WIP THREAD for October NEW USERS CONTEST

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  • BlumBlumShubBlumBlumShub Posts: 1,108
    edited December 1969

    bluemoon said:
    Thanks Szark, Frank0314 and Jaderail.

    After a few hours sleep the answer to my lighting problem was simple - delete all of them and start again. I like this one much better, still have to do a bit of work on the background.


    Wow, I love that!
  • edited December 1969

    Wow, I love that!

    Thank-you BlumBlumShub

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    bluemoon said:
    Thanks Szark, Frank0314 and Jaderail.

    After a few hours sleep the answer to my lighting problem was simple - delete all of them and start again. I like this one much better, still have to do a bit of work on the background.

    HOOKY SMOKES! That's one nice render. Love the lighting effects in this version. Well done and other types of praise...
  • edited December 1969

    Jaderail said:
    HOOKY SMOKES! That's one nice render. Love the lighting effects in this version. Well done and other types of praise...

    Thank-you Jaderail, I really enjoy doing night scenes, I always seem to over expose things in day scenes.
  • bartman23bartman23 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    bluemoon said:
    Thanks Szark, Frank0314 and Jaderail.

    After a few hours sleep the answer to my lighting problem was simple - delete all of them and start again. I like this one much better, still have to do a bit of work on the background.

    That's cool - it is dark but you manage to keep all colors - and vibrant: wauw!

  • edited December 1969

    As we are all trying to make moody or spooky scenes this month I thought I would share my basic lighting set up for a night or dark interior scene using only the basic Daz lights. The problem I allways had was with light 'spilling' onto surfaces where I didn't want it so I tried this and so far I am happy with the results.

    The top view shows lighting the figure.

    A Linear Point Light about shoulder height in close to the body setting the start and end fall off close to floor level, raytraced shadows with shadow softness set around 60%. Intensity and colour vary depending on the mood.

    A Spotlight for back-lighting, I set it so that the spill onto the floor is close enough to the camera so as not to be seen in the render. I also ramp the intesity right up, in this one I changed the intensity parameter to 400% and settled on 350% for the render. Again using raytraced shadows and softness around 60%.

    The front view shows lighting the scene.

    Here I used two Distant Lights one set to difuse only and one set to specular only both are set to no shadows and placed either side of the camera. In this one I set the difuse light down to 25% to make the background nice and dark.

    Have fun rendering.

    Example.jpg
    582 x 800 - 174K
    fig-2.jpg
    667 x 504 - 277K
    fig-1.jpg
    583 x 800 - 112K
  • bartman23bartman23 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Jaderail said:
    bartman23 said:
    Changed my mind and brought the kid inside
    Nice, and creepy. Question, did the render size change in the rules this month?

    Sorry I get carried away - I like big images and want to show all crisp - like imax
    I will limit them around 1200 wide - still wanna keep that feeling a bit

  • SasjeSasje Posts: 835
    edited December 1969

    Frank, BlumBlumShup, Bartman 23, Jadrail thank you :)

  • SasjeSasje Posts: 835
    edited December 1969

    Bartman and Bleumoon SPOOOOKY!! I like it great work :-)

    Beumoon thank you for sharing the light.

  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,331
    edited October 2012

    These are all looking really good! Thanks for sharing the lighting tips, bluemoon!

    I've created a cast of spooky characters, but I'm still trying to figure out what to do with them...

    bartman23: the maximum size for this contest is 800x800...we're not supposed to exceed 800 pixels in either dimension. I wish I could go bigger, too...

    Post edited by Scott Livingston on
  • bartman23bartman23 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969


    bartman23: the maximum size for this contest is 800x800...we're not supposed to exceed 800 pixels in either dimension. I wish I could go bigger, too...

    I know it says 800 for the Official Entry only - but I'll make them 800 here - no worries

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Yeah we did that so everyone was working on similar size canvases, makes it easier for the judges. Plus of course when we wrote the rules the forum wasn't resizing the images, so anything bigger was screwing up the forum formatting. :roll:

  • IlenaIlena Posts: 280
    edited December 1969

    bluemoon said:
    Thanks Szark, Frank0314 and Jaderail.

    After a few hours sleep the answer to my lighting problem was simple - delete all of them and start again. I like this one much better, still have to do a bit of work on the background.

