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OK so here is step one. I'm really look I think to try and do like an oil painting version. Not sure how to make that happen.
Title: Simone
Just using Daz Studio for now.
You have done a great job. I love her sassy attitude. Perhaps adjust her head position slightly to engage her with the viewer.
Version D here, with some texture work on the outfit of the left (from out POV) character, some tweeking of the positioning of the right character as well as the camara so that the light behind him was out of sight, and switched the crew's transport out for an anti-grav based vehicle and used the glow from the anti-grav system on said ride to cast some overhead light on my characters to try and get some shadows to anchor them to the ground.
I find getting the posing right to look realistic a challenge...all of it is really. And each aspect affects the overall impression of an image.
Perhaps softening the shadows will get you closer to that realistic look. Have you considered changing this to a black and white image? You are really close to that already.
Also maybe turn up the normal/bump maps just a little.
You have some really nice Rembrandt lighting on the face of the Contemplating the Ruins figure. I like her expression. The only thing I can nit pick is her hair. It should be falling away from her face slightly on her left side.
In the "To the Wok Festival" image I love the addition of the 2nd figure. Having her turned away from the camera keeps the focus on your main figure. A nicely done image.
I know what you mean. Experiments do not always work but they can lead to new techniques and "happy accidents".
That is something that would be set up in the surfaces tab. I think there is a mirror and/or chrome shader that comes with DAZ Studio. I am not at my rendering computer so cannot look it up.
For a more subtle reflective surface you can use a primitive white plane to bounce light back at your character...including coloured lights.
Neat idea. I love how everyone is coming up with such unique ideas for portraits.
I love the tilt of her head on the first image. The reflection in the eyes is great.
In the 2nd image her eyes are rolled a little too far back. I cannot see the pupils of her eyes and this is giving me the impression her eyes are starting to roll back into her head. Not sure if that was your intention.
Kismet2012, you're right about the figure's hair in 'Contemplating the Ruins'. It was not something I had noticed. Or thought about. Must do that in the future.
Thanks for your nice comment about 'To the Wok Festival'. The second figure was needed to give the feeling of a crush, but I didn't - as you rightly observed - want her to detract from the main figure. She almost seemed to place herself in the right spot from the start, just needed a 15cm Z position adjustment after dropping her in.
Regards,
Richard.
The only way I can think of to get an oil painting feel would be in post work.
Composition wise I would suggest shifting the camera to the right putting your figure closer to the rule of thirds line on the left.
There is an interesting story here.
I can see very faint shadows on the ground. You are also getting some nice blue rim lighting on all your characters from that anti-grav vehicle.
I love it when that happens with a character. They are not always so accomodating.
I was checking on my render and I kind of liked how it looked at the moment so I grabbed a screen shot. Forehead and left side of the face are blown out but I kind of like it.
I kind of think I need to comp in some cigarette smoke.
PS: Where's the best place to share renders?
Wow you guys come out of the gate fast and hard for this challenge. Wonderful renders so far. I'll try to find a chance to look more critically at them to see if can make suggestions but so far I've only had time to admire them.
I have my first render hot off the CPU. I already see some work that I need to do on it. Less wet on the dress and more on the skin. I see a poke through I missed on the thigh and I can impove the dress fit with some dForce trickery. I also used the geometry shell swimsuit that came with it and I'd like to see the straps come across instead of following the chest (does dforce work on geometry shells...guess I'll find out). I think I can turn the hand slightly so the tip of the index finger shows more.
But I really wanted to get something up and I really would appreciate any suggestions.
Sara's Smile
I am working on it, but getting just the right angle is a bit difficult. so the character is actually a battle hardened veteran. so I am trying to catch her "out of her element" in a shy kinda way... so first things first I have to give her that look I am I working on the post work, but I can't seem to do it justice. no matter how much I do with it. I might have to fully HD render this and do the post after... it's a three day process to get her HDd up though
I haven't been as helpful as I would like to be the last couple months but I promised myself I would really try to come up with useful or at least alternative suggestions this month.
I've benefited so much from all of yours.
I had no idea this would get so huge so quickly. But it did.
So....I just spent hours going through all the entries with a fine tooth comb and racking my brain for suggestion I might make (many of which might not be good)
Very long post cuz you guys are over achievers.
Ok, on to looking more closely at submissions.
@williamwconnors_df1fc03390 - You’ve made very effective use of light to bring out texture. Using the glow of the cigarette to light the cheek is genius although it seems strong for what I imagine a cigarette would do. I can’t say I’d change it though because it really helps the eye settle into the right place on the subject. There is a light coming from the left of the screen behind him that give a nice contour of the stock but the metal stock guard could use some reflectivity to let the light pick up it’s edge a little better for continuity. Not much else I can suggest. Nicely done.
