Knittingmommy's Laboratory

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  • So, I did some more work on my singer and rendered it again.  Thanks, @FirstBastion for the advice.  I played with some surface settings on the skin and that made a huge difference.  You were right about it not really being a lighting issue.  I was able to put the lights back to almost close to your preset for them with just some slight adjustments.  I got the sharp shadows back that I liked when I first loaded it up so that was really good.  I got rid of the smoke in post as I didn't really like it.  It was a tad too much.  I ket some of the smoke that was rendered in DS.  So, any advice is welcome.  I'd love to find out what people think.  I'm not sure I'm happy with the post on this one.  Would love some opinions.

    Original:

    Postworked:

  • MN-150374 said:

    Just in case someone doesn´t know, G´mic is also available online as standalone without GIMP: https://gmicol.greyc.fr/

    My favorite part of G´mic is the Film Emulation Section.

    I have it loaded into my version of Gimp 2.8, but not the 2.9 Beta.  I've played with it a little bit.  I have not done anything with that Film Emulation. 

     

    Thank you for the tutorials, KM. :D

    Your welcome.  I love that someone can find them useful.  I have to be honest.  I never, ever thought I'd be doing tutorials and actually teaching anyone anything when I first started doing this. :)

  • MN-150374MN-150374 Posts: 923
    edited January 2017
    MN-150374 said:

    Just in case someone doesn´t know, G´mic is also available online as standalone without GIMP: https://gmicol.greyc.fr/

    My favorite part of G´mic is the Film Emulation Section.

    I have it loaded into my version of Gimp 2.8, but not the 2.9 Beta.  I've played with it a little bit.  I have not done anything with that Film Emulation. 

    The G´mic Film Emulation is a collection of presets to imitate the characteristics of different analog photography films. The G´mic alternative to the Analog Efex Pro filters, Liana was referring to. 

    Also if you are familiar with LuxRender, it is similar to the feature Film Response. So with G´mics Film Emulation you can add this feature to your 3Delight and Iray Renders in postwork. Each Film Preset varies in contrast, tint, saturation and so on. A quick and easy way to change the look of your image with a few clicks. 

    Some random G´mic Film Emulation examples:

    Golden Vibrant

    Fuji FP 100C Negative

    Polaroid 690 Warm

    AnalogFX Sepia

    Agfa APX 100

    Post edited by MN-150374 on
  • MN-150374 said:
    MN-150374 said:

    Just in case someone doesn´t know, G´mic is also available online as standalone without GIMP: https://gmicol.greyc.fr/

    My favorite part of G´mic is the Film Emulation Section.

    I have it loaded into my version of Gimp 2.8, but not the 2.9 Beta.  I've played with it a little bit.  I have not done anything with that Film Emulation. 

    The G´mic Film Emulation is a collection of presets to imitate the characteristics of different analog photography films. The G´mic alternative to the Analog Efex Pro filters, Liana was referring to. 

    Also if you are familiar with LuxRender, it is similar to the feature Film Response. So with G´mics Film Emulation you can add this feature to your 3Delight and Iray Renders in postwork. Each Film Preset varies in contrast, tint, saturation and so on. A quick and easy way to change the look of your image with a few clicks. 

    Some random G´mic Film Emulation examples:

    Golden

    Ah, okay.  Gotcha!  I've had a lot of fun with the ones in the NIK collection that does that.  I'll have to check the G'Mic versions to see what might be different that I like.  Thanks!

     

  • Okay, I've posted this to the New User's thread.  I hope this is my final version of postwork for this image.  I think it looks better than the last one.  The main comment was that the freckles on the postworked version was way over the top and distracting.  So, I toned it down a bit.

  • LianaLiana Posts: 1,035
    edited February 2017
    MN-150374 said:

    The G´mic Film Emulation is a collection of presets to imitate the characteristics of different analog photography films. The G´mic alternative to the Analog Efex Pro filters, Liana was referring to. 

