Space Crimes - Cover ideas
junk
Posts: 1,465
I keep adding to the amazing "SCI-FI Celebration" by the incredibly talented tkdrobert... check out their work, it’s always amazing and on point! Not everything about the SC images involve sci-fi other than what the name implies so it seemed time to create a separate thread to contain them. Thank you for having me Robert and I'll still be posting there as I create other Sci-Fi.
While working on a longer form Space Crimes novel, I’ve been creating comic cover-style images that double as chapters or moments from the story. These upcoming posts are just ideas. Not everything will end up in the book. I’m just building a living, breathing universe full of villains, happy moments and anything else where John Forester and Madeline Price can exist and thrive.
This first one is for Nash! Love you buddy.
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Comments
The Magician
LONG story in the link above if you are interested.
This is the first image I created in 26 days. It's of course for the general comic bad guy named, "The Magician".
You've been playing with these characters for so many years, I'm glad you're creating a substantial piece of work with them. Have you considered making it a graphic novel?
Hey thank you very much David! Yes, many years, many very short stories and now it's time to try to aim higher. I looked at different "book" style and, while I did consider the graphic novel with a collection of shorter stories in a larger book, decided to try and tie it all together. This has proven easy in a couple of aspects but so difficult in most all others. I will continue to hammer away at it until I get something working... just hoping it doesn't suck.
Hey by the way David your Charlotte's Magic Life is pretty dang cool! Great work on this!
Day at the Office (Part 1 and Part 2)
I really was just trying to capture them at work on a case at the office. But started to create an unexpected visitor, or visitors, moment. Also put an alternate version into slot #3.
Love the way they jumped up on the desk to avoid the overgrown 'mice'. Very amusing.
Massive level of detail. Couldn't think of anything I might foolishly wish to alter.
Regards,
Richard
Thank you very much for saying Richard. Side question: I've always wondered, do you both render in Daz? And if so, do you sometimes list which person rendered the particular image?
I hope I'm not alone in this but I find that when I look at a render I created, I see only the problems. So in the second image, I see that I left a light as visible at the top right next to the light. I see that her shirt is strange like I need to redo the dforce on it. Their hands were never completed as they were supposed to be hand in hand. Instead I just got them close and left it as is. I wanted to improve their stances too but just gave up with the limited time I had. -We're always our worst critic I believe. :)
Actually the boss (Tracy) doesn't touch DS, not something that interests her. The username for both of us started in the late 1990's when we first got on the internet and used joint user names for all things. Still being very fond of her, I've kept it up since, even though Tracy tends not to these days.
As for seeing the problems with ones own images, yes I know. Can't see any problems with your ones though. Once you pointed out the hand pose, and only then did I see it. Not something to be concerned about given how difficult to see.
Regards, Richard.
Such amazing attention to detail. OUTSTANDING work!
I see only the problems.
I think you need to do the technical thing and the creative thing.
I zoom in super close and scan every inch of a render looking for issues. I've said this should be a natural part of a workflow.
I now know to check for many things that I never noticed when I first started using Daz.
This is my default of list to check for every render.
- floating characters, usually hovering an slight amount above the ground.
- hands and butts stopping right at the point of contact instead of allowing room for some squishing.
- eyes not looking at anything specific.
- Poke through, poke through, poke through. STILL happens no matter how much I look for it.
- Hair strands poking through arms and chests...
- neutral facial expressions or ones that do not match the situation.(sometimes I forget to change the facial expressions between shots lolz)
- I do comics, so fingers holding things is still a HUGE problem.
From a creative perspective, man I want to see more of your stuff. I been waiting for more of that cabin story. I kinda just want to read a comic done in this style.
But it's up to you to push till (your own sense) of perfection. There's no deadline that I'm aware of, so take the extra time until you get it *right*.
It's always an honor when I see one of your comments! I know the high quality of work you create in your comic and am ALWAYS amazed by it. Love the checklist too! I find that when I'm rendering at about 5000x5000, I am looking around the scene for many of these items you talk about. So pretty cool to know I am on the same wavelength here.
Thank you so immensely for your time and chiming in Griffin Avid!
Louboutin Red - Space Crimes
Long ass story in the link above. The banter between these two is something that I hope to keep throughout the book.
Thank you everyone for looking and hope you're not all sick of these two yet.
man my guy, these renders are so damn nice
You have the gift of telling stories through images, and that's all you need. Looking forward to the book.
And thanks about CML
You bet David. Hats off to you on having such a successful long running story line going.
Midgard!!! You rock my man. I feel that every great product image is yours. Every single one is just an 11 out of 10.
