New user; First serious render WIP

Hiya folks, my name's Tim, nice to meetcha.

So, my first serious render.  I've had Poser/Daz for quite a few years now, but have never really hunkered down and tried to break through the relatively steep learning curve until very recently.  Lately, I've bought a lot of stuff here and at Renderosity, and have been watching many a tutorial, so I can finally see if I can get decent with Daz.

Currently using Daz Studio 4.10, GPU rendering only (Zotac GTX 1080ti, single; No CPU checked).  iRay, render took about 40+ minutes and was still rendering when I cancelled and saved it.  

Some initial thoughts: 

-I need to work on lighting, even though I was going for a night scene.  I made a little 3-point light setup, but could probably stand to move them around and adjust their settings.  I am NOT good at setting up lighting yet.

-I really need to figure out how to make that rock-thing floating near his hand emit light, as if it were a magical artifact sort of deal.  I don't have a clue how I'm going to do that, haha.  Honestly, I'd like to dial down the brightness of the flower petals in the scene,and dial up that of the rock thingy.

-Learning how to change an objects surface for a shader that I like... I've changed all the stone, water, and ground surfaces in this sceneto iRay ones that I like.

-I'm sure there are more things that I need to work on, but as a novice user (read: total noob!) I am probably not even aware of some things I need to work on yet!

So, without further ado, my first serious WIP:  "Fish Man Rising"

Feedback and tips welcome and most appreciated!  

Have fun rendering :D

Fish Man Rising.png
2569 x 1311 - 6M

Comments

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 17,944

    Thats really good

  • Hey, thanks for the comment, Nonesuch00.  

    So here is the second render of this WIP.  This time, I adjusted quite a few render options in Daz Studio according to the really fantastic advice that SickleYield gave me over at DeviantArt.  The quality of this render is basically due to her!  

    In a nutshell, I somewhat dramatically increased the texture compression, adjusted the camera angle to the golden option, hid quite a few objects in the scene that weren't in the camera angle, adjusted the environment lighting a moderate amount, and, finally after some reading on the DAZ forums, got the floating artifact the Fish Man has to glow.  
    I was able to get the artifact thing in his hand to glow by somehow (I forgot now, heh) by adjusting the emission settings, just playing around with them, but I didn't want the emission to ruin the beauty of the shader I got from a user ("BohemianHarlot") over at DeviantArt.  So, I set the bump of that rock item with her shader on it to like 50.  Still, the light emission is kinda making it hard to showcase her shader, but I still like the overall effect.

    I stopped this render with the adjusted settings at 30 minutes and am pleased with the result.

    Now, I think, all that there is left to do to finish this is to re-pose Mr. Cthulhoid Fish-Man.  He's creating quite a splash just rising out of the water so casually right now.  Later I'll pose him into a more 'leaping out' sort of pose, and see if I can adjust his facial expression to be something more menacing.  I mean, he's a fricken Cthulhu-worshipping fish-man fer pete's sake :P

    Another touch I'd like to add, if I can find any for the Genesis figure (notably; Not the G2, 3, or 8) is some tribal or ancient styled coral-type jewelery to regale him in.  I'll look about and see if there are any products I can use for that.  Preferably ones that can take on some of BH's alien shaders as mats!

    So here we go:  Fish Man Rising WIP2:

     

    Fish Man Rising -WIP2-.png
    2563 x 1584 - 7M
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Welcome to the art thread!  Beware, ahead lies serious Daz addiction lol.  Looks like you are off to a great start!  I see you figured out how to make the orb emmissive.  My best advice would be to head over to the new user Contest and Events Thread.  The monthly contests etc., lessened my learning curve by half at least and had the added benefit of meeting some really great people who I now count as good friends.  Its very low key, low pressure, and is focused more on helping people to learn than actually winning a contest.  They focus on one theme at a time, lighting, DOF, composition, etc.

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 17,944

    The glowing like in the hand is a good effect.

  • Worlds_EdgeWorlds_Edge Posts: 2,145

    Very cool/original render.

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