August 2018 – DAZ 3D New User Challenge – Free Month
Knittingmommy
Posts: 8,191
August 2018 – DAZ 3D New User Challenge – Free Month
Are you new to the 3D World? Are you at the beginning stages of learning 3D rendering? Have you been around for a little bit but feel you could benefit from some feedback or instruction? Have you been around awhile and would like to help other members start their creative journey? Well then, come and join the fun as we host our newest challenge...
"Freedom!!!!"
This challenge is a general render challenge (based on having fun) where you should focus on the different aspects of 3D that you have learned so far. For information and help, take a look at the previous challenges that you may have entered. This whole theme is to have some fun with your renders as well as practice the skills that you have been learning over the previous months, so have fun and show us what you can do.
This challenge is wide open so get your creative juices flowing. If you have trouble figuring what you want to do, try focusing on some aspect you'd like to work on or a new technique in a challenge you've mastered before. Don't let the freedom aspect of this challenge inhibit your creativity. Embrace the freedom! However, please remember to keep all submission TOS friendly. :)
Don't forget to look at previous themed contests where information and hints are available.
So far this year we have covered the following topics:
For a list of the current challenge rules, please see this thread: Challenge Rules
I will be checking in as will the rest of the Community Volunteers to try and help with anything you all may need.
Closing Date: August 31, 2018
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Comments
What I'm thinking this month
"If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them. Maybe you can hire, 'The Shadowrunners'."
And here we should have my start on 'The Shadowrunners'
Decided to redo one of my older renders, hopefully not to bad for this "anything" challange
Just came up with this silly zombies invasion idea and i created this. Hope it's not that bad.
It looks like your lady already has a clip in her gun, while her companion is in need of a reload. Also looks like his left hand is intersecting his gun where they meet at the top of the hand.
Other then that, nice start.
P.S. What set are you using for this. I can see some of my shadowrunners running it.
Shinji - Nice start. Double check the foot on the guys in that back. It's probably just the angle, but one or both look like they might be sinking into the floor just a touch. It's hard to tell with the reflections from the floor. What ship is that because I really like how the exhaust is done. Did it render that way or did you do a little post? Looks good. I like the variety of poses and they all scream action.
Generally, I think new renders are the norm for the New User Challenges. It might be okay to start with an older render if you might be taking it in a totally different direction. I'll check with @Daz_ann0314 and see what she says.
I like it. Nice start. Shinji has some nice observations. I'm not familiar with that particular gun. I probably have it because I collect weapons. Not sure why. Anyway, see if you can hide the clip in the gun by either taking it out or hiding is in the Surface Tab if it's a separate material. I like guns where things like clips can be taken out. Not all vendors do that because then you have to do textures for the inside cavity. It's something you'll have to play around with.
I like all the zombies in the background. Posing of your main characters looks goo, too. I think I'd work on their expressions and see if you can instill a little more fear and urgency in their expressions maybe.
So, the official word is that since this is a Free month, you can start with a scene from a previous render. You need to make sure that you do make improvements or changes. Free months are the only time this can be done since the theme is pretty open. The official word is that working on a render you didn't finish or think you can make better is acceptable as long as you plan to improve on it. The final render has to be new.
As artists, we all go back from time to time and revisit a render we have done and wonder if we can make it better as our skills improve. It is an interesting endeavor. I realize no nose is new and previous renders are still really fresh. It is still nice to be able to look at before and after images to see how much we have learned. Good luck!
Yeah I wasn't to sure what to do, and I thought recreating older stuff was allowed. Hopefully it wasn't to big of a deal.
No, not too big of a deal. Have fun. :)
Thanks for your feedback Knittingmommy, it turned out that his foot was sinking into the landing pad a bit because the landing pad area is a little higher then the area around it. The transport that they used was this, and the exaust flames came with it as parented props. The only thing that I did with them was convert things to Iray. Any way, I'm just about to render version B of 'The Shadowrunners'.
@Shinji Ikari 9th
Thank you for your feedback. Yeah i'm an idiot, i didn't get rid of the magazine for her gun. I'll take care of it in the revision. And for the guy, i just cheked and looks like the clip is there but i know nothing about guns and i've never seen this type of guns in real life so yeah... and about his left hand i think it's because of the gloves, they're just too thick but i know what to do with it. :)
I'm using Urban Future 6 by Stonemason, Urban Tactical Weapons Bundle by Polish, Tactical Assault Outfit by Herschel Hoffmeyer, Iray Instant Zombies by KindredArts, Aurore by Kayleyss, Edward 8 SB by DAZ, dForce Bang Bob Hair by Linday.
@Knittingmommy
Thank you for your feedback. You know i tried to make them look bad ass, something like a zombie killer machines but now i think as they're hiding behind a wall so there's fear in there. So i'm going to give them some expression hope i won't mess it up.
Here's the B version. I didn't do much, i remove the magazine from her gun and changed her hair color. And i made the guy to hold the gun by that gun handle. I added some expression to their faces and messed with the lighting little bit. Hope i can get some feedbacks so i can improve my work.
Now that's a lot better, though unless she ejected the empty clip just outside the frame you might want to add an empty clip on the ground where it landed.
That's a great idea, i'll definitely add it in the next version.
Here we are with version B. If anyone missed it, I'm basing 'The Shadowrunners' on the A-Team. From left to right we have Murdock, Face, Hannibal, and B.A.
Changes from version A are changing the texture of the landing pad, moving B.A. up a little, and moving him back a notch if I remember right on the moving back part, and giving Hannibal his signature cigar.
