Artwork > Finished Works and Works in Progress

Jellyfish

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dwsel:
I'm doing environment and material test for jellyfish. So far I have 50:50 mix of transparent, self illumination with dielectric of IOR ~1.2, but I think I'll need something completely different because refraction with bumpmapping pass takes quite long to render. It looks really pretty and would be suitable for still image, but for animation rendering time is not acceptable. Model is just a deformed sphere.

I'm doing research on how such jellyfish may look like, but there are so many shapes and colours that's very hard to make decision.
First of all I need design, next model and then I can start making material.

Possible references:



http://www.jellyfishfacts.net/jellyfish-pictures.html - something like 200 photos
http://www.polygonblog.com/3d-underwater-scene/
http://vimeo.com/20556340
http://vimeo.com/14835141 - especially first scene

$imon:
Oh I love jellyfish! Good to see you try and attempt them in Anim8or, though a tough task if you would ask me! I hope you can come up with something cool.

The ones with bioluminescence are most interesting to look at in my opinion. I had fun watching that video 'theres no such thing like a jellyfish'

I like the start youve made there. These complex materials are hard to get in Anim8or (and almost impossible in a single pass) so I have to wish you good luck!

dwsel:

--- Quote from: davdud101 on November 25, 2011, 10:25:57 am ---That render is great! The glow looks really cool.

--- End quote ---


--- Quote from: $imon on November 25, 2011, 11:44:13 am ---The ones with bioluminescence are most interesting to look at in my opinion. I had fun watching that video 'theres no such thing like a jellyfish'

--- End quote ---

I'm planning to make bioluminescent one ;) I'm the same opinion as you that the glowing jellies look the most interesting, and it would be even more if I managed to animate it to the music... As for video - this is the best reference for their movement and for variety. I think I'll choose 2-3 photos from the other link to incorporate the best elements from each of these into my sketch.


--- Quote from: $imon on November 25, 2011, 11:44:13 am ---I like the start youve made there. These complex materials are hard to get in Anim8or (and almost impossible in a single pass) so I have to wish you good luck!

--- End quote ---

Unfortunately this material will be scrapped to avoid use of refraction. It can be useful only in the case when I use UnitDistance to render jelly's thickness (for transparency map) and it won't take too long. Probably I'll need passes like: 'rim' (light at the camera inverted to have soft glowing edges), 'translucency' (some more tests required - any suggestions how to fake it? other than 'invert diffuse'), emissive (glowing elements on separate layer), depth, combined pass, but still it depends on jelly's material...

A lot of luck indeed will be helpful :D

dwsel:
I think I've made decision on how will it look like. I choose the red one with patterns http://www.jellyfishfacts.net/jellyfish_pictures/jellyfish_58.jpg as my main reference. This shade of red is even more cool http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3HzFiQFFQYw#t=190s . Dark, more opaque tentacles will blend into the bell. It will have 6-sided symmetry instead of typical multiply of 4. It's going to be stylized mix of designs rather than realistic one. I plan to add at each segment glowing elements that in further plans will act as a spectrum analyser for a background music, though I still think about best way to execute this (movement linked to the bell, morphing, opacity or sth. else).

Here's sketch and another test of material - model is again just random shape. This shader makes really cool thin layered translucency effect when rendered on black background. I think it will stay very likely the same in the final version of the pass. To be composited in the additive blending mode. Any suggestions on these?

dwsel:
A small update from me. I'm working very slow.

Mesh has no tentacles yet, I think if it's better to paint dark brown lines on the texture and have single mesh or immerse them inside the transparency mapped main part, so that they show through it (second method more accurate). Proportions suffered from not looking at the sketched reference. From the top jellyfish looks quite good, but from the side it looks squashed when compared. Also I think I may need an additional loop at the bottom, where the crease is located - for better control and for tweaking harsh edge.

Also I've learned new trick - to check if the surface is smooth after subdivision put quite regular (default checker will do the job) spherical environment map on your subdivided object. Check how it looks from different angles. If the object is not smooth enough, wobbling lines will be seen.

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