    Also if you are familiar with LuxRender, it is similar to the feature Film Response. So with G´mics Film Emulation you can add this feature to your 3Delight and Iray Renders in postwork. Each Film Preset varies in contrast, tint, saturation and so on. A quick and easy way to change the look of your image with a few clicks. 

    Some random G´mic Film Emulation examples:

    They have added stuff since I was last playing around in G'mic.  I like a lot of the little toys they have. This gives me an idea. I am going to go play with one of my renders and post in my thread. :)

    Post edited by Liana on
  • LianaLiana Posts: 1,035

    I really like the last render you posted Knitting mommy. :)

  • @Liana  Thanks.  I'm glad I think I finally got that looking good.  :)

    I've been playing with new products today.  I bought the BOSS lights by @PA_ThePhilosopher and I have a very basic render going with just the basic setup to see what it looks like without having read anything about it yet.  I keep seeing Sonja's and Llynara's pictures using the lights and I just had to get them.  So far, the render looks pretty good.  It's still cooking.  But, now I'm going through the Philosopher's commercial thread to see what everyone had to say about using them. 

    I decided that I had to render someone I hadn't rendered, yet, so I'm playing around with Prince Albane II by @RawArt.  He is so incredibly sexy!  I just love seeing him on my computer!  I have the princess, too, so I'll have to do something with her soon.  I have to say I'm very happy to be able to render a guy again without cringing!  I was a little bit on testosterone overload after the It's Raining Men Again contest.  I must have gone through that thread at least 20 times or more that last week getting all of the pictures ready for judging.  I could almost see every single entry in my sleep!  

    For those first two weeks of January, I was almost at the point that I didn't even want to look at a guy!  That might be one reason I was so focused on Toons and just about anything but men the last few weeks.  Happily, I seem to be over that and can play with the men again! ;)

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited February 2017

    First image done with the BOSS Pro Light Set for Portraits and Promos by ThePhilosoper, just the default setup.  I was surprised.  This is the best image I've had with a new lighting system where I haven't tweaked anything or played with any presets yet.  Nice!  I have to go in and fix a few problems with the hair before I do another render.  It should be fun playing with some of the presets, though.

    edit: added links

    PrinceAlbane01.jpg
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    Post edited by Knittingmommy on
  • MN-150374MN-150374 Posts: 923
    edited February 2017
    MN-150374 said:
    MN-150374 said:

    Just in case someone doesn´t know, G´mic is also available online as standalone without GIMP: https://gmicol.greyc.fr/

    My favorite part of G´mic is the Film Emulation Section.

    I have it loaded into my version of Gimp 2.8, but not the 2.9 Beta.  I've played with it a little bit.  I have not done anything with that Film Emulation. 

    The G´mic Film Emulation is a collection of presets to imitate the characteristics of different analog photography films. The G´mic alternative to the Analog Efex Pro filters, Liana was referring to. 

    Also if you are familiar with LuxRender, it is similar to the feature Film Response. So with G´mics Film Emulation you can add this feature to your 3Delight and Iray Renders in postwork. Each Film Preset varies in contrast, tint, saturation and so on. A quick and easy way to change the look of your image with a few clicks. 

    Some random G´mic Film Emulation examples:

    Golden

    Ah, okay.  Gotcha!  I've had a lot of fun with the ones in the NIK collection that does that.  I'll have to check the G'Mic versions to see what might be different that I like.  Thanks!

    Your options with the NIK Collection already were huge. Now you have 300+ more options. Enjoy! :-)

    To be honest all the free stuff out there is overwhelming. Sometimes it is even difficult to decide what feature has to be investigated next. :-) 

    Liana said:
    MN-150374 said:

    The G´mic Film Emulation is a collection of presets to imitate the characteristics of different analog photography films. The G´mic alternative to the Analog Efex Pro filters, Liana was referring to. 

    Also if you are familiar with LuxRender, it is similar to the feature Film Response. So with G´mics Film Emulation you can add this feature to your 3Delight and Iray Renders in postwork. Each Film Preset varies in contrast, tint, saturation and so on. A quick and easy way to change the look of your image with a few clicks. 

