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Comments
@TobiasG: I think mcjam24 is correct in his guess.
@ Carola O: I like this image better than your first. Your Jade Tiger is featured better and there is still a sense of a crowd admiring the Tiger. As for the computer, don't we all need more power? :coolsmirk:
@TobiasG: if you move the sniper a bit backwards, and have some single straws of grass close to the camera, and make the sniper the focal point.
@Carola: I think the last one is better, the people are out of focus to clearly show what's in focus. I like the idea with the half person, a great "art rule breaker" that goes well here.
I have never used Depth of field before, but I like the effect it gives. Hope this is close to what you are looking for in this challenge
Very Close but the Idea is to have BOTH the forward and Far parts out of focus with the MID level item the Clear focus point.
"As one who down a lonesome road ..."
Done in DS4.6. Using two Genesis figures. The male using Soto's "Vincent" texture and hair. The only post-work was to reduce the image size.
I had another go at one, happy to receive critique and comments.
@bobfisher: Perhaps it is the angle but it looks like your character is "floating" above the ground. Looks good to me otherwise but I am not a judge.
Here is the latest version of my entry.
And just for you bobfisher a version looking up into the tree. I could not get the "light coming through the leaves" effect. It also does not have anything in the foreground that is affected by DOF. But I thought you might like to see what I did with your suggestion.
@Carola: your second one had me at hello.
@Kismet: it's really coming along now...maybe the background is a little too out of focus? Or maybe I just really want to know what that shape to the right of the windchimes is.
@Stargazey: I'm liking the tension you've managed to create...perhaps moving the focal distance back just a bit to blur up the male figure a bit more? Or moving him closer to the camera.
@spmwc: if the set is circular with same repeating elements you could just be able to back your camera up to see them in the image as well....or drop something like a stone altar in front of the camera....but I am liking the angle and lighting you've got going on.
This is the first time I've actually decided to do the contest... or any contest, for that matter. Before I submit this image, I was wondering if any of you had some tips (especially image composition and those last few bones on the tail). Any advice would be much appreciated!
Jaderail, thanx for the clarification on what you are looking for in this challenge!!!!
mcjam24; I did what you suggested and also added a few items to the scene. Not sure if the scene looks too busy now or not. I'm finding working with DOF a bit tricky but a fun challenge. Any comments are very welcome.
Version 2, with adjusted framing etc.
You might have a better time if you switched the focus from the attacking woman to the fanged person. That way, the blur on the woman would make her look scarier because less would be known, and it would help movement because it would add a sort of "motion blur."
Alternatively, if you changed the composition so that the action was emphasized, it would make the image a lot stronger and more readable. I made this sketch to show what I mean:
My second entry for this month :) this pic was just born in my mind, so I just went with it
Summer Fae
The fae walks the forest, smiling at the new life that grows after the harsh Winter and the Spring that took too long to arrive
Here is the latest version. I think I have the DOF set up better. Was a little trickier than I thought.
@mcjam24: Hopefully you can now figure out what that is to the righ to of the windchime.
I think this is a great start...I like the general camera angle and focal length: the eyes are really drawn to the weapon, and the man holding it seems far in the background. That's a very effective approach, and gets me thinking...
This might be a case of the "why" determining the "how." In other words, how the composition and DOF should most effectively be set up might depend on what message you're trying to send with this image.
To me the image brings up a lot of questions: why are we focusing on the barrel of the weapon like that? Who is this gunman and what are his goals? Who or what does he want to find and/or shoot? Is this a battle, or a training exercise, or perhaps even a video game? Give us a few more clues as to what the image is about and you may find that it's easier to frame and focus the image.
This is just an example, and probably not at all the direction you want to go in, but I keep imagining there's an insect or fairy or something perched on the barrel. It could be anything though: a few blurry vehicles in the background that help to establish that this is a war zone, or perhaps a twisted hand in the foreground implying that the gunman has cornered some sort of monster or alien...etc.
@bobfisher: I like the lighting and the color choices. I agree with Kismet2012 that the character seems to be floating a bit, and I wish I had a better sense of where he is and/or where he is going. Otherwise I think this is great.
@sirustalcelion: This is a terrific start. The dragon looks great and so does the lighting. I love the inclusion of the candy wrapper! I like the composition as-is, but I do think it could be improved. I think you want the viewer to focus on the dragon's face, but it kind of has to compete for attention with the brightly-colored dandelion. Think about where the dragon's head could be positioned in order to draw the eye most effectively (rule of thirds? golden ratio? exact center of image? play around with a few things and see what works best). Don't get me wrong though...I think it works well as-is. And the bones in the tail? They're not ideal but it would have taken me a while to notice if you hadn't mentioned it. My only advice on that subject is to keep playing with the pose, but don't worry about it too much.
@stargazey: I like your new version much better. Sirustalcelion's concept for the composition looks good too. The figure in the background might be too strongly lit...remember that shadowy things half-seen can be more frightening than a monster right out in the open.