    Great job. I like the perspective. It's like we're watching what the man, woman or a child is seeing before that creature grabs hold of its prey. :)

    Here's an early stage of the entry for this challenge.

    Noc_vestica_za_oktobar_izazov_(3).jpg
    1200 x 1200 - 586K
  • gp139gp139 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    hi i just want to ask if all of you think that the light on my old hag is to dark, i wanted the spot light on the young one and focus on the young one and get the shadow on her but i dont want to darken out the hag making the wish
    oh thats the title a halloween wish to be young.

    let me know what you think

    thanks

    halloween_wish_to_be_young.jpg
    800 x 800 - 344K
  • gp139gp139 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    i forgot also to ask most of my renders come out a little soft this happen when i move the pic to the wip page its like each time i move it it gets softer and softer.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    i forgot also to ask most of my renders come out a little soft this happen when i move the pic to the wip page its like each time i move it it gets softer and softer.
    If you are using jpg files that will happen. PNG is a loss-less format and will stay crisp.
  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    IF you click on the image you will see it in a new window, without the forum compression.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    And that too...

  • gp139gp139 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    thanks for the info jaderail ill try that

  • IlenaIlena Posts: 280
    edited October 2012

    Update version of the last image. Thoughts? Also, how does one create fog?

    NocVesticaDVP.jpg
    1200 x 675 - 326K
    Post edited by Ilena on
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Ilena52 said:
    Update version of the last image. Thoughts? Also, how does one create fog?
    My suggestion is to aim a spot at the figure peeking around the door as she gets lost in the dark. Plus you may consider placing a spot behind the skeleton facing the camera (a backlight or rim light) just to highlight the right side (our right) so it stands out a little from the background. These two points are the focus of the image....yes. So these need to be lighter than the rest of the image.


    Some new comers know this already but for the ones that are not aware we humans are programed to look at certain details of an image.

    We tend to look at light sharp focused areas of an image first, like it is candy for the eye. This is why DOF is so effective. The blurriness forces our gaze to he sharpest parts of the image. Same thing with light and dark we go straight for the light.

    So using light alone we can move the viewers eyes around the image, even if it is just a subtle rim light. Just enough to separate if from the background.


    Then the last weird thing is that if our eye is not drawn to focus on part of an image our gaze will eventually moved up to the top left corner. It supposed to be a scientific fact. Who am I to argue. LOL

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    hi i just want to ask if all of you think that the light on my old hag is to dark, i wanted the spot light on the young one and focus on the young one and get the shadow on her but i dont want to darken out the hag making the wish
    oh thats the title a halloween wish to be young.

    let me know what you think

    thanks

    Wierd this image is lighter on my monitor when I download the image to HDD than looking at it on the same monitor when it is still on this website. Probably IE9.

    Anyway I hope you don't mind me dissecting your image. I am doing this in the spirit of learning and I hope you get something from it.

    halloween_wish_to_be_young_copy.jpg
    800 x 800 - 493K
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    bluemoon said:
    Thanks Szark, Frank0314 and Jaderail.

    After a few hours sleep the answer to my lighting problem was simple - delete all of them and start again. I like this one much better, still have to do a bit of work on the background.

    As others have said great statuarted colours there. love it. That dark sky really adds to the drama of one of my old teachers pouncing on me for talking in class. :) You think I jest. ;)
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Sasje said:
    I want to show this one.
    I bet everyone entering is relieved you cannot enter these anymore. LOL What a great image.
  • gp139gp139 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    SZARK
    in the spririt of learning thanks i see what you are talking about, this is a great help, i know what and where i have to go, i will try to conjure up a better image next time, thank again for the map
    i guess the next thing i should get is photoshop, times are hard

    thanks

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    SZARK
    in the spririt of learning thanks i see what you are talking about, this is a great help, i know what and where i have to go, i will try to conjure up a better image next time, thank again for the map
    i guess the next thing i should get is photoshop, times are hard

    thanks

    With a little work you can get great renders right from DS. No postwork needed, DS4.5 comes with some great tools (Uber Evro, Point Lights, Base Shaders) all when you install it. Then you have the Surfaces tab to play with as well. Lighting (even just two Distant Lights setup well) and the Surfaces Tab with a good camera angle and image composition (flow of the eye, rule of thirds or another one of the many rules) can really do great things to what starts as a simple everyday render.