    Some random G´mic Film Emulation examples:

    They have added stuff since I was last playing around in G'mic.  I like a lot of the little toys they have. This gives me an idea. I am goign to go play with one of my renders and post in my thread. :)

    I am curious what you are up to. Will be monitoring your thread until there is something new. ;-) 

    Post edited by MN-150374 on
  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,287

    First image done with the BOSS lights, just the default setup.  I was surprised.  This is the best image I've had with a new lighting system where I haven't tweaked anything or played with any presets yet.  Nice!  I have to go in and fix a few problems with the hair before I do another render.  It should be fun playing with some of the presets, though.

    Oh wow, that looks so good, KM!

     

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited February 2017

    Thanks, @Divamakeup.  :)

    So, here is the next version of Prince Albane.  I changed up the camera, fixed what I didn't like about the hair and posed it a little.  Fixed some minor poke thru in the leg area and fixed the major problem on the kilt there on the right where the underskirt was poking thru the overskirt.  Played with the tone mapping.  Overall, I love the lights and I like everything about the character and pose now.  I don't think I like the backdrop.  Definitely the wrong color choice.  I'll have to rethink the backdrop and try it again.  I think a darker backdrop color might be more of what I had in mind.  I might fiddle with the ISO a bit. Not sure yet. 

    PrinceAlbane02.jpg
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    Post edited by Knittingmommy on
  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 14,900
    edited February 2017

    Belated note about Detail Extractor:

    It's particularly useful if you have a dark image where things are somewhat muddy, because it keeps things looking reasonably dark while pulling out a lot of the lost details.

    When I'm trying to Tone Map a Iray canvas, I like to use Exposure setting, and make sure the exposure is dark enough to show all the highlights clearly, and THEN run detail extractor to pull up any overly dim features, and then maybe some contrast adjustment.

     

    Post edited by Oso3D on
  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited February 2017

    I made some changes to my Prince Albane II render.  Turns out I liked the camera angle of the first picture much better so I changed that back.   I made some changes to the backdrop.  I didn't end up liking any of the color presets.  I can understand the more muted colors, but I wanted something bold for this image so I changed it up a little by playing with the diffuse color and the base color.  Fixed some poke thru in the kilt, fixed the hair and a couple of minor adjustments.  Here is the original which was closer to my ideal that I was trying to achieve.

    And, here is the slightly postworked version.  I tried to stay very conservation for a change, but I think I got the look I wanted.  I like it anyway.


    Gallery Link

    PrinceAlbane03.jpg
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    Post edited by Knittingmommy on
  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,287

    Awesome work! I really love the skin in the post work image - looks great!

  • Awesome work! I really love the skin in the post work image - looks great!

    Thanks.  I really like how he turned out.  Awesome lights, too.  

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    I really like the background you ended up with, it works very well for him.  I don't have the Prince but I do have some shadowkin that are close.  Lovely men lol.

  • Thanks, Sonja.  He's a great character.  I have the Princess, too. I'll have to do an image with the both of them soon.

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited February 2017

    I spent the last two days working on and rendering and crashing while rendering and rendering again an image.  I've changed out the male character twice.  I started with G2M and then ended up switching to G3M.  I'm wasn't completely happy with the final result of the raw render.  So, I had to go into Gimp and play with some more NPR filters.  After a little bit of cropping, I thought I'd play with G'mic since I hadn't played with it much yet to see what was in there that I would like in the Artistic section.  Let me tell you, there are a ton of filters in there and I haven't even scratched the surface yet.

    Here is my original raw render:  

    Oil Painting type effect:

    Colored Pencil:

    I ended up putting both of these versions in my gallery.