@richardandtracy_e725004c1a - Reese was my very first ‘pocket money’ character and a portrait of her was my very first post to Daz back in November so I adore her. Gotta love Mousso for quality. For the other 2 I see one thing you could work on with both of them. There is not a very strong highlight in the eyes. I’ve recently started putting a big bright white ball into my scenes so that it reflects in their eyes to help pulll that out but often just increasing the cornea to 100% will get you a better reflection. Some of the hair wisps seem to be penetrating the chest in ‘Wok Chick’. But a truly spot on job in all other respects. For “ Contemplating the Ruins” if the light on her right isn’t mesh you might consider making it one so that you get softer shadows from the hair and off the nose onto the cheek. I do think that DOF would help separate her from the background and make her expression pop more.
@ no nose - #3 is definitely the best in terms of cropping. Once again I find the shadows a little strong defined so a mesh light might let you soften them but I wouldn’t soften them very much. The severity adds a lot to the image. Sorry, that’s all I got. Nice render and the monochrome is just so powerful. I can see her playing a role in the Matrix.
@TigerAnne - The lighting from overhead is really quite strong. With HDRI I’ve tried cutting the environment in the render settings back to 50% to let my scene lights do more of the work (I did so tragically poorly in the lighting challenge that I’ve been working that aspect of Daz Studio a lot). That might let you emphasize her facial contours an pull out more expressiveness. HDRI’s are your best friend and worst enemy I think.
@sueya - Nice pose and great character. As Kismet suggested kill some of the empty space or pick a wall with graffiti or other interest. I’d either bring him forward to soften his shadow and give some depth or lean him back against it like the hot boy in da’ hood. His expression is really good so you might try some renders pulled in tighter on his face to see how they feel.
@JoJoS = Cripes! You gotta be kidding me. That’s a killer image. The hood has a lot of hair cut through but I really don’t have a great solution for that worked out for that. Basically I got nothing. I’m very impressed with the way your lighting has picked out the detail, especially the crease of her cheek.
@Sjinji Ikari 9th - It’s always fun watching your renders grow. You have a vision and give us a rough sketch and then start building the complexity and we really get to see the process. The overhead lighting was such a tremendous improvement! The only thing I can Offer is the character in the right of the frame is receiving a lot less light than the other two. Adding a light focused on him might give better balance. His suit is also very matte by comparison to the others which creates a gradient across the frame. My concern with that suggestion is his guns get great highlights so you’d have to find a solution that didn’t blow them out. Not much help I think but for what it’s worth. I love the expression and the skin highlights on the leading figure are awesome.
@chaynawolfsmoon - The first image is really good. Normally you would pose the figure looking into the empty space but rules are made to be broken and I think your positioning makes it strong. The lighting is severe but so is the expression so I think it works as is although I’m very fond of mesh lighting so I can put just a little fuzziness on the shadows. The second image has much richer use of lighting. Highlights in eyes could be stronger so try upping the cornea. It’s a great Rembrandt lighting. The triangle on her cheeks is perfect so don’t mess with lighting position at all.
@sisyphus1977xx - Kayla with a Hat is pretty amazing. The composition and expression are killer. I kinda hate the outfit you had to work with because there is no material thickness to it and it rides off of her. The hair is wispy but give a kind of faux DOF effect. I think you did a great job. Thank you for the info on how you set up the lighting. I will steal from you in future (as if I haven’t in the past).
@Dragoneyes002 - That is such a sweet image. I want to leave it alone and just enjoy it but I’m supposed to try to give helpful criticism. A slight rotation of the camera would give us a little more of her face OR moving the flowers slightly to the fore gourd an having her twist slightly at the waist would accomplish the same thing. It would give a little more dynamic. The 2 hairballs at the from are a bit wispy. If you go to your surfaces tab and select just those two you can increase the cutout opacity just a tiny bit (probably set to 1.0 and I’d try 1.15) will make them a little stronger.
You guys are killing me here. It has only been 6 days in this challenge and I promised that because I was busy with work last month that I’d try to be more helpful this month. But this is a lot of stuff and it’s all really good! I Don’t envy Kismet right now.
@Visulmag - In image 2 it would be better if the pupils were visible. I love the peach fuzz. I want that kind of realistic bump mapping for the pros on my characters. It really looks photographic. I like the angle and the lighting on the second image the most. I don’t really have anything to offer.
@Corylion - I love everything about this. Her face is on the upper third, and the reflection of light from her leather at the hops is on the lower third. Did you really do that on purpose or was it dumb luck? Cuz I would not have thought of that. In term of improvement I can only think of one thing. I you could separate her from the background a little that would give more depth to the image. A light on the grass beyond the doorway might work well or a light hitting the doorway uprights. Alternatively could try a DOF set to put the grass and wall beyond the doorway out of focus but leave the doorway in focus.
That was a lot of work!
I really think there are so many great submissions this challenge.
BEST
FORUM
EVER!!!!!
