Recreating an old Dutch masterpiece

[Doug Armand]

It's taking shape bit by bit, nice Doug. Take care with the placements tho, the lobster body is entirely on the right hand of the painting.

Maybe the silver plate is too big, if you have got trouble placing it then maybe it's not circular but elliptical...

Thanks for the tips CTZn. I am using the image in blender as a viewport backplate so when I have modelled everything placement shouldn't be too hard.

[Doug Armand]

Worked some more on the lobster head and also gave it a texture. Still needs a lot of tweaks and better placement.

Modelling so far - still needs some tweaks

Bump and diffuse maps used

How the scene looks with the new head

1:1 crop of both heads for comparison

[zeitmeister]

Wow Doug,
the Lobster is fantastic!

Do you model him poly by poly or with the blender sculpting tools?

I want a single shot render of him when he's finished!

[Doug Armand]

Wow Doug,
the Lobster is fantastic!

Thanks

He started out as half of an 8 segment UV sphere with a mirror and a subsurf modifier. I then just mostly loop cut and moved vertices and edges to add detail and also did some extruded here and there like the nose section, etc.

My modelling skills aren't the best - one of the reasons I set myself this project was to force myself to learn more about all aspects of Blender and Indigo. Doing it on a public forum means I'm less likely to give up

[Soup]

Wow Doug, looking really great!
I love your bump mapping, makes it look painterly, and the modeling of the cray's face is really nice

Any chance you'll share the Blender scene file when you're done?
Hey if you document the process, maybe we could do a feature or tutorial on this

[Pibuz]

Now that I see the detail, the silver plate seems to me much more reflective in the original painting. Tweaking it could maybe help you get a slight better lighting..

[Doug Armand]

Any chance you'll share the Blender scene file when you're done?

Sure as this is project is really just for fun I'll make the blend file and all textures,etc available when its done.

[Doug Armand]

Todays updated images.
It may not look like much has changed but I've done a fair amount of tweaking. Created the final plate that the lobster is on and gave it a new material. Pretty much finished the lobster head and have started on the tail and claws.

One of the biggest changes is to the lighting. Having tried first using an emitter and then switching to using a sun lamp I have gone back to using an emitter. I just couldn't get the sun to give me the look of the painting - the shadows were just too clean and sharp.

Scene as it looks in blender

1:1 crop showing detail and textures

[CTZn]

Fine texturing Doug, I'm impressed !

It's hard to track the light source down, in terms of depth I'm seeing it between the table and the observer, but very close to the table border. I think that the focused caustics from the left cup might be among the best hints since you can get this effect from Indigo.

[Doug Armand]

Fine texturing Doug, I'm impressed !

It's hard to track the light source down, in terms of depth I'm seeing it between the table and the observer, but very close to the table border. I think that the focused caustics from the left cup might be among the best hints since you can get this effect from Indigo.

I think I've got the angle and size of light sorted now. I think the highlight in the wineis a reflection of the caustics hitting the napkin behind. Just gonna have to do alot of tests to get the folds of the napkin right

Have to say I'm really enjoying this project and am learning a lot about both Blender & Indigo.

[ritter]

The lobster looks very good!

[ENSLAVER]

Awesome.

[Doug Armand]

Wow didn't realise it had been so long since I worked on this. Been a bit busy lately but I haven't forgotten

In fact I'm thinking of redoing a lot of it and using Sculptris for all the organic modelling. Been playing with it for a few days and boy is it fun!.

Anyway heres a screenie of my first serious play - about 30 mins worth. Will get back to working on this when time allows....

[SaphireS]

I was waiting for you to continue working on this piece!

[Polinalkrimizei]

I was thinking about this thread every time I had lobster! (Well, sometimes when I had shrimps...)
I also thought about bumping this thread from time to time, and I am glad that you did!

Also I am sure that sculptris is fun, but your "old" lobster was great. Nice modelling, nice polyflow! Cool that you picked this up again, it doesn't matter if this becomes a masterpiece or not, but it is one of the greatest and most interesting challenges in CGI I have ever seen.
Come on, you are going to recreate an OLD DUTCH MASTERPIECE!!! This is so AWESOME!!! PLEASE keep us updated!