Updates for today; (so far)
All current updates done in Photoshop.
Added lens flare effect to star directly behing the ship to enhance its brightness.
Added some nav lights. May edit those.
Darkened entire ship overall, hopefully enhancing the shadows.
Combined the galaxy background with the nebula, totally changing the background and enhancing its effect.
Added some more lighting and reduced the images size to preserve image quality.
Really love the edits to the ship and the background.
The lens flare just peeking over the edge of the ship is a very nice touch.
I keep seeing all of these crazy guns on your ship, and secretly wish they were shooting down some crazy alien destroyer… 
Keep it up Gary, your skill increases every time you post on ZBC, I swear…
Corey 
Thanks Corey. I started out with the idea of making a naval type battleship combine with a sleek space battlecruiser. That’s where the back half of the ship and the guns come from. I hit pretty close to the mark of what was in my head I think. At some point, I’ll turn her around and show the details on the engines. All credit goes to ThePriest and his fantastic insert brushes on those.
Who knows, maybe one of those alien destroyers will show up one of these days! 
Since I know a little more about lighting now, I decided to take one more pass on the mech. I think it turned out fairly well.
Those are great renders of the spaceship and mech Voodoodad and good luck with the car.
Ezra
Hey VoodooDad…Excellent…
small_orange_diamond:)…That deeper and richer color on the space ship really makes the image pop now, and also ties it together nicely with the background enviroment…Great job there…small_orange_diamond:)
Luv what you’ve done to improve the tie in with the enviroment on your robot machine also…Huge improvement…funny how all of those suble effects of light/shade and shadow can really enhance a piece…:)…
Just a passing thought on my part here about the robot machine piece…don’t know if it will be useful to you, but think it worth mentioning, just in case it may be…The large white areas on the right side of the composition really catch my eye every time I view the piece…wishing that there were a little more depth in that right side of the composition…Maybe something subtle in that area…grey distant silver clouds in an atmospheric perspective with maybe a bird or two flying back into the scene, heading towards the machine…something subtle and almost subliminal that will carry the viewers eye back into the scene,…countering the end of the guns carrying the viewer out of the scene and composition…Like I said…just thoughts crossing my mind as I view your excellent creation and work…
Anyway VoodooDad…Keep up the Fantastic progress…Really enjoying seeing it evolve here in your thread…small_orange_diamond:)
Glenn
Thanks, Ezra.
Another great idea, Glenn. That really is a lot of dead real estate in that area. There’s an idea or two already rattling around my brain now. I’ll try to roll on that sometime this coming week.
I made some pretty big mistakes in the initial construction of that first car which couldn’t easily be fixed, so I started over with a more basic style and this is the progress for today. It’s based on the '32 Stutz Super Bearcat.
Running with Glen’s idea (sort of). I do need some advice on this one. First and foremost, is the whole concept of using the ruins of the WTC an offensive one? What I mean to say is, almost 3000 people died at this location and even though it’s a heartfelt attempt on my part to convey some meaning, it still feels a little sacrilegious to use an image of that day for the purpose of creating a simple piece of artwork.
Secondly; what do you guys think about the overall composition? I started out with the mech dead center of the image, but it covered up quite a bit of the devastation in the background, and it just didn’t feel right to me. I think it flows pretty well, but my sense of composition is anything but spot-on and I would appreciate any advice concerning this.
Lastly; the details. I did a virtual ton of editing on the image of the WTC to remove construction workers, extraneous lights and such. I also changed the tone, contrast and colors of both images to make them blend together better. But with my partial color-blindness this is probably my weakest area. I also would like to know what you all think about the edit job itself. I used the clone-stamp tool extremely heavily on the rubble and want to know if you think the patterns are too repetitive or if there are areas that just don’t look right. I’m going to add a layer of misty smoke around the mech and between it and the rubble to add some depth and I’ll need to do some additional work around some of the edges of the mech to remove a few leftover pixels from the original background.
Really cool artwork, totally love the mech robot design.
Are these all made in zbrush? The hardsurface robots?
Looking forward seeing more from you,
Peace
Kenny
Thank you Kenny. Yes, all the models here are completely done in Zbrush. Most of the parts are started in shadowbox, taken to a high resolution dynamesh for major edits then finished off with details at a high subdivision level. And I’m relearning Photoshop for major post work right now.
Glad you like them! Gary
Updated: Added smoke effects, darkened image and applied filter for cooler colors. Also added a not-very-visible reflection to the front window. Finally, reduced image size to get rid of the grainy effect in the last post.
Thanks for telling your workflow really appreciate it, this is very inspiring. Never seen such designs made with zbrush, very cool! Yeah are definently going in the right way with the post production work.
the new update of yours is great mate, its getting better and better!
Cheers,
Kenny
Thanks again, Kenny! I’ve really come to love the Zbrush to Photoshop pipeline in the last few days. When I started the post work in PS this morning I really didn’t have a lot of confidence that it would be turning out as good as (I hope) it is. I owe Glenn a huge debt of gratitude for inspiring me to keep pushing the boundaries of my own personal box with his comments on this sculpt and the battleship as well. If not for him I never would’ve let loose the dogs of war in PS. More than likely I would’ve just done a couple of minor adjustments and called it good enough like I always have before.
The last render is great!
Its sort of Fallout 3-ish.
Love it.
Corey
Small refinements. Got rid of the stray pixels around the edges of the mech and revamped the reflection on the glass.
[QUOTE=voodoodad;928038]Running with Glen’s idea (sort of). I do need some advice on this one. First and foremost, is the whole concept of using the ruins of the WTC an offensive one? What I mean to say is, almost 3000 people died at this location and even though it’s a heartfelt attempt on my part to convey some meaning, it still feels a little sacrilegious to use an image of that day for the purpose of creating a simple piece of artwork.
Yes I think this might offend some people … I am a New Yorker and I was thirty blocks from Ground Zero about to have breakfast when the first plane hit! I have gotten over my grief long ago but for some that experience will never go away.
In the final analysis it’s your call! After all movies have been been made about it, etc. Cheers, David 
Thanks for your comment David. I don’t want to give the impression that the mech caused the destruction. I was looking to give viewers the feeling that he was standing guard over the fallen buildings and lost lives. I really hope that I didn’t miss that mark by too much. I wanted to make a tribute piece, not something that I think just looks cool. That’s why I titled the piece ‘Eternal Vigilance’, as in ‘The Cost of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance’.
Hi Voodoodad,
It’s no biggie … the fact that you voiced your own trepidation in your post shows that you are aware and concerned. Perhaps an American flag displayed on the mech would get your point across!
All the best, David
