Ice Dragon Art WIP's

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  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Novica is doing render a vender feature on her thread and I am joining in.

    Sonja,  The link you have points to page one of your thread.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    wgdjohn said:

    Novica is doing render a vender feature on her thread and I am joining in.

    Sonja,  The link you have points to page one of your thread.

    Ugg let me try that again lol.  thanks!

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Okay that should fix it, it should now go to the page 72 which is the page it starts about half way two thirds of the way down.  Although I am the first post on the top of the page too lol.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    edited November 2016

    Well this was an interesting and a bit frustrating piece of work.  The wings were difficult to work with but they are stunning.  I don't have any idea what's causing the discoloration on her face and one hand, there isn't anything I can find from any angle that would cause a shadow like that.  This is V4 because I wanted to try out the wings and the outfit I picked up (one of the outfits that belong to the wing set, can't think of what's called off hand and I am irritated enought ot not want to go look it up lo). 

    The render served a dual purpose though, as I used Marshians nimbustratus 3Delight for the stars in the background, its got a cool star ring that I will find lots of use for.  I also used his Above the Fog product for the mist on the ground. Will insert links tomorrow, its past bedtime and the wings and outfit kicked my butt tonight.

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  • Nice work!  Which wings are those?

  • algovincianalgovincian Posts: 2,562

    Those are very cool looking wings! I picked up so many bundles w/wings from the Featured Items category during this sale, I can't even begin to keep track of them.

    My personal favorites are the Lilithai, which I *think* I've figured out a way to pose them for use in DS. Did you encounter issues with posing these in DS? Did you re-rig 'em?

    - Greg

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Malaik wings ( might be the same ones Greg not sure but  I also got all those bundles that were in the featured items as well).  I used the preset poses but I had real issues parenting to V4, the parenting actually put them on the front of her chest, not her back. so they are actually separate and not parented.  I haven't learned to do any rigging yet although I can see I need to move that closer to the top of my list.  I wonder if these work any better in poser.  I was missing mat files on parts of the wings too, so I just ended up tracking dow the mat files for the parts that were working and moving them into the slot for the parts that werent.

  • algovincianalgovincian Posts: 2,562

    Yeah, I've read others talking about missing files, but haven't even gotten around to DLing most of it yet. The artistry on a lot of this older V4/M4 stuff is absolutely amazing! Totally worth a bit of effort to re-rig, or a few missing files.

    - Greg

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Yeah, I've read others talking about missing files, but haven't even gotten around to DLing most of it yet. The artistry on a lot of this older V4/M4 stuff is absolutely amazing! Totally worth a bit of effort to re-rig, or a few missing files.

    - Greg

    Absolutely!  So many items and texture sets included its crazy.  Don't see that as much on the newer sets. A lot of the V4 stuff is like that I've noticed.  Any ideas on where to find a tutorial or two on re rigging?

  • algovincianalgovincian Posts: 2,562

    I'm no expert (understatement), but right now I'm trying to get the gloves from the Lilithai outfit to work properly when autofit to a Genesis 1 figure. The autofit worked resonably well and I've made a custom corrective morph for this one particular character shape I'm working with. The gloves have long claws though, and the tip of claw for the thumb is weightmapped to index3, so that needs to be fixed. Here's a link to the tut on weight mapping I used to get started:

    http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/creating_content/rigging/tutorials/weight_mapping_a_figure/start

    Hope this helps.

    - Greg

     

  • Okay, got the Malaik wings.  I haven't had a chance to download them yet.  I picked up the two lilthai bundles, too.  Again, haven't even downloaded them yet.  

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Thanks Greg!  Getting ready to walk out the door to the years last bbq at a friends house but hoping to get home at a semi reasonable hour.

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333
    edited November 2016

    I'm currently working with the Malaik wings right now (I'm using V4).  I found that posing them after the textures are added is almost impossible, because I can't see the edges in the viewport.  So I pose the wings without textures and then add the materials preset.  It does take LOTS of patience to work with the wings.  Besides the joints, you will also find morphs under the Shaping tab - that's how you get the feathers to curve or to change the length.

