WIP THREAD FOR NEW USERS CONTEST, November, 2012

124

Comments

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited November 2012

    chohole said:
    I am not certain if I should comment on Scott's image

    ROFLOL Go on you know you want to.....
    Post edited by Szark on
  • gbilliaugbilliau Posts: 6
    edited December 1969

    I've made a few subtle changes and they seem to have helped. I fiddled with the lighting so the bright patches are brighter but the dark patches are about the same, moved the shadows so that her face isn't in a dark patch and raised her head a bit so her face is easier to see. I don't want to move her head much more, as she is supposed to be reading her book.

    lynx_v1.1_.jpg
    566 x 800 - 80K
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited November 2012

    gbilliau are you happy with the adjustments?

    I took the liberty and adjusted the light "Levels", increasing the light parts and leaving the shadows as there were. I also increased the colour "saturation" a little in Photoshop Elements

    What do you think better or worse?

    lynx_v1_1_A.jpg
    566 x 800 - 162K
    Post edited by Szark on
  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,331
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    I am not certain if I should comment on Scott's image

    Well, whatever you have to say, I guess I've got it coming! :lol:

    Here's a revised version. Hand pose is much improved but maybe still needs work, especially in the thumb? Does the face still need more light?

    chohole1c.jpg
    618 x 800 - 324K
  • gbilliaugbilliau Posts: 6
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    gbilliau are you happy with the adjustments?

    I took the liberty and adjusted the light "Levels", increasing the light parts and leaving the shadows as there were. I also increased the colour "saturation" a little in Photoshop Elements

    What do you think better or worse?

    Definatly better, though a little bit brighter than I would like. There are still a couple of little tweaks I want to make to the scene, then I'll try and recreate your changes.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    I am not certain if I should comment on Scott's image

    Well, whatever you have to say, I guess I've got it coming! :lol:

    Here's a revised version. Hand pose is much improved but maybe still needs work, especially in the thumb? Does the face still need more light?

    Well there have been some unkind people that say the less light the better whne it comes to chohole's face. :coolsmirk:

  • gbilliaugbilliau Posts: 6
    edited December 1969

    I've made what should be the final changes to the scene itself (if you care, then I offer several minutes entertainment playing spot the difference), then spent a good hour playing with the levels and saturation as suggested by Szark.

    Overall I'm happy with the result, so this will probably be my entry.

    lynx_v1.2_.jpg
    566 x 800 - 91K
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Hair fitting better, right hand pose adjusted and clothing is fitting is better, sleeve near the book, clothing behind her legs has changed a little and over her sholder the green strips look better. Did I get them all if so do I win something?

  • kittenwyldekittenwylde Posts: 151
    edited December 1969

    Hello! Just poking my head in to say hi. I know it's later than late, but I'm going to try my hand at this contest, because I'm incredibly thankful I've finally gotten this program to behave.
    Why, you ask? I know, everybody and their grandma can get DAZ to jump through hoops and make them sandwiches. But I've had a monstrously hard time with the program, dang it. I got it back when I upgraded to Bryce 5.5 and have been swearing at it ever since, up until... well, yesterday, really. Don't know why, I'm pretty good at all sorts of other 3d programs, including Bryce, and I've done video editing and effects so it's not a dumbness problem (I hope!), but with DAZ studio everything I did turned to crap. Following tutorials step by step resulted in wildly crazed results. My content... ah, my content. I think little gremlins would get in the computer and move stuff around when I wasn't looking. Lighting? Ugh. Horrible. And even the program itself... I had to install version 4 three times before it even came close to working! And even then the content management service wouldn't run.
    But two days ago I installed 4.5, spent a day categorizing my content and doing the happy dance because I could find it all, and yesterday I produced my first properly lighted render that doesn't look like a four-year-old could do better with a box of Crayolas. Woohoo! So I'm super thankful, even though at 12:30 this morning one of my experiments utterly exploded. I mean, horribly. I'll even attach a screenshot that you all may have some entertainment, and be thankful this doesn't happen to you! That pile of exploded polygons used to be a guy.

    crappy.png
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  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Mr Leong said:
    Denny L said:
    a good way to show people thinking and what they are thinking about is with a low camera pointing upward (worm view) at the face.

