How do I use line renderer to make coloring book pages?
TSasha Smith
Posts: 27,451
in The Commons
I got a printer. I got line renderer for DS, DS, and a ton of content. How do I combine all of these to make coloring book pages of my own?
I know content has no weight but still I have a lot. I already got all the elements to make a good coloring book page, but I have yet to master line renderer.
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You might also look at FotoSketcher as it does line art, and it's free. It has othe neat effects as well. I didn't master line renderer, but maybe someone who did can also help you with that.
You can have it fast, simple, or good. Pick two.
Most filtering stuff, like Fotosketcher and FilterForge and some tricks in Photoshop, can be pretty fast and simple, but run into a number of problems.
PWToon and other mostly 3DL stuff can do pretty fast, not so complicated stuff (though some of the details can be time consuming), but they aren't very good (IMO).
Finally, stuff like https://www.daz3d.com/linerender9000 and my https://www.daz3d.com/oso-toon-shader-for-iray are a bit more involved, but produce (IMO) better results.
You can also have Fotosketcher, Filter Forge, and Photoshop users who know what they're doing. Pick one, two, or three.
Fotosketcher is fun
That is probably one of the more creative uses ive heard of for DS! I never would have thought of that.
I would probably use the base Daz render as the bottom layer and trace the picture underneath using a photo editing program. For coloring books, line thickness and white space is important and you don’t want noise in the empty spaces.
Your cat (real one) is always adorable. :)
Novica: filters can only work with the data they have.
I think you'd be amazed that it doesn't take long -- a weekend, maybe -- to learn the basics of how to trace an image in a vector program. You can start with Inkscape, which is free, and has a freeform pen and straighten/simplify tools that takes even a shakey trace and cleans it up. Once the line is simplified you move it around using control points.
Yeah, it sounds time-consuming, but with a bit of practice it'll take less time than fiddling with all the line render stuff and being frustrated it's never quite what you ever really want. Coloring books want sharp, solid, and even outlines, or it simply looks like a scan modified in a computer. With enough practice tracing to vector your coloring books can look like any other professionally published book.
There are a number of filters at Filter Forge that can give outlines, depends on the effect that you are after. If you have a good graphics program and are good at using it you can use the Filter Forge output as a starting point.
Nicely done @bunyip02 As you said, you need a good graphics program and know what you're doing with it, to get good results. A little clean up to remove noise and extra lines, and that would look just fine!
LineRender by ID works with the geometry information. Filter with flat image. I think both are a good idea. Line render to obtain the true geometry accurated, easy and fast without artifacts, filter to obtain details in textures and detail that ID and normal didn't adress.
See the userguide for LineRender, it is very detailed: http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/read_me/index/34653/34653_linerender-9000-user-guide.pdf
Just recalled that I purchased your toon shader a while ago, so I decided to give it a try. I get some script errors though when I try to apply the presets (DS 4.10.0.123):
2018-09-01 12:52:58.840 Loaded file: Oso Toon Shader Base.duf
2018-09-01 12:53:04.440 F:/My DAZ 3D Library/Shader Presets/Oso3D/Iray/Oso Toon/Oso Toon Shader !1 Flat Color Render.duf (1,1): Syntax error - expected '{' or '['
2018-09-01 12:53:04.441 Error reading file, see log for more details.
2018-09-01 12:53:10.727 F:/My DAZ 3D Library/Shader Presets/Oso3D/Iray/Oso Toon/Oso Toon Shader !2 MaterialID for Outlines.duf (1,1): Syntax error - expected '{' or '['
2018-09-01 12:53:10.746 Error reading file, see log for more details.
2018-09-01 12:53:13.911 F:/My DAZ 3D Library/Shader Presets/Oso3D/Iray/Oso Toon/Oso Toon Shader !3 Shading.duf (1,1): Syntax error - expected '{' or '['
2018-09-01 12:53:13.913 Error reading file, see log for more details.
Nice, detailed tutorial btw.
Your best solution probably depends on how much detail you want. If talking coloring book for 3-5 yr olds then vector lines probably good choice. If you talking those detailed adult coloring books then I'd look at LinreRender 9000 for good clean lines and PWToon for quick and easy. Many of the filter choices produce artifacts with the lines that will need cleaning and/or broken incomplete lines that will need fixing. Good luck with your efforts!
Novica: Thanks for the heads up on FotoSketcher...that is a pretty neat powerful free program.
I don't have Line Render but I have Sketchy - Toon Edge and Art Style Shader and I think they do a good job of making coloring book type renders. I find if you leave the headlamp on it works best for those types of renders.
These are just straight renders - you could farther adjust it in Photoshop or Gimp.
@divamakeup I have that, and didn't remember it! Your lil unicorn is so cute!!!!!
You're welcome :)
Awww Thank you! It's all DimensionTheory and Lady LittleFox though - her "precious" series animals just adorable! :)
Ha! Likewise.
I'm working on a couple of images for your Sketchy challenge, @Novica, but I wanted to mention for anyone else thinking about it… Not all the options of Sketchy Toon product work in the latest 4.11 Beta. I'm running that along side the latest release of version 4.9. I'm getting good results in 4.9, but I've not yet upgraded to 4.10, so I can't say if the issues with the 4.11 beta are just with the beta.
(It's annoying, as the beta renders faster than 4.9…
)
ETA: I actually intended this for Novica's thread, but the info is useful here, too, so I'll leave the post.
I am back at thinking of making coloring books. I am also looking up YouTube videos for tutorials for this in photoshop.
If it was not for the fact that it is past my bed time, I would search YouTube for how to make coloring books with Photoshop and such. I am really thinking about it but right now too tired to think of the theme.
i would use poser instead of daz, it comes with sketch and has many style options- if you already own poser that is
I do this all the time. Is this the kind of look you are going for?
The only problem is you will need to export it to Blender and you may have to touch them up a little afterwards. eg. As you can see, the guy's skull cap is showing, and he doesn't have any eyebrows.