Alright I got something a bit more original, was finally able to make the genesis 8 model look a bit better.
Currently, I am trying to make some images with HDRi. No big deal, but I am rather new to that and I'm trying to make renders, where it is not directly obviously that an HDRi is used. Often, I find the shadows looking unnatural in HDRi images...
Was messing around with the skin and got this, I think it's intresting enough to show off
Found this prop based of Kylo Ren's lightsaber, and was hit with a side idea for this month.
Still neads a few things to make it stand out though.
Edit-Somehow ended up with two posts witht the text bot only the second had the attachment so ignore this one.
Made a few changes to my second render after I realized that I forgot to make a camera to render from instead of using the perspective view (corrected that mistake, and tweeked the angle in the process.)
Also gave him a scar, some hair, and a set of cybernetic lenses which I did some texture work on with the lenses themselves so that they caught the light from the lightsaber.
Welcome. I'm a little confused about what you find unnatural about shadows using HDRIs. If you are rendering in Iray and using an HDRIs, my understanding is that Iray is realistic and shadows generate are very real world. Can you give examples of what you find 'wrong"? I actually don't see anything in your image that I would think of as fake or unrealistic.
Ha, I've had that happen lots when I hide the character and several of the parts don't get hidden. One way to avoid that is to create a new group with your figure and all of the clothing.
Hey gang! Total newbie here! I’ve been playing with Daz and a few of the purchases I’ve made in the last few weeks. Daz is the first 3D software I’ve ever really taken the time to start playing with. I’ve been a long time Photographer and Artist and this is basically a new tool for me to add to my arsenal. Absolutely amazing software!! I can’t believe how quickly I’ve picked some of this up! I have about 20 years experience with photoshop though. Anyway, I’ll be uploading my image, from this week, this evening when I get back to my PC. I’m striving for photo realism and non-nude “Calendar Girl” type photos/renders. I hope those are okay? I’m still struggling with understanding and properly utilizing the Daz lighting system, so I stumble through it until I see something close to what I want. The character I’m using is my own morph from several character resources I’ve purchased. Eyes from one, face morph tools, texture maps from another, etc. looking forward to sharing and getting feedback from everyone. I’m rendering on a Dell Precision M6700 Mobile Workstation with 32GB ram. I average about 3-4 hours for my photo renders right now.
Watch for my post in a few hours!
Faroshuffle
So, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Can't attach a file. I click Attach a file and then <Choose File>, navigate to the photo, select it (I resized it to be under 1Mb in Photoshop and downsized it to 533x864 and it says uploading...then goes back to <Choose File> No file chosen. Sigh.
Maybe my browser?
Never mind, there it goes! LOL
Here's the details I can recall, final render was 2 days ago.
Daz Studio
Custom Morphed Character I've named Leesa (I may keep her around for other projects!)
Clothes from DAZ Marketplace.
Free Lollipop I downloaded as an OBJ file from another forum. Custom colored with DAZ Uber Shaders (In fact, I actually wanted it to look really wet, so I used one of the car paint shaders!! LOL)
I also used the lid to a kitchen accessories set and scaled it down, shaded it Gold with Uber Shaders and placed it in front of the button on the jean shorts because I didn't like the way the original looked.
Voss Hair
Photo Studio Environment.
I think this image took a little more than 2 hours to render on my machine. I added a slight vignette and a 1 pixel blur in photoshop just to take out some of the rough pixels I could still see here and there. The only skin touch up I did was at the neck line where there was a clear change from makeup to skin texture, so I texture it with patches in photoshop to give it a slightly smoother transition. I have some of my own critiques of the final image, but I'm curious to see how this goes.
Welcome to the New User Challenge, faroshuffle_f915864df1. Happy to have you join us. Non-nude images work for me. Those are generally safe for the TOS for the forums. It looks like you managed to get your image uploaded.
If you'd like to add a larger size to your post itself:
put your image in a new tab at full size
right click on the image and choose Copy Image Adress
click on the gear icon on your post that you want to edit
select edit
place your cursor where you want the image and click on the picture icon (top row, looks like a picture) in the toolbar of the editing window
past the URL image address of the image you wish to reference in the URL slot
Make sure to have the width no larger than 800 px
Click on the Link tab
past the URL in the URL slot here as well
select target (most choose New Window)
Let me know if you have any issues.
Thanks! I truly appreciate you taking the time to detail that for me!
Well I'm really happy with how I managed to make characters look recently, i'd say this is worth throwing in
Here we are with version C of 'The Shadowrunners'. I moved B.A. back a little more, partly closed the door, and did a bit of texture work in the room the team is coming up on.
That's looking good, no nose. You have some nice shadows and contrasts. I would try tweaking you lighting just a bit by perhaps adding a to accentuate her hair. That will help to draw her further away from the black background. Try adding a spotlight above her and behind the head pointing down. Highlight spotlights shouldn't be too strong so you'll not want it at 100%. You just need enough light to give a soft glow to her hear. See how you like it.
Shinji - It's looking good. I like the contrast of colors. My only issue at the moment is that I don't seem to have a focus in the image. There is a lot of action, but my eyes don't seem to have any one spot that they are drawn to. You might want to see if you can pull a figure closer to the foreground and make him stand out more or possibly add a character who doesn't look like part of the pack if that makes sense.
Alright the hair is more highlighted, not a fan of the shadow on the neck though, can't figure out how to make it less sharp, or get rid of it.