    They also load far too large so I have to adjust the scale and manually lower them so that they fit with the top feathers just peaking over the shoulders. 

    I have also picked up lots of textures for the Malaik Wings and have mixed and manually added them for a unique look. I bought the wings a couple of years ago. 

    Lilithai Wings - yes I also noticed that they distort when you pose them.  I don't have any experience rigging - though I had picked up Daz Studio Rigging Made Easy by Dreamlight a while ago.  Guess I'm going to have to try it but I'm not sure when I will get to it - I have some serious family issues that I need to take care of right now.

    As far as the claws are concerned - the same problem occurs with every claw made by Arki for V4, including Qabbalah and Y-Stylez Katey's Accessories.

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  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333
    edited November 2016

    Here's another example of texture swapping I did with the various textures I purchased.  Notice how I sized the wings to fit the character.  Just have patience, Sonja... LOTS of patience to work with the wings.

    SAVE all your wing poses!

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  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited November 2016

    I watched a "weight mapping" tutorial by Allen at DAZ3D on youtube... Rigging High Heeled Shoes in DAZ Studio for Genesis 3... looked very good and points out a few things well.  Hope it helps someone.

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Thanks everyone!  They are beautiful wings and I will just keep plugging away at them when I have time.  Thanks wgdjohn I will add that to my list of stuff to watch.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    edited November 2016

    Caught Blue Handed  - Will have to post who and what I used tomorrow as I am too tired to go and look.  Usually I dont' shut down Studio before I post so I can go look at what I used but I forgot.  And its late and I have to work tomorrow. Its pretty dark but it is the middle of the night and he was sneaking around the side door of the castle.  I will probably take it into photoshop and adjust some of the levels to make it a little bit easier to see.

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  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,648

    Well I think it looks great as it is dark and sneaky like!!!

    His face is well lit anyway.

    Great job on this render Sonja!!!

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Thank you Sapphire!

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    edited November 2016

    So this is the render I did following along on the Carrara Discussion thread called No One Asked Me by Diomede.  Very helpful to learn the basics and learn some of the basic ways to get around and what things do what when setting up a basic scene.

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  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,648

    WOW Sonja you are growing leaps and bounds with your 3D Art!!!

    Great job!!

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Thanks Sapphire! Its quite interesting the different programs.

  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,648

    I am stil struggling with daz studio right now do not want to try anything new till I get a grip on daz first!!indecision

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    I am stil struggling with daz studio right now do not want to try anything new till I get a grip on daz first!!indecision

    I know the feeling!  I had opened carrara and a couple other programs several months ago and just couldn't wrap my head around anything extra!  I'm starting to feel a bit more comfortable in Daz but its taken some time!

     

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited November 2016

    Sonja,  I'm learning a lot from No one asked me - Diomede posts screenshots on whatever. I've only read it as far as posing the theif... since I've used diomede's very helpful notes on posing and started adding figure/creature to some of my scenes. Today I posted my first WIP in Carrara Monthly Challenge 29: Bad Timing, or Good Timing (Anachronistic) - WIP Thread. Find my very early scene Here.

    Oh... I've been admiring all your incredible scenes... just too shy to remark.  blush

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    wgdjohn said:

    Sonja,  I'm learning a lot from No one asked me - Diomede posts screenshots on whatever. I've only read it as far as posing the theif... since I've used diomede's very helpful notes on posing and started adding figure/creature to some of my scenes. Today I posted my first WIP in Carrara Monthly Challenge 29: Bad Timing, or Good Timing (Anachronistic) - WIP Thread. Find my very early scene Here.