The End of Innocense - Space Crimes
This image captures the feeling of a part of the novel story line. It's not a scene that actually takes place.
Oh, I'm gonna steal these poses, if ya don't mind.
Very sweet poses for the two characters.
Couples poses are simply so hard to create, especially when you want romance/ comfort/ support poses without any hint of anything more. I reckon they're 3-5 times more difficult than a solo pose. Done an amazing job there. I've tried one or two - the least unsuccessful is attached - and shied off after that as being very taxing. I need to do more & practice more and succeed more (ideally!).
Regards,
Richard
That would be incredible! Would love to see what you create when you create it David.
This is beautiful Richard. Yes, the magic of love is everything and you captured it perfectly!
I'll have to chime in and say that's a very lovely pose and a sweet capture. Love Madeline's soft and pensive expression.
NO AI - Space Crimes - Novel Cover Idea
For the past month, I’ve been reserving Wednesdays as dedicated writing days to chip away at Space Crimes the novel... but truthfully a story line I’ve been building for, geesh, five years. On non-Wednesdays, I’ve been channeling that same energy into dreaming up the perfect cover art, something that could sell the story at a glance.
This image is my third or fourth serious attempt at a book cover for this ghost of a novel. I included a few more novel cover ideas I've played with in the past in this post/link.
ALSO.... Freaking forum! Changing how the images in the Daz Gallery are not linkable. Or possibly visa versa. Either way, this is just going to cost Daz3D more money hosting images in two separate places. Now every one's forum image links are broken until they are uploaded individually. * sigh * sorry for ranting.
junk This one looks fantastic! Had to go take a look at all the other cover ideas and drop a comment in the gallery - it's so long since I've properly visited! I'm going with #5 - I remember that render still and it sells the book to me right away!
I'm curious about your format - graphic novel? novel with imagery? interactive visual novel? I'm a curious cat... Great to hear you're working away at it!
(As for the expiring gallery links - it totally sucks - so much in the forums is now broken. I posted about it here. Don't know if anything will be done to rectify the damage to the forums though.
)
How are you SapphireBlue? I so appreciate it. I think if I really tally them all, five seems to be a favorite but there is also those that agree this one sums it up a little better. *huff* I'm on the fence. Good thing there is still soooooo much time left before I finish the writing.
This is more just having fun, blowing off steam and a nod to the older black and white knife in the back imagery all over the internet.
The Dead Messenger
Mid-lengthed story in the link as well as assets used for the scene.
Gotta say, I love Space Crimes. Hurry up and finish the novel, please.
I rather like the latest image, but do have a few comments.
Eye sight lines. I can understand her looking off to the right of the camera, but where is the detective on the right looking? It doesn't look as if he's looking at her, the dead man or anything obviously in the frame, his eyes point down, but wouldn't his neck bend if they're that far down?. And his eyes seem to be parallel, focussed at a range greater than the apparent room size. All-in-all leaves me wondering if he's really concentrating on what is in front of him or just a bit dislocated from that reality.
The whole feel is of a 1930's detective film, mechanical typewriter, phone etc. Then the murdered man is holding a ballpoint pen of all things. It feels like an anachronism as they are 1950's and later (Lazlo Biro filed his patent in the UK in 1938, but the pens only took off in the early 1950's after the engineering of the little ball was sorted). Surely the pen would be a fountain pen? I know paid for fountain pen models are thin on the ground, but I've done some freebie ones over at Rendo if you don't have any. Possibly I need to do some G9 poses and wearable presets for them, but I've done two fp's that are 1930's appropriate having been manufactured before the 1930's and one that is early 1940's appropriate. (Yes, I am a fountain pen geek - if you're interested my pen, ink and pen related freebies are linked to or included in this thread here.)
Regards,
Richard
I think he's looking at what the dead man was writing.
Hey Richard!
It's really cool and exciting to me that you took the time to resopnd and pretty dang neat that you created these props. Kudos and what incredible eye for details too. You are so right that the pen would most likely not be period appropriate but the part of the Space Crimes is that it's kind of a mess of a timeline. It actually takes place in an alternate timeline to what you and I live in where some things haven't changed much while others were the stuff of incredible science fiction. As such, you will often find things in my imagery that doesn't really add up. But, I still run with it. :)
Oh and his eye movement is absolutely looking strange. His gaze is supposed to be the paper and when I zoom into his face and try to zoom out towards the paper it seems correct. But in the render, it is off. I should have just set the eyes individually to "target" the paper. That would have corrected that I'm guessing.