WinterMoon Wants Attention.

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  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    Kate and Bonnie are country girls. They love horses, swimming in the lake, riding their bicycles, or just wandering aimlessly around until they find a nice spot to hang out for a while. Then they sit and space out, for a couple of hours, chatting about everything and nothing that enters their minds.

    Work in Progress. This is my largest (in pixels) render, so far. 

     

    Hurr hurrrr... this one didn't turn out quite as planned. There's a HDR there, but... It's not showing up. I'm getting an "amateur monster hunters" vibe from this fail render, though. It kind of looks like they're filming themselves in the headlights of a car, explaining the horror they're actually not hoping to find evidence of to their 34 Youtube followers. cool

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893
    edited November 2018

    For today's episode of TigerAnne Struggles to Light a Scene, we'll hear the story behind my last-minute-impulse entry in the New Users contest. This scene took about 30 minutes to set up, most of which was spent dressing Aubrey up in something vaguely gothic. Figuring out a light setting that at least slightly resembled moonlight took... most of the day. And it still doesn't look convincing, but MEH. I can't remember how long the render took, because I did at least 20 different versions, but it was not more than half an hour, and I let it run into the 90% range. The theme of the contest was "atmosphere," which apparently could mean "a certain mood," so after failing to get a nice, foggy result I just went with "It's dark and forboding."

    I used my "orginal character" Aubrey as the model in this image, but at the same time this isn't really Aubrey. Maybe she dressed up for Halloween, and had someone take a picture of her in front of an old mausoleum, or maybe this is an entirely different girl, who has a different reason for being there. When I was a tweenager, I had an "original" character whose name escapes me. She was a very obvious expy of Anna von Schlotterstein from The Little Vampire. As I was adding the wind-morphs to Aubrey's hair, it struck me that the Tatiana hair, and Aubrey's haircolour, looks a lot like Anna's hair in the 90s editions of the books. I felt the need to recreate my old character, and Aubrey was dressed all somberly, so into the graveyard she went. I want Aubrey to still be a contemporary character, but she may have to share her hairstyle with What-was-her-name's new incarnation.

     

    Another of the three (out of 20ish) versions I saved. I have this sneaky feeling that maybe this one looks better overall, but I still don't like it quite as much as the "moonlit" one. My picture probably won't "win" in any of the categories, it's too unrefined and lacks in actual effects, but I like it despite everything. I'm not an artist.

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

    On the fall monster hunter one, it looks like you may have the headlamp on the camera set to on. Also check and make sure that your environment is set to dome and scene and background is set to on (under the render tab, environments, towrard the bottom of the list).  I odn't know if that's what's wrong but its a place to start.

    I like the graveyard one it does indeed have *atmosphere*.  And I beg to differ, you are an artist.  You are creating an image of something new, and putting it out into the world.  That makes you an artist. 

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    @IceDragonArt Thank you so much! Both for the comment and the tips on how to fix the environment. laugh

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893
    edited November 2018

    So it's been a slow week, and I've been amusing myself with rendering pics of variable quality. I'll start with the best(?) ones.

    I created a model for an old, old character of mine. Her name is Tara, she's never had a surname. I "invented" her back in 1993!

    There's a bit of an odd bio for this girl. Her parents are both "observers," almost like the ones the UN dispatches, in a part of their country that's run by a very conservative local government. The population has made a pretty decent attempt at stopping time at around 1930, and many of them have lifestyles reminiscent of even earlier times. Of course, there is a not so small values dissonance between the early 20th century and the present, even more so now than when I came up with this story. The main condition for the locals to keep their culture, is that they do actually obey modern-day human rights legislation. That's what the observers are there to ensure.

    Tara has grown up living periodically "in the past," where she has attended old-fashioned school and learned embroidery. She's not quite sure where she truly belongs.

     

    This is more how she normally dresses. The Observers try not to deliberately offend the observees, so they tone their modernity down a little. She'd also have combed her hair a lot more neatly, if this was a canonical illustration. wink (The dress and cardigan are by Wilmap/Wendy/Pusey Design.)

     

    This is just playing fashion-show again.

     

    On the subject of old characters, I also made my Anna von Schlotterstein expy. I think that back in the day, her name was either Alicia or Laura, but I named her Anya. She can easily become a grey-skinned ghost child, by setting the transclucency of the skin she wears to "high," as I discovered by accident. I'm not 100% happy with her yet. She needs some adjustments.

     

    For comparison, here she is with Aubrey. They don't really look much alike, apart from the hairstyle. Aubrey should also be taller than Alicia/Anya. I think maybe Alicia looks a little bobble-headed? Or is it Aubrey who is a pin-head?

