SilverGirl's art soup
SilverGirl
Posts: 2,752
Not long after I first got into doing Daz art, I was trying to explain to my mother what it was I did, exactly. I'd sent her a render I was rather proud of, but I didn't want her thinking I'd suddenly gotten so good that I could claim credit for everything in the scene. So I was explaining how I got this piece from here, and that piece from another set, but had to rescale something or change the textures, and the base character I'd had to modify a bunch, and then find hair that worked for her, and clothes -- except I altered those in this way, and...
... y'know, what a lot of us all do whenever we're trying to make a scene fit our vision.
And she said, "Oh. You're an art chef. Chefs don't grow all the ingredients, usually, but they take what others have made and combine and alter them to make something wonderful and new."
She went on about the analogy a bit longer, but that was the upshot.
I liked that a lot.
So here, have a thread that's basically art soup: stuff I've kitbashed, comments on the "culinary" journey, or whatever else I think might be entertaining or helpful.
Bon appetite!
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Comments
I like that analogy too.
Oooh, Richard's right, that's a lovely metaphor! Will love to see your menu
As background, all the renders I'm doing at the moment are from a story I'm writing (for my own entertainment) set in White Wolf's World of Darkness: Changeling the Dreaming universe. Tabletop RPG, for those not familiar with it. I'm borrowing the bones but also changing some stuff to suit the people and their narrative better, because rules are guidelines and sacrificing the creative spark to be completely beholden to them is banal as heck.
So anyway.
This is Grace. She's a barista. Also a Scathach sidhe, which means that she, like most of her House, is rather awkwardly caught between two worlds: as a general rule, the other sidhe see her as a commoner, and the commoners (by definition, any sort of fae who's not sidhe) see her as a sidhe. And sidhe are the jerks who bugged off to into the Dreaming when things got rough, wouldn't let anyone else through until they'd all got in, and then the doors slammed shut behind them, leaving everyone else trapped in world full of increasingly hostile mortals. And then they showed back up a few centuries later like "oh thanks for holding down the fort, we'll be taking charge again" and that went over about how you'd expect, especially in America, where feudal arrangements aren't held in reverence.
So yeah. There are notable exceptions, and she has friends and chosen-family, but she spends a lot of time solo. And kicking butt, which is the other thing her House is known for.
So... obviously I needed to make the coffee shop where she works. It's a converted Victorian in the Uptown of Minneapolis (Minnesota), and the back rooms are a sanctuary for fae-kind. Grace works the front area and is the freehold's defender. And it was my first kitbash project. I basically bought every coffee shop asset I could find, harvested them for parts, and then started filling in the gaps with other stuff. And then discovered that nothing had the right layout and did that by hand with one of the Collective 3D packs and zero idea what I was doing, so I had to go back and re-do a bunch of parts multiple times.
Learning process, right? Painful, but oh wow I was so proud of myself when I could finally see it looking mostly like what I'd pictured.
And, as the saying goes, the devil's in the details. I'll do a close-up later, but all those syrup bottles on the far left have custom labels because I didn't like the ones they came with. They all say "Groovy Syrup" on them. That was one of my earlier attempts to mess with specific surfaces, and I strutted around like a conquering general for about half a day after I got that section done. It made me feel like maybe, just maybe, I could pull this whole thing off after all.
This is also the scene where I really got into the Power of Shaders and went from "that's complicated technical stuff that's way beyond me" to "wait, you mean I just have to select this thing and click this thing and.... oh. Well, heck, I can do that!"
The apron was a pain and a half, too, but I was pretty jazzed to figure out how to get the shop's logo that I drew onto the thing so it looks all swanky and custom. That was another conquering general strut. As was the sword at her side, which entirely happened because I was complaining on the forums about how I was having issues with swords of the reasonably close geometry being all one material zone and someone was all "oh, hey, you know you can change that, right?" and linked me a couple good videos. (Cue up Jasmine and Aladdin singing "A Whole New World.")
Grace's ears are custom, and the result of a bunch of people being very patient with me and teaching me how to use Mesh Grabber and save morphs. And then troubleshooting with me when I had a meltdown because in the process of doing the first set of ears, I'd somehow also messed up a hand or something, so with them dialed in every time I posed her (or anyone else with that morph) it looked like they'd broken half the bones in their body. I didn't know that was possible. Now I know.
And also there was the issue of the service bell. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a stinking service bell? I looked through every asset set I could find, sure one was buried in there somewhere, before posting to the forums asking if anyone knew one in a place I'd missed. And @richardandtracy, bless him, just straight up made me one. (Available here, if anyone else would love to share in the awesomeness.)