    Final Version with some postwork:

    Gallery Link

    Graphic Novel Version (My Favorite Version): 

    Gallery Link

    Couple01.jpg
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    CoupleDreamSmoothersOilify.jpg
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    CoupleDreamSmoothersCPSoftLight.jpg
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    Post edited by Knittingmommy on
  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited February 2017

    So, someone got hung up on transferring a morph over from V4 and posted a thread in the Commons here.  They managed to figure out how to get it to work, but it made me remember that I still have a lot of characters that I want to move over through the generations.  Of course, I can't do anything on a small scale so it turned into an all day project with food breaks and a few runs through the forums.  I decided to start with the character that the person in the Commons was having problems with.  Angel for V4.  Here is what I did.  I started out by loading up the morphs in GenX and I was going to just transfer it to Genesis since that was the figure giving problems to see if I had any of the same problems.  I didn't so I'm not sure what was causing the issues the OP was having.  Anyway, since I had the girl loaded up in GenX, I decided to move her up to G2F and G3F just to see what the differences were between generations if there were any.

    Of course, once I had the morph for each character, I thought it would be cool to see them all together.  That was an experience, I tell you.  First I had to load the skin I wanted up on V4 and save it as a Material Preset so I could load it onto the other figures.  Luckily, I have all of the required UVs to make sure everything looked good and the transfer went fairly smoothly until I got to 3F, that hussy! She just had to be different.  It was the first time I had used the script by Cayman Studios available at Rendo and it took me a couple of times to get the proper sequence and appropriate geoshells highlighted in the appropriate tabs to get the V4 materials to look good on G3F.  I managed, though.  :)

    Of course, then I had to fit the Assassin Outfit on all of the girls that came with the character!  You see where I'm going with the all day project, yet?  I finally gave up on the shoes so all of the girls are barefoot!

    Oh, and did I mention?  I took screenshots of every step of the way through the whole process.  From morph transfer to fitting the skins and the clothing.  I'll have that posted within a couple of days.  I'm still adding in the text to explain all of the steps on each of the screenshots.  It remains to be seen if I missed anything and have to go back and redo a screenshot here or there.

    So, a couple of teaser renders to show you what I did today.  These are raw renders straight out of DS with no touchups.  I only took them into Gimp to add the labels for each of the girls so you know who is who to compare.  The transfers were really close.  I noticed some slight differences in the boob, the hip, and the jawline.  The differences were extremely slight, though.  I also noticed that the outfit fits just slightly different with autofit on the later generations.  If I were doing it for a real render, I'd probably play the top a little bit to see if I could get it to look more like it does on V4.  The autofit versions fit the top a little too well and there isn't that little hint of skin like there is on the V4 original version.  The poses aren't exact, but close enough.

    And, no, I don't plan to do this with every single character I transfer over.  That would take forever! 

    edit: I just realized that Genesis' toes on the back foot are stuck in the floor!  How dare she! ;)

    AngelForV4GenX4GenerationsSkin.jpg
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    AngelForV4GenX4GenerationsClothed.jpg
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    Post edited by Knittingmommy on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    I will be looking forward to your directions.  Those look pretty good.  I need to sit down and take a day and just do all the pose, character and skin conversions that I have had on the back burner.  Okay, maybe several days lol.

  • I will be looking forward to your directions.  Those look pretty good.  I need to sit down and take a day and just do all the pose, character and skin conversions that I have had on the back burner.  Okay, maybe several days lol.

    It takes awhile.  If you convert the V4 skins for each character to .duf format which you need to do if you are going to use the older poser skins on the newer generations, it will take awhile.  Some of those V4 figures have close to 15 or twenty material presets with them when you include all fo the lip and makeup options.  Some of them have more.  I was surprised to find out just how many material presets there were for Angel.  So far, I've only saved the materials that I used for the tutorial.  I'll have to see about using a batch script.  I think there was one floating around somewhere, but I don't remember if it would save the poser material files to .duf or not.  I have several batch scripts that do different things with those older materials so I'll have to look and see what I've got and what they do exactly.  Otherwise, you have to load each material and save it as a material preset inside DS and that could take awhile. 

    Right now, I'm rendering the G2F version.  I wanted to do a render with all of those tats showing.  It will have to go on my DA page, but I'll provide a link in case if anyone wants to see it.

