Ballet Of Light 1

Rashad makes a good point about the cropping! Again, I like this piece, but the character is chaged significatly in the final cut.

Thank you, Rashad!! Just like most of my other work, it's all reflections, smoke and mirrors without the smoke. ;-)

You know I notice the thumbnail is cropped differently than the image above is actually presented. It becomes a very different piece. Deciding where to crop these images must be a hard decision. Both croppings tell a different part of the story.

This one is somehow different from the others. I have been thinking about it and I feel that perhaps the transitions between the textures and form elements are not as smooth as in most of your most recent scenes. It reminds me of some of your ealier works when you were exploring all types of ideas. The thing that tells me this is Current is the inlaid careful complexity. Clever. Narually the forms are simplified and distinct. But the things going on within these sharply defined zones is really beautiful, and very new Spektyr. This is one that probably looks better and the better the closer that it is viewed. If you were to do anything to it, I think that center most area could somehow blend together differently, but my lack of experience in this manner means I should shut up now.

Horo, I see what you mean and it might et might be possible with some added objects. Richter, I've been thinking about playing with HDRI on these and the Glass Flower series. I don't have too many Probes yet. You know any good ones that would work well? Also, I won't need to block a background. This image is generated from inside a morrored sphere. I'd have to set things up so the HDRI only supplies light.

Hey - that's an interesting idea richter put forward. If you use the HDRI only as reflection map (HDRI-Effect zero, Intensity as desired to give the reflection, Quality at its lowest at 16 and rendered as background), this will not increase render time. An HDRI used as reflection map is better kept blurred. Specular convolve the HDRI using a high Phong exponent - around 50 - and you're set.

Well-well... I think you should push things further, speaking of reflected specular light. Why don't you try to use an HDR image just for its reflection qualities? That doesn't mean you'll have to remove the other lights :) And if you are concerned about the rendertime, I'd say turn off the shadows and reduce light quality, you don't need them shadows with so much reflective surfaces. Just put a pure opaque black cube behind your setup in order to hide the hdr backdrop. It'll be a killer!

Just an idea. The black outskirts looks as segmented like an insects abdomen. This is of course due to the way this picture came into being and there is no remedy. While it does have a lot of charm because of the specularity, thinking of a table or a brooch, having the segments smoothed out would also look very nice.

Thanks Horo! Smoothed? How do you mean?

Could be a brooch or also a small table made of ebony wood and inlaid with gold and silver. It looks like something very expensive. Very nice colours and specularity. Pitty te black segments cannot be smoothed.