But anyway, long story even longer, here's a section of my first kitbash. There should probably be someone on the other side of the counter, but when I made it initially I was feeling impatient. I'll probably go back and put somebody in another time, but it's not top of my priority list. .
'It was the first time Grace had a invisible person as a customer' and voila
LOL or maybe they're off to the side checking out the baked goods in the display case.
I completed my (first draft of my) first true forray into a graphic novel page today. I think maybe it's more concept art, perhaps? I dunno.
Things I learned:
1. I really, REALLY am not good at GIMP. I'm looking at this thing vexed at how flat and amateurish it looks, and I don't even know what to do about it. But whatever, I have to suck before I can get good. I know that, and have no ego around being a n00b. I can revisit it when I get more skillz under my belt.
2. I think I shot myself in the foot trying to put four large renders on one page like that. Most of the detail disappeared. Argh.
3. I'm still not good at starting on easy mode.
4. Trying to tell a time progression story with elements that stay consistent but don't look repetative is a weirdly fun challenge.
Anyhow, some backstory: the one on the right in the top picture is the mentor of the other two, and has been training them since childhood. She has talent in Soothsay, which means she can catch snatches of the future. She knows all this is coming, but it's not generally a great idea to flat out tell someone their future, so the lyrics are a coded "hang in there" to message to Grace when it's time for them to part ways when the girls come of age. There are layers of history and nuance to it that go beyond the pictures captured here, but Grace won't realize it until she's on the other side. (Also, the font was the closest thing I could find to what I imagine her handwriting would look like.)
(The blue guy on the bottom with the horns is a troll -- not the internet kind. They're cool and generally honorable. More about him later.)
I posted a version of this in the comic one-pagers thread that has the years next to the pictures... but on second thought, I don't think I want them there. It clutters it up, and the dates aren't the point.
I'll also put this and the original renders up on my gallery (link in sig), in case anyone is curious about what they look like when you can see the whole stinking thing clearly.
Fell free to ignore if you are not looking for 9inept) feedback:
There is a lot of (not actually) white space there, and the whole layout is very consistent.
You could probably do a larger, wide-angle establishing shot of the whole sene (more or less what you hve now), then use close ups to show the progressive action to vary the layout and allow more detail.
I would think it might work better to try to tie the words, in smaller chunks, to separate panels - perhaps, if this is the mentor speaking, you could focus the first image on her and have it a direct speech bubble, then have it continue as floating speech panels in the images paying moe atention to the other characters?
Hm. I like that. (And thank you, glad for feedback. I really have no clue what I'm on about. I love the idea of merging stories and pictures, but haven't read many graphic novels because I find them cluttered and hard to follow. I think the last time I picked one up was the Sandman series back in the mid-late 90's, so I'm not working with much foundational exposure.)
This one started with the first render, and then I was like, "oh hey, there are four of these that go together, actually" and progressed to "oh neat, I could use this for a one-page comic for that thread!" followed by "gosh what do I fill that empty space with"... and then I realized that it wasn't actually an external point of view so much as the mentor's vision, and this is what happened.
I like the idea of storyboarding it out a bit better, though, and breaking out the lyrics into chunks. It would give me a chance to intersperse some of the other symbolism and backstory, if I can figure out a good way to differentiate the past bits from future bits. ETA - do you think maybe doing those in monochrome would be sufficient?
Thank you. That's some good puzzle to work out. I think I can really learn from that.
Monochrome, or desaturation, a coloured overlay (often sepia) or fuzzy edges are all used to indicate flashbacks, so they are likely to be easy for readers to understand - I would suspect monochrome might be the hardest to do, though, as you have to be alert for things that are different colours but have the same tonal value.
I like the sepia idea. Fuzzy edges are great in theory but we'll see if I can figure them out.
Also should probably look into whether there's a less painful way to lay everything out. Having to count grid lines in GIMP was not the most fun I've had in my life.
I already love the very first render you posted where the MC is in the coffeeshop in completely normal clothes and hair, but with these perky elf ears, that's just so sweet
!
As to the layout on the page you posted, I'd agree with Richard that it would make sense to make the pictures as large as possible. I think I'd also choose a black background, because to me, it always feels as if grey is sort of leaching the color out of everything. But that's just personal preference of course.