  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,287

    It looks like Angel transfers pretty well. That's such a lovely V4 character. I wish I had the GenX2 products she's definitely one of the ones I'd transfer, but sadly to get V4 to G3 you need to own three different GenX2 products. Ah well, I think Genesis 4/Victoria 8 will be coming out in 4 1/2 months or so, so I guess I'll hold on to my money and pray someone comes out with a product that can go directly from V4 to Genesis 4. lol :)

  • Just wait for a good sale and start collecting.  I didn't get them all at the same time.  I started when G2 was the figure so not all that long ago.  I started by just getting what I needed to transfer up to Genesis and then G2.  I hit some good sale prices along the way, too.  The rest I got as they came along.  I didn't have all of the stuff to transfer the skins until just recently and then only up to G2 until I finally broke down and got the Cayman Studios sets over at Rendo. 

    I've gotten quite a few of the ones here as they came on sale at good prices, too.  No way would I have been able to get them all in one go.  You just have to decide what figures you want to change first and then what the lowest generation you are willing to transfer up to.  Genesis isn't a bad figure to work with although I'll admit I love my G2 girls.  I have more options for that generation than any other.  G3 is starting to catch up. 

    I can't even think about moving up another generation already.  I have too much invested in what I've got right now to even contemplate getting yet another figure where I have to slowly add head and body morphs, muscle morphs, clothes, hair, and the list goes on! 

  • LianaLiana Posts: 1,035
    MN-150374 said:
    Liana said:
     

    They have added stuff since I was last playing around in G'mic.  I like a lot of the little toys they have. This gives me an idea. I am goign to go play with one of my renders and post in my thread. :)

    I am curious what you are up to. Will be monitoring your thread until there is something new. ;-) 

    Opps I got slightly sidetracked. :P I started to go back and do some more modeling and discovered a few new things and updates. Well, the rest is history. LOL

  • LianaLiana Posts: 1,035
    edited February 2017

    I like those renders Knittingmommy. :)  G'mic have lots of really fun filters to play with looks like you found a few of my favs. I got way sidetracked getting my modeling ducks in a row. lol

     

    Post edited by Liana on
  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,287
    edited February 2017

    Just wait for a good sale and start collecting.  I didn't get them all at the same time.  I started when G2 was the figure so not all that long ago.  I started by just getting what I needed to transfer up to Genesis and then G2.  I hit some good sale prices along the way, too.  The rest I got as they came along.  I didn't have all of the stuff to transfer the skins until just recently and then only up to G2 until I finally broke down and got the Cayman Studios sets over at Rendo. 

    I've gotten quite a few of the ones here as they came on sale at good prices, too.  No way would I have been able to get them all in one go.  You just have to decide what figures you want to change first and then what the lowest generation you are willing to transfer up to.  Genesis isn't a bad figure to work with although I'll admit I love my G2 girls.  I have more options for that generation than any other.  G3 is starting to catch up. 

    I can't even think about moving up another generation already.  I have too much invested in what I've got right now to even contemplate getting yet another figure where I have to slowly add head and body morphs, muscle morphs, clothes, hair, and the list goes on! 

    hahah Yeah, I just got the body and face morphs for G3F not long ago (still don't have the face morphs for G3M, and I have only 2 G3M characters). I finally got wear them all for G3F but don't have it for G3M. Since I don't have much, at all, for G3M, what I might do is wait on the G4F stuff and just focus on G4M. And stick to Genesis 3 as my main female line. And Genesis 4 for the males. *shurg*

    I'm hoping by the time June rolls around I'll be ready for Genesis 4 though, right now I'm totally not ready. But then again, I've only been buying 3D content for less than a year. Perhaps those who've been buying Genesis 3 stuff since it's release will be more ready.

    Post edited by 3Diva on
  • Liana said:

    I like those renders Knittingmommy. :)  G'mic have lots of really funny filters to play with looks like you found a few of my favs. I got way sidetracked getting my modeling ducks in a row. lol

     

    Thanks!  I was surprised by just how many filters were in there.  There are a lot of them that I want to play with so I'll have to make a few renders specifically to play with G'Mic.

