Precious (Redux) by theSea

DAZ|Studio • Fantasy • posted on Feb 24, 2009

Open full image in new tab Zoom on image

Hover over top left image to zoom.
Click anywhere to exit.

Members remain the original copyright holder in all their materials here at Renderosity. Use of any of their material inconsistent with the terms and conditions set forth is prohibited and is considered an infringement of the copyrights of the respective holders unless specially stated otherwise.

Description

Hi- Thanks for looking in again. I seldom want to go back and revisit an image so quickly, but I got some great feedback on the earlier version of "Precious," and in the meantime DAZ released the "Vladimir" morphs and maps, which I felt were just the thing to complete poor old Gollum. So here we are back in that slimy cave.... Most things are as with the previous version. I pulled the 'fiery letters' off of The Ring and reworked a lot of the skin settings. I increased the translucency on the ears and upped the subsurface scattering on the skin. The ambient occlusion is now a bit more refined as well. Next I applied the Vladimir morphs a bit, mostly about the hands, ears, head and teeth. The biggest difference was in using the displacement maps that come with Vladimir to add wrinkles and detailing to the head arms and hands. This drove the render times up by a factor of about five but I think the improvement in the skin is worth it. Still using the "Uncle Albert" skin and bump maps with the standard M4 specular maps. This one is a real hodgepodge! I also tweaked the lighting a bit, desaturating all of the lights and lowering the rim lighting level. I changed the camera angle a little and went to a more vertical composition... this was something of an attempt to unsettle the viewer just a little bit, try to bring you in a bit closer to Gollum's unhinged state. Finally I rendered off a tight Mood Master pass and added some depth of field in photoshop. had to use the blur tool a bit to clean up some stray pixels around the edges of the ring and hand, but aside from that I'm pretty happy with the result. Thanks to everyone who commented on the earlier piece, I think this one is much improved.

Comments (27)

)

necrophage

10:26AM | Tue, 24 February 2009

wow - excellent render - cool pov!

)

Revelation-23

10:26AM | Tue, 24 February 2009

Looking at them both, I gotta admit, I like the previous one better. The morphs are better this time around, but I like the lighting and detail of the first one. That's not to say this isn't a great render - it is. It's just... I dunno. To my eyes, it's not at the same level. Just my $.02

)

lyron

11:11AM | Tue, 24 February 2009

Fantastic image!!

)

UteBigSmile

11:15AM | Tue, 24 February 2009

Hi, I just saw, when I wanted leave Renderosity, the 'what's new' ones. For me, this is a very beautiful and very precious work, I love the 'Lords of the Rings'!!! 5+fav))) Hug's from Ute

)

ragouc

11:18AM | Tue, 24 February 2009

Very good light and texture. Very good POV and pose. 5+++

)

anitalee

11:31AM | Tue, 24 February 2009

This is excellent work, but I actually prefer the previous version, this is great work, just something about the other one I like more.

evs69

11:47AM | Tue, 24 February 2009

Wonderful! Effective DOF and the lighting is spot on!

)

PhilW

11:54AM | Tue, 24 February 2009

I prefer this one - excellent work! The PoV and vertical format work better, and terrific work on the skin and light!

)

ThomasMacCallum

12:11PM | Tue, 24 February 2009

Superb, this one is better, spot on character work and it really showcases what is possible with M4 and DS

)

wliebtposer

1:12PM | Tue, 24 February 2009

awesome scene well done

)

Jonrea

1:26PM | Tue, 24 February 2009

Great picture and cool visualisation of a Smeagol.

)

Cimaira

3:17PM | Tue, 24 February 2009

I don't know, I like em both, lol. This is another fantastic character creation, and that skin looks fantastic.

)

Valery3D

3:34PM | Tue, 24 February 2009

Wauw excellent job making Gollem. It's exactly him. Very good! Outstanding!!

)

Bri65

4:51PM | Tue, 24 February 2009

Awesome. Well done.

)

Timesurfer

5:03PM | Tue, 24 February 2009

mmmm i like them both too, but because of the pov on this one there is more of a yearning and desperate feeling to this one. awsome awsome!!

)

Gisela

5:34PM | Tue, 24 February 2009

It's great!

shotgung0d

9:12PM | Tue, 24 February 2009

Hard to improve on perfection but you did! Excellent work Michael though I'm really surprised to see you revisit this one.

)

moonbunnie

3:46AM | Wed, 25 February 2009

Excellent work here , i like the way his eyes fixed on the ring , they also got that kind golden glow !

)

kobaltkween

9:34AM | Wed, 25 February 2009

i find the lighting and camera angle on this one much more dramatic. it makes me forget why there would be focused light on an underground creature, where my first thought with the other was about how out of place the lighting looked to me. and it almost looks like the light is coming from the ring in this one. i think this is a better view into his obsession. the one thing i miss is that his skin looks less saturated, less shiny and damp, and more opaque here. i think the change is takes him further away from the original, and makes him a little less eye-catching.

)

dragonmuse

4:25PM | Wed, 25 February 2009

I liked the previous too, but yes, this has much more impact :)

)

maraich

9:29PM | Wed, 25 February 2009

I very much like the morph changes to Gollum. Things are much darker now. I'm torn on this point. I really like the detail of the cave in the first version, however in this version the characters (the ring and Gollum) stand out better. Also, the sense of darkness is better, with the ring providing the only apparent light.

)