Description
I’ve always loved underwater scenes and was thrilled to learn that Vue 10 had a new water rendering engine. I worked on this scene for about a week and it’s gone through quite a few different revisions. Light and color behave differently underwater and this has been a learning experience for me.
This was my latest render and I would say that I am around 80% happy with it. I started in to fixing the last 19% when tragedy struck. Vue crashed and for some strange reason refused to reopen my scene file. The backup appears to be corrupted too. I’m glad my kids were at school when that happened because I get in trouble when I swear in front of them.
Anyway, the first file was lost so I worked over the weekend rebuilding it. I’ve changed a thing or two since the original (which can be found in the Pickle Jar). I’ve moved some things around and added some more sea life to the scene (the title has changed accordingly).
Hope you enjoy it! I look forward to many more underwater scenes with the new Vue render engine!
An Octopus's Garden: octopusgarden1
An Octopus's Garden: neptunegarden1
jlpilkin
Thanks for the quick fix!
Ryan
Thanks for the heads up Josh. Those should be fixed now.
jlpilkin
The Retina (both jpg and png) version of this image is Poseidon instead of An Octopus’s Garden. Just thought I’d point that out.
Gordon
Love it.
Zanshire
This is an impressive background. The colors are vibrant and blended very well and there seems to be a flurry of activity in the background.
Thunderbol
I think I like Neptuns Garden best, because I love the sunrays in the obviously more shallow water. could be a tiny bit of more fish though 😉
Thunderbol
I think I like Neptuns Garden best, because I love the sunrays in the obviously more shallow water. could be a tiny bit of more fish though 😉
Stephen
Ryan, I really like Octopus’s Garden and your other underwater images. Have you ever thought of doing one of a kelp forest?
Chris
I definitely like the idea of some more Winter / Christmas themes next. Count me +1 on the notion of something cheerful as opposed to just dark and cold too. In Colorado, we have gorgeous winters and we also get sunshine an average of 320 days per year. So, something mountainous, sunny (or at least makes you feel warm inside – kinda like a good cup of hot chocolate), and Winter / Christmas would be great…!
MJohanson
All your work is wonderful! I wonder what your version of a snowperson or snowpeople would be?
jlpilkin
How about a “daytime”/bright Christmas scene? Most of your Christmas scenes are on the dark side. Perhaps a majestic, mountainous snowscape/icescape with placed ornament(s) (or any other symbol of the holidays) placed subtly throughout the scene.
Nice improvements on Octopus’s Garden.
Craig
Since I spent the last 9 months in the dessert with barely any rain, much less snow… I’m ready for a winter scene. 🙂
Mars
We are ready for some..:)
Mike R
Ryan: Can’t wait for your new pics for Dec. 2011
YOU ROCK
Mars
We are ready for some..:)
Duncan
As always, you’ve exceeded my expectations. So now the challenge is a holiday 2011 theme or two. Maybe its time to immerse yourself in some musical Transiberian Orchestra to stimulate your abilities…but as always; your choice to to taunt us with your creations.
Chris K
Some more fall colors. I loved your last piece with the changing tree but I’m not ready for fall to be over! Have you ever done a fall scene as a planetscape?
Chris
First off, I want to say that the widescreen of Octopus’s Garden looks really nice. Somehow it looks like it has more depth than the regular size. Secondly, I would like to see a winter scene next, maybe a Christmas one, and something very unexpected to follow. Maybe pick something you don’t have as many wallpapers of, or any at all. Something like a desert, a cave, a floating castle, who knows? Just get creative.
Terry
I used to dish out 10’s all the while then I discovered you kept getting better. For this you can have a 10. Easily your best work so far in my opinion.
JohnnyD
Wouldn’t be the same holiday season without a new DB Christma scene!
robk64
You’ve had some great ideas for images. The latest is very well done, but doesn’t work for me as a wallpaper because of everything going on (my eyes have a tough enough time sifting through all the icons on my desktop). How about a darker, broader, winter scene with the “wow factor” being more camera angle or shot set-up, than quantity of content? Just a thought.
