May 2019 - Daz3D New User Challenge: Action & Props

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Comments

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    Taking @dtrscbrutal's advice, I have repositioned the camera a little, so everyone gets their fishing tackle in the picture. This is a more polished version, with a bit of DoF, some tweaks to the light, and a couple of sunglasses on the guy whose eyes wouldn't stop glitching out. (You can see it in the previous version.)

     

    @marjoemartino I really like your picture! It reminds me of those non-Disney cartoon films from the 80s and 90s, that were a lot darker and scarier, and thus better than Disney's. yes

    @sisyphus1977xx They're gonna be fish-food, aren't they? surprise Maybe they deserve it though, for hunting sharks with tommyguns?

    @Shinji_Ikari_9th I'm always impressed with how good you are at dark scenes. That's my special kryptonite, urgggh! You always succeed at lighting them in a way that lets us see what's going on, but still keeping the picture dark. 

    @no_nose I actually like that he looks a bit shocked. Who knows what he's seeing in that photo.

    @dragoneyes002 I completely agree that they shouldn't be freaking out, panicking and looting, but I think some grim determination wouldn't be out of place. A couple of them do look a bit "This is fine." It's a great scene you've set up, anyway.

    @Coryllon It's a great start, and the only suggestion I would make would be that the heroine's mouth should be open in a sort of grin-snarl, and her brow scrunched a little more.

     

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    edited May 2019

    As for view port in Iray, I wish it could handle it, I'm sorely in need of a better rig for that, I'm currently running a $600 Wal-Mart special (yes I actually bought it at wal-mart) HP Pavilion with Windows 10 pro, onboard graphics and only 8gb ram, Though on the up side it has an 8th gen Core I5 + 8400 processor .

    I feel your pain.

    Before I bought the rig I use for rendering now, I used this computer, an HP Envy I got at Costco for $500. I used this computer for all things Daz for over two years, and two plus years later, I still use the HP for everything else. I'm on the HP now as I write this comment. It has an i7-4770, 16GB RAM and only the on-board Intel Graphics. A typical Iray render for me would take 6-8 days to be good enough I was willing to publish it. (I forgot to mention, I'm "a bit" of a perfectionist…)

    I couldn't work with the viewport in Iray, but I could switch to Iray to check things, then switch back to make changes. Even now, with my render computer, I find I work in Smooth Shaded the most: posing, moving things around and so on. Even with a GTX 1080, working in Iray mode is slower than the other modes, and I get impatient.
    smiley

    And I think you're doing wonderful work with your HP. Shinji has a good point, though. You can do test renders at lower resolutions to save time in your workflow.

    To check a specific area large, rather than rendering the whole image, select the Spot Render tool, open Tool Settings and enable "Render to New Window", Change the dimensions in Render-Settings-General to your eventual render size, then drag the tool across the small area you need to check. The resulting render window will only have the small area rendered, but it will be at the full-size you intend for the final render. (For example, and based on the dimensions you mentioned for this image, keep the dimensions at HD for test renders while working on the scene, set it to Ultra HD for spot render(s), then back to HD when you're through with spot rendering. When you're ready to render the final image, set the dimension to Ultra HD.)

    Post edited by L'Adair on
  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893
    edited May 2019

    I just can't help myself, can I? Second entry. surprise

    Post edited by WinterMoon on
  • Shinji Ikari 9thShinji Ikari 9th Posts: 1,161
    TigerAnne said:

     

    @Shinji_Ikari_9th I'm always impressed with how good you are at dark scenes. That's my special kryptonite, urgggh! You always succeed at lighting them in a way that lets us see what's going on, but still keeping the picture dark. 

     

    @TigerAnne I might make it look easy, but depending on the set I'm using it can be tricky finding the right balance of light and dark.  Sometimes I can spend quite a bit of time just messing with the shader settings for the surfaces that I use for the lights. It's rare that I'll add a spotlight to things now a days, like if I have an old weapon from before Iray with a flashlight attached, but I can't isolate the lens as a light source. In that case I'll parent a spotlight pointed in the general direction as the source to the source (like a flashlight.) to cast the glow. 

  • ariochsnowpawariochsnowpaw Posts: 147
    edited May 2019

    I finally have a render!

