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Here we go with version e. I'm serprised that I'm averaging a render a day this month.
Thanks for letting me know, I thought that was just my wonky net; ill see how I can fix that
I made some posing changes, I'm not quit happy with my changes. I don't have a lot of room to work with. I need the window light behind him, and the doors in front of him.
I also altered the lighting / godrays to speed up the rendering (last image took 40+ hours, this one a little over 2).
I totally understand what a pain it is to make changes to a render that takes forever to finish! This one, its much easier to tell what's attached to him and what's not lol. If you want to keep the lighting from the first one (which I rather liked) you can move him back to his original spot but leave the doors like they are in the second one. even though the windows will still cross his arms, I think it will still work because the doors will only cross his arms once, making it easier for our eyes to fill in the gap. The first one just cut his arm into too many pieces and because he (it?) is not human proportioned it was harder to connect the dots so to speak. I hope that made sense!
Much better on the arm and gun. If you back your camera out just a smidge the top of the gun will be in the render as well.
The first render was a volumetric fog effect (from TerraDome 3 Iray) with a massive spotlight. With the door open, the hightlights on the floor became too bright.
The second render uses Expanded Godrays Iray. It let's me tone down the light coming in the window. I may try blend the two methods.
A couple ideas i had:
Here's my 2nd idea.
How's this for version f Sonja?
Shinji, I'm thinking this is one of my favorites that I've seen from you so far. And I think the tweeks that Sonja have recommended really help frame the action.
I think this is pretty good as it is, but two things that might be worth looking at:
1. Look up iconic composition, you are so close to achieving it in this image, and it looks well suited for your character. You might be close enough that you are alread achieving it, but I wonder if a just centering the character more would make her pop more in your image.
2. I'm looking at your thumbnail and squinting a little bit, and it all kind of blends a little... of course, I'm a huge fan of contrast, so it might just be personal preference, but I feel like she needs to pop a little. Maybe a rim light on her right side (our left), or even just a secondary light. Also, all your light is the same color, which is sometimes realistic, but not always as dramatic. I wonder if one of your ambient lights was low luminance but high ish temperature would add some more contrasting light.
Just thoughts, but again, I think this is looking like one of your best.
So glad it's October... I love the dark stuff...
I like this concept. It's a really good start.
I think your volume is turned up too high on either density, light density, turbulence frequency or turbulence variance. Maybe all of them. I think I would recommend turning down the frequency and the variance (wait... I'm assuming you're using Age of Armor's Volume cameras and 3Delight?). I think it's the turbulance that is creating that grainy effect, and I think that grainy effect is what is kind of washing out your dark figure, and making everything look grainy.
Also, I think your first render looks like a lot of my first renders usually do :) Namely, the character is not taking up enough of the scene. I think you could zoom in on him more, it's sometimes pretty amazing how much context you can gather from an image even if you can only see a little bit of the background.
I think these are both really good ideas. I usually like sci-fi, but I think your top image has WAY better composition and frankly more character and emotion.
What I feel like both of these images are really missing though is the atmosphere. Since the contest is on atmosphere, you would need to find a way to make the atmosphere almost like a character in the scene. I think the second image has more potential for that... but still really think your first image is the better one over all. But it seems like it would be harder to make the atmosphere more a part of the image. Maybe if instead of a wall behind her there was some sky? Maybe a city scape?
So I didn't see the first render until I quoted the second image. That said, with this second darker image, when I saw it I felt this horrible sense of uneasyness, as something that I couldn't see very well looked like it was coming towards me...
Then I went to comment on how your figure needs to be lighted more, and I saw your original image. In addition to feeling not just a sense of horror, but also a little disgust at his... almost shiney skin and slightly amorphous shape, I also thought "Why did they change from THAT?!"
Meaning, I like your original one significantly better (personally). I just read what advice Sonja would have given you to put your scary creature in the dark (cause Sonja's really good, and was struggling to figure out why she would tell you to do that >_<), and I think she was more suggesting that the creature stay where it was, but maybe adjust the hand. It's not that it looks bad where it is, it's just that a little action, like the creature reaching out, or opening the door, or maybe hand on the glass, could really enhance it.
I'm hesitent to add this, because I love where your creature is positioned in the image (still talking about your first render), but it might also be worth zooming in a little more. If you do so, you would want to make sure that it doesn't become too easy to make out the creature's features.
Anyway, love it! Can't wait to see where this goes!