  • NathNath Posts: 2,730

    Just wait for a good sale and start collecting.  I didn't get them all at the same time.  I started when G2 was the figure so not all that long ago.  I started by just getting what I needed to transfer up to Genesis and then G2.  I hit some good sale prices along the way, too.  The rest I got as they came along.  I didn't have all of the stuff to transfer the skins until just recently and then only up to G2 until I finally broke down and got the Cayman Studios sets over at Rendo. 

    I've gotten quite a few of the ones here as they came on sale at good prices, too.  No way would I have been able to get them all in one go.  You just have to decide what figures you want to change first and then what the lowest generation you are willing to transfer up to.  Genesis isn't a bad figure to work with although I'll admit I love my G2 girls.  I have more options for that generation than any other.  G3 is starting to catch up. 

    I can't even think about moving up another generation already.  I have too much invested in what I've got right now to even contemplate getting yet another figure where I have to slowly add head and body morphs, muscle morphs, clothes, hair, and the list goes on! 

    hahah Yeah, I just got the body and face morphs for G3F not long ago (still don't have the face morphs for G3M, and I have only 2 G3M characters). I finally got wear them all for G3F but don't have it for G3M. Since I don't have much, at all, for G3M, what I might do is wait on the G4F stuff and just focus on G4M. And stick to Genesis 3 as my main female line. And Genesis 4 for the males. *shurg*

    I'm hoping by the time June rolls around I'll be ready for Genesis 4 though, right now I'm totally not ready. But then again, I've only been buying 3D content for less than a year. Perhaps those who've been buying Genesis 3 stuff since it's release will be more ready.

    Don't be surprised if it takes six months to a year after G4F for G4M to appear... (although DAZ might shock us all and drop them together LOL)

     

     

  • MN-150374MN-150374 Posts: 923
    edited February 2017

    Knittingmommy, very nice comparison of your conversion results. Very good work. And yes, I know what you mean, doing those conversions is really time consuming.

    As tools for a Batch Skin Conversion I can recommend these scripts by Draagonstorm:

    http://www.daz3d.com/v4-skins-batch-converter-to-genesis-2-female-s

    http://www.daz3d.com/m4-skins-batch-converter-to-genesis-2-male-s

    As far as I can tell, the V4/M4 poser materials will be directly converted. No need for a .duf-conversion beforehand. At least I can not remember doing so. Everything worked fine and smoothly.

    To get Genesis2 Skin Textures fitting Genesis1 there is also this batch script in addition: http://www.daz3d.com/batch-convert-genesis-2-to-genesis

    Keep in mind, to get the scripts above work properly the following products are required:

    http://www.daz3d.com/victoria-4-for-genesis-2-female

    http://www.daz3d.com/michael-4-for-genesis-2-male

    And the Genesis2 to Genesis Script requires:

    http://www.daz3d.com/genesis-2-male-and-female-base-uvs-for-genesis

    http://www.daz3d.com/victoria-6-and-michael-6-uvs-for-genesis

    All together with GenX2 and the Add-Ons quiet an impressive list of products just to get the character conversions (morphs + textures) done. If you do not have all this already, you can put it on your wishlist for March Madness. Usually you get pretty good deals and bargains at March Madness. On occasion you may find some of the products even in FastGrab. Buying all at once is really off-putting, but I agree with Knittingmommy: Patient collectors end up happy sooner or later. :-)

    There is a very detailed overview of possible conversion products for all the DAZ figures out there:  http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/64403/converting-to-g1-g2-g3/p1

     

    Liana said:
    MN-150374 said:
    Liana said:
     

    They have added stuff since I was last playing around in G'mic.  I like a lot of the little toys they have. This gives me an idea. I am goign to go play with one of my renders and post in my thread. :)

    I am curious what you are up to. Will be monitoring your thread until there is something new. ;-) 

    Opps I got slightly sidetracked. :P I started to go back and do some more modeling and discovered a few new things and updates. Well, the rest is history. LOL

    Take your time. Haste makes waste. :-) 

    Post edited by MN-150374 on
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