    Had to find a soccer ball and texture it.  

    dformer for the soccer ball....many crashes.  

    dforce for the clothing....many crashes.

    Had to fix some dForce clothing poke through in PS but otherwise all Daz render.

    I've really always wanted to do a sports render and this is actually my first.

     

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  • CoryllonCoryllon Posts: 276
    edited May 2019
    "Just Another Day At the Office"

    All done in Daz Studio. I am still working g with the lighting. I am not sure if I like it softer to give that fantasy feeling or if I want it sharper. Doesn't look like the HDRI works with default sun and sky in Daz so I will have to set up my own lighting.
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  • dtrscbrutaldtrscbrutal Posts: 463

     

    @TigerAnne I like the new composition on your first image and the DOF looks great.
    On your second image, I had to laugh at the expression of the character screen right, the "superhero charge" pose of the guy with the broom is funny too. Convention would say to ground all the characters, but I worry that might make the image less fanciful and humorous. It's something you could experiment with. Have you thought about having the animal character dragging a leash? Might add to the humor.

    @ariochsnowpaw Your dForce and deformer work looks awesome! I can only see a few small things that might help. Personal taste here, I would like to see more of the center character's face, could be achieved with a slight torso twist and head turn. You might not need to redo your dForce work that way. Little things like adjusting the characters hair to impart a more realistic sense of movement might make this a stronger image. Extending and/or spreading the screen left character lower hand might help too. To my eye the screen left character's eyes would be locked onto the ball, but you should do what seems true to your vision on this. Is the shadow on the screen right character's face to show proximity? If yes, you you might consider playing that up more.
     The expressions look very good, and the set/background is perfect. The lighting is excellent too. A very nice image.

    @Coryllon That looks like a great start! Agree with you on the light, definitely could use more. I have found HDRIs tricky to add light to and still look natural. You might want to make the female character's right hand/arm more visible.
     Very cool scene taking shape!

  • CoryllonCoryllon Posts: 276
    @dtrscbrutalv I have tried to make it more visible, played with the camera direction, moved the caharcter around, the problem is she has her arm wrapped around the tree so she can use it to move herself faster to stay away from the orc. So it's kinda anchored there. I could.make the tree smaller but then it's useless as a defensive mechanic.
  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,893

    @dtrscbrutalv Aight. Now most of the characters are at least touching the ground with a toe or something. :) Except Benny, because he's running like he's never done before. I didn't have any leashes or collars, so the... dog is wearing a retextured goffick belt around his neck. The rope is a retextured piece of wire, from some set. It was the only detachable prop I had that remotely looked like a rope. I hope it looks okay. Click the picture to see Benny freaking the frack out in Ultra HD, LOL.

     

  • @TigerAnne, Fire and Ice, Wizards, Lord of the Rings animated movies, even Aeon Flux.  Those are just the ones that came to mind when I saw your comment, yeah those were the good animated movies. It's a shame they don't make them like that anymore.

    @L'Adair  & @Shinji Ikari 9th, I keep forgetting about the spot render tool, as for test renders I normally just turn on the aspect frame and turn on Iray draw it in the viewport, that usually gives me a good look at the finished render. I normally work in texture shaded in my main viewport just because I like to see how everything either compliments or clashes, and to see if I have any poke through. I keep the aux viewport in smooth shaded to see the fine details that get lost in the textures and shadows.

    As for rendering in lower settings I normally just use the standard resolutions, for this render it actually does'nt matter what setting I use it still takes 2hours 15min to render so I figure I might as well use the higher settings, then I wait to render until I go to bed so that I can work on other stuff.  Speaking of which, I have a second render attached this time around just as a kind of "bonus" it is not a submission, I was taking a break a thaought Hmm...wonder what it looks like from that camera

    On to this revision, I figured out the sword, it turns out that it was angled so that the "top" of the blade was in shadow, so I just had to rotate it in her hand to get the highlights. I brought the camera back to a more frontal position, this render is scaled at 3:2, I think it looks pretty good as a middle ground from 1:1 and 16:9, it opens up the scene and still keeps it "intamate" without the clostrophobia. this is my 4th render no.3 had the smoke to far back on her so I lost the DOF effect I had.

