July 2018 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Portrait Rendering

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  • WallflowerWallflower Posts: 35
    edited July 2018

    Hope i can get some feedback from you guys so i can improve my work.

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    Post edited by Wallflower on
  • Ok here is the "B" version. To be honest, I don't really like it. I chose the name Mishti because the meaning means:- sweet girl that may seem mysterious to some. When I rendered her for the first time I was amazed and t really was a mystery to me how I managed to creat such a beautiful model that looked nothing, and I mean nothing like I had hoped and yet I couldn't be more proud.

    Lighting the face takes away a lot of the 'Mystique' element and although she looks, in my opinion, no less pretty, I do think it detracts from the original, I also do not like the new reflections so apart from starting over I don't know what else to do! I know exactly the thought behind reversing it, but I just don't think it works, so again, any suggestions would be more than welcome.

    I tend to agree with you.  I prefer the first image as well.

    I have made changes to an image on more than 1 occassion thinking it would be an improvement only to prefer the way it was.  But if we do not try something you will never know.

    That is why we suggest when making a change save it as a new version of the project, ie Misthi A, Mishti B or Mishti, Mishti Alt, etc.

    Mishti is a wonderful character.  Congrats and I am sure you will create many wonderful renders with her as your Muse.

     

    She gets saved at every available oppertunity, so I always have the last scene.

    Thank you for your kind words.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252

    Hope i can get some feedback from you guys so i can imporve my work.

    This is a very nice start.  She has a natural looking expression.  I find smiles can easily go from natural looking to bad very easily.  The addition of the glasses and the fingers touching the frames helps bring the viewer's eye to her face.

    I would suggest a slight adjustment to the camera.  The crop is slightly too tight to the figure.

    Here are a couple of articles on cropping a figure.  They are photography based but the principles are the same.

     

    https://digital-photography-school.com/good-crop-bad-crop-how-to-crop-portraits/

     

    https://www.techradar.com/how-to/photography-video-capture/cameras/free-portrait-photography-cropping-guide-1320921

     

     

     

  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,647
    edited July 2018

    Here is my first draft of a portrait render I have had in mind for a while now.

    I would like some feedback on it so that I can improve my skills.

    Done in 3Delghit with mood lights (default settings)

    Titled:Sam Is Peaceful

    Sam Is Peaceful .png
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    Post edited by Saphirewild on
  • WallflowerWallflower Posts: 35

    Hope i can get some feedback from you guys so i can imporve my work.

     

    This is a very nice start.  She has a natural looking expression.  I find smiles can easily go from natural looking to bad very easily.  The addition of the glasses and the fingers touching the frames helps bring the viewer's eye to her face.

    I would suggest a slight adjustment to the camera.  The crop is slightly too tight to the figure.

    Here are a couple of articles on cropping a figure.  They are photography based but the principles are the same.

     

    https://digital-photography-school.com/good-crop-bad-crop-how-to-crop-portraits/

     

    https://www.techradar.com/how-to/photography-video-capture/cameras/free-portrait-photography-cropping-guide-1320921

     

     

     

    Thank you so much for your feedback and your suggestion. Those articles were on point, i'll try to mess with the camera more in my next renders.

  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,647
    edited July 2018

    Here is my second try at the portrait because Sam seemed to be lonely all by herself,so I added Margo to the mix.

    Sam and Margo Having Peaceful Fun.png
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    Post edited by Saphirewild on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049

    Hope i can get some feedback from you guys so i can improve my work.

    I think you've done a nice job with the pose. Take a look at your lighting. To me it looks like a purple/pink light is shining quite strongly on her. It gives her skin and clothing a purple tone. 

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049

    Here is my second try at the portrait because Sam seemed to be lonely all by herself,so I added Margo to the mix.

    You have an interesting pose on Sam, and did a good job with getting her eyes to look at the camera. I much prefer your version where she is alone. The second character is drawing the eye away from Sam. Since there are no shadows in the second image, the girls appear to be floating.  The closer crop of the first image avoids that issue, too. I do like the more toned down background of the second image, though. 

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333

    Here we are with version c. I changed the camera angle so we could see his feet, and started a fire outside of the frame to try and cast some more light on his face. Also gave him some dogtags to give him some back story. (Though what kind of back story it is I leave up to you.)

    Hey Shinji Ikari 9th

    There's a lot I like about this portrait.  The lighting is dramatic and the background is very interesting.  The pose is good and there is tension in his body.