- One technical idea: If it's rather a pain to do the layout in Gimp, why not switch to an actual layouting program? I think there are free ones available. If you have an Office software suit, you could also use powerpoint or the equivalent. Sounds weird maybe, but it's really quite useful for stuff like this because it has this snapping feature, and you can export to PDF just fine. Maybe that would make things easier!
Hm. Maybe black would've been a better choice... I picked grey initially because there was the year-text next to the pictures in black.
The suggestion of PowerPoint is brilliant, and I feel like an idiot for not thinking of it. I think my only defense is that I trauma-blocked its existence from my mind once I graduated. Sooo many group projects that wound up with me scrambling to cover everything everyone else refused to do, and concept maps... (oh gods I hate concept maps, but multiple teachers insisted it was the best way to learn... maybe for others, but for me it was tedious additional busywork that just meant I got less sleep than the almost nothing I was already getting).
But really, my issue wasn't with the program itself, and I'm reasonably proficient at it at this point. And it would be so easy to play with layouts and arrange multiple pages. Plus, no steep learning curve for a new program, which is a giant bonus right there.
Yup. That's what I'm going with. You solved it. Thank you.
Oh cool, you're very welcome!
In my excitement over the PowerPoint suggestion, I missed thanking you for this! I'm glad you like!
-- also important to note, non-fae folk can't see the ears, or any of the other blatantly distinguishing characteristics of the other sorts of fae. So they pass in regular society, hidden in plain sight except to other fae, with the caveat that non-fae often think there's something a bit odd about them. That can definitely have good sides and bad sides... for example, trolls would all be seen as unusually tall and strong, but in our society that's generally going to be a boon for the masc folk and not so much for the femmes. Sidhe all look like they could be movie stars or models, and they're unnaturally graceful... but that can attract the wrong sort of attention, too.
It's hard to get across in 3D, at least with my skill level, but Grace and her mentor both have a more down-to-earth kind of attractiveness, and they're more interested in literally anything else than showing it off. Kira (the redhead) is more of the standard glamour/"hot-girl" sort, and she flaunts it more. Because if you /can/ make money with your looks, why on earth /wouldn't/ you?
I did it!!! I DID THE THING!!!!
The prophecy lyric page is going to have to wait because my brain is getting super ambitious with it, and I don't have all the assets I need yet. But this one seemed like a solid, reasonably uncomplicated first attempt. And also I got to use the FG Oktoberfest Bar, which was one of my favorite daily freebies off the 2024 Advent Calendar.
It's probably just my eyes, but that txt is quite hard to read even at 100%.
It looks better on my PC than it does here.
I did put the full page plus the original renders (under the same page as the full) up on my gallery.
Yes, that is readable even for me.
I'm glad! I was vexed I couldn't get the one-page to show up better as-is, but... well, tech.
I'd fuss with it more if it was meant to be published in a seeking-readership sort of way instead of a make-the-movie-reels-in-my-head-stop-looping-and-if-anyone-else-likes-it-that's-gravy sort of way. But I'm itching to move onto the next project. ;)
It's been a rough few days because parenting and reasons, but I guess one good thing about not being able to sit down and Daz was it freed the computer up to just chug away forever at something I'd finished a bit ago. I had a bunch of different angles, because sometimes you never really know what will look best until it's rendered. I put both this one and one other I fancied up in my gallery... the other shows their expressions better, but I figured anyone here would probably be more interested in the kitbashing of the space itself.
So... this is the living room of their flat, which is an old house in Minneapolis (Uptown area) that's been split into two apartments. They have the bottom floor, and the second floor is occupied by a fabulous drag queen named Ruby. I used https://www.daz3d.com/european-style-apartment as the base, but I rearranged it some. I only wanted two bedrooms, so I kept the two on either side of the bathroom (technically one was labeled an office) and the one designated as "small" got the wall knocked out to extend the living room and make a small room that ostensibly is a stairway to the basement. (Except there's no staircase, but as there's a door, all I have to do is angle things right for any relevant renders and it doesn't matter.)
The bookshelves were the most intimidating part, because once you have them up... that's a LOT of space to fill, especially when you don't have many assets yet. (Grace's room was even more intimidating.) You can't see the books on the left shelves well, and that's probably good. One of these days I'm going to put in the time to use one of the packs I have to do all custom books that they'd actually own, but for now there are placeholders. Side note: it is wretchedly hard to find lines of books that aren't messy. Not everyone just shoves their books in willy-nilly and has some leaning at an angle. And not in height order. Kira isn't much of a bookworm (at least not as much as Grace) but having them all disarrayed like that would drive her up a wall. And Grace would never subject her to it.
