L'Adair's WIPs

L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
edited January 2018 in Art Studio

I decided I needed to have a "just-for-fun" WIP thread, so to keep myself motivated, I created this thread on New Year's Day. I really didn't expect to get a lot of traffic when the stats on the listing page showed 0 posts. You guys surprised me. Your attention to this virtually empty thread further motivated me to get my WIP post published.

I promise most of my WIP posts will not be as lengthy as the first one. In fact, most of the time, there should be only one image; I'll be posting as I go along.

Thank you for being interested.

Post edited by L'Adair on
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Comments

  • Well, hurry up, girl! I'm want to see something!  ;)

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    Well, hurry up, girl! I'm want to see something!  ;)

    Big sigh... I'm tired. Have you any idea how much work I did in the past six weeks? LOL...

    (Not to mention how difficult it is to get anything done when the hubby is home...) My other art threads are very goal/education oriented, and each post takes time and thought, making them hard to keep up with when life gets crazy, (like during the holidays.) This thread, on the other hand, is just for fun. No lengthy explanations and supporting images required! Yay.
    laugh

    P.S. I'll remove the "Nothing to see here" comment from the title when I get my first image posted.

  • ChameoChameo Posts: 306

    Just bookmarking to watch because I love your work!

  • L'Adair said:

    Well, hurry up, girl! I'm want to see something!  ;)

    Big sigh... I'm tired. Have you any idea how much work I did in the past six weeks? LOL...

    (Not to mention how difficult it is to get anything done when the hubby is home...) My other art threads are very goal/education oriented, and each post takes time and thought, making them hard to keep up with when life gets crazy, (like during the holidays.) This thread, on the other hand, is just for fun. No lengthy explanations and supporting images required! Yay.
    laugh

    P.S. I'll remove the "Nothing to see here" comment from the title when I get my first image posted.

    Lol! I can understand that perfectly. Life will settle down eventually, I'm sure. And, when it does, we'll be here. :)

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    I was off work all week last week, and guess who else was home most of the week?  Yup, my hubby was home too and his idea of time off and my idea of time can be very different sometimes lol.  Not to mention, he hogs the remote...  Looking forward to seeing what you post whenever you get around to it.  Maybe your hubby and mine should have a guys day out the next time they are off lol.

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    edited May 2021

    Mr. Tumnus isn't a 2018 render, but he went up with only minutes to spare before Daz Midnight on New Year's Eve. As I don't really have anything new yet, I thought I'd share some of the WIPs from putting this scene together. (All my images link to the full-size image; all links open in a new window.)

    First, here is the image I used most as a point of reference:

    Lucy and Mr Tumnus, official movie still

    My original Tumnus used Creature Creator to add equine legs. Then I added fur using DG's iray fur shaders:

    Not quite the look I was going for. I could work with it, as long as I added a lot of "my own" fur, but I had only a week until the deadline, so I decided to do a closeup, where I wouldn't need the goat legs, or the fur on the abdomen.

    I used dForce on the IDG Super Long Scarf after finding and modifying a pose:

    Island Boy pose 12, the starting point.G2M posed and head shrunk to Sim the scarf

    Notice the arms are out of the way, and the head is made smaller so the scarf drapes onto the back of his neck. This is actually a duplicate G2M with the same body shape.

    And here's the scarf on the target figure, as well as the umbrella, which I ended up not using.

    Scarf on Mr TumnusTumnus with scarf and umbrella

    The pose wasn't going where I wanted it to, with the umbrella in play, so I didn't use it. Here is the final pose, (viewport,) along with a closeup the final Mr. Tumnus' left profile.

    The final pose from a less flattering angle, via the viewport.Left Profile

    Of course, I also needed to create a winter Narnia, complete with lampost. Here is the Secluded Shoreline as you have, (probably,) never seen it before.

    Narnia set without falling snow

    The Snow System falling snow doesn't show up very well at this distance, so I hid for the render. I added it back in and saved a copy of the viewport. Much easier to see here.

    Viewport of Narnia set, with fallilng snow

    Here's the final render, prior to any post work, corrective or aesthetic.

    No postwork, final render


    Just a glimpse into a week's worth of work. smiley To view the final image again, you can find it here in my gallery, Mr. Tumnus, where you can view the image full-size and see what products I used. While you're there, I would be delighted if you left a short comment and/or a thumbs up.

    I hope my first WIP post didn't disappoint...! angel

    Post edited by L'Adair on
  • Nah, I loved seeing that. I managed to miss it when you first posted it. I must have been busy.  He looks great. :)

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    Nah, I loved seeing that. I managed to miss it when you first posted it. I must have been busy.  He looks great. :)

    New Year's Eve? What could possibly have kept you busy? wink

    I'm glad you stopped by.

  • L'Adair said:

    Nah, I loved seeing that. I managed to miss it when you first posted it. I must have been busy.  He looks great. :)

    New Year's Eve? What could possibly have kept you busy? wink

    I'm glad you stopped by.

    Lol! I can't even imagine! wink

  • ItsCeoItsCeo Posts: 471
    I saw this in the men thread. It seemed like I should know the figure but could not place it. I looked closer and noticed the lamppost. "Lamppost...hmm that is important," I said to myself. I searched my brain and the lamppost was the key- I suddenly realized who Mr. Tumnus was! Cool render and thanks for making me think! I appreciate you sharing the steps it took to make him. It's pretty cool to see your process.
  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,780

    oh, new shiny thread (ok I've been half asleep most of the time since the beginning of the new year, as some kids have way to much time on their holidays and think the time when I want to sleep is best for bad ideas liek "I cant sleep" complaints)

    Thats a fine work on Mr Tumnus there!

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    Thank you @ItsCeo. I'm happy I could make you think! LOL Yes, the lamppost was crucial, as was the red scarf. Otherwise it was just a faun in winter. I'm glad you liked the wip images.

    Thank you, @Linwelly. No kids in this house, anymore, but lots of kits. The cats aren't nearly as persistent at keeping me awake, but my husband's crazy two job schedule doesn't need any help. I can so relate to not getting enough sleep!

  • Thank you for sharing the WIPs of this great image. A masterpiece!

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    Awww... Thank you, xmasrose. I'm really glad you like it. laugh

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    edited May 2021

    This one isn't exactly a WIP. When I did the Christmas card last November, I started out by trying to add an interior room to the Victorian House. The resulting memory usage on the video card was getting unwieldy, so I decided to render the room separately from the window and then use an emissive plane behind the window with the room image. To that end, I rendered the image square with lots of extra room on all four sides. That allowed me to move the plane until I liked the position of the "room" relative to the window and camera. Here's the room:

    Christmas themed "living room" background, by L'Adair

    Post edited by L'Adair on
  • ChameoChameo Posts: 306

    I spotted Mr. Tumnus in the Raining Men thread and recognized him immediately. Getting a glimpse into your process really makes me appreciate how much work you put into him.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Really really like the Mr. Tumnus render, one of my favorite book series ever.

    I have a real fondness for WIP's (other people's, not mine lol), I really enjoy seeing how other people think when they work.

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    Really really like the Mr. Tumnus render, one of my favorite book series ever.

    I have a real fondness for WIP's (other people's, not mine lol), I really enjoy seeing how other people think when they work.

    Thank you, IceDragonArt.

    And for the record, I enjoy reading your WIP thread, as well as several others here in the Art Studio forums.

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    edited May 2021

    Just for fun, I decided to revisit my first completed scene from 2014, back when I first got started with Daz Studio. Here's the 3Delight render from Oct. 21, 2014:

    From 2014, On The Balcony, by L'Adair


    When I opened the original file, I discovered I had not created and saved the camera for this view, so I had to recreate it for the shot. After creating the new camera, I applied the Iray Uber Base to everything and rendered:

    Simple Iray Conversion. 2018, On The Balcony, by L'Adair

    It's actually not too bad. Though not set to photometric, Iray recognized and used the point lights and spot lights still in the scene. I realized after rendering that there were some changes I'd added in Dec 2014: the semi-opaque skirt, with the skirt from the MFD underneath, the small pattern of the wallpaper in the back. There were roses added in front of the balcony, but I did hide those before rendering.


