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Some of my AI pics were made because I fed NovelAI some very old, distorted Wombo pics. Here is one of these pics next to the edited AI. So in other words, these are "mother and son." A few weeks ago, I asked NovelAI to give me the Mad Hatter and fed it the pastel hat lady Wombo pic. I told NovelAI that I wanted a "muscular male" at least to make sure the character was indeed male. I liked the colors on the result, but his face and hand were messed up, so I tried to recreate these with G9 Toon. But I decided to go ahead and practically replace the AI guy with the DAZ guy, except for the hat, hair, and jewelry.
I didn't save the workflow, but to get his skin to look like this, I rendered him twice. The first was one with a human skin, and the second with the G9 Toon skin. Then, in GIMP, I overlaid them until they blended together. Afterwards, I sort of painted over him a bit and tweaked it. I wanted to use "Eyebrows 08" (I think?) and those are missing from my Runtime. O_o
I've decided to update my icon...pfp to something mostly made with DS and GIMP (only the background.) DAZ Galleries link [x]. My favorite shade of green (favorite color) and pink (second favorite color), with white (third favorite color) accents.
I will have to go through my old hairs and clothes and see what fits and looks good. It seems like FilaToon may be how I render from now on (or at least a long time) because it's very light on my old laptop and I was tired of all my grainy Iray renders that never got any better in terms of clarity.
I also may need to draw some of my own toon eyebrows for the G9 toon brows. (I tried to do a similarly shaded pic with V3D Nena, but none of the eyebrows matched her painted on ones. The eyebrows also don't match my custom self-insert/mine either. I had to draw them in with GIMP.) Also, do custom eyes for the Floating Iris, since there is no red, orange, or yellow.
I have transferred Girl 7 for Genesis 8 Female to Genesis 9. (I will try to transfer Girl 8 too.) This is a WIP, as I plan to find a suitable background for her. I also have to tweak the FilaToon outlines because I prefer the "no black/lineless" look.
As you can see, the lines under her eyes are off. But a lot of the transferred toon characters tend to have issues with their eyes. So I've been hesitant to transfer them over, but with the toon eyes and FilaToon shader, they look passable. I'd love to get MallenLane's Hitomi for G1 over, as well as Smay's G1 Nata. But because of the eye distortions, I may just keep them as FilaToon-only characters.
Edit: Oh no! Girl 7 will live as a FilaToon-only character. Her eyes are horrid!
Maybe if DAZ releases her shape and it's not subscription locked, I may buy it. RIP.
I am still planning on rendering my freckled guy, but I'm unsure if I should make him Iray, as I originally planned, or with FilaToon. He'd probably look similar to the Pantless Mad Hatter from earlier.
Poor Star 2 for G3F. I really wanted her for G9. I assure you that the FilaToon renders are less horrifying.
Bebe High for G8F looks way better.
But I think I will need to save out her head and body morphs as .obj, and then reimport them as her being taller than G9. I feel like these two (Star 2 and Bebe) would be more easily fixed with access to Zbrush, which I don't have. But if PFA ever wants to recreate more of his characters, I'd love a G9 Bebe.
Finally, I have uploaded my freckled guy. DAZ Galleries link [x].
I made an attempt to convert him to FilaToon, but it's always better if I start off in Filament, instead of Iray. The Iray one (which was my original intention) came out better. Need more polygonal hairs that don't have so many quads. Those always come out looking good on Filