My contribution for the October contest - Water

[MariusOberholster]

Theme:
October's entry is called "Water". I thought it would be a clever title, because people will definitely wonder "Water?! What did he do?" haha.
This one is of JESUS walking on the water, specifically from Matthew 14. That has to be one of the coolest supernatural things HE did, apart from going to the cross on purpose.

Process:
In the initial render, I had rain, but on double checking the passage, there was no rain, just rough wind causing waves and making it hard to row. I thought it looked better with the rain, but I did want good accuracy here, so it had to go.
One thing, for example, is that as you can tell, HE doesn't look like a model, but very ordinary. That came from Isaiah 53:2b, KJV, where HE's described as:"there is no beauty that we should desire HIM."
Now, that could also be taken to be that HE was what most would term as ugly, but I can't say for sure.
For the outfit I went with something a little different than typical. I wanted to know actually if they had trousers back then and there really are some very loose fitting trousers, so I used the newer casual suit and added a flowing robe from the waste, while keeping the trousers.
For the hair, I used one of the short styles, because as far as I have read, I find nothing to say definitively that HE had long or short hair. I don't know, haha, so I went with short.
I added the beard, simply by extruding and changing the material, because there were some regulations for the Jews around how they were to be groomed and so on.
HIS eyes I made brown, but because of the distance, they are not visible here...
The ocean was done using the ocean modifier in Blender and the materials were also heavily adjusted.
Creating a painted sky was not easy and quite unintentional. I used the world background and added some procedural textures to it and then in compositing, added more procedural textures in an effort to suggest wind and rain and it came out looking like a water color background, so yey!

Have a great one!!

[grinsegold]

You might be well aware of the fact that some people have their difficulties with nudity, and that all the other people try to respect that.

Now imagine people that have their difficulties with religion. Wouldn't it be nice of the others to avoid anger, fear, sadness and frustration by just cutting out any religious comment? I better not tell you what i'd like to do, but i beg you for being a bit more tolerant. Thank you

[brkurt]

You might be well aware of the fact that some people have their difficulties with nudity, and that all the other people try to respect that.

Now imagine people that have their difficulties with religion. Wouldn't it be nice of the others to avoid anger, fear, sadness and frustration by just cutting out any religious comment? I better not tell you what i'd like to do, but i beg you for being a bit more tolerant. Thank you

Interesting issue in tolerance here. If Marius had said that it was an Australian aborigine shaman in Dream Time, would that have been acceptable? How about a Red Hat Tibetan monk levitating?

Personally I would like the mechanics of how an Ascended One (to use the New Age term) could walk on water. Perhaps they dabbled their toes in fractal algorithms?

[grinsegold]

Interesting issue in tolerance here. If Marius had said that it was an Australian aborigine shaman in Dream Time, would that have been acceptable? How about a Red Hat Tibetan monk levitating?

He may pray to the holy vagina if it pleases him, but if he tells me so he must be prepared to hear that i value that as a waste of brain. But let's quit that now - this is not the place for fruitless debates.

[Carton]

Jesus looks like an average Afghan guy. Looks and clothing. Maybe he converted to islam. After 2000 years he went to the library for another book.

[grinsegold]

What i DO like is the cloth, since it has wrinkles and looks like cloth. And i like the beard. Well done. I kind of like the fact that you didn't use a photo for the background, but maybe you put some extra work in it. I'd like it better with some more contours, more drama. And i don't understand the white areas on the sea, which btw could be more choppy. With a little more work this image could be a wow - for those who are amenable to christian myths.

[MariusOberholster]

What i DO like is the cloth, since it has wrinkles and looks like cloth. And i like the beard. Well done. I kind of like the fact that you didn't use a photo for the background, but maybe you put some extra work in it. I'd like it better with some more contours, more drama. And i don't understand the white areas on the sea, which btw could be more choppy. With a little more work this image could be a wow - for those who are amenable to christian myths.

Thanx for the feedback. I implemented pretty much everything and a few more things.
- I adjusted the angle to be less stable for a bit more drama.
- And of course the ocean is a bit more choppy with higher waves.
- I removed that effect you mentioned. It was for the first render with the rain. but I liked the look of it, so I left it in. It was to simulate the effect of rain falling on the water, but it wasn't fitting, so it's out .
- I also tried removing the foam texture from the sea, but you lose any and all sense of space, so I left it in. It tends to add more for the lighting really.
- To add more interest to the sky, I added lightning. I did have to go look and see what the odds are for strong winds and lightning to be in proximity in a short space of time and turns out, with winds and moist air, you have a pretty good recipe for rain clouds and we get some serious lightning here even when it's not raining.
- Oh and to add a little to the background, I just added one more cloud texture to just make a stronger distinction between light and dark blue-gray areas to give the lightning a bit more to affect.

Thanx for the compliments too! Have a great one!

[grinsegold]

Much better. But i liked the central perspective better. Religious art often uses central perspective. And now the character is rotated. That looks strange. Maybe you could put him straight again. The flashes look great. The big wave in the foreground is very round. Our brains have stored associations. We usually associate round with soft and pleasing, so this dominant form thwarts your intention to picture a storm.

[MariusOberholster]

Much better. But i liked the central perspective better. Religious art often uses central perspective. And now the character is rotated. That looks strange. Maybe you could put him straight again. The flashes look great. The big wave in the foreground is very round. Our brains have stored associations. We usually associate round with soft and pleasing, so this dominant form thwarts your intention to picture a storm.

Oh, HE was actually never rotated, the camera was, but on rough sees, you rarely have a good sense of what is absolutely up and what is absolutely down, due to no clear horizon and G-forces.

The big wave so close to the camera (and I get your point about roundness), was to point out how big the waves could be in relation to you in a small boat (which the disciples were in). But, I changed the angle back to a more central perspective, because I do see your point.

Thanx for all the feedback, it really boosted the entry !