    However, I can't see his face.  I personally had struggled with this in Iray.  By the time I brought up the lighting enough to see the face of a dark-skinned subject, I had lost what was so great about the lighting. You've got some great backlighting, and a wonderful rim light from the waning light of the day and I don't want you to destroy that just so we can see this guy.

    I discovered that the solution comes from an old 3Delight trick - use spotlights and linear point lights.  With so much emphasis on mesh and emissive lighting in Iray, seems we've forgotten about those tools.  

    Create a linear pointlight and put it right in front of his face.  Iray handles the falloff start and falloff end automatically, but you can adjust the scale hight and width.  Increase the lumins until the detail comes out, but not so much that it looks like somebody is shining a light in his face.  If you want to add color, do it with Color rather than Temperature, as it's more subtle.  

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333

    I used Wynter hair with one of the headdresses that came with it. Thanks for any advice you can give me and for your comments.

     

    I used SAV's Greek Fantasy Hair for V4 in an Iray render and discoverd that a luminous hair shader gave it some serious realism.  In particular I used the shaders from Rim Light Rig Iray, but there is also Hair Luster Shaders.  Note that these work best with backlighting.  Included is a link to the render so you can see how good it looks.

    https://www.daz3d.com/rim-light-rig-iray

    https://www.daz3d.com/hair-lustre-shaders-for-iray

    https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/597971

    Note - adjust the dangle from the staff.  It's hanging to the left slightly and should be plumb.

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333
    barbult said:

    Here is my second try at the portrait because Sam seemed to be lonely all by herself,so I added Margo to the mix.

    You have an interesting pose on Sam, and did a good job with getting her eyes to look at the camera. I much prefer your version where she is alone. The second character is drawing the eye away from Sam. Since there are no shadows in the second image, the girls appear to be floating.  The closer crop of the first image avoids that issue, too. I do like the more toned down background of the second image, though. 

    Hey, Saph:

    I agree with Barbult on this one.  Your second figure detracts from Sam.  The closer crop is better for portraits.  I had two versions of a portrait in my gallery, one full and one of just a face.  I received more likes on the face.  Closer is just more personal for a portrait.  Links to my two renders so you can see what I mean:

    https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/606441
    https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/606446

    The second background looks better than the hot pink one, which is so bright and busy it demands its own attention.  By the way, in the future when you want to do a full portrait, turn your background upside down so that it is darker at the bottom.  This gives the illusion that there is ground beneath her feet.

    Lastly, add a spotlight to shine on her right side, and turn down your environment lighting.  This will bring up some shadows and add interest to her face, as the lighting is a little flat.  Let's see how it looks after that.  If necessary, you can add a linear pointlight to bring up the lighting on her face (see my post to Shinji Ikari 9th above).

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333

    This is right out of iRay/Daz with only small sharpening in PS.

    Portrait July 2018

    Bring up the lighting slightly.  It feels like someone took a photo with dark filters.  I do like the subtle red rim lighting coming from the right.  

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333

    Here is my entry, it's called "At One" The models name is Mishti, I created her using Genesis 8 Female as a base with Daz Studio 4.10, the Photoshop Bridge, Zbrush and a fair bit of luck, she was never meant to look like this, but I am so happy that she does. The picture itself has three Photometric lights, side, back and rim and the background is a simple plane with an Uber gold surface applied. This render was created especially for this thread and absolutely no post processing was involved, it's a straight up render!  I really, really hope you like it and all feedback is more than welcome beit good or bad, I still have so much left to learn.

     

    Between the two renders, I light the lighting on the second render, but I like the pose and reflection on the first.  The bird looks more plastic with its back to us in the 2nd.  The subtly of the person holding her hand being mostly off camera in the 1st render is better than the obvious nude in the 2nd.  I like the mystery of showing less of the person holding her hand.

    Lastly, the post that is facing more front on (2nd) is more vanilla.  To add a little more drama, turn her so her right side is facing further away from us, and turn her neck so her head faces us, and maybe tilt her head slightly to one side. Nice draping on the blouse, by the way.  You did a great job with her face.

  • I tried the hair shader and the rim light from behind. Let me know if this is better.

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  • Trying to put on a happy face for her picture.

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  • dracorn said:

    Here we are with version c. I changed the camera angle so we could see his feet, and started a fire outside of the frame to try and cast some more light on his face. Also gave him some dogtags to give him some back story. (Though what kind of back story it is I leave up to you.)