    Focusing on the face will also be consistent with what LycanthropeX wrote in post #29 about the tendency of incorrectly doing very wide shots for images.

    Reworked the angle so this is how it looks now. Again, the girl in the back is going to be worked on in post work. I'll probably be doing one render of the woman, then zoom in on the girl for a second render, then put them together in post work.

    Ok dokey since LycanthropeX is awol I thought I would take a stab at trying to help.

    Here is my effort in trying get a better composition (see next month for more on that subject)

    Think about what is the main subject, in this case the woman on the bench so she is the focus....then second to that is your thoughts visually shown as a thought bubble just to illustrate the idea. What and how you show this is your choice. Everything else is just window dressing.

    Here one I did a few years ago which is sort of on the same lines.

    z02_copy.jpg
    498 x 345 - 129K
    FootPrints.jpg
    979 x 941 - 342K
  • GrazeGraze Posts: 418
    edited November 2012

    Szark said:
    Think about what is the main subject, in this case the woman on the bench so she is the focus....then second to that is your thoughts visually shown as a thought bubble just to illustrate the idea. What and how you show this is your choice. Everything else is just window dressing.

    Here one I did a few years ago which is sort of on the same lines.

    Thanks Szark. I like how you set your picture up with the dinosaurs. Originally I was going to use the thought bubble in mine too, but that would have just made the little girl too small. And I really wanted to show her drawing a turkey by tracing her hand. I'm hoping that, by making her lighter and up in the sky, she'll appear as a thought. Still not too sure if it looks related to the woman on the park bench or whether this just looks like some collage of a picture, but here's how it's looking now.

    z07.jpg
    539 x 620 - 241K
    Post edited by Graze on
  • kittenwyldekittenwylde Posts: 151
    edited November 2012

    Okay, here's my first attempt. Any and all comments are welcome. It's harder than I thought it would be to combine fall, functioning computer programs, and thankfulness all into one. So I went with my default setting of converting what I know into a scifi setting. Unfortunately, my monitors ain't that big...

    novcontest1.jpg
    800 x 513 - 267K
    Post edited by kittenwylde on
  • GrazeGraze Posts: 418
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    Everything else is just window dressing.

    Now I get it. The tree was too prominent. Readjusted the picture some more with less tree, although I would like to keep as much of the leaves there as possible for the autumn theme.

    Worked some more on the woman's expression and lighting.

    z08.jpg
    539 x 620 - 200K
  • gbilliaugbilliau Posts: 6
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    Hair fitting better, right hand pose adjusted and clothing is fitting is better, sleeve near the book, clothing behind her legs has changed a little and over her sholder the green strips look better. Did I get them all if so do I win something?

    There are two more changes, one of them is so small it's practically unnoticable at this size. If you find them all I'm prepared to offer a free copy of blender.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Okay, here's my first attempt. Any and all comments are welcome. It's harder than I thought it would be to combine fall, functioning computer programs, and thankfulness all into one. So I went with my default setting of converting what I know into a scifi setting. Unfortunately, my monitors ain't that big...
    Hiya and welcome to Daz2d and the new users contest. Looks like you are having fun now.

    Great start.

    I have been playing to show a few other ways you could frame this image to have a better impact on the viewer. Aslo I feel the background should be darker so the foreground stands out a little more. But a good start nevertheless.

    novcontest1_copy2.jpg
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    novcontest1_copy1.jpg
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    novcontest1_copy.jpg
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  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Mr Leong said:
    Szark said:
    Everything else is just window dressing.

    Now I get it. The tree was too prominent. Readjusted the picture some more with less tree, although I would like to keep as much of the leaves there as possible for the autumn theme.

    Worked some more on the woman's expression and lighting.

