I am trying to finish individual elements of the texture, one by one.
I have finished the ‘armor’ elements, the skin (the pattern is still missing, but the base is there), and I am working on the hair, there is not much left to improve here (oh, and there’s still the eyebrow…).
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I’m super impressed by the work going into this! Look forward to seeing it all come together
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Thank you! Fortunately, I’m not staying up all nights yet. xD
I hope you’ll start texturing soon too… because when I look at the calendar, I get anxious… xD
(Especially since I wanted to try my skills with the environment too… but I don’t know if there’s still enough time and when I’ll finish here… xD)
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Yeah, I also value sleep 
I have started texturing, just hope I can bring it all together in the time! But as for environment, you’re doing a lot more than I can think about
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I’m nowhere near texturing I’m afraid. I’ll have to sacrifice some sleep hours…
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SkullCat3D you know… ahem… I wasn’t talking about that little thing, for the mermaid presentation xD
More about the second challenge xD
(And perhaps I’m going a bit overboard, but I have a good reason for it.)
Glasdurock let me put it this way. After working on this project, I can see that too many details are lost when baking textures, and it’s better to leave any surface details for texturing.
For example, I made seams on this scrap of fabric she’s wearing, but then I had to redo them in Substance Painter because they completely disappeared, or rather, they deformed and looked like a heap of rubbish. ;/
You have 2 weeks, perfect HP won’t do 
(even if it looks amazing…)
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I’m not looking for perfect (for the challenge at least). Some part are just still in the block out phase haha
Ouuu… In that case, I’ll keep my fingers crossed. You can do it 
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It seems that I have finished off the mermaid…
I was thinking about a more metallic finish for the scales and ‘fins’ (as was originally planned), but I like this pearl effect better 
I’m still working on my Spyfish… these aren’t even the latest screenshots xD
I’m going to bed…
Almost…
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Just a small update today. Unfortunately, I don’t have the resources to stay up late tonight.
Anyway, I finished Spyfish and added a few details like veins (a dramatic experience, looking for references on the internet about this…), slightly improved the colors, fixed the damaged fin tip, I’ll probably post this screenshot later and a few smaller ones.
I also started tinkering with the final presentation.
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A few minor corrections, I corrected something here, added something there… nothing major.
I worked a little more on the ‘decorations’ for the character… but there are only two lights here. One is on the spyfish and one is behind the character (from the sun’s rays), but I’m wondering if I should add something in front…?
Additionally, I get the impression that the fish is too eye-catching, I think I should tone down all those lights.
Isn’t it all a bit too much?
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If the fish is the focal point, I would keep it light, but the mermaid is the main character right? Her face is really dark with everything directing the viewer to look at the fish. I would tweak the lighting on the fish and maybe add some near her face to help push the viewer there
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Yes, what you’re saying makes perfect sense. The fish is definitely stealing the thunder…
I’ve always had a problem with good lighting… I don’t like the final stage of rendering and setting up the lights xD
Well, I’ll think of something.
Does the rest look alright?
Please forgive my rough photoshopping, and I am by no means an expert at composition! But I would bring a light closer to her face and looking at her cyber eye, I thin it would look cool to bring some of the pink from that light into her face to help brighten it too. Overall, the focus is on the fish so I would push the light towards her face and add some deeper shadows around her tail/the edges of frame and when bringing it darker shadows, it helps to have a good rim light to help separate the subject from the background. I also think that since she’s underwater, you could tweak the tone of the final render to bring out the blues more.
Most importantly though, I would check the image in black and white to really see the values and where your eye is being drawn. Also, zoom out and see how it looks from a thumbnail pov. Is anything blending into the background? Is the silhouette of the figure obvious? Oh, I also threw in some bubbles to help sell it being underwater
Anyway, I hope this helps a little. It’s a super interesting character and I think you’re framing is pretty nice so far 
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Holy cow! Thank you for taking the time to explain everything so thoroughly and for your advice! Seriously, you’ve just given me what I was hoping for from this challenge. Extremely valuable feedback!
So far, I’ve added one light and scribbled a bit on the render xD
I was also thinking about bubbles, but I wasn’t sure if it would be too much. I’ll give it a try.
Thanks again for your effort!
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It already pops more! I look forward to seeing where you take it
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Hmm… I have 2 similar cameras… but one should be better than other and I can see that I have problem with deciding
L - more forward
R - more even
(added pink light next to mechanic eye / less light on fish)
Just out of curiosity, what does it look like if you lower the viewing angle until it feels like the arm is directing the eye? A little like she’s taking a selfie, I’m just curious to see how that would affect your composition
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Hmmm… Mhiko it does look more dynamic I think.
The problem I saw from the beginning is that while the tail is now more visible, the arm loses a lot and the fish blocks the mermaid more.
Nevertheless, it looks more like she just swam up and caught that toothy nastiness…
(The element that must be visible no matter what is the mirror. It is an important element of the myth about mermaids).
Well… I made a few different cameras (one of them isn’t here because I made a very similar version instead of the camera behind the character, which didn’t make sense anyway xD).
So, if anyone has an opinion, please give me the number of the camera you like, and in the meantime I’ll make a turntable.
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