@ariochsnowpaw - I spent more time trying to get the angle of the camera right so the light would be good than I did setting the scene.. the pose took about 2 hours to tweak the legs though to capture the bashful, shy element. I think I found what I'm looking for in the scene... now it's perfecting the lighting... add back in her swords gives her the "safety blanket." having her left hand right near the hilt is perfect :)
@Corylion - Sooo much better! Moving her farther into the left third really did improve the composition. The lighting change is subtle but emphasizes the dimple in her left cheek and makes her much more expressive. I see some light in the grass at her feet which helps bring her into the foreground (i gave you three different suggestions and you came up with a 4th better one). I'm also seeing some highlights on the stone uprights behind her which helps separate her from the background. The swords really add a lot to defining her character...she is not coy...she's confident. She is bashful, shy, and will cut you down where you stand. Perfect expression. Brilliant work!
I guess its just the builder in me but all those flowers and the tree being right in front of the gate entrance keeps screaming "Noooo" at me. maybe offset the gate from the tree so its not in the path of travel and have the flowers along the walls you could angle the pic so it still centers on the gate while having the tree off the path so to speak.
as for the pose: if you really worked a pose and like it a lot "save as" the pose then you can drag the character all over set set up and lighting tweeks without fear of loosing the pose even if you reset the environment all together.
I have her more head on in a few of the drafts I'll try and transfer one to post but the lower lip bite seems best in profile the effect gets lost as the face is more forward towards the camera
I hadn't really caught the lip bite. I've tried that several times with no real success. I look forward to seeing what you do with it.
@ariochsnowpaw - Thanks for commenting,I'll have to see what I can do later to make use of your feedback. I hadn't even noticed the gradient that you pointed out until reading your comment.
As for how I do things for these challanges is I start with a basic idea, could be the set that I've decided to use, and work my way from there one version at a time. Some months thing change slowly and other months the ideas just come to me like crazy it feels. Every new version is always saved with a different name incase I want to go back to an earlier stage.
Sorry if I was rambling there, and had any spelling mistakes, it's about 3 in the morning where I'm at and I really should be trying to get some sleep, I've got work in about 8 hours. I'll try to remember to look into your feedback after I get home from work, and my friend that I'm seeing afterwards.
Nice High Key lighting. Maybe adjust the camera angle slightly down so her chin is not being cut off by the edge of the image.
You have 2 options I can think of for sharing your images. If you haven't done so already you can start your own thread in the Art Studio where you can post your images. There may also be threads in the Art Studio where you are allowed to contributre your images.
The 2nd option is the User Gallery.
I really like your posing. She has a natural looking expression. I like the way she is not square to the camera but her body position is on a slight angle to the camera.
Nice rim light on her neck and shoulder. Is the light from the sunset behind her the only source of light?
Much better composition and the subtle changes to her pose really make a difference. A girl needs her swords. Don't want to take that away from her.
If you do not have one, perhaps adding a soft rim light on her hair to help separate her hair from the rock wall.
dragoneyes002 I saw the plants as obstiscle when I put them in but I left them there to give the place a more abandoned feeling since ths woman wouldn't pose anywhere she could be seen :) I might add more trees and such to emphasize that.
As a result of the kind suggestions made by Kismet2012 and Ariochsnowpaw, I have updated the two renders, as attached.
The 'Contemplating the Ruins' image went reasonably well. The cornea bulge worked well. I softened the shadows by changing the sun size from 4 to 16, and tweaked the drape of the figure's hair. I kept the sun as sun rather than mesh because, well, I can understand its positioning more easily. I like the soft, low angle of the sun at high latitudes, so dial in a date of 21 June, latitude 80 to 85 degrees north, 10 pm local time, then spin the dome to get the light from the right direction. If I want less yellow light, I simply change the time closer to mid-day.
The 'To the Wok Festival' was a bit more of a problem. The clothes were for G3F, the hair was for G3F, so, as the character base had G3 & G8 options, I originally made it G3F. G3F has no cornea bulge morph. So, I put in a tiny spotlight pointing at each eye with a luminance of 15 lux, and made the eye surface as reflective as I could. The figure's right eye reflection was out of shot for the camera. The left eye, well, it's not quite right. The iris rather than the cornea is doing the reflection. Consequently there is no reflection at the pupil. I will have to try to correct this, and when I do so, I must remember to hide the other figure. Her hair adds 3 minutes to the computer's time thinking about starting a spot render. For interest, I added a full colour rendered version, which confirms my belief that a monochrome render was the best option for this scene. I stopped the render at 38%, by which time it gives a good idea of the finished render.
Regards,
Richard
@Kismet2012 - Thank you. I built the pose from scratch so I'm pretty proud of it. For backlighting I rotated the HDRI to use it as the backlight. It does result in the ear throwing a shadow but I couldn't find a workaround for that.
@Richardandtracy_e725004c1a - Isn't fun to be able to tell the sun to move :). Definitely improved with the slight softening of the shadows and the reflections make her look deeply thoughtful. I've considered getting that hair in the background of the Wok Festival many times but since I'm single core processing in a CPU I'm sure I'd never be able to render it.