    Ok how about making the edge of the memory fuzzy keeping the girl crisp.

    z02_copy1.jpg
    498 x 345 - 49K
  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,331
    edited December 1969

    Tweaked the lighting some more and the skin surface settings as well, and rendered with varying levels of depth of field, to see how it looks. There's one I prefer but I'm curious for other opinions.

    chohole1g-35.jpg
    618 x 800 - 311K
    chohole1f-30.jpg
    618 x 800 - 298K
    chohole1e-25.jpg
    618 x 800 - 285K
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    great improvement Scott, lighting is so much crisper great work on the surfaces too.
    I still think it would better using the tree to frame cho and not appear behind her that much....but like always it is just my opinion and they are your images to do what you want with them. :)

  • kittenwyldekittenwylde Posts: 151
    edited December 1969

    Thanks, Szark! Yes, definitely having fun now. Most of the frustration is gone. :)
    Oh, the irony of your suggested changes! Made me laugh. I've tried those angles, so no real surprise there, but the light thing... I wanted the background darker, then I brightened it up because I was afraid of making it too dark. Plus, I wanted to have the plant visible, but that was just to make me happy, not really necessary to the scene.
    So here's the first revision.

    novcontestrev1.jpg
    800 x 665 - 279K
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Darker background looks better.

    I still think cropping the figure like that works against the balance of the image, have you tried 16:9 widescreen raito for the image size. If you look at my mock ups of your image on the last page again, see how the figure, when cropped more tightly grabs you attention making you look at what the figure is looking at.

  • kittenwyldekittenwylde Posts: 151
    edited December 1969

    Hmm... hadn't tried widescreen. I'll give that a shot.
    I confess, I keep cropping the figure because I can't get the bump out of her back and it drives me nuts. I'll take another shot at fixing it, though. Thanks!

  • kittenwyldekittenwylde Posts: 151
    edited December 1969

    Next revision...

    novcontestrev3.jpg
    800 x 450 - 186K
  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,331
    edited December 1969

    Mr Leong: I'd also like to see you try Szark's suggestion and make the edges fuzzy...
    sithkitten: Can you brighten the screens so that they are glowing, either in the software or in postwork?

    Here's my latest...experimenting with a new camera angle, a subtler DOF setting, and a different texture on the house (for some visual contrast). Also added some wildlife and made some additional improvements to the pose, lighting (but this was before I moved the camera...), fit of the hat, etc.

    What do you think of these changes? Any ideas for making her eyes brighter/livelier?

    chohole2a.jpg
    618 x 800 - 337K
  • kittenwyldekittenwylde Posts: 151
    edited December 1969


    sithkitten: Can you brighten the screens so that they are glowing, either in the software or in postwork?

    I would love to, but I haven't figured out how yet. When I look at the scene on my monitor, they're bright and crisp and glowy, and I'm happy. When I render, they go fuzzy. I'm thinking there's a depth of field issue, and I just haven't figured out where the setting is. That's my project for this morning. :)
    I like the birds you added to your image. Nothing like a raven or two to make life more interesting.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited November 2012

    Hmm, wildest wild life I normally come across are my 2 young cats, but they can get pretty wild as they are only just over a year old.

    I like the way this is evolving.

    missing shadows on the ground plane, now you have pulled the camera back

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • kittenwyldekittenwylde Posts: 151
    edited December 1969

    Well, no luck. I found where all the depth of field stuff is, but I can't get the monitors to match up with the clarity of the unrendered version. Help? Anybody got any suggestions?

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited November 2012

    sithkitten DOF http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/5084/

    I don't think the DOF is making them darker at render.
    Try looking in the Surfaces Pane for those montiors and increase the ambient...better still post a screencap of the surfaces for one of the monitors and we will getting you glowing in no time. Well when I get back later. :)

    Post edited by Szark on
  • ZamuelNowZamuelNow Posts: 753
    edited December 1969

    I think I may have finally come up with an idea for this. Just hope I have time to set it up and render.

  • kittenwyldekittenwylde Posts: 151
    edited December 1969

    Well, I still haven't gotten the focus to sharpen on the monitor images (dangit!), but I boosted the ambient strength nutty high and got about the same brightness I see before I render. I can live with a little bit of fuzz, as long as the images are recognizable as fall-type stuff.

    novcontestrev4.jpg
    800 x 450 - 215K
  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    I like this one, looks VERY good.

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