Beauty Approximations

As the film got to the outside of the crystals there's been a lot of hesitation on the next step. Think I'm getting closer though, got this simpler solution with this shader and chaotic mesh (in this case, boxes on a sphere). The idea is to create drip shapes from which boxes starting to poke out, gradually forming the crystals. 

Now working in correct colorspace. Will now render a few different crystals from different angles so my friend Simon Gustafsson can start working on a concept for the tree.

The shader didn't look so good in all angles so I did some worke on the irradescence effect. (Note, these pics are too brightly lit).

Added some details to the rocky surface. Not sure what to move onto next, will probably render this with a moving camera and then maby do some animation tests.

Crystal now glass coated. Next up is to hand model details to the rocky surface.

Took back the sculpted model into shading to see how it worked. Fairly happy with the results. Need to go back to sculpting to get a more fluid pattern then add a glass material that covers this rocky surface. Later on I will also add something glowy inside. I'll hope to paint some textures to control all this as I think manual work is needed to create the details I'm after. You can also hint some spots of saturation, this is my take on a iridescence effect. I'll start introduce some colour here as I'm thinking of making the next phase to look like something the Hubble telescope could have captured.

Did some work on the "goodbye" project a bit. Ran intothis "materialised light" element that needed its own little side track. The idea is that colours expand from the sunset and flows over the mountains. Animation was pretty straight forward. Here's two tests for the shader I came up with. Water look . High frequency inner lights . Here's the geo I used . Next is to merge anim and shader into something that blends with the watercolour elements.