It’s like a painting scene.
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Yes, I can paint a few pictures after my submissions here. And I create these Blender scenes as if I am composing a picture. But I feel much more freedom here, than in painting.
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Actually, once I set out deliberately link duplicating wherever possible, the vert count was no big restriction for a low poly intent. Full size the textures like the fish scales even work ok, needed more time as usual, to have textured more of it. Perhaps 1000 next time, lol. While obviously, I would more normally do anything all full poly full details.
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Great entries and great projects. You should be proud or at least inspired
Again I created two polls this time.
The winner of poll 1 hosts the next week!
POLL 1 - Best general entry based on Blender (low/high poly, techniques, lighting, …)
POLL 2 - Best creative, visual story or just as second best.
And to be honest, I would like to have a third, a fourth. Because of the quality of the entries. But here we go!
POLL 1 - Best general entry based on Blender (low/high poly, techniques, lighting, …)
Please scroll down to see all entries first. Because we have a lot, so view first. Then decide 1 and 2.
The next poll
POLL 2 - Best creative, visual story or just as second best.
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Nice work everyone. It’s good to see some new people entering the challenge.
@FedPete I think it’s a good topic. The vertex count is limiting, but I like the topics that impose some restriction. I think they challenge us to grow in other ways. Also the topic, “Fish” is broad enough to be interpreted in many ways.
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I think we’re all here to learn and improve, so I wanted to give some feedback. I tried to say something about each entry. I always appreciate it from others, so I’m going to assume that you guys do too. (If not, sorry 
, send me a DM and I’ll leave you alone in the future.)
FedPete
@FedPete I voted for yours this time. I’m impressed by how you’re able to consistently create quality works in seemingly short periods of time. That is something I strive for. The picture is simple, yet feels complete. The only thing I would add is maybe more seaweed. But that’s a nitpick. I like your compositing idea, too. I will get around to trying it eventually. Thanks for the how-to.
Ethan_Martinez
@Ethan_Martinez I like your models and composition. Also very recognizable in its depiction of the Finding Nemo scene. The image feels a little incomplete to me. IMO it needs some bubbles, or wake distortion of the water, or something to show that it’s under water and give the scene a little more pop.
dmrfodol
@dmfrodol Welcome to the challenge, and nice dolphins! I was wondering how you would solve the water spray issue. If you continue this project later, I hope you share it with us. Some spray and foam would provide some nice highlights to the image.
Albesca
@albesca I remember that book! You’ve recreated the fish school pretty well. A background might be nice. Maybe could approximate the one from the book with noise nodes.
Kelsie_Anderson
@Kelsie_Anderson I meant to welcome you back to the challenge last week, but forgot. I think you have a good eye for composition. I agree with @Ethan_Martinez about the ripple and piranha plant. I also like how the monster is kind of hazy, which happens under water. There is a lot of dead space, but I think it works. I feel like it needs a little more separation between over/under the surface. Maybe a horizon line? Maybe the things above/below the surface are colored/rendered slightly differently? I like it though. Over-all I’m reminded of this:
I’m guessing that’s intentional.
Sahil_Nain
@Sahil_Nain I love this! Such a departure from your other work–which I also like, but it’s cool to see the range! Before post it looks like paper. After post it looks like canvas. I like it with the post-processing better. The colors are a little richer and the contrast is a little better. Plus the canvas texture is nice. And the composition is balanced too. It’s not photo-realistic, but it doesn’t look like a 3D model either. Very cool! This entry was my choice for poll 2, but it was very close.
KStarr
@KStarr Nice orca! You said it’s not done, so I won’t say too much. Only maybe the fins should come to more of a point, or be a bit thinner at the ends. I hope you share it with us if you add more to it.
Leon_V
@Leon_V Welcome to the challenge! That’s quite a complex scene! Is it based on a real place? The buildings have a lot of nice details, and I like the bright mix of colors. Maybe the floor should be a different color to distinguish from the walls and stairs? Just a thought.
Enodes
@Enodes Welcome to the challenge! I like the light ray in the back, and the way you blurred the foreground and background. The composition feels a little unbalanced to me. Maybe pan the camera to the right a little, or even just cut off some of the left side of the image.
Capricas_Kirito
@Capricas_Kirito Welcome to the challenge! I think I like the cycles render better. It’s interesting that the fish is not realistic, but in the cycles render it looks like a real object because of the depth and shadow. The water looks murky. I’m guessing that’s from the volumetrics.
