Hi all. A ton of great entries so far!
Here's mine. A couple of fighting Jewel Stag Beetles.
IdeaI started by doing a quick brainstorm on unconventional ways to show off one of the new materials. During that I realised that the new anodised finishes would be awesome for the shield of jewel beetles. I decided to go with this idea as it also would allow me to do something different from the usual studio shots that I mostly do. From a resource of bug models I knew (link below), I picked a stag beetle as it would allow me to create an intersting fight between two of them as seen in nature.
ModelsAll models have been sourced from different places online. Some for free and some paid. See links below.
Beetles:
http://zerokobo.web.fc2.com/Stone + Trunk:
https://www.textures.com/Grass + Fern:
https://megascans.se/I brought the stock stag beetle model into Modo to split the mesh apart, create a duplicate and pose them in their fighting position.
The stone and trunk was brought into Modo as well to apply a displacement map before bringing them into KeyShot.
Grass and fern were imported directly and carefully positioned to create depth in the scene and act as a natural framing for the beetles.
LightingThe general lighting (and reflections) in the scene are provided by a forrest HDRI:
http://hdrmaps.com/cave-entry-in-the-forestThe pattern of sunlight and shadows are created using a sphere with an area light diffuse material together with a disc with an opacity map with the shape of a treetop.
KS7 MaterialsI used the new niobium metal with an anodized finish for the main parts of the beetles. Graph attached.
Post processingThe raw rendering was post edited in Photoshop. I did my usual process of adjusting brightness/contrast, color grading and addition of flare and glow. Raw rendering is attached.
Thanks for taking a look.
Good luck to everyone!
