I stand corrected on one Daz plugin at least, pwToon. There are now actually a couple of reasonable recent renders from it the NPR sub-forum - which I hadn't looked at for six months. Although several have been heavily Photoshopped. By "reasonable", I mean that they could pass muster in an actual real paid-for comic.

mmitchell_houston said:

I'm working on a mock Gold Key cover for a fanzine. As such, a few things are required: The logo in the left corner. And the text in all caps, sans serif font below. These are just standard to the comics of the 1960s & 70s. Any thoughts or reactions to it? Specifically, does it look sufficiently painted, or does it still look too much like Poser with some filters applied?

Workflow: Poser Pro 11, Photoshop and Topaz Studio.

 

I think this one already cool  ! Not sure about look like poser though , what I can see its already look like manual drawing or painted . Cool project !!

@pavsikakyj thats default 3delight and pwtoon render as image sequences TIFF and loading and render out as mp4 in photoshop .

No postwork on that video except BG and text

As NorthOf45 mentioned already, the shader files are located in C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\shaders on my machine (these are separate from the files in the content folder that you actually use within DS to apply the shader).

In the test render I did it was just a single distant light with raytraced shadows on. I would generally have more lights for softer shadows, but I haven't done anything in 3delight that wasn't with pwToon shaders in a long time.

Some pwToon works:

Gallery link

Gallery link

juvesatriani said:

Again, revisit the multipass pwToon render and photoshop companion .

Still "ironing complex stuff" to make easier to get variety of NPR styles . I`ll posting the update in freebie thread

Looks very nice indeed. 

leohr_aicrag said:

pavsikakyj said:

Modified juvesatriani's PWToon settings and added some Photoshop and Topaz filters

Wow, I'm envious on how you achieved these results. It's painted and looks very finished, but not over processed.

I like that it looks very much like a comic render / Norman Rockwell-ish illustration. I especially love how the eyes were rendered.

If you feel like sharing your workflow, I'd be interested -- but no pressure.

Either way, please keep posting!

Thanks. For eyes, hair and teeth I use Ubersurface since it allows to turn occlusion off (this drastically increases render speed). It also allows reflections and ambient emission. I'd advice to make eye moisture fully invisible for bott eyes and lashes. I make cornea almost opacue with only reflections enabled and high glossiness on (settings depend on lighting you use). Irises, pupils and scleras I make with active ambient.
 

For postwork I use Photoshop and Topaz Studio 2. I can make an ation (actually I use one), but it will require Topaz installed and acitvated as plugin in Ps. It will also require manual applying at least 3 topaz looks and 1 my own preset.
I can upload some presets here if someone interested.

pavsikakyj said:

Modified juvesatriani's PWToon settings and added some Photoshop and Topaz filters

Wow, I'm envious on how you achieved these results. It's painted and looks very finished, but not over processed.

I like that it looks very much like a comic render / Norman Rockwell-ish illustration. I especially love how the eyes were rendered.

If you feel like sharing your workflow, I'd be interested -- but no pressure.

Either way, please keep posting!

Modified juvesatriani's PWToon settings and added some Photoshop and Topaz filters

juvesatriani said:

Again, revisit the multipass pwToon render and photoshop companion .

Still "ironing complex stuff" to make easier to get variety of NPR styles . I`ll posting the update in freebie thread

 that's a wow! and the other one you posted of the female a wow as well.

leohr_aicrag said:

@juvesatriani
Thanks for pointing me to OSO toon shader. I purchased it awhile back but didn’t give it fair of a chance to make it into my workflow. However, will play around with it again. I guess, however, I will have to get up to speed on 3DL rendering as right now I use almost exclusively iRay photorealistic, despite the common wisdom that 3DL is better for NPR renders - I just always seemed to have better luck manipulating iRay renders in Gimp. However, the beauty of your work, among those of others in this thread, using 3DL or Blender is making me seriously consider changing my workflow.

The use of the material zones and a 3DL outline render is a potential that intrigues me – it looks like an easy way to flat a comic panel if I wanted to color it manually. However, at the same time that I’m playing around with OSO, I’ll have to figure out what an “outline” render in 3DL is, LOL.

@juvesatriani, @Tugpsx
I just checked out the pwShader Bundle. However, pwToon is no longer included with it. With the results I'm seeing that can be obtwith it, I’m kicking myself in the pants that I didn’t get it when it was available.

Have you seen my free photoshop action in here ? https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/509776/updated-js-toon-kit-v-2-photoshop-action-to-turn-your-iray-render-into-comic-or-toon-style#latest 

i`ve created that action to convert IRAY or realistic render into "slightly" comic - toon -NPR style . The best workflow is whatever worked for you . It doesnt matter it came for  3DL or IRAY

About outline rendered is one of default render engine shipped with DAZ Studio . It will outputting several outline type images  from NORMAL + DEPTH and  COLOR ID .