David
Multiple! 🙂
Dave T
I love the winter ones!
Lidia
I suppose it’s too late for a Thanksgiving themed wallpaper? I’d love too see one next year…
Chris B
how was it, Holiday, space, winter, underwater, abstract, sounds like a new Holiday one lol I still think it’s a little too far away for christmas… maybe a few dragons pulling the red comet across the sky bringing fire & des… oh it’s christmas…
Any Thoughts on a New Years wallpaper? Usually use Happy4th, but it would be awesome to see what Bucephalus can do with fireworks 🙂
James
Perfect. Thank you for making those alterations!
sigmaman
This is the best one Ryan. The muted colours and less animal life make it less busy.
Lidia
These changes were exactly what this image needed; it is now awesome! I love it! Thank you so much for making the changes!
vtowens
Version three looks great! It it is the best of both worlds, more fish, more calm. Who is ready for snorkeling?
Jen
Version 3 seems to be the best balanced of the three… the amount of fish in version 2 was a little too overwhelming, and the coral in the foreground seemed washed out. I still feel the lighting in version 1 is the best.
Timhogs
It’s been a while since you published a “habitat” rendering (Biodome/Atrium, Temple of the Leaf, etc). With the new software I’d be curious to see what you might invent with an underwater habitat.
Noliving
Can we please get Lossless 1920×1080 wallpapers?
Walo
Hi Ryan awesome image as always. Just posting to say that the pickle jar link is missing.
Randall
I’d like to be…under the sea…
Seriously, wonderful work, Ryan! You’ve done it again!
Kana
#3 is the most realistic out of all of them. Despite the amount of color coral has, it’s not the neon of #2 so much, especially under 40 ft of water. v3 is by far my favorite. Awesome corrections!
Fabio
Personally I prefer the colorful version #2!
The octopus new look is great, but the corals #2 are much better.
Chris B
I like how we can see the details of the Octopus now and the color is much better 🙂 awesome.
Tatiana
“That’s what I like about English. It’s all about personal preference. Unless you do it wrong. Then I will destroy you.”
Hahahaha =)
Loving the third version, Ryan. It’s perfect. =)
Jenanne
Love it, Ryan! The changes are exactly correct!
Ryan
I’ve added a new render this evening with a new sun angle and some strategically places shadows in the foreground. I’ve also removed about half of the fish.Better?
General B
Oh, well I stand mildly corrected. I still prefer to use a single apostrophe because I think it looks neater. 😛
That’s what I like about English. It’s all about personal preference. Unless you do it wrong. Then I will destroy you.
Victor
Love this one, very calming, and peaceful. Second version, I like, but it is just a bit busy for my taste. Good work!
Chris
Hey Ryan – There’s something different about the noise level and color saturation from the first version to the second. In the first version, you definitely get the feeling of “floating particles” like there would really be underwater, but in the second version it’s almost too strong and ends up feeling like digital noise.
Also, the colors feel overpowering in the foreground corals. Almost like they’re getting overexposed. And the color balance feels off somehow.
Finally, the angle of the light in the first one was more interesting to me, it created a neat effect on the rear arm of the reef with the light playing on the corals in the background.
I love the first one, even without all the fish, so thanks for another amazing piece!
scott wray
ryan – just a quick note from my eyes. my eyes seem to be pulled away from the entire image by the brightness of the vegitation on the bottom left. in your first verison the image had more eye flow.
Kevin
Gosh, this would be so awesome as a screensaver! Great work – hoping to have the dual screen versions soon so I can put this one up.
Marta
Please – hurry up and make the dual monitor version of both versions. 2560 x 1024, por favor. Can’t wait to put them up.
JCDU
Have a look here. It describes the several cases of apostrophes and possessions perfectly:
http://www.english.ucalgary.ca/grammar/course/punctuation/3_7.htm
The extra “s” is acceptable when added to a singular word already ending in “s”.
Tatiana
http://oxforddictionaries.com/page/punctuationapostrophe
When a singular word naturally ends in “s,” you can just have an apostrophe there to assert ownership but that’s the exception rather than the rule. It bugs me when people think it’s the rule. (Why yes, I am a grammar Nazi, why do you ask? =P)
Ryan
I just copied the track name from iTunes so if I’m wrong Ringo was too.
