To like, or not to like... is that the question? A new piece with a twist, continuing my "Out of the Blue" Series, originally started on SuperRare.
I was out walking one evening, when I saw this slim blue metal block, bent on the top end, when it hit me with the idea for this artwork.
Its been with me for quite some time now, but since I wanted the final piece to be entirely digital, I had to acquire the necessary skills with software like blender and adobe aftereffects first.
I designed and posed the figure in DAZ Studio and imported it into blender. At this point it was way to detailed as I wanted it to be very low poly and flat shaded to remove all individuality. In blender retopologized it to its final shape. Then I created the cross and bent the top to give it an f-like shape...
For the "like" symbol I started with a quick sketch and then also created it i 3d in blender.
The next task was to create the sequence, where the cross is turned towards the viewer and all the "likes" would be raining down. Instead of moving the camera, I moved the cross with the figure to achieve more "unnatural" or robot like motion.
The likes were created by the use of the particle system in blender. After a lot of tweaking and testing I rendered the composition as a sequence of png images for the best possible quality and so I would have a transparent background. I actually made two renders, one just plain and the other one, just the figure but with freestyle activated, to create the dark outline around the figure and cross.
After the renders were completed, I could import everything in adobe aftereffects. There I also added the other elements for the animation. The underlaying background was created from several AI generated images (artbreeder) and then put together in photoshop.
As I wanted to see some subtle movement there, I created a layer with low opacity. There a hand drawn circular element is slowly rotating. Barely visible, it stands for an ever working machinery in the background.
Now I had my basic animation and could go ahead and add the beginning and ending. The opening sequence show a text in binary format and says:
"your privacy is important to us"
I animated it in two layers, with one staying in place and the other one flowing down. This way it changes back and forth from the actual text in to a chain like pattern, which I see for a symbol of both connection and dependency or captivity.
For the somewhat cynical ending I created a smiley which becomes visible, as the cross is falling towards the viewer. I deliberately leave the interpretation of this open.
I exported the animation as a lossless avi file. Of course at some 8 GB its too big and so I took it into adobe premiere. There I also added the sounds, which I had chosen on adobe free sounds and zapsplat.
The finished video was then saved as mp4 and tokenized on Makersplace for my store
https://makersplace.com/reinhardschmid/into-the-blue-1-of-1-39527/ where you can see it in full 2732x2048px resolution
A preview is posted on DTube:
Of course all similarities with anything are purely coincidental and you are encouraged to Like ;-)
I enjoy reading your comments!
❤
If you like my work, of course I appreciate your upvotes and reblogs
See more of my work on BeScouted
My tokenized collectible art at
Very good.
It is likely that Jesus looked very much like Zuck.... red hair and freckles.... ruddy complexion like his Great Grandfather King David.
https://blurt.blog/blurtreligions/@offgridlife/what-did-jesus-look-like-was-he-a-red-head-like-king-david
Thanks for sharing that link! Very interesting. Adds a new twist to my piece too ;-)
Yes, you are on to something .... .
Great art work... as soon as I saw the image, the following message "Facebook is finished" came to mind
Thank you for liking it. But I don't think they'll be finished any time soon. Plus I'm not actually criticising their existence, more the policy and abuse of big corporations. For instance, there is a data protection law in Europe and it brought a lot of work for small business. If you want to use the service of the big guys (where data collection is much more the problem) its eat this or die...
So I see you've dived into Blender Reinhard.
Been using it for years off and on... trying to get into it more seriously now, but more to connect my 2d art with 3d elements.
Nice work 👏
Thank you :-)
This is really powerful!
Thank you Julia, glad you see that!
Wasn't sure, how the idea would be perceived, but I thought it would be a cool piece in your Alien Art Hive Community.