Bradley_Bowers
First I read the description from the notification, and I thought Oh no he’s using the condom again, but then I saw what you added to it and I thought Ha! OK that’s pretty funny.
NP5
You did a good job mixing low poly with detailed textures. That’s something I struggle with in low poly. Only the man seems a little out of place because of his lack of texture detail. The water looks great!
Blest
Another beautiful scene. Like @FedPete said, like a painting. I like how you depicted the waves in the water only through their shadows. My only issue is that at first I found the perspective a little confusing. The fish almost seem to be above the people, as though they’re in the sky.
Me
I mostly focused on the animation, and so the models were very simple. I was disappointed with the over-all look of the scene. I thought the background was too plain and the lighting was not great. I was also not happy with the glass or water, as they seemed so desaturate the color. I was happy with the fish animations, though, and I learned a few things.
That’s a lot of entries! Hope we can continue to grow this challenge. It’s a lot of fun to see what you all come up with!
@FedPete I like the two polls, but I’m not sure if I understand the distinction between the two. Is it kind of a “technical score” and an “artistic score”? Or just an “overall favorite” and “second favorite”? Anyway, cool idea, and I’m open to more experimenting in this regard.
Nice work, everybody!
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(@Bradley_Bowers @NP5 @Blest I tried to @ everybody in the previous post but it would only let me mention 10 people in one post 
)
Congratulations @Blest , winner of two polls! Impressive score!
Can I invite you to host the next challenge!?
edit: bad English word choice
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I like to give everyone points!
I see some cool Blender stuff (in some challenges), which is the goal of the weekly collab. For me, number one’s.
And entries simple, but elegant. Good composition, nice general stuff. So I like them also.
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Thanks Tyger. Yes ran out of time I was adding textures at the end. The fisherman lost out. Whereas I had to make the fish scales texture, which surprisingly I could not find a free one ready made. Ended up using a free tillable ‘fish scale’ roofing tile image, then used it to generate a normal map etc. in Materialize. My entry looks best full size. I am realising I should work smaller for this collab thing. Much is lost that I spend ages fussing over when almost all will see it only in a tiny size.
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Oh! Thank you! The next theme - “Will you go to the Ball? - What you (or Cinderella) need to get to the Ball”. Limitations: no black and white.
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Thank you for your suggestions. Look of waves was a kind of an accident. And broken perspective was planned, though in 3D it doesn’t play as supposed.
Sorry that I do not give constructive feedback, it’s really difficult to express myself in English, I think I make too many mistakes.
I was hypnotized with your fish movement, voted for it as first and thought it will win. May be I"d like to see the bowl smoother…
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Thanks for taking the time to write feedback for us all!
I interpreted the polls as your first guess, technical, and artistic.
Also, I considered adding some of the stuff you suggested in the scene but wasn’t quite sure on how to do it.
And as for @Blest’s submission, it did have a weird perspective, but whether it was intentional or not, I think it makes it better in my opinion. With the way it is, it gives an optical illusion sorta feel, which for me, adds to the painting feel.
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Thanks @Tyger2. I think I did that whole project in an hour and a half to two hours. I’m personally not a real big fan of Eevee so I try to optimize my stuff for Cycles and haven’t had much luck or experience with volumetrics so far.
Glad see the collab come back up again I’ve usually enjoyed the challenge involved. As to the ‘Multiple Polls’ thing, I think this can only be a good thing. Especially if we use them to score the submissions on multiple criteria.
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wow everyones submissions were fantastic with some real creative flair and imagination.
Keep it up everyone, looking forward to watching this threads 
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When it’s time to vote, I try to take a minute to look at each submission at full resolution, to fully appreciate them. That said, I think a well-composed image should look good both up close and far away. Easier said than done, unfortunately.
@Blest Thanks!
OK that makes sense then.
No worries! Feel free to write in another language if you want. We can translate it.
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Thanks Tyger2, Yes I agree with the floor, that’s a good suggestion. It was an amalgamation of places, used a couple of reference photos. But I think there was too much white in the end.
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How did you manage to create the gif form? I used Conversio to change my MP4 lamp animation into a gif but when I tried sending it on my topic, it would get stuck on 100% for a while and say it was unable to load it. Any solutions?
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For this one I rendered as an mp4 and used an online conversion tool. I forget which one, but they all gave me similar results that weren’t great (quality loss).
I recommend using the Bligify addon. Pretty easy to use and gives you more control of the output.