Carola O and Kismet2012: don't have much of value to add, but I like your most recent renders very, very much!
Thank you Scott, yourself and Kismet are both right, I should have spent more time on the character the only reason I put him there was to give a sense of scale.
@Kismet2012, sorry for the bad idea and thanks for showing it to me. I usually don't give advice for two reasons-
1. I don't think my work is good enough to be handing out advice to others.
2. Most great ideas I have for my renders usually end up destroying it.
Thank you Scott, yourself and Kismet are both right, I should have spent more time on the character the only reason I put him there was to give a sense of scale.
@Kismet2012, sorry for the bad idea and thanks for showing it to me. I usually don't give advice for two reasons-
1. I don't think my work is good enough to be handing out advice to others.
2. Most great ideas I have for my renders usually end up destroying it.
It wasn't a bad idea. It is a good camera position. Just not for this contest, or at least I cannot figure out how to make it work for this contest.
Same with the light coming down through the leaves. I couldn't make it work. Doesn't mean it was a bad idea.
As for point #1 I feel the same way about my work. Same with point 2 sometimes.
That's why this contest is so great. Wonderful people like Scott, Jaderail, and others, including fellow contestants, help us get better.
Seeing others ideas and how they set up their scenes help me think outside the box.
For light coming through the leaves, you could experiment with using the Subsurface Shader on the leaves. In theory you should be able to get some nice backscattering...though if the leaves are just planes rather than objects with depth, I'm not sure how well this will work (haven't tried it myself) but the documentation has some information on it. I really like that alternate angle that bobfisher suggested, though I agree that it's probably not right for the contest.
Thanks Scott for the suggestion on light through leaves. I didn't take the time to figure it out on this particular render but is something I will keep in mind for the future.
So I spent a bit of time working out the issue previously stated of having light properly filter down through leaves, and I have a couple of solutions:
the first was stated before, using translucency, but I wasn't happy with the result, because I couldn't see strong light sources or shadows on the leaves, and also lost detail, but most importantly (for my tastes) the petioles (veins) of the leaf were just as transparent as the lamina (leafy part).
All of these images were made with the leaf textures from the Kay package, but daz leaves all work more or less the same way (and are usually too green for me >.>). I used a standard Uberenvironment (park) with a strong spotlight where the sun should be, with some sky textures.
First image/fourth image
Eventually, I found a way to fake having a strong light source behind the leaf by parenting a weak point light with a yellow-green color and no shadows. This would be better for close-ups and leaves that are between the camera and the sun (or similar). However, it's not good for a whole lot of leaves as you'll find yourself having to do a lot of work placing dozens of point lights.
Second image/Third image
After spending a lot of time dithering about with transparencies and opacity maps like I would for stained glass, it became evident that what I had to do was make a translucency map by hand in gimp, making the leaf lighter in the middle where more light comes through, and darker towards the edges, then blacking out the veins of the leaf (5th image). After a little tweaking, I got it to work pretty well, but beware, it took a few hours to render the tree on my rather decent rig.
I hope this helps!
Oh yeah, and I also made another go at mine. I moved the flower head more into focus and fixed some issues with the tail and the grass
and some other things. Did moving the flower into focus help with the interest area.
I'm not sure but I think the light through the tree idea was more a God Ray thing as in light beams showing in the render with shadows and such. There are many ways to do that now in DAZ Studio.
I think this is a great start...I like the general camera angle and focal length: the eyes are really drawn to the weapon, and the man holding it seems far in the background. That's a very effective approach, and gets me thinking...
This might be a case of the "why" determining the "how." In other words, how the composition and DOF should most effectively be set up might depend on what message you're trying to send with this image.
To me the image brings up a lot of questions: why are we focusing on the barrel of the weapon like that? Who is this gunman and what are his goals? Who or what does he want to find and/or shoot? Is this a battle, or a training exercise, or perhaps even a video game? Give us a few more clues as to what the image is about and you may find that it's easier to frame and focus the image.
This is just an example, and probably not at all the direction you want to go in, but I keep imagining there's an insect or fairy or something perched on the barrel. It could be anything though: a few blurry vehicles in the background that help to establish that this is a war zone, or perhaps a twisted hand in the foreground implying that the gunman has cornered some sort of monster or alien...etc.
Thanks for these ideas, it's all interesting pointers, and good feedback - I'm somewhat swamped by Real Life right now, so I haven't been able to do much with the render, unfortunately. I'll definitely try to improve on it this week, though! :)
Here is my WIP for the contest, DOF always seems to elude me but maybe I am pointed in the right direction finally? Any suggestions on this?
Looking good
I like what I did with the tail and grass. I think you might have misinterpreted what I was trying to say about the flower--maybe I just didn't explain myself well. What do you want the viewer's eyes to jump to? I'm assuming the dragon but I could be wrong... Since the flower is so brightly colored, the eyes kind of want to jump to that--especially if it is in focus. Great render, though--excellent work with the lighting and surfaces.