General B
dbn’s got the right of it. You have the theory correct, but when a singular word naturally ends in ‘s’, and you’re trying to assert ownership, you only need to have the apostrophe there, simply because having “s’s” looks pretty daft.
Though I’m pretty sure having the second ‘s’ there isn’t against the rules, so do what you will. >_>
Tatiana
No, it shouldn’t be “Octopus’ Garden.” That would only be true if there were multiple octopuses that owned the garden. But since it’s AN octopus in the title, there is only one octopus. So “Octopus’s Garden” is correct. (Side note: octopuses IS the correct plural of octopus.)
dbn
Don’t want to be the grammar nazi, but I would say that the title should be “An Octopus’ Garden.” 🙂 Really enjoy your work Ryan, keep on truckin’.
Tim
This looks beautiful. My wife loves it. Normally you post links for a 2560×1440 jpg version that isn’t available this time. Will you be adding that later? Thanks for all your incredible work.
Bluehound
So sad you lost the file, I really like Neptunes’ Garden, the filtered sunlight, not too much contrast, soft coral. I am using it now, just wish we all could have seen the 100%! Long time fan, love your work.
Jordan
On some things. The foreground lighting in this is very bright, and the background very dark, and even with the lossless version I just feel like it’s too grainy and loses a lot. I realize atmospheric distortion occurs over distance, but this seems a little extreme.
Then again, Chris B might not have made that point at all..
Scott
Yeehhhh I think there are too many fish in this one. Maybe if you grouped them together in schools, rather than having them all scattered, it would work better.
Rob C.
… not that the original wasn’t great, too.
Dusty
Being a diver, this is the way I wish all my dives looked! Looking forward to the multi screen versions!
Terry
Like this a lot Ryan, something that I reckon would look good would be a version where youre looking up from under an arch and could see the surface of the water with moon beams coming through – that’d look pretty impressive. Keep up the good work 🙂
David
Hi Ryan-
I noticed the 5120×1600 image is really 5120×1440 on the following images, and haven’t been resolved yet:
-Elegy (Winter/Night)
-Grand Design (both zoom levels/versions)
-Red Harbinger
-String Theory (yellow, red/blue, and blue versions)
Chris
I love this one alot. It has great visual balance (as do most your works), nice vivid colors, and clever use of lights and darks. Its a nice break from the winter/fall scenes you’ve been doing lately too. The only criticism I might have is that I can’t see my icons as well when this is set as my desktop, but other than that this is VERY well done.
Chris B
I’ve only seen 5 Octopi fully out of their holes and If I saw one like that I’d probably need to change my wetsuit! That being said, it is EXACTLY why I love DB 🙂
However, I like the coloring of the first one better, this version seems too bright, like it’s loosing a lot of the finer details in the coral due to the brightness. There isn’t too much going on, that’s how the the reefs usually are. You could break them down more into schools with some parrot fish & angle fish added in. A golden grouper might be cool, they look bright orange and really stick out. Might want to add some sea anemones for nemo, the nudibranchs always look awesome, though they’re tiny. Maybe some Conches.
http://www.sergeyphoto.com/underwater/nudibranchs.html
The blue & orange ones make me think of Fluorescence
http://slugjunkie.com/category/gallery/nudibranchs-sea-slugs/color/blue-nudibranchs/
One little gripe… make the sea horse grab onto some coral before he gets sucked away in the current 😉
James
Awesome work as always. I think it would look a bit better if the foreground flora were toned down a bit.
Anton
I absolutely love how active and lively this scene is for an underwater scene, usually underwater and island and anything tropical is very serene and relaxing but this just makes you want to dive in and have fun! Nice change of pace for the Autumn/Winter Season :D, Thanks Ryan!
Kana
Hey, I LOVE the new version of neptune’s garden. However, the colors seem too… NEON for real life. Switch those to more realistic colors, and you got me saying 110% 🙂
Betsey
I meant SUR-passes!!!!