    And I made a change to the wings, which brings me to a question that I have not been able to find an answer to here on the forums, I added subsurface shaders to the wings to get more detail because they looked a little washed out to me and I lost my emissions, if you look at my earlier renders you will notice a slight blue tint to the wings, I lost that with the shaders and there is no longer an emissions tab on the surface menu, by the time I noticed, I had done enough changes to bring it back that the undo list did not go that far back. So my question is: can I get the emissions back with the shaders or do I have to chose one or the other? I would like to have the tint back but I think that the shaders do make a good improvement to the wings so I am willing to let it go if I have to.

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  • dtrscbrutaldtrscbrutal Posts: 463

     Here is my attempt for the challenge this month. Decided to go sci-fi and a bit of thriller/horror for this one. I was inspired by daybird's entry last month to go with a darker mood with this image.
     I had several challenges with this and ended up doing a bit more post work with GIMP than I wanted, the muzzle effect on the shooter character needed to be pumped up, and a massage on the explosion to get it how I wanted. The rest was all done with Daz studio and assembled in post. I had to render out four separate layers to avoid crashes, bloom filter beam/explosion glow, bloom filter set/background lights glow, foreground character (robot), and the three human characters in one render that took eleven hours. ( with no crashes, so yessmiley !) I also did lots of texture work on the male figures at the end of the corridor, reducing detail and texture sizes. They are ugly up close but look good ( I hope) at distance. I had not done that kind of texture work before, and it paid off by being able to render three characters at once, something else I have not done before. dForce did not like the female figures pose and it took many tries and tweaks to get something that was acceptable to me. All the figure in this were posed without use of presets from the zero pose. I also did all the lighting myself using emissives and point-lights.

     

    image

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  • CoryllonCoryllon Posts: 276
    @majoremaeyin: is it the light you want back from the wings or the slight blue tint? If it's the blue I think you can alter the surface color. Of it's the glow I think there is an otptiom under the emmision shader when you add it, default is replace but there should be other options, I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head. But I used it heavily on last month's
  • dtrscbrutaldtrscbrutal Posts: 463
    edited May 2019

      

    @Coryllon It is likely the angle that makes it appear like slight adjustment would work when it will not. We are working in a 3D environments after all. smiley Using the tree is a very sound tactic against a larger stronger opponent.
     You are probably way ahead of me on this, but you could try a combination of pose change, tree size reduction, and scale adjustment of the figure to get what you want.

    @TigerAnne Sometimes art needs to fly in the face of convention, I think Benny is a great example of this.
     His expression and crossed eyes are awesome. LOL Super work with the kit bash collar/leash. It is a very fun image!

    @marjoemartino I have found the iray preview to be rather inaccurate to what I see when I render out an image. It is a good guide line but I mostly do lower quality test renders to check my work. It's what works for me.
     Sorry, I have little experience with the subsurface shader, but you might try going back to the original shader and adjusting the bump/displacement, and perhaps sub-d settings. 
     I think your latest render is a fine image, and a good compromise between the previous versions. The all have there strong points though.

    Post edited by dtrscbrutal on
  • CoryllonCoryllon Posts: 276

    I brigthened up the daylightand changes the shadow angles for the daylight... I would LOVE to elimatate the daylight and just use more disatant light, but it seems to make the shadows too crisp clean and dark like the ambient light goes away.The Pose is kinda stuck like that. moving anything even slightly you lose most of her face or she looses her ability to see her oppenent.

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  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,038

    You can reduce the ground shadow intensity in the Environment Pane.

  • CoryllonCoryllon Posts: 276

    shadows as they are now are perfect. I just wish I could sharpen up the image. 

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    edited May 2019
    Coryllon said:

    shadows as they are now are perfect. I just wish I could sharpen up the image. 

    You can.

    1. Open the Render Settings tab
    2. Select Filtering in the left column.
    3. There are two options that will affect the sharpness:
      • Pixel Filter and
      • Pixel Filter Radius
      • By default, these are set to Gaussian and 1.50, respectively.
    4. Click on the drop-down for Pixel Filter and change it to Mitchell.
    5. Click on the value for Pixel Filter Radius and change it to 1.00
    6. Spot Render to a New Window.
      • Make the Spot Render tool active.
      • Open Tool Settings, located via the main menu: Windows->Panes (Tabs).
      • Change option from "Viewport" to "New Window".
      • In the Viewport, drag the mouse across a portion of the image you need to be sharper, like her face.