Article in DAZ blog explaining more detail . You can visit here https://blog.daz3d.com/make-comic-book-quality-cartoon-drawings-with-daz-studio/

or for brief introduction you can check this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrKXSeiGYp0

@juvesatriani
Thanks for pointing me to OSO toon shader. I purchased it awhile back but didn’t give it fair of a chance to make it into my workflow. However, will play around with it again. I guess, however, I will have to get up to speed on 3DL rendering as right now I use almost exclusively iRay photorealistic, despite the common wisdom that 3DL is better for NPR renders - I just always seemed to have better luck manipulating iRay renders in Gimp. However, the beauty of your work, among those of others in this thread, using 3DL or Blender is making me seriously consider changing my workflow.

The use of the material zones and a 3DL outline render is a potential that intrigues me – it looks like an easy way to flat a comic panel if I wanted to color it manually. However, at the same time that I’m playing around with OSO, I’ll have to figure out what an “outline” render in 3DL is, LOL.

@juvesatriani, @Tugpsx
I just checked out the pwShader Bundle. However, pwToon is no longer included with it. With the results I'm seeing that can be obtwith it, I’m kicking myself in the pants that I didn’t get it when it was available.

TheNathanParable said:

juvesatriani said:

@pavsikakyj here my setting . I`ll release another pwToon presets in (next) couple days . I think You`ll like it , because those very vesatile and flexible , You can mix and match color between diffuse and shading color with ease , but keep the other setting untouched . 

Although it still can`t beat  Multipass technique in term of flexibility but with his one you`re only need one pass/render

 As you can see this is sample of pwToon and DAZ straight render .  For detail shoot I recomended  using geoshel to enhance my fake outline 

Which character is that?

The character is Dark Magic Girl from Shinteo in Devianart and his patreon .  He and CheckerToo have converted/adapted  several Anime and Game character to G8 and G8.1 (for FAN ART  )

juvesatriani said:

@pavsikakyj here my setting . I`ll release another pwToon presets in (next) couple days . I think You`ll like it , because those very vesatile and flexible , You can mix and match color between diffuse and shading color with ease , but keep the other setting untouched . 

Although it still can`t beat  Multipass technique in term of flexibility but with his one you`re only need one pass/render

 As you can see this is sample of pwToon and DAZ straight render .  For detail shoot I recomended  using geoshel to enhance my fake outline 

Awesome! Thank you very much!

juvesatriani said:

@pavsikakyj here my setting . I`ll release another pwToon presets in (next) couple days . I think You`ll like it , because those very vesatile and flexible , You can mix and match color between diffuse and shading color with ease , but keep the other setting untouched . 

Although it still can`t beat  Multipass technique in term of flexibility but with his one you`re only need one pass/render

 As you can see this is sample of pwToon and DAZ straight render .  For detail shoot I recomended  using geoshel to enhance my fake outline 

Which character is that?

@pavsikakyj here my setting . I`ll release another pwToon presets in (next) couple days . I think You`ll like it , because those very vesatile and flexible , You can mix and match color between diffuse and shading color with ease , but keep the other setting untouched . 

Although it still can`t beat  Multipass technique in term of flexibility but with this one you`re only need one pass/render

 As you can see this is sample of pwToon and DAZ straight render .  For detail shoot I recomended  using geoshel to enhance my fake outline 

juvesatriani said:

Again, revisit the multipass pwToon render and photoshop companion .

Still "ironing complex stuff" to make easier to get variety of NPR styles . I`ll posting the update in freebie threa

Now that's impressive! What are your PWToon parameters? Espesially Diffuse bounds and color rim mode.
As for outlines, Topaz Studio glow efect gives really good results, when you don't want to do multipass rendering.   

leohr_aicrag said:

juvesatriani said:

 

 

I wish I had gotten the pwToon shader when it was available . . . if only I had known about this thread a lot sooner.

Hopefully PoseWorks will come out of retirement.

Do the various colors represent the different material zones on the model?

 I`m not sure about single pwToon but I`ve seen pwShader Bundle in store several months ago . pwToon should be included in that bundle (as far I know)

About different color yes, those are came from Material zone in model . Using model which have complex material zone will help when doing postwork . And ultimately for Outline render

Although I manually assign each MAT zone for outline color, I will sugesting people who serious about doing NPR ( straight or enhance later using 2D graphic editor) to  invest in OSO toon shader . His package have Script to automate several MAT ID color with less click and work flawlessy in 3delight outline render

@csaa thanks for like

juvesatriani said:

Again, revisit the multipass pwToon render and photoshop companion .

Still "ironing complex stuff" to make easier to get variety of NPR styles . I`ll posting the update in freebie thread

I wish I had gotten the pwToon shader when it was available . . . if only I had known about this thread a lot sooner.

Hopefully PoseWorks will come out of retirement.

Do the various colors represent the different material zones on the model?

I like this! It's well done.

Cheers!

juvesatriani said:

Again, revisit the multipass pwToon render and photoshop companion .

Still "ironing complex stuff" to make easier to get variety of NPR styles . I`ll posting the update in freebie thread

Again, revisit the multipass pwToon render and photoshop companion .

Still "ironing complex stuff" to make easier to get variety of NPR styles . I`ll posting the update in freebie thread