Post-Work Tips & Tricks (PS, Illustration & Lightroom)

FenixPhoenix

That's awesome @dreamfarmer! You want to give it a more "painted" look, you can always try overlying different watercolor textures.

Here's some examples of what I mean. I used the process for the sprites (the one in the tutorial I showed before) on the DAZ render (right). Then I added a watercolor textured background and kept blending different watercolor textures. To unify the colors, I played with vintage gradient maps after I was done texturing. This List of  85 watercolor textures & these free Watercolos Splatters should get you started.

Bigger size of the finished artwork here.

Below, you can see the comparison between a textured & untextured artwork. In this case, instead of watercolor, I used a canvas texture and blend it with overlay. Here's a good list of free canvas textures. The ones I used below are deeezy's free vintage paper textures.

FenixPhoenix

Ghost Effect Tutorial

You can find this also in my deviantart: gigi-fenixphoenix  | Free resources for this tutorial: Smoke Texture

Alright, finally got around to finishing this tutorial. This is to create ghost-like figures or give a smokey "fading" effect. This require you to have the linereder9000 product (http://www.daz3d.com/linerender9000) & Photoshop. If you don't have LineRender 9000, you could always paint the outlines in by hand (using a wacom tablet would be ideal).

BTW, another result using the above process (on the dragon):

~Hope you find this useful!

FenixPhoenix

How to create Manga with DAZ mini tutorial

So since I haven't updated this in a while, I thought I'd share some tips to create "manga" using DAZ as a base. I'm only showing one panel as an example. Here's a brief overlook of the effect you can create using Daz (iray rendering) + Illustrator + Photoshop.

PS: BTW, you can find the character I render above (Aoshi) in my free character presets thread.

Here's a graphic with a bit more information. BTW, the halftone patterns for illustrator I used is a free resource which you can get here.

If you're not familiar with illustration and/or photoshop, you are probably thinking this is still quite vague. I left it as such because there's really not "one formula" solution to this. Each render would need different things to yield the same results I had. In summary you need to remember:

• Choose the best light. In 3D we always go crazy with the light, creating interesting shadows. Those types of lights not always translate very well when you put them through filters in photoshop. So lessening the shadows will help the filters clean your image, rather than muddle them. An easy way to try this (if you don't have light sets or HDRIs) is to load a character, rotate him/her 70 degrees and use the default light (it will hit from the front, so there will be only a few shadows to the side). The less shadows you have, the more 2D the image will look when ran through filters.
• Don't be afraid to paint things in. If you have a tablet, this should come easier than if you're working with the mouse. Sure, you can use LineRender 9000 or equivalent products/tricks to create lineart, but you'd still need to fill in gaps and add details to really sell the "painted or hand drawn" look. Adding shadows to the eyes and a bit of red to the skin can also lift your image.
• Texturing. I've covered this before, but texturing can make the image look more interesting. Beware, though! Too much texturing could detract from the beauty of the image. Using halftones is a safe way to go.
• Layering and blending. Remember to always work in new layers when adding things. Save all the versions in a folder. Then, by the end, play around with layering, playing with the opacity and/or blending them together. You might just end up with a wonderful creation just by messing with the layers. 

Still, if anyone is interested in learning more about how I got through each step (perhaps with more visual instructions), then I can always expand upon each step. We can even start over (together) and share light sets and whatnot to work our way along the process together. Just let me know and we can do so :). 

 

Wanderer

This is excellent information. 

ArkadySkies

Gigi_FenixPhoenix said:

Close up (wearing Fujio's skin, with one of the eye makeup presets):

With Sakura Tests:

If I may ask, @Gigi_FenixPhoenix what was your process for these Sojiro renders? The hair looks especially good.