    I really think more users should learn the full capabilities of the program before they jump into the Postwork to fix it frame of mind. If you can visit my DA page and look at my stuff, WARNING 18+ for part of it (in my sig) you can get a idea what DS can do all by itself. 99% of my renders are done WITHOUT postwork. I'm not even good, but I have done some good renders with just DS.

    This is the end of the I Love DS and what it can do commercial.

    P.S. I also love all the WIP's so far, with postwork, without I don't care. This is a great thread this month.
  • edited December 1969

    Ilena52 said:
    Update version of the last image. Thoughts? Also, how does one create fog?

    I used fog in one of my renders for last months challenge with the Atmospheric Effects Cameras which can be found here.

    They are for DAZ only so I hope this helps you.

  • edited December 1969

    bartman23 said:
    That's cool - it is dark but you manage to keep all colors - and vibrant: wauw!
    Thanks bartman23
    Ilena52 said:
    Great job. I like the perspective. It's like we're watching what the man, woman or a child is seeing before that creature grabs hold of its prey. :)

    Thanks Ilena52, thats exactly what I was trying to do.
    As others have said great statuarted colours there. love it. That dark sky really adds to the drama of one of my old teachers pouncing on me for talking in class. :) You think I jest. ;)
    Thanks Szark, I remember those days, sometimes they were even armed with a big stick.
  • IlenaIlena Posts: 280
    edited December 1969

    bluemoon said:
    Ilena52 said:
    Update version of the last image. Thoughts? Also, how does one create fog?

    I used fog in one of my renders for last months challenge with the Atmospheric Effects Cameras which can be found here.

    They are for DAZ only so I hope this helps you.

    Oh, it does help but currently out of funds. On the bright side after waking up a solution lamp lighted up in the head and I got the fog. Listened to Szark advice on the light. It came out well I think. Also, I did tiny postwork( the eyes and messed with the layers ) so I hope you won't mind if I post both versions.

    31.jpg
    800 x 450 - 321K
    Nov_Vestica.jpg
    800 x 450 - 197K
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Jad said:
    SZARK
    in the spririt of learning thanks i see what you are talking about, this is a great help, i know what and where i have to go, i will try to conjure up a better image next time, thank again for the map
    i guess the next thing i should get is photoshop, times are hard

    thanks

    With a little work you can get great renders right from DS. No postwork needed, DS4.5 comes with some great tools (Uber Evro, Point Lights, Base Shader) all when you install it. Then you have the Surfaces tab to play with as well. Lighting (even just two Distant Lights setup well) and the Surfaces Tab with a good camera angle and image composition (flow of the eye, rule of thirds or another one of the many rules) can really do great things to what starts as a simple everyday render.

    I really think more users should learn the full capabilities of the program before they jump into the Postwork to fix it frame of mind. If you can visit my DA page and look at my stuff, WARNING 18+ for part of it (in my sig) you can get a idea what DS can do all by itself. 99% of my renders are done WITHOUT postwork. I'm not even good, but I have done some good renders with just DS.

    This is the end of the I Love DS and what it can do commercial.

    P.S. I also love all the WIP's so far, with postwork, without I don't care. This is a great thread this month.Yes good follow up Jad and I totally agree. ;)

    Things like smoke are doable in Daz Studio with Uber Volume built in to Daz Studio (this has a learning curve but not that steep), AOA's Cameras, as Bluemoon posted about above, the Shader Mixer or primitives and transmaps. But for a little bit like what I suggested is so much quicker and easier to do in Postwork especially if you have a low powered computer the Postwork is you friend.

    I don't want to get in to a debate on the purity of rendering as art is our own and it is a personal choice weather we use postwork or try to do everything inside the CGI program. I have done many images that don't have postwork or at least very little and I have some that has a pile. I enjoy both sides.

    But my advice still stands...POSTWORK rocks. LOL

    GIMP http://www.gimp.org/ is a very excellent free peice of software. It can do more than my Photoshop Elements 6 can do and did I mention it is free. Just because a program is free doesn't make it any less worthiy than paid for programs. Plus there are a ton of written and video tutorials all over the internet.

    Inkscape, Scribus and Blender are all open source and are very capable programs too.

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