    Oh... I've been admiring all your incredible scenes... just too shy to remark.  blush

    That's very cool!  I haven't quite gotten that far yet although now that I kind of understand the basics (although the shader room is a wee bit intimidating lol) I will be working my way through the next set of stuff.  I think, since I am now far more comfortable in Daz Studio than I was several months ago, and kind of understand a bit more about the common terms and how things work, its been far easier to understand how Carrara and a couple of the other programs work, once I figure out where the controls are and what they do.  Not that I don't have a huge amount still to learn in Studio lol.

    Please, comment! I value other people's comments and constructive criticism so please don't be shy!  How else am I going to learn?  Not saying I always agree with everyone but the information is always valuable.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,027
    edited November 2016

    Hey, I recognize that dude and tree!  So glad to see someone actually walk through the tutorial.  Please provide me any feedback on how to make it better, and ask any questions if you have them.  Meanwhile, I am trying to learn Studio and am completely lost.  But, just trying to stay patient.  I am overstating the trouble in Studio.  Once I find the correct Studio pane, or get shown where to find stuff, it usually makes sense.  I am doing a picnic scene for the surfaces challenge so that I have an excuse to have a lot of different kinds of objects.

    .

    So this is the render I did following along on the Carrara Discussion thread called No One Asked Me by Diomede.  Very helpful to learn the basics and learn some of the basic ways to get around and what things do what when setting up a basic scene.

     

     

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited November 2016

    Sonja,  Yes shader room was ,is a bit, intimidating to me.  If you have Carrara 8.5 Tutorial Video - Instant Digital Download by Phil Wilkes... he covers basics of all shader channels and some other functions... it is in chapter 7, of Disk 3 I believe. Sure helped me. Now I love to simply play with the settings to see what they do.  Another thing to help is to apply a shader which comes with Carrara to see what the settings are that created it... judging from how well you do in DS... in another month you will have Carrara's Shader Room under your control. :)

    Suggestions for your Carrara render with the tree in it... I don't care for the look of the tree base looking as if it is sitting on the ground.  What I do in cases like this is to place some grass, flowers, small growth, weeds or a combination of them in front of it from another package like those from Howie Farkes or anyone who has modeled such items... TangoAlpha, Dartanbeck, PhilW and others.  I used grass mostly in my last Carrara Challenge render to hide where there was a sharp difference between my modeled/shaded small boulders and Dartanbeck's "Woodlands Environ Kit"s terrain color.  Another option is to create the look of grass covering the sharp difference by using the brush to drag the terrain color over it to give it a grass like look... but I'd rather not do PostWork... I even went as far as using Carrara's Text/Font editor to create a font object that is my signature so that I don't have to do that in Post.

    Warning... grass and any very complicated objects will slow down the render.  What I do is group things into categories, ground cover, saplings etc. This allows me to hide them in order to speed up rendering for test renders and to narrow down problems. I'll even hide the main terrain and all other objects in order to only show the character while I work out a pose and shaders.  In the General listing... Visible checkbox will hide the object from Assemble room as well as in a render. "Show Object in 3D View", lower down in General listing, will *only* hide it from view in Assemble room... it will show up in both area renders or in full scene render.

    Please pardon my mentioning anything you already know... just pretend I didn't say it. :)

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Diomede I have to say that it was the easiest tutorial ever to follow.  The pictures were spot on and I had absolutely no problem following along.  It was very clear.  And  the progression was also easy to follow to get to the whole scene.  Of course, that tends to be my workflow, character first then add everything else lol.  I am looking forward to doing the rest!

    If you have questions about Studio please ask!  You are welcome to ask here, if I don't know someone else will or you can ask in Knittingmommy's thread as well, she has a lot of helpful step by step stuff over there that may be of help as well.

    wgdjohn, I know absolutely nothing about Carrara so it was all useful information thank you!  And thank you very much for your kind compliment as well.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    dracorn said:

    Here's another example of texture swapping I did with the various textures I purchased.  Notice how I sized the wings to fit the character.  Just have patience, Sonja... LOTS of patience to work with the wings.

    SAVE all your wing poses!

    I love this Dracorn its really striking!

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