FenixPhoenix

Sure thing, @ArkadySkies, 

So here's more or less the process (I'm adding only the text. If I have some time this week, I'll do a step by step visual example):

1. I set up my figures. 
2. I applied FSL Toon Hair Shaders Iray onto the hair. It doesn't look good on all hairs, but most of them will look quite well. When it starts to look too plastic-like, I lower the glossiness. 
3. Adding a rim light behind them helps to maintain detail after the post work. I use Rim Light Rig Iray, which is a fantastic product which I highly recommend (I use it now in almost all my renders).
4. For the rest of the light one of the HDRIs in iRadiance - Light Probe HDR Lighting for Iray - Expansion 1.
5. I rendered the figures without a background for all of these (and added the background in photoshop), but you can also render with a background and it won't affect the following steps.
6. I brought the render over into photoshop and re-size it (you want to do this to not lose too much detail). I usually just upped the DPI to somewhere between 250-300. The bigger the resized render the better (but depends on your computer how much it can handle).
7. Then, I followed this tutorial: This tutorial by SpoonGraphics. Before following the tutorial, it's always a good idea to leave a layer with the original render (and hide it).
8. Once you've finished following the tutorial, you will want to bring the layer with the original render on top of the new "filtered layer" (aka the one you applied the tutorial too) and blend it with softlight, overlay or highlight. Then you can add a mask and get rid of the things you don't like. (I usually delete the skin, but use this to retain some details on the clothing and hair). 
9. If it's still looking too "soft" you can always create a new layer. Then go to Image -> apply image. That'll make a merged copy of all the layers. Next (with that layer selected) go to: Filter -> Other -> High Pass. Then use a low value, somewhere between 0.5-1.0 (depends on how sharp you want everything). Then click okay. You can now blend that layer with the rest with Softlight, overlay or highlight. 
10. When you're satisfied with the result, you can always re-sized it to a more managable size (lower).  

ArkadySkies

Thanks. I've seen that tutrorial (and variations of that overall technique) before but I used too small of an image when I tried it so the results weren't very good. They were much better when I resized it. I'll make a note to try rim lighting as well and see if that helps.

If you prefer keyboard shortcuts to menu navigation, [CTRL]+[ALT]+[SHIFT]+[E] will make a merged copy of all your layers in a new layer. Granted, it's a long keyboard shortcut, but it's a timesaver for me.

IceDragonArt

ArkadySkies said:

Thanks. I've seen that tutrorial (and variations of that overall technique) before but I used too small of an image when I tried it so the results weren't very good. They were much better when I resized it. I'll make a note to try rim lighting as well and see if that helps.

If you prefer keyboard shortcuts to menu navigation, [CTRL]+[ALT]+[SHIFT]+[E] will make a merged copy of all your layers in a new layer. Granted, it's a long keyboard shortcut, but it's a timesaver for me.

I use this all the time.  Every single image.  Another huge time save if you need to go back a step is CTRL + Z.

FenixPhoenix

ArkadySkies said:

Thanks. I've seen that tutrorial (and variations of that overall technique) before but I used too small of an image when I tried it so the results weren't very good. They were much better when I resized it. I'll make a note to try rim lighting as well and see if that helps.

If you prefer keyboard shortcuts to menu navigation, [CTRL]+[ALT]+[SHIFT]+[E] will make a merged copy of all your layers in a new layer. Granted, it's a long keyboard shortcut, but it's a timesaver for me.

Yeah, if you have a small image you'll lose way too much detail. The trick is working with the biggest image you can get. I usually increase the DPI to 250 or even 300 dpi before adding any sorts of filters. And yeah, I'm aware of the shortcut, but I think I do the image --> apply image faster than use the shortcut. The one that does save TONS of time is CTRL + J for new layers (more so when I'm painting over a render).

I think that, overall, it's difficult to convert a render into a painted look only through filters. Usually you end up with a face that looks weird and the hair looses the detail. But using a render as a base, then adding filters and then refining via handpainting does save tons of time. Here's an example (character I'm currently working on):

 

 

FenixPhoenix

IceDragonArt said:

ArkadySkies said:

Thanks. I've seen that tutrorial (and variations of that overall technique) before but I used too small of an image when I tried it so the results weren't very good. They were much better when I resized it. I'll make a note to try rim lighting as well and see if that helps.