    Hey Shinji Ikari 9th

    There's a lot I like about this portrait.  The lighting is dramatic and the background is very interesting.  The pose is good and there is tension in his body.

    However, I can't see his face.  I personally had struggled with this in Iray.  By the time I brought up the lighting enough to see the face of a dark-skinned subject, I had lost what was so great about the lighting. You've got some great backlighting, and a wonderful rim light from the waning light of the day and I don't want you to destroy that just so we can see this guy.

    I discovered that the solution comes from an old 3Delight trick - use spotlights and linear point lights.  With so much emphasis on mesh and emissive lighting in Iray, seems we've forgotten about those tools.  

    Create a linear pointlight and put it right in front of his face.  Iray handles the falloff start and falloff end automatically, but you can adjust the scale hight and width.  Increase the lumins until the detail comes out, but not so much that it looks like somebody is shining a light in his face.  If you want to add color, do it with Color rather than Temperature, as it's more subtle.  

    @dracorn: Thanks for your feedback, I gave it a try but might still need to do some tweeking.

    Here's version d.

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  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333
    edited July 2018

    I tried the hair shader and the rim light from behind. Let me know if this is better.

    I was trying to figure out why the hair looked like plastic tubes.  So I loaded up Wynter Hair and applied the shaders myself, with Rim Light Rig for the lighting, and it looked fine.  I realized that there is a technique I use when loading shaders that has become such habit with me that I had forgotten to share it.

    1. Reset your hair by applying the 3Delight color for Wynter Hair.

    2. On the Surfaces tab, select the hair surface to apply the translucency shader to.

    3. Right click on the shader but BEFORE you click on Merge, hold down the CTRL key, then click on Merge.

    4. A sub-menu will pop up.  Next to where it says Images / Replace, change that to IGNORE.  Then Accept.

    This loads the shader while preserving the original maps.  That should make a big improvement.  

    Ignore.jpg
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    Post edited by dracorn on
  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333
    dracorn said:

    Here we are with version c. I changed the camera angle so we could see his feet, and started a fire outside of the frame to try and cast some more light on his face. Also gave him some dogtags to give him some back story. (Though what kind of back story it is I leave up to you.)

    Hey Shinji Ikari 9th

    There's a lot I like about this portrait.  The lighting is dramatic and the background is very interesting.  The pose is good and there is tension in his body.

    However, I can't see his face.  I personally had struggled with this in Iray.  By the time I brought up the lighting enough to see the face of a dark-skinned subject, I had lost what was so great about the lighting. You've got some great backlighting, and a wonderful rim light from the waning light of the day and I don't want you to destroy that just so we can see this guy.

    I discovered that the solution comes from an old 3Delight trick - use spotlights and linear point lights.  With so much emphasis on mesh and emissive lighting in Iray, seems we've forgotten about those tools.  

    Create a linear pointlight and put it right in front of his face.  Iray handles the falloff start and falloff end automatically, but you can adjust the scale hight and width.  Increase the lumins until the detail comes out, but not so much that it looks like somebody is shining a light in his face.  If you want to add color, do it with Color rather than Temperature, as it's more subtle.  

    @dracorn: Thanks for your feedback, I gave it a try but might still need to do some tweeking.

    Here's version d.

    Increase the lumens a bit more on the linear pointlight.  I can see half his face is covered by hair, there's an eyepatch, teeth showing, but I'm not sure about the white streaks above his mouth.  Is that smoke coming out of his nose?  We need a little more light to tell.  If it's smoke, the fact that both sides are symmetrical is throwing me off.  

  • WallflowerWallflower Posts: 35
    edited July 2018
    barbult said:

    Hope i can get some feedback from you guys so i can improve my work.

    I think you've done a nice job with the pose. Take a look at your lighting. To me it looks like a purple/pink light is shining quite strongly on her. It gives her skin and clothing a purple tone. 

     

    Thanks for your feedback. Here's the B version. 

     

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    Post edited by Wallflower on
  • WallflowerWallflower Posts: 35

    This is my second entry. Hope i can get some feedback from you guys so i can improve my work.

     

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  • HighElfHighElf Posts: 326
    edited July 2018

    I've started with portraits last year. So I will finish my participation on the NewUsersChallenges with portraits.