Betsey
dunno what I thought you were going to do with this–but it passes ALL my expectations!!!!
Lidia
I like the most of the sea life (especially the octopus), but I think the fish are too spread out all over the place (it just looks like a whole bunch of specks). I think some of them would look better as more concentrated schools of fish. And I don’t particularly like the foreground; it looks even more washed out than the first version (I think it has too much bright light blue/turquoise). Please, please do a revision because I really really like underwater scenes!
Tyler
I like them both evenly. If my opinion mattered I would add some sharks. Too busy? Nah that’s not what I think. I’m sure you will incorporate all this feedback and wow us yet again Mr. Bliss. Thank you for including us in your creative process.
dmackoy
Agree with some others that posted, a little to busy with the fish. Less is more.
Simon
i’m impressed you re-created the whole scene, Ryan, but i’m afraid i agree with the others – despite the new version having more content, i can’t help feeling it lacks *detail*; the original has just the right ratio of detail to content. But congratulations all the same – it seems a bit churlish to critique work of such as astonishingly high standard!
Jenanne
Particularly on the left side, the light blue plants don’t have much detail. Or rather, the detail is confusing; it’s hard to make out what I’m looking at, so unlike Poseidon’s Playground, one of my all time favorites. Perhaps a bit more colorful diversity of plants, corals, jellyfish, sea anemones, colorful nudibranchs, etc.? I would love to see a moray eel or two. And since this is an octopus’s garden, how about the octopus a bit closer, perhaps some of its tentacles wrapped around the arch?
Mike
Octopus’s Garden looks much better then the first. I disagree with the few people saying its too busy. A Coral Reef is full of life and is to be busy. If anything i think it could use more action
aries 77
i’d like to be,under the sea,in an octopus’s garden,with you. nice reference
Jeff K
I prefer version 1 over this. As most have said its too busy. Also I think there is too much color. Finally, that Octopus. Really?
jlpilkin
Overall, a nice wallpaper. However, I have to agree with the others about the first version being better. One of the aspects of the first image I enjoyed was the prominent light rays, less fish and lighter water “color”. I do like the addition of the octopus, though.
By the way, to deal with any future crashes, I would recommend saving your scene file and every file related to it in another location every time you do a major revision. It wouldn’t hurt to verify the backups work either.
Jamison
As someone that’s been diving, this seems very busy, to the point it’s unrealistic..
Ryan
I spent the weekend rebuilding my broken “Neptune’s Garden” scene and have posted the updated render in my Members Gallery this morning.The first change you will notice is the new title: “An Octopus’s Garden” is borrowed from one of my favorite Beatles songs. My scene file was corrupted before I had the chance to add much in the way of sea life, so I had to choose a different title for the first version (which will remain in the Pickle Jar).I hope you like the changes!
Littlemom
I actually prefer your first render of this wallpaper. The new one although pretty, it’s a little to busy for my likeing. But as always it’s been added to my wallpaper collection anyways, because I love your work. Thanks Ryan.
Rush
there are a lot of small fish in open water. i think they would stay closer to the corals for protection. also 99% of them are swimming to the right. there must be a mermaid off screen they’re all attracted to. 🙂
Henry V.
Some nice orange and red fire coral could be added as well as some unique brain coral and anemones.
Henry V.
Another fantastic work piece! Perhaps we could see a sunken ship image in the future. Perhaps some larger fish could be added to the image such as tarpon, barracuda, or some nice colorful fish.
Myles7701
Hands down, one of your best wallpapers ever!
James
This instantly takes me back to snorkeling of the coast of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
I feel your pain with the software crash…hope you get it sorted out.
Daniel
Can’t wait for the dual screen! I am using Poseidon right now, Neptune’s Garden is how I want my marine tank to look!