If you prefer keyboard shortcuts to menu navigation, [CTRL]+[ALT]+[SHIFT]+[E] will make a merged copy of all your layers in a new layer. Granted, it's a long keyboard shortcut, but it's a timesaver for me.

I use this all the time.  Every single image.  Another huge time save if you need to go back a step is CTRL + Z.

Oh, yes! I even went to my preferences and increased the history states so I can do more than 100+ CTRL+Z's lol.

mach25

Sounds like make a texture from photos and import to Photoshop has one thing in common: make photos without light/shadows, because light is added later inside 3d/2d programs

For cartoons it's easier to add "cartoon ish" light fx with postwork 

You can enhance eyes with postwork, make a character stand out in a crowd, because they have very beautiful very blue,or very green and if it's manga very red,purple etc

A question, for you and others using wacom,what's your choice of settings on pen and 4 buttons? What's best settings? I haven't choose my extra buttons yet 

My guess is one button should be ctrl-z,one maybe should be right click because I turned off the annoying standstill = rightclick 

You seem very skilled in postwork, do you also know ps tricks you can share that is before render = texture making?

 

 

IceDragonArt

mach25 said:

Sounds like make a texture from photos and import to Photoshop has one thing in common: make photos without light/shadows, because light is added later inside 3d/2d programs

For cartoons it's easier to add "cartoon ish" light fx with postwork 

You can enhance eyes with postwork, make a character stand out in a crowd, because they have very beautiful very blue,or very green and if it's manga very red,purple etc

A question, for you and others using wacom,what's your choice of settings on pen and 4 buttons? What's best settings? I haven't choose my extra buttons yet 

My guess is one button should be ctrl-z,one maybe should be right click because I turned off the annoying standstill = rightclick 

You seem very skilled in postwork, do you also know ps tricks you can share that is before render = texture making?

 

 

I do my lighting in studio and then enhance in postwork.  As far as my wacom goes, Mine is probably 8 or 9 years old now and still works perfectly by the way, highly recommend) I actually don't use the buttons at all, I use a combination of the tablet and keyboard shortcuts.

FenixPhoenix

mach25 said:

Sounds like make a texture from photos and import to Photoshop has one thing in common: make photos without light/shadows, because light is added later inside 3d/2d programs

For cartoons it's easier to add "cartoon ish" light fx with postwork 

You can enhance eyes with postwork, make a character stand out in a crowd, because they have very beautiful very blue,or very green and if it's manga very red,purple etc

Yes, normally if I'm going to use a lot of fliters to go for a 2D / flat painting look, I'll render the character with little to no shadows. You can also take out the bump maps on the skin, but that's really up to you.

 

mach25 said:

A question, for you and others using wacom,what's your choice of settings on pen and 4 buttons? What's best settings? I haven't choose my extra buttons yet 

My guess is one button should be ctrl-z,one maybe should be right click because I turned off the annoying standstill = rightclick

Like @IceDragonArt, I've never used those buttons at all. I prefer just using the shotcuts. But if you want to add functions to those 4 buttons, I'd suggest ctrl+j which creates a new layer. That's probably the one I use the most.

 

mach25 said:

You seem very skilled in postwork, do you also know ps tricks you can share that is before render = texture making?

There is one I can think of. It's very basic but also very useful. It's using the "blending options" via layer styles to better blend one image into another.

1) There's no blending, just the two images on top of each other.

2) Is using the layer blending options and setting it to highlight. As you can see, the blending is unrealistic.

3) Adding the following options within the layer style blending:

 

mach25

thanks @icedragonart and thanks @gigi_fenixphoenix

maybe that would improve my aircraft texture

mach25

If you plan to postwork it anyway,to create for example manga, cartoons look or go for ghost or other effect,doesn't it make postwork easier to plan several renders same scene but different 3dobjects and background with a single color background= the several different layers later in postwork?,easier than lot of manually breaking up into different layers?

