Choppa Nutta "Dr. MooseMeister" haha, love it 🙂
I love the fact that you've got a back story on the go with this build 🙂
and yes Germen, I would say the French and elegance are synonymous with each other, especially historically, for fathering Art Nouveau and numerous other art movements, fine wines, sophisticated cuisine, center of fashion, French lace, the language is widely regarded as the most elegant to listen to and even their fries are more elegant haha 😄
But that's not to say other countries can't be elegant too, I hear Russia have a world class ballet team, plus elegance isn't the only virtue worthy of admiration 🙂
Anyhow, nice work Martin, loving where it is going 👍 😄
Martin R. Actually I wrote half or a short story describing what happened when the Jiao Long discovers the sunken and forgotten US Underwater base and FichtenFoo's submersible 🙂 When I am finished, I can post a link...
22 July 2016, 21:50
Choppa Nutta Baron von FichtenFoo I presume, distant cousin of the Earl of Whotknott ? 😄
22 July 2016, 21:55
Germen V Nowhere are the fries better than here!!!!
25 July 2016, 10:42
Choppa Nutta Haha, ah but by what metric Germen ? 😄
If not elegance, perhaps taste or texture ? Haha 🙂
Martin R. Well, it's an aquarium 🙂 Jokes aside: I actually thought about filling it with water and see what will happen (but the thought quickly vanished within one second...)
6 August 2016, 22:31
Choppa Nutta A two pack clear coat over the whole thing, about five or six decent coats and it will be marine proof 🙂
please, please turn it into a fish tank (with fish 😄 ) 🙂
Mind you with one of those wrinkly glass tiles and a spot lamp you could create the effect very nicely 🙂
especially with a dark blue backdrop, pump some smoke in there so you can see the light beams 👍
Either way I love it, great idea and nicely done Martin 👍 🙂
6 August 2016, 22:54
Felix Kronlage awesome. great work! am totally thrilled 🙂
Christian Ristits Wow, I really like it a lot, cant wait to see the subs in it!
13 August 2016, 12:04
Martin R. Now it is basically complete. The placements of the subs (dangling from the top) was ... well ... not really discrete. Also the lighting of the Shinkai illuminates nothing inside the aquarium 🙁
In the last pictures I played around with the colors, but nothing is too convincing. Has someone an idea how to simulate underwater light conditions and tint (without actually pouring water into the aquarium diorama which might actually still be possible, but probably won't do a lot about the colors...)?
EDIT: Hm, maybe the smoke thing that Choppa mentioned could work (it's like old movie magic...)
13 August 2016, 20:40
Bernhard Schrock Great idea, great modelling and great effect - photography!
14 August 2016, 15:52
Martin R. By the way (it is probably also pretty obvious): the last photos were not done "In camera" (to use a movie term) but by post-production (and another) and the plain aquarium still looks, mhm, pretty plain 🙂
how about cropping and stretching this image for a printed back drop on two sides for a corner display ? 🙂
another idea is to make a sea surface from some of that wriggky/wavey window plastic,
or failing that get a clear piece of perspex (tinted blue ?) and attack it with a heat gun,
cut a hole out for a boat hull to fit into and have a top side vessel with a search light or two 🙂
fill aquarium with smoke and light from above and you should get light beams and that under water wavey light effect 🙂
Ulf Petersen Wonderful idea and great result, Martin!👍
15 August 2016, 05:11
Martin R. Choppa, the second one with the beams of light looks great. I also thought about a printed backdrop - maybe I try during next weekend - I don't want to fix it permanently, though, as I like the complete transparency of the aquarium, but one can attach it semi-permanently for the photo shoot.
I wanna try the smoke thing (also an old movie trick when practical effects were still en vogue) - but how? I know "smoke sticks" that you use to test ventilation in enclosed areas... Any other possibility?
15 August 2016, 08:55
Choppa Nutta incense cones on a little bit of tin foil placed inside, maybe with a little cage to kind of hide them ?
put a lid on top to contain the smoke, there will be enough oxygen in there for the incense create enough smoke to be effective.
But you also need a way to create the light beams by shining a light from above through a wriggly glass/plastic lid, something a few mm thick at least to get the light to refract in a similar way it does through water. Tint it ocean blue to complete the effect. plus having a lid will help keep the smoke in 🙂
-> When I say wriggly/wavey plastic bathroom window that you can in sheets from some DIY stores would you know what I mean ?
sprayed clear with the crests of the waves artfully sanded back to clear to help get that underwater light pattern 😄
a little bit of sellotape on the edges taped to the outside and you can move it around for photoing different angles etc. I would suggest at least two sides though, if not three for the photos 😄
the first pic I think would make a great backdrop, stretched to the right size of course 🙂
..
Another idea is to find some plants that kind of look like seaweed to help disguise the corners of the tank 🙂
When it comes to putting it on the shelf for display put an under sea poster on the wall behind it as it will be the back drop that really sets the scene and you still see through three sides and can turn it around whilst still having a background etc.😉
Anyhow, I love this little project and I look forward to more of your movie magic Martin 😄
15 August 2016, 12:26
Martin R. Just for the fun 🙂 of it: read the first half of the backstory that explains what happens in the diorama and what actually are "The Secrets of South China" Sea:
(not fully proof-read, not checked for continuity, graphics are a bit compressed, but nothing too severe)
Interested in how the story unfolds?
15 August 2016, 18:27
Bart Goesaert nice story so far, and interested in the rest of the "saga"... the underwater diorama seems very nice...
16 August 2016, 11:15
Choppa Nutta love it, nice that you've made the effort with a story too 🙂
16 August 2016, 11:35
Martin R. @Choppa: I printed out the background you posted (three DINA4 wide, glued area not disguised yet) --> nice (recent two photos are just slightly color-corrected). I think, I will use the triptych as the background also in the vitrine. Thanks!
20 August 2016, 10:52
Choppa Nutta some thoughts 🙂
stop using the difference cloud photoshop filter 😉
you want to use a water caustics picture like so -
be sure to delete where the shadows in the photo are to make it look like the light is wrapping around the objects.
I tend to use two or three copies of this layer using different filters like multiply, overlay, soft hard light etc.
play around with the levels of each of the effect layers until the interactions are harmonious as well as adjusting the contrast, brightness and hue of each of these effect layers etc.
and then in the layers above that I might add a colour filter of some kind to adjust the overall tone and hue
on top of that the light beams
One thing I might suggest is making the sand in your scene less yellow and maybe more greyish green.
the overall yellowness is not helping, perhaps the indoor lights are hindering this as well
mixed lighting could help here though by using a blue light along side a white light to help shift the tone naturally,
the more you can do on set means less to do in photoshop which helps make getting it looking realistic easier 🙂
20 August 2016, 13:16
Choppa Nutta another thought, if you have a tripod you can take multiple photos and overlay them in photoshop precisely,
this means you can take a photo in normal light and a photo in blue light and then green and then layer them up in photoshop and play 🙂
if you are interested in reading the fictitious back-story of the diorama, now the full story in available as PDF on my website - it's feature-complete, and should be spelling-error free, but consider it a first draft. Also the illustrations are yet missing to keep the download size smaller.
Martin R.
4+
Choppa Nutta
Germen V
MRMLA
Bart Goesaert