In the end I had to think about... well, it's a small apartment without a lot of storage. So yeah, the tea service is on the bookshelf... because where else would they have room for it? Plus, this way you can look at it. And you can't see so well, but there are a couple large (closed) baskets as well, that are decoratively holding... whatever. Guest bedding, maybe, or a metric ton of ramen packets they snagged when they were on sale. I'm never going to have to define it, likely, but it's the sort of thing I do around my own house. And it took up a good chunk of space I didn't have anything else to fill.
A vast majority of their stuff is hand-me-down or thrifted. Which explains why the couch and chair are likely older than they are. That rug probably came from an estate sale; there are some really good ones in that city if you're willing to poke around a bit.
I figured they'd probably splurge on a modern TV at some point when their old one died, though.
A lot of people with small appartments and not that many books put all kinds of stuff in the book shelves, I think you're good there. I love the glowing kitties (?)! When are we going to get to see Ruby as well?
Edit: I didn't see the writing above the pic at first, sorry you had such a hard time again! It's admirable really that you still managed to do something creative.
I have no earthly clue about Ruby! Right now that character exists more in concept, and hasn't needed to be on-screen for any of the stuff I've written, just referenced affectionately as the neighbor (like hearing the muffled sound of show tunes being sung from upstairs, or someone whose mail needs picked up due to being out of town, things like that).
The glowing kitties are from https://www.daz3d.com/the-cat-collection -- Kira is very fond of cats. Kira also lost almost all her posessions when she was uprooted as a child and now feels uneasy having things of her own. So Grace keeps getting cat stuff "for the house" under the excuse that she likes cats too.
Tellingly, however, although Grace's bedroom is absolutely full of things she loves... there are no cats. Because all the cats are in the common rooms.
(Kira isn't buying the excuse a hot minute. But she finds it endearing. And has to admit that Grace does have good taste in cat stuff, and hey, if they needed oven mitts anyway, why not cats?)
And thanks for the sympathy. Little Dude finally got some food down that didn't come right back up, so he has now decided food is worth eating again and is acting more himself. I can breathe again. :)
Good to hear the little one is better!
I put the cat collection on my WL, you can never have too many cat things ;-) As to Ruby, if you ever consider making her into a 'visible' character, G9 would come in very handy I'm sure, with its gender flexibility! There also is a lovely G8 character, Rio (https://www.daz3d.com/rio-hd-for-genesis-81-female) who is very fluid, gender-wise. Rio looks more masculine in the standard variation but is built as a G8 Female, so you can use all the female clothes without having to convert them. He / she is also really cute I think. All this assuming that Ruby is not just 'cis male who coincidentally does drag', of course.
I tend to stick with G9 if I have the option, though Rio is lovely! It's just easier to not have to keep track of who can use what, and I have a broader catalog of facial expressions to work with.
My extremely nebulous concept of Ruby is a very flaming Black gay man. He/they pronouns generally; she/they in drag. Probably not real stocky. Likes sparkly makeup and elaboate eyeshadows. One of those that I'd probably go "that! that one right there!" if the right chracter popped up, but trying to dial-spin to get the right look would be a miserable failure because I wouldn't know what to aim for.
I haven't written the scene out yet, but I think not long after he moves in, some creepazoid follows Kira home. Kira, of course, is entirely capable of handling it herself, but Ruby doesn't know she's been combat training since she was eight. He comes flying out his door, purse swinging, screaming like a banshee, and the jerk in question decides this was way more than he bargained for and beats a cursing retreat. Ruby turns around and Grace is standing in the doorway, a replica of Sting in her hand, going, "Well okay, then. Guess I won't be needing this."
It's one of those moments where everyone realizes they've just scored the neighbor lottery.
OMG!
I would absolutely LOVE to either read that or see you render it (or both, definitely both). I already have such a vivid image in my head of it, just from your description. You have amazing ideas, SilverGirl! I love all the detail you put into that render of the girls! 
<3 I'm so glad it entertained you! The scene render is currently problematic due to lack of an exterior-of-the-house asset; it needs to match how I have the inside laid out as far as shape and windows, and nothing on the market currently does. One of those things I might attempt to make or kitbash someday, but at the moment is beyond my current skill level. I hadn't really thought about dropping written bits in here, but I definitely could if that's something people would fancy. I've got over 100 pages written for them... just none of it is particularly linear. Much like renders, I just go for whatever dive bombs my brain demanding attention. And since it's just for my own amusement anyway, it doesn't really matter if there are giant chunks missing.