DVI to Hdmi cable +Big HD TV. Is nice for postwork,texture making,showing reference photos

 

 

Lotharen

Gigi_FenixPhoenix said:

ArkadySkies said:

Thanks. I've seen that tutrorial (and variations of that overall technique) before but I used too small of an image when I tried it so the results weren't very good. They were much better when I resized it. I'll make a note to try rim lighting as well and see if that helps.

If you prefer keyboard shortcuts to menu navigation, [CTRL]+[ALT]+[SHIFT]+[E] will make a merged copy of all your layers in a new layer. Granted, it's a long keyboard shortcut, but it's a timesaver for me.

Yeah, if you have a small image you'll lose way too much detail. The trick is working with the biggest image you can get. I usually increase the DPI to 250 or even 300 dpi before adding any sorts of filters. And yeah, I'm aware of the shortcut, but I think I do the image --> apply image faster than use the shortcut. The one that does save TONS of time is CTRL + J for new layers (more so when I'm painting over a render).

I think that, overall, it's difficult to convert a render into a painted look only through filters. Usually you end up with a face that looks weird and the hair looses the detail. But using a render as a base, then adding filters and then refining via handpainting does save tons of time. Here's an example (character I'm currently working on):

 

 

@Gigi_FenixPhoenix  Love seeing how you do things. My one question is what all did you do in the handpainting  step? It looks amazing!

FenixPhoenix

mach25 said:

If you plan to postwork it anyway,to create for example manga, cartoons look or go for ghost or other effect,doesn't it make postwork easier to plan several renders same scene but different 3dobjects and background with a single color background= the several different layers later in postwork?,easier than lot of manually breaking up into different layers?

DVI to Hdmi cable +Big HD TV. Is nice for postwork,texture making,showing reference photos

Apologies I didn't reply to your comment, @mach25. I must have missed the notification!

Yes, that's what I've been using for the visual novel I'm working on. I do all the renders of a specific place, then work the post-work back to back to keep the colors & light the same. For example:

FenixPhoenix

Lotharen said:

@Gigi_FenixPhoenix  Love seeing how you do things. My one question is what all did you do in the handpainting  step? It looks amazing!

Thank you very much, @Lotharen. I'll take some screenshots so I can share a step-by-step process of the handpaint I do for the characters. I'll post it as soon as I can. :)

In case anyone's interested, this is the final look for that character:

Lotharen

Very nice looking image! Thank you for considering a step by step, its most appreciated! :)

FenixPhoenix

Alright, so here's a more detailed (though, since I'm pressed for time, it's still a bit vague) walkthrough of the process:

• Here's the link to the sprite tutorial: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/2005161/#Comment_2005161
• Direct link to the tutorial that explains how to use diffuse in PS to get that soft look: This tutorial by SpoonGraphics
• If you want to do the diffuse rounds several times, I advice that you keep a copy of the diffuse done once before proceeding with another round. That way you can blend those copies to get something in between. Not too soft and not too sharp. 

• Best product for linework: LineRender9000.
• I recommend hiding hair, eyebrows (if they are fibermesh), eyelashes and beards before running the LR9000 script.

• Use different layers. One for blending the skin to get rid of the jaggy lines left by the cutout filter. Another for shadows. Another for highlights.
• If you have a tablet, make sure to set the pen pressure for the brush.
• If you don't have a tablet, you can always lower the opacity & flow of the brush. Lowering them to 20-40% is what I'd recommend.

• I highly recommend using these brushes by castrochew to add more detail to the hair (highlights & shadows). You can also check out his painting hair demo to get a sense of how to use the brushes.

Stormlyght

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! I'm really looking forward to having a weekend to try out all of your tutorials.

Trish

SnowSultan

I'm going to bookmark this thread too, there's some very interesting information here.  :)   I do a ton of postwork, but it's all color correction and fantasy-style tonal adjustments - got to try some of this more toony stuff again sometime!