    Continue to tweak Pixel Filter settings until you like the spot render. (There's nothing special about Mitchell over the others, but someone I trust and respect likes Mitchell for sharpening. Seems like a good starting point.)

    Post edited by L'Adair on
  • CoryllonCoryllon Posts: 276
    I'll try anything once. Twice if I like it!
  • CoryllonCoryllon Posts: 276

    So the spot render made getting the general area userful for the tuning, but I need a full render for the fine tuning. anything long and thin becomes saw-toothed or sharpened to the point where were it looks like rows of pixels rather than a natural. So this will take some time :)

  • MoonCraft3DMoonCraft3D Posts: 379

    Im working on something for a friends character, the concept being that its a Tidesage. Which is basically a water elemental shamen type character from a video game. At this point, I am focusing on building the set for this magic user, and will soon begin sculpting the model itself. For now, the focus at this point to me is dramatic lighting of the model and also the partially sunken ruins. The magic items and even the water flowing from his hand are all props.

    This is a WIP - and the render is low quality and not final.

     

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

    So the spot render made getting the general area userful for the tuning, but I need a full render for the fine tuning. anything long and thin becomes saw-toothed or sharpened to the point where were it looks like rows of pixels rather than a natural. So this will take some time :)

    A compromise would be to render the image twice, once with the defaults for pixel filtering with the softer focus, and once with your sharper settings. Combine the two in an image editor that supports layers and layer masks, using the mask to blend in the softer image over "anything long and thin."

    Once you have finalized the scene, of course. laugh

  • dtrscbrutaldtrscbrutal Posts: 463
    edited May 2019

     @Kimonolady Your image is looking pretty good! The one thing I see that could be a problem is the water flow prop. To my eye it is really blending into the background with your current lighting. I have not used that prop, but I suspect you could make it stand out more by putting more light behind it. Something like a fire or the spell glow/light reflecting off a background object.
     The ground plane water looks great! Very neat concept and an excellent start. I look forward to seeing where you take this.
     

    Post edited by dtrscbrutal on
  • CoryllonCoryllon Posts: 276

     @Kimonolady Your image is looking pretty good! The one thing I see that could be a problem is the water flow prop. To my eye it is really blending into the background with your current lighting. I have not used that prop, but I suspect you could make it stand out more by putting more light behind it. Something like a fire or the spell glow/light reflecting off a background object.
     The ground plane water looks great! Very neat concept and an excellent start. I look forward to seeing where you take this.
     

    Tried giving the water an emissive shader and it's own blue glow?
  • CoryllonCoryllon Posts: 276

    This seems like the best I can get with this. If I select a higher resolution will it tighten up the DPI to give me a clearer image? Right now I am using Active Viewport and Lynn HD I think is my character's base figure.

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  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,783
    edited May 2019
    @dragoneyes002

    Nice job with the situation, lighting, and all that posing. I knew right away what was going on there. The water looks very good and I appreciate the small details here like the light sticks or them trying to keep the guns out of the water as well as the two men trying to pry the doors open (nice job on the expression and possing on those two guys) The only advice I would give would be to work on the expressions of some of the other people a little bit (I find PowerPose can be great for this) so their reactions seems more under stress. Very well done smiley
    .

    the group is a squad of military trained people they are going to do what needs to be done they look busy not freaking out because this may be a potentially bad cituation but panic would solve nothing they all have jobs to do even if some seem little more than hold my gun for me or keep an eye on that and tell us if its getting worse or even keep communications with HQ ....etc... the Hollywood habit of making everyone over react to everything would have you believe every woman instantly screams at the site of a body men become bumbling idiots if handed an infant and teenagers can computate PI to the thirtieth digit but can't understand anything more that a year in the past has been a cancer on reality everyone expects more shock and aw when human nature really doesn't react that strongly to stressful stuff 

    Fair enough there. As I said it was nicely done..I wasnt sure what you were going for, now that I do the choices make complete sense smiley Thanks for giving the details smiley

    Post edited by DAZ_ann0314 on
  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,783

    Version C here, adding in a muzzle flash for the guy in the background as he is shooting and the shadowrunner that is firing back. Also added were a cylender premitive that was instanced twice to try and give the feel of some rounds going down range. I also added some sparks coming off of the support behind the shooting shadowrunner from a round that just missed him. (Sorry if there's any misspellings in this post I realy should be trying to get some rest.)