     

    Behold: A picture that looks a little washed out. I did let the render finish, so I can only conclude that my laptop isn't strong enough to handle the whole set. Anyway, this is Jordan, Ashlyn and Shanie looking pretty bored at the bowling place. It was supposed to be the first picture in a kind of story-snipped, because I was feeling ambitious. Maybe if I move them to the back row, and delete a lot of the furnishings behind the camera, I'll get a better result. *sigh*

     

    "Portrait" of Jordan. Just tossing it in. laugh

     

    Misplaced wildlife? surprise

    Post edited by WinterMoon on
  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,648

    You are kida like me with your random renders @TigerAnne!!

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    @Saphirewild Randomness prevents monotony! :D

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    Fun with shaders. laugh She looks like she could be a character from a 1988-91 teen sitcom.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Some nice renders and what an interesting story!  One of my favorite things about Daz is being able to make a 3d model of all those people in my head lol!

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    @IceDragonArt Thank you! :) The thing about characters is that when you make them visible to other people, they may start living periodically in their heads, too. The guy in my avatar - Edgar - actually made someone have a "nightmare." surprise (He sucks at carrying out his great plan for taking over the world, but he's done quite a few awful things during the story he originated in.) Wonder if I could recreate him as a DS character...

     

    "We're lost." 

    "No, we're not. I... know this forest very well. As soon as the fog lifts..."

    "...it will be night. And that stupid lantern barely gives off any light. We may as well camp under a tree, and try to avoid freezing to death by burying ourselves in dry leaves, or whatever it is you're supposed to do."

    "I still think we should try to find our way back to the road. There are... things in this forest. I don't want to spend the night here."

    "Things? Like, what things?"

    "...badgers?"

     

    The forest is a nicer place in daylight. Quiet, colourful and a good place for spending some time alone in deep thought.

     

    I have no idea what happ... It's art. 

     

     

    Tara, once again. I'm so stupidly pleased that I've managed to make an accurate representation of one of my characters. I've only really had this level of success at that once before, and he got created as a Sim, not a proper 3D character, so this is a breakthrough! At least I hope so.

     

     

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893
    edited November 2018

    Oh... Oh, dear... surprise Someone please call 911!

     

    This is another forest. :) No worries.

    Post edited by WinterMoon on
  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893
    edited March 2020

    So... My friend SammyFrog and me play Sims. We're also writing a couple of stories together, and some of the characters kind of belong to both of us. I've been wondering how those characters would translate as Dazzies. Well, here's one of them. Her name is Liranda, and her backstory is too ridiculous and complicated to repeat here. x) This version of her was made using V4 as the base, because of reasons. I'll probably remake her as a G8 girl, so I have an updated version too.

     

    Here's the original incarnation, with her oldest daughter. She was born in my TS2 game, and her father is an odd-looking townie, so she's got a very um... distinct look. (Sammy calls her "exotic.")

     

    This is Melody Farrel. She didn't originate as a Sim, however... she was a FarmVille avatar. (Another friend's minion account.) Somehow, she became a story character, and her biography includes 14 marriages that all ended badly, and a 15th marriage to a time-traveller. 

     

    She's... special.

    Post edited by WinterMoon on
  • DripDrip Posts: 1,125
    TigerAnne said:

     

    I have no idea what happ... It's art. 

    Did you put these two in that order on purpose? The second one is very suitable to your comment on the first. laugh

     

    Anyway, for lighting... I'm in no way "good" at this rendering stuff yet, but a trick that works really great for me when I want to "light up" the shadowy side of a figure when practically all light is coming from another direction (like, from a window), without getting a lot of weird shadows going in the wrong direction, is to add a big plane on the shadow side (top menu -> create -> new primitive -> type: Plane), give it an iRay Uber Base Shader, change the emission color to white (you can tweak it to another tint later), and then fiddle with the luminance parameter until I get the shadowside to light up a little without washing out the cast shadows from the original light source (iRay needs a rather high luminance setting, over 500,000 is quite normal it seems, but maybe there are other settings to fiddle with).

    The result would be rather even light from the shadow side that hardly casts a noticable shadow (because the light is so big, it washes out its own shadows), but isn't noticable in the final render, because you try to keep it low enough that most light still seems to come from the "normal" side. It's just meant as a counter balance, to reduce the contrast between the light and the dark side.

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    @Drip Oooooh, thank you for the advice! I'll try that next time I struggle with a dark room!

    And no, I didn't put the pictures in that order for any particular reason. But she does look a bit artsy, doesn't she? smiley

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Exotic is a good description.  I think you've done a great job of recreating them in Daz!

    if you don't want the hassle of creating a plane every time or fiddling with it, Kindred Arts has a product called Ghost Lights.  which does the same thing.  Its one of my favorite things ever lol. Lots of options. I use it to fill in dark spots all the time.

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,040
    edited December 2018

    In your "It's art" image that is the Finite Dome you see as the 'glass ball'. It hapens if the Dome Radius is low and the camera is outside of it.. it looks like the Finite Dome radius is set to just surround the house.

