyes. Good work. I have a softspot for the design of insects and crustaceans.
jelee
A true purple nasty. Can’t wait to see the final result…
Love the texture - can’t wait to see the finished work.
"U goooot Yooouur MOJO wooooorkin ,and it
woorkks all ovvvvvvvver YOOUUUU !!!
OOOOO yeAAAH !!!
Mentat JJJJjust left the BIULllllllldinG !
P.S. Im bring my guitar round your house in da morniiing,OK buddy !!!
Okay. I started this thread as a teaser into my next project. Now at the request of another forum member (Fish Slayer) I have decided to try and give you a step by step treatise on what I am doing. Now first off let me explain that many times I do not sketch my work. I have such a clear idea of what I want that I just jump right in and do it. Other times I work up a number (sometimes a lot!) of what I call working renders. I will work on the model. Texture it. Position it. Render to see how it looks. Come back later, change it etc. I will add elements such as props, backgrounds etc. I usually do this at a screen size of around 800 x 800. The reason is because of render speeds. At this size all I am doing is setting the scene to see what changes I want to make, to see how the materials will interact, and more importantly to gauge the lighting. After this step (and I can wind up with several dozen working renders!) I move on to a much larger work area…usually around 1500 x 1500 or larger (depending on what I am doing I will opt for 2500 x 2500). It is at this stage that I do my fine detail work. I tweak the models. Detail the textures. Add even more elements. Shift the colors around and add more lighting (if for some reason I find it weak). The following image is one of my working renders. Here you can see where I have begun to work the piece with a background. I did this because I now must achieve a synergy between the color/lighting of the foreground object with the color/lighting of the background. It’s not as easy as it may appear. I had specific ideas about the tone and shading of this insectoid but it didn’t work out with the background I envisioned. So as you can see I began changing the coloring of the creature. The creature will have much more in the form of body parts than what you see now. Right now it is just a head. There is a full body in the works. The creature may even change as I progress. I am already reconsidering the shape of the claw-like mandibles. The head is made of one single Sphere. Yes that’s right just one single sphere. For the newer members out there let me say this. The deformations menu can be your very dear friend! Get used to using them. You can accomplish a lot with those sliders! The mandibles are each made from one sphere and are in fact identical. That may change. As I progress on this work I will attempt to relate the tools used, materials, light settings, and other pertinent information. I am presenting this in a rather Laissez Faire manner so if you have any questions or observations please feel free to comment. I will let you in on my inspirations for this piece as I go along. Now the mushrooms in this image were inspired by Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
that kicks major buttage Lonnie master Z…and I am kicking myself coz somewhere I missed this original thread…grrrrrr…I love that top model and the colors etc…very onerous looking beasty…and from the depths of my scaly Z heart I thank you for taking us thru the process…cant wait to see more…I bookmarked this bad boy for sure…
FS
Pretty cool, Lonnie, and thanx for sharing your approach…(By the way, on the spelling, you were really close… Laissez Faire…You just missed one ‘s’.)
That’s a really nice chitinous surface characteristic you developed, and this thing looks more alive than any sane person would want it to actually be! :eek:
(Oh yes…I see you really liked the ‘Fish Slayer’ handle, C-Man! 
)
Thanks Mike! I corrected the spelling!
now thats what im talkin about. man that texture is right up my alley. I LOVE IT!!!
Always the Top-shelf bro !!!
And u call me a sick puppy !!! 