Hrm. So I'm trying to get a good outline for cartoon-style stuff.

PWToon, and DZToon and that free Geoshell outliner shader, run into problems whenever surfaces are incident to the angle of view, and you get big black segments. This can also make the thickness of lines rather uneven.

I've been experimenting with the Outline from Scripted 3Delight, but I run into problems where beards, bumpy surfaces, and faces become big blobs.

Any suggestions/tips?

Thanks for the outline tip! Once I figured out I had to look at the Normal output, I was golden.
 And it solves a bunch of problems I had with PWToon. Thank you all SO much... you are awesome.

I've been having a fabulous time playing around with PWToon. There are a few functions I wish it had that it didn't

Like what features, for example? NPR shader development is not a top priority of mine right now, but it's definitely there in the plans for some time later. So would be awesome to hear what is lacking from the DS shaders already there.

Like 'opacity edge detection' or lines drawn at material zone boundaries (toggable). Maybe I am not seeing it quite properly, but it seems that if you, say, have an outfit with 'short sleeves' due to transmapping, the sleeves aren't outlined.

Dystopian worker drones would crash if you converted them to Iray and set Metallicity above 0. AT 0 was fine... anything else? BYE BYE DAZ

Given one of my main characters in my webcomic is a Dystopian Worker Drone, this was annoying (I just ended up using a glossier material for a while. Of course, now I've converted over to PWToon/3DL for my comic, but hey)

I love Iray for what it does, but I'm finding an interest in less realistic stuff. PWToon has been awesome at really stylized drawing-type renders (and FAST since the lighting is very simple).

But I want to explore the 'middle range' of semi-realistic stuff...

One big plus to 3DL over Iray is Displacement. 3DL handles displacement _leaps and bounds_ better, IMO -- between that and all the funky 3DL effects... it's very appealing.

Not really sure what I was aiming for, but I was playing with pwToon and Photoshop. Came up with this.

Looks like it could be on a greeting card as is - the contrast between the character and the textured BG works well together. I dig all the variations in hue, but still all green - excellent!

- Greg

Nice Will :)

Not really sure what I was aiming for, but I was playing with pwToon and Photoshop. Came up with this.

Those two renders look very cool. Very impressive work. 

BTW: I did NOT buy pwToon yesterday -- I decided that I was too busy to use it right now and to wait for a sale. And then today's extravaganza of savings came along! I picked it up and am hoping to play with it tonight (or at least by this weekend).

Thanks for the heads up ! I picked it up too. And pro bundles at bargain basement prices too. Nice one Daz :)

Yeah for sure can never pass up something like this and I went and got pwtoon as well..  Now to try and download all this new stuff which is going to be hard as it seems the servers are getting hammered big time..

Those two renders look very cool. Very impressive work. 

BTW: I did NOT buy pwToon yesterday -- I decided that I was too busy to use it right now and to wait for a sale. And then today's extravaganza of savings came along! I picked it up and am hoping to play with it tonight (or at least by this weekend).

Me, too. I just couldn't pass up that discount.

I also bit the bullet and (after much agonizing -- literally, my head now hurts) bought Michael 7, as well.

My shopping cart total for everything today was $115. Good grief!

(On the plus side, I almost bought pwToon yesterday for about $12 -- today it was $6.50.)

My webcomic (which, now that I'm doing it with pwToon, categorizes it over here rather than Iray pic thread) updates on Wednesdays: http://thefarshoals.webcomic.ws/comics/52/

First of all, I am BLOWN AWAY by the quality of work I'm seeing here. I've also been inspired -- it's time for me to buy pwToon. I'm buying it today.

I'm working on a NFR project right now: I'm doing some fill-in illustrations for a Superhero Role Playing Game called POWERS BEYOND. And I would love your feedback on the illustrations. And, if you would, please comment in the thread itself so I can find the comments more easily.

After they're finished, I'll post some of them (and some others) here:

WIP - SF Superhero Battle Scene
WIP - Supervillain, The Hero Defeated
WIP - Opinions sought on comic-style illustration
 

Thanks in advance for any feedback you can provide!

Mike

I've been having a fabulous time playing around with PWToon. There are a few functions I wish it had that it didn't

Like what features, for example? NPR shader development is not a top priority of mine right now, but it's definitely there in the plans for some time later. So would be awesome to hear what is lacking from the DS shaders already there.

I've been having a fabulous time playing around with PWToon. There are a few functions I wish it had that it didn't -- maybe somebody will revisit this type of thing in the future.

I love Iray, but when I'm not doing photorealism, 3DL is king.

PWToon. I think I started with Technical Drawing, but slid all the thresholds to 0 and made it black rather than blue.

http://willbear.deviantart.com/art/Ratman-Scoutp-583443574

This shows one of the limitations of PWToon. While this specific image came out to my satisfaction, ideally I'd want the ability to have a line along his leg where the calf presses against the thigh. Since there is a good texture and color, the division shows decently, but if I was doing a B&W image there might be a problem.

I have pwToon (but not dzToon)

Isn't dzToon one of the "DS Default" shaders that come with DS?

Oh, maybe so. I figure the defaults are probably not all that advanced, so I tend to skip them.

I have pwToon (but not dzToon)

I have pwToon (but not dzToon), and it's pretty good. I also have one or two of the Visual Style shaders, but use these less often, along with some others that I've bought, but have never actually tried. I'm more likely to do a straight render, then post-process in Photoshop using an action or script, or one of my custom AForge filters. 

On the Poser side, there are a couple of render scripts I've used for years that give interesting results. RDNA sells several of these, like their watercolor rendering set. They basically consist of new materials definitions and different types of render passes. I haven't yet purchased Poser 11, but I'd like to try their new comic/drawn style renderer. Smith Micro usually drops the upgrade price after 9-12 months, sometimes drastically, and I can wait.