Angelique
I forgot to add that I didn’t want to comment on the posted version of “Neptune’s Garden (2011)”. I’d rather wait until there is a completed version. However, I love your ocean and underwater themed artwork. “Poseidon” is one of my favorites of your works 🙂
Angelique
Hi Ryan, I hope you can get the “Neptune’s Garden” file fixed. It’s unfortunate when you lose things that you’ve worked hard on due to some noisome computer errors 🙁
On an unrelated note, I saw a pic that reminded me of your work “Twilight Harbor” on Yahoo news this morning:
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/world-s-new-seven-wonders-of-nature-1321047232-slideshow/vietnams-halong-bay-one-worlds-seven-wonders-nature-photo-193947132.html
(photo #2 in the article “World’s new seven wonders of nature”)
I’ve been a member of your site since the late nineties and lately I’ve been wishing you’d re-visit some of your earlier themes. I loved the wallpapers with the little boats 🙂
Zero Grav.
It looks really great so far… I does have that painted look, which most of the first versions have. But its beautiful none the less…
Hoverwolf1
I like it so far, but I think something should be eating something else here, or at least struggling with it.
Chris M
It looks just like the intro to Chrono Cross. 😀
Very nicely done!
Ken
My daughter doesn’t think it’s cool, but what does she know. I love it
Thunderbol
not sure whether your really NEED anemones & clown fish, as everyone would expect to see this on such a picture since finding nemo.
could easily get boring
nuccadoc
Being a marine aquarist for the past 20 yrs I would like to offer some suggestions. You need some schools of fish, like yellow tangs or anthias. Would be very cool if you could put some anemones & clown fish in the mix. The corals on the left are pretty washed out also. It’s still very impressive Ryan and I hope you can make it even better.
dmackoy
Enjoying this one already. Needed a respite from winter. Love the sun rays coming in, feels very warm. Suggestion… possible to do a little less blue in the coral, tends to wash out everything into a blue blob at times.
Hope you are able to get the tech issues worked out.
Dan
You never cease to amaze. You also make me want to spend more money and buy Vue among other things.
Thanks for all the great images after all these years and keep it up!
Brian
Love the orginal. This one is nice. But too many pastels. A little too Disney. I encourage you to pursue your changes. I look forward to them.
Littlemom
I have always love your underwater renders and this one doesn’t disappoint either. Great Job!!!!
Jenn
This is absolutely beautiful. Being in the North East where it’s starting to get cold this is a great view to have on my computer.
Jenn
This is absolutely beautiful. Being in the North East where it’s starting to get cold this is a great view to have on my computer.
Deanna
Aquamarine has always been an all-time favorite of mine and finds it’s way on my desktop over and over for extended periods. Neptune’s Garden (2011) might now take its place as my favorite underwater wallpaper. I really, really love this. Please don’t change it too much… It feels real.
Ron
First off, let me say I’ve always wanted to go scuba diving, so being from a land-locked state, pretty hard to do, so all of your underwater scenes make me feel I’m right there.
Second of all, if this is only a first draft, I can’t wait to see the next versions!!! Awesome job, Ryan!
Chris
My bad on that previous post. I didn’t really read about what happened to the render until after I posted. Sorry.
Chris
I like this one but I think there’s a bit to much coral growing around the arch. It also kinda grows off at weird angles that makes it look less natural. Other than that its pretty nice. Maybe add more fish too.
Lidia
It looks a little washed out…
My condolences on the Vue bug that corrupted your scene file.
Terry
Reminds me of the reef in OZ, its true though about the colours – below a couple of meters you lose reds and yellows the last colour to go is the blues. It upset me to learn that Nemo is actually brown and not orange! I’d say don’t paint too much back in it won’t look right.
Michelle
I think it’s very lovely as it is, but I hope they’re able to salvage the file somehow. How frustrating! 🙁
William
So, 80% + 19% = 99%… I guess a true artist admits he never makes it to 100! I do think this is a well-usable image, even as it is.
Geep
This is pretty sweet, even at 80%. It reminds me of the opening of Finding Nemo, which happens to be one of my favorite movies. 🙂
I really love the way the light filters down through the water, but I have to admit, the grouping of coral on the left side looks a bit washed out. Not sure if that was part of the 19% you were still working on, but hopefully the people at E-Onsoftware can help you. Good luck with it!
Jeff K
Spending a week in the Bahamas. I need some time near the ocean. This is a great image.