    The additions look great. Everything seems to be working well together. If you wanted to play further (only if you feel like it) you could try making the overall lighting a touch brighter (just to see the items you added etc a little better) and then make the spotlights/extra lights you put in a little more intense so brightening the rest doesnt make those lose their impact. Very nice job on this smiley

  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,783
    no nose said:

    while not really action, I would say it fits the theme of using props. Need to work a bit on the lighting and pose though

    For the posing (if the pillows can be moved) I would try rotating the pillow he is leaning against to be more upright so its sort of bracing his back some and then you can sort of put his back against that which should help the posing. Can't wait to see what you do with the lighting and how it progresses smiley

  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,783
    edited May 2019

    DAZ_ann0314 said:

    The only feedback I could give you is in the second image maybe play with his expression a little (this is one time where an extreme, almost unatural expression could be fun) In the other image with the two guys, maybe add a few more props that are sort of flying through the air out of the boat while its flipping.

    Those were my thoughts too after I looked at the first scene blocking.  On the second shot, I tightened up the framing and removed the character's sunglasses so you can see his expression better.  This still needs some more work on the splashes and working on the shark skins more. 

    They are both coming along nicely. I did notice one additional small thing. On the image with the two men, the guy higher up holding the rail, his neck is maybe a touch too extended (I've done it myself...the neck can sometimes be odd to pose just because of how the falloffs are etc) You could try bringing the top part of the neck back forward just a touch and then tilting the head itself. That said, you've done a great job on the posing so its definitely not a big deal. Just a small thing to play with if you choose while you are adjusting the last bits. Both are really well done. smiley The additional pieces flying around look great smiley

    Post edited by DAZ_ann0314 on
  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,783
    edited May 2019

    Here is my "rough draft" of my entry this time around, need to make some tweeks to it but I think it is a good start.

    Title: "Through Fire and Flames"

    Software used: DazStudio 4.11(beta), Iray render, no post work

     

    Really nice. The flames etc and the way you brought everything together looks really good. The only advice I could give would be to maybe extend the sheild arm up just a touch so its not lost behind the sword arm (just to show a bit more of your details)

    The only other thing is its a bit pixeled. Though it could be since this is a WIP you stopped it early. In case not (lower lighting sometimes can cause pixeling), there are a few ways to resolve it. The easiest way is to render the image larger (like double size) and then size it to the regular size you wanted (half) in an outside application like Photoshop or PaintShop Pro or another app you use for postwork etc. (Also a good tip in general to help get sharper images with less pixelation etc in general) The other solution would be to adjust some of your render settings for your final render. You can adjust the stuff under Progressive Render to help as well as settings under Filtering. If you have any questions on how to best set those, let me know.

    You could also add one bright and close spotlight to her left side just to add to the depth/skin interaction of the flames. Really nice work, it is coming along really well! smiley

    PS I noted the discussion on the framing above. I really like the framing of the closeup you have going. I think it really draws you in and frames her very well. If you wanted to adjust it, I would extend the top and the the side with the wing out just a touch more (well out/up) to get a bit more in and put her a touch lower down in the scene but overall I really like the closeup personally (granted as with all art, opinions will vary so its all about what you feel looks best)

    Post edited by DAZ_ann0314 on
  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,783
    edited May 2019
    TigerAnne said:

    Here's my first entry. I'll fix up some of the details that didn't come out so well, if the picture on the whole meets the requirements. How important is it to have the tops of the fishing rods in the picture? 

    Very fun..lots of fun details (I can see the work on the characters that you've done morph wise) and I really like all the little details. (PS that is one crazy fish they just caught LOL) As for things to try, I might play with the camera a bit...maybe pull forward a bit more (to get more of the water and a touch less of the background - not tons just a little maybe) and then maybe play with the depth of field to blur the background a touch more (and maybe a bit more of the background) to draw your eyes more to the people. Very fun image smiley

    Post edited by DAZ_ann0314 on
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