...okay, I hadn't had Ruby anywhere near my priority list, but now I want to play, so... wishlisting https://www.daz3d.com/phx-jayson-hd-for-genesis-9 as I think it would be the closest (G9) base, and maybe I can try character mixing from there. I really love that the PA doesn't just do brooding/agressive promos for their masc-folk. The ones of him dancing or sitting on the laundry machine (or eating noodle soup, loved that one) are sort of close to how I envisioned him in his everyday life.
(I'd already established that he likes dancing... so does Kira. They go clubbing together sometimes, though of course they're just as likely to be dancing with other people as with each other. They have a very playful relationship. Grace, on the other hand, hates dancing because it means other people are up in her space. No thank you... she would much rather drop them off and play sober cab at the night's end.)
It wouldn't leave my head, so I threw this together quick. Hope it brings a chuckle or two.
---
A wolf whistle sliced the air, intruding on the comfortable city sounds: a dog barking, the whine of cicadas, a conversation in Spanish a little ways off, the traffic from the main drag a couple streets over.
Kira barely checked an exasperated sigh.
There were times being sidhe had its advantages: when you were out at the club hoping to score with a hottie, for example.
This was not one of those times.
“Hey, baby!”
Kira glanced his way, rolled her eyes, and ignored him. With any luck he’d hurl a couple unimaginative insults and leave it at that.
“All dressed up for a good time,” he leered, headed down the little path from his porch to the sidewalk, clearly trying to look suave.
Her luck, his house was between her and home. She was going to have to pass him.
She wasn’t afraid-– hadn’t been afraid of his sort for years. He was just a mortal. It wasn’t as if he was one of the duke’s guard. She was, however, hot, and cranky, and more than a little over men thinking her dressing for the weather meant she was dressing for them.
“You wanna have some fun, pretty lady?”
He’d come to the little fence at the edge of his lawn and leaned on it, what she supposed was intended to be enticingly.
She walked past with barely a glance. “Not with you.”
His demeanor immediately changed. “What, you think you’re too good for me? You think you’re something special?”
Kira made a face and kept walking, not dignifying him with a verbal sparring match. And yeah, you weren’t supposed to let them know where you lived, were supposed to keep walking until you got to some public building, but this guy lived a block and a half down from her.
And frankly, just let him try something.
She heard the gate squeak, heard the footsteps. This one wasn’t running to catch her – unfortunately. No, this one had to just dangle, shambling along back there, making an absolute idiot out of himself at the top of his lungs.
Kira cast her eyes heavenward. You’d think, just once, they’d come up with something original to say.
He was regaling her with his alleged bedroom prowess by the time she reached her own little gate. She opened it peevishly and slammed it behind her, the clang an audible middle finger.
And heard him yank it back open.
“Oh yeah, baby. I see your game. You’re one of those hard to get ones, pretending you don’t want it. But we’re gonna do it right here, aren’t we, sweetheart?”
Kira turned, prepared to tell him off – physically, if necessary – but she never got the chance.
Ruby’s door banged open, and he flew down the porch steps with a scream like a banshee, purse swinging with a force that made Kira wonder if there was a brick in it.
“Get away from her, you sleezy sack of -!”
The creep’s eyes rounded; his curse was just as original as the rest of his monologue, and he slammed full-force into the gate in his hurry to leave, only barely getting it open and himself on the other side of it before Ruby got to him.
A stream of profanity and insults trailed him like a Doppler as he beat feet back down the street.
Kira couldn’t help an amused smirk at her new neighbor as he panted, a little winded, and straightened his clothes.
Ruby turned, and surprise flashed across his face as he looked past her. “Oh! Hi, Grace.”
Kira glanced back as well; her sword-sister was in the doorway, a replica of Sting in hand and a bemused expression on her face.
She was fairly certain that all three of them had just made the realization that they’d won the neighbor lottery.
“Well. Guess I won’t be needing this,” Grace observed, and gave a warrior’s nod of respect to Ruby. “You wanna come in for some coffee?”
“Oh I’d love that,” Ruby beamed, slinging his purse over his shoulder.
“Cute bag,” Kira complimented.
He gave her a winsome grin. “Thanks! I got it at that thrift shop across from the Wedge.”
“They’ve got good stuff there,” she agreed as they both headed into the house.
Glad you enjoyed! It apparently wanted out... I have very little say in these matters LOL.