    Here is my Concept for this month. The Composotion isn't based on the third grit but on the character diamond instead.

    And as always every feedback is welcome.

    To Do:

    - Lighting

    - Hairfall

    - WaterFX like drops from her hair and the puddles in front of her

    - maybe her expression

    - experimenting with DoF

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    Post edited by HighElf on
  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252

    My first thought was "aww...little girl"...so you definitely achieved an emotional reaction.

    I like her upward eyes indicating she is looking at an adult or someone taller than her.  The simple background does not compete for my attention.  You have some nice subtle shadows.

    I am not sure how to improve this image.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    dracorn said:
    dracorn said:

    Here we are with version c. I changed the camera angle so we could see his feet, and started a fire outside of the frame to try and cast some more light on his face. Also gave him some dogtags to give him some back story. (Though what kind of back story it is I leave up to you.)

    Hey Shinji Ikari 9th

    There's a lot I like about this portrait.  The lighting is dramatic and the background is very interesting.  The pose is good and there is tension in his body.

    However, I can't see his face.  I personally had struggled with this in Iray.  By the time I brought up the lighting enough to see the face of a dark-skinned subject, I had lost what was so great about the lighting. You've got some great backlighting, and a wonderful rim light from the waning light of the day and I don't want you to destroy that just so we can see this guy.

    I discovered that the solution comes from an old 3Delight trick - use spotlights and linear point lights.  With so much emphasis on mesh and emissive lighting in Iray, seems we've forgotten about those tools.  

    Create a linear pointlight and put it right in front of his face.  Iray handles the falloff start and falloff end automatically, but you can adjust the scale hight and width.  Increase the lumins until the detail comes out, but not so much that it looks like somebody is shining a light in his face.  If you want to add color, do it with Color rather than Temperature, as it's more subtle.  

    @dracorn: Thanks for your feedback, I gave it a try but might still need to do some tweeking.

    Here's version d.

    Increase the lumens a bit more on the linear pointlight.  I can see half his face is covered by hair, there's an eyepatch, teeth showing, but I'm not sure about the white streaks above his mouth.  Is that smoke coming out of his nose?  We need a little more light to tell.  If it's smoke, the fact that both sides are symmetrical is throwing me off.  

    I was thinking those white bits are a mustache of some kind but I cannot quite see well enough to be sure.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    barbult said:

    Hope i can get some feedback from you guys so i can improve my work.

    I think you've done a nice job with the pose. Take a look at your lighting. To me it looks like a purple/pink light is shining quite strongly on her. It gives her skin and clothing a purple tone. 

     

    Thanks for your feedback. Here's the B version. 

     

    I like the cooler lighting in this version but prefer the sizing of the prior version.  It had a more intimate feel.  The wider cropping gives my eyes more room to roam in and does not keep me focused on her face.

     

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252

    This is my second entry. Hope i can get some feedback from you guys so i can improve my work.

     

    I like the offset nature of the cropping and she has a great expression.

    I think the scale on the rose is a bit large? 

     

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    HighElf said:

    I've started with portraits last year. So I will finish my participation on the NewUsersChallenges with portraits.

    Here is my Concept for this month. The Composotion isn't based on the third grit but on the character diamond instead.

    And as always every feedback is welcome.

    To Do:

    - Lighting

    - Hairfall

    - WaterFX like drops from her hair and the puddles in front of her

    - maybe her expression

    - experimenting with DoF

    I agree with your To Do list and I am looking forward to the changes once they are completed.

    Something you may want to add is the water on her skin.  It appears a bit too shiny to me.  Or maybe too thick?  Is it a geograft?

    I love the choice of a wide width crop to match her pose. 

  • HighElfHighElf Posts: 326
    edited July 2018
    HighElf said:

     

    Something you may want to add is the water on her skin.  It appears a bit too shiny to me.  Or maybe too thick?  Is it a geograft?

    I love the choice of a wide width crop to match her pose. 

    It's a WetSkin effect I found in my library. "Altern8 Skin" is the procuct name, if I remember correctly. I agree that it appears a little bit off, I will look if I can play with it a little bit around. So I consider it a part of the WaterFX on my ToDo list. ;)

    About the crop. Yeah I tried a few things beforehand but I figured, that this looks the most natural. :)

    Post edited by HighElf on
  • I tried to apply the shaders like you instructed, but it still didn't fix the "rope" like texture to her hair. Maybe there is still some step I am missing.

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