    Post edited by Fishtales on
  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    I think you've done a great job of recreating them in Daz!

    Thanks! laugh I wishlisted the Ghost Lights, in case of a flash sale or something.

     

    Fishtales said:

    In your "It's art" image that is the Finite Dome you see as the 'glass ball'. It hapens if the Dome Radius is low and the camera is outside of it.. it looks like the Finite Dome radius is set to just surround the house.

    Yeah, I figured it had to be something like that, but I still have no idea why it happened. cool Maybe I somehow attatched the HDRI to the house object?

     

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    And so... Here's the final version of a picture for a contest I forgot about. frown I actually like how it turned out, and now I'm a little bummed about forgetting. 

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Hate when that happens lol.  It is a lovely picture.  Makes me wish for summer (its currently snowing here lol)

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    @IceDragonArt I'm jellus! We haven't got any snow at the moment. Everything is just dark and dreary. 

     

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    TigerAnne said:

    @IceDragonArt I'm jellus! We haven't got any snow at the moment. Everything is just dark and dreary. 

     

    lol well, we are supposed to get more tomorrow I will be happy to send it your way!

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893
    edited March 2020

    Sooo, even with my laptop really on the fritz, I haven't been able to keep myself from making renders. or, you know... buying more stuff. 

     

    HUE HUE HUE HUE HUE!

     

    Oh, and... this is another of my Sims characters made 'real,' as a child version. Sam's reaction to seeing her was "LOL YIKES!"

     

    HUE HUE HUE!

     

    And here's my dear Tara again, as an adult. My new rig is arriving on Friday, and I can barely wait!

    Post edited by WinterMoon on
  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    This is another one of my old Original Characters. His name's Andre. He wasn't the character I was trying to make, this was more of a happy accident. Yeah, he's kind of a pretty-boy, and doesn't he look so, so innocent? In reality, he's rather impulsive, unpredictable and not always... really all there. Sometimes, his behaviour can seem strange and even creepy. He doesn't seem to be aware that he's quite strong, and has almost ended up injuring others, on a couple of occasions. While he frequently shows signs of being intelligent and insightful, he often lacks the ability to predict the consequences of things he says and does. He's not malicious, he's just not quite as he should be.

     

    After having successfully accidentally made Andre, I wondered if I'd be able to tweak the model into his look-alike from the same story. This is at least partial success. I used the same hair and skin in these pictures, to be sure I really did get their features to look different. 

    Lucas is more of a central character in the story. Andre and him are sometimes mistaken for each other, which has led to some not-so-great situations for both of them. They're similar in appearance, but almost opposites in behaviour and personality. Lucas has grown up being told in the vaguest possible terms that he really does have something wrong with him, and any odd or unexpected thing he's done, basically from infancy, has caused some minor crisis for his mother. As a result, he's learned to be a rather quiet and passive person, who has some problems taking initiative. While he's calm on the outside, his thoughts and emotions are raging in a constant tempest under the surface. Now and then he fails to control his reactions to something, and just snaps. For every time it happens, things get a little worse afterwards.

     

    Have a shirtless picture, because why not. wink

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    He sounds like a very interesting and rather dsturbing character

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    Andre you mean? (Lucas isn't all that scary. The worst he does is shout and say stuff he'll regret.) Yeah, he's... different, alright. And he's far, far from being my creepiest creation...

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893
    edited March 2020

    I did a few more portraits, since my laptop can't handle anything too heavy. (No, I still haven't gotten the monitor situation sorted.) You can probably tell that this is just the Victorias 6 through 8, lined up. However, they started "talking" while I was getting them ready, making me see distinct personalities in them. In the viewport, Vicky 8 reminded me a lot of Norwegian skier Marit Bjørgen, and in the finished render, I got a "young Sissel Kyrkjebø" (our most famous singer) vibe from her. Obviously, she must be part Norwegian. laugh She also let me know that she's an athletic, outdoorsy adventurer. Despite being tallest in the family, she's the middle sister, and she goes by Tori.

    V7, whose name was revealed to be Valerie, is a half-famous singer, who really aspires to be the next Celine Dion, or at least Lara Fabian. She's the oldest sister. V6 says her name is Megan, and that she's some kind of reporter. Cool, now I know what sort of renders I'll use them in. smiley

     

    Tara and her friend and neighbour, Josephine Amanda (Plz to remember her name, Anne...) also had their photo taken for the Holidays. wink

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

    Yes Andre lol

    I have a daughter named Megan

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    I have a daughter named Megan

    It's a lovely name! The reason I gave it to V6 was just that she reminds me of a character from a TV show, whose name was Megan. It's far from the first time I've used that name for a character, though. 

  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,648

    I think your renders are major interesting and unique for sure!!

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    Thank you, Saphirewild!

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