Chimerarachne
I've always wanted to work on an insect or arachnid and seeing the news about a proto-spider called Chimerarachne I decided that it would be the next project I worked on since it does look quite cool (Looks like a facehugger from Alien) The background isn't CG but images and a video which I got from Creative Commons websites.
Chimerarachne with Breakdown video
Was going for a pearlescent effect on the skin and so started making an oily shader which I was able to achieve thanks to Grant Warwick's twitch stream!
Top and bottom photos at the left by Eric Keller
Top photo by Eric Keller
Got the pearlescent on the spider. It isn't much but it does make quite a difference instead of just my plane diffuse map
First shader test which didn't have that much reflection to it.
Second shader test with the pearlescent effect
Third shader test with a bit of white dust in the blend material
4th shader test with lessened white dusting and model with the fangs, pedipalp and hair strands
First render test of shot 2
Backplate:
'Midnight Garden Timelapse' by Beachfront available at https://www.videvo.net/video/midnight-garden-time-lapse/3317/
under a Creative Commons 3.0 Unported Creative Commons 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)
Second render test composition
Backplate:
'Midnight Garden Timelapse' by Beachfront available at https://www.videvo.net/video/midnight-garden-time-lapse/3317/
under a Creative Commons 3.0 Unported Creative Commons 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)
Final render of shot 02
Backplate:
'Midnight Garden Timelapse' by Beachfront available at https://www.videvo.net/video/midnight-garden-time-lapse/3317/
under a Creative Commons 3.0 Unported Creative Commons 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)
Shot 01 composition