Thanks for the suggestions. This next image was already rendering before I saw your comments. I added a mesh light to fill in a little bit.
It's actually iray, using Above the fog, with medium light density.
Thanks for the feedback, I'll see what I can do with it.
I swapped in the Free-Spirit-Hair, which I've found so many uses for. Great Morphs. I think this looks a lot better (a few small tweaks as well).
That looks fabulous!
Here is my next render with Above the Fog.
I'm having some trouble with it (note the obvious lines on the columns and the two dark lines on the right). It originally loaded bright glowing white - too white. I will make an inquiry on the Above the Fog thread to see what I'm doing wrong - this is the first time I have used it.
I have another render in mind so I might just fix it in Photoshop. Depends on how much time I want to spend.
I did some more adjustments to the lighting and removed the fog. Not sure I like the fog for this render. I'm thinking of putting in atmospheric effects in Photoshop.
What do you think?
For this one Dracorn I thin I would use maybe god ray like dust coming at him in all directions, just a suggestion.
Hmm. Sounds like the forces of good would have a victory! I don't have any god ray props though, but thanks for the suggestion.
I was thinking having some fog/mist dripping out of the chamber into the red light, or on either side of the steps, with some mist effects on the trees and background. I like the way the light and shadows turned out, so I don't necessarily want to cover them with fog. Perhaps some spooky magic effect on the demon itself. I was thinking Halloween here where the beastie gets loose.
I've got lots of Ron's brushes to play with so I'm going to think about this one a little.
Thanks for the feedback. I added some rain and fog to image 1 -- always was part of the plan, but wanted to get feedback on the composition, lighting first.
I'll see what I can do to punch up the other, which admittedly was a spur of the moment idea and thrown together hastily.
So I decided to take a step back... I went back to the original pose and just changed the arm and hand, then I moved the camera closer.
I think your pose, your lighting, the concept is all very beautiful. However, I think it could be more powerful. Not to say that it is not a powerful image, but a couple of things that might help make an impact.
1. Her pose is beautiful, but the strongest focal point in the image is probably her arm, which is well lit and right in the middle of the top left focal point. While her pose is beautiful, I feel like it takes a while to take it in. It might be worth adjusting the camera or her position so that her torso is more the focal point. Frankly, I think you might have a challenge in putting her face or body in a focal point, without boxing her into the edge of the image. I don't know, I could be wrong here. Maybe somebody else should weigh in on that one.
2. I don't think this is a pose that a character could be in for very long. Therefor, I feel that she is caught in motion. Her hair is in a really static position, like she has been standing like this for a while, but her body is off balance. I think her hair needs more motion.
3. Lastly, her hair and parts of ther backside blend too well into the dark background, making it hard to see them. I only have a few tools in my 3D toolbox right now, so I probably say this too much, but I think she needs something to light up her back, whether that is just a subtle ambient light, or a powerful contrasting rim light, I don't know.
Anyway, a list of three things... that feels like too much for an image that already looks this good. But they are just suggestions. However, how do you do those fireflies in your godrays? And are you using 3Delight or Iray? I have seen these on Iray images, and I have not been able to figure out how they are done, so I have actually been cheating and adding them in post work in GIMP, which feels a little dirty...
Yes! The rain is perfect!
How did you add the rain?
The problem with asking someone to look at an image is that it's easy for someone to nitpick an image and find "improvements". I think that's hard for the artist, because they are already doing that to themselves. That said, when I looked at this second version of the image, I thought it looked like it was nearly done. Then after looking at it again, I did notice that her face is a little dark. I think the image is pretty good as it is, but I wonder if a secondary light from her left (our right) might help light her up without lighting up the whole image.
Sometimes, I feel like New User Contestants should be required to read the Hairy Arm Technique (go on, Google it), so that they don't have to hear about how they could make improvements to their already great renders.
Yep, I think this is what Sonja was recommending. This looks great.
I think it looks a lot better without the overhead lights. I found them really distracting, esspecially with the glow. I kind of like the glow in the image overall, but that really intense glow in the bottom part of the crack in the door is a little distracting.
But I am liking this rendition the best!
Much better! Now it all fits together.
I really like this one. This one looks like his arm belongs to him and still keeps that super creepy feeling you are going for. And with his hand in the door, I would be getting ready to run!
Here's a possable 2nd entry for me this month. I ment to post it earlier this week.