    I made changes to make the scene as close to the original as possible, and then went about changing material settings to take full advantage of Iray. Some materials are my own, and some are from Iray shaders I've invested in over the past several years. I did a major 3DL-to-Iray overhaul on the balcony for a render shared in the Hidden Treasures thread, so I applied those material settings to this scene. And here is the new, Iray version of the scene.

    Iray Makeover: On The Balcony, featuring Victoria 6

    On The Balcony, (an Iray Makeover of a 2014 render,) by L'Adair


    Post edited by L'Adair on
  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,780

    interesting concersion to iray, but I think you made a nice start back then with 3delight as well !

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    Thank you, @Linwelly.

    I was just getting started and had no real clue how to light the scene. It was a couple of months before I grabbed AoA's Advanced DAZ Studio Light Bundle and finally started to get scenes that looked more like what I saw other people' getting. And soon after that, Iray was introduced and I got hooked. With a background that includes photography, the lighting in Iray just made sense to me. I do still tinker in 3DL ocassionally, though.

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,780

    I kept working with 3DL for a long time, and still like it very much, I really got into Iray only a year ago, when I finally got a GC that can handle Iray. But doing all that 3DL I found out a lot of useful stuff that still helps me

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    Linwelly said:

    I kept working with 3DL for a long time, and still like it very much, I really got into Iray only a year ago, when I finally got a GC that can handle Iray. But doing all that 3DL I found out a lot of useful stuff that still helps me

    Lighting in 3DL was starting to make sense. If I'd had another year or two with 3DL, I think I might have been a lot slower to adopt Iray. I think Iray has made me lazy, where lighting is concerned. It's just so easy to light a scene between light sources where they'd be in a real world setting, and KA"s ghost lights!

    I do think it's funny, though, how "everyone" was trying for the most realistic results they could get with 3DL, and now we have Iray, so many are trying to get less realistic results. Striving for the most difficult seems to be a human trait, even in 3D art.
    laugh

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Great job on the conversion!  Your first is sooo much better than mine lol.  I honestly thought you had been at this much longer, I started slightly less than a year after you did and I still feel like I have no idea what I am doing lol! 

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    edited May 2021

    Great job on the conversion!  Your first is sooo much better than mine lol.  I honestly thought you had been at this much longer, I started slightly less than a year after you did and I still feel like I have no idea what I am doing lol! 

    And yet your artwork is so amazing!

    And that was my first completed scene, not my first render. I downloaded and attempted to install DS3 when it was being given away for free. It wasn't until many years later I had a computer powerful enough to run Daz Studio, and even then, I only downloaded 4.6 so I could buy and render the Wyvern for a friend.

    She's an author and has a fantasy series with creatures she named wendts, and Daz's Wyvern was the closest thing we could find to her description. The idea was to create a rough mockup in Daz to present to her nephew's artist girlfriend to do a new cover for the book. (Didn't pan out, and she hired a pro. Great looking covers for the entire series and nary a wendt to be seen.) So my very first renders are of the wyvern and the base G2 female wearing the Ranger Outfit, (I bought the bundle in my first purchase at Daz, along with my PC+ membership.)

    And my lighting sucked! laugh

    Wendt and Ranger, no backgroundWendt and Ranger with rocks, no background

    Post edited by L'Adair on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Whew, I don't feel so bad lol!  And thank you, I think we have all come a really long way!  I am always so impressed with your ability to make sense of how things work and then manage to convey it in a way that even I can understand lol.

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    Whew, I don't feel so bad lol!  And thank you, I think we have all come a really long way!  I am always so impressed with your ability to make sense of how things work and then manage to convey it in a way that even I can understand lol.

    I've always loved puzzles... laugh

  • always interesting to see other's workflow, I've enjoyed browsing through this thread. :) Thank you!

  • I liked reading how you created Mr. Tumnus. Didn't realize that he was based on a literary figure. Since you mentioned Narnia, I assume he was from those movies. I think I have at least two of them, but I think I only watched the one. I remember complaining about something after I watched the one to a friend and she said I needed to watch the other one to understand. She refused to tell me what I wanted to know. Said I had to watch it.

  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,647

    I have seen all the Narnia movies and love each one.

    You did an amazing job on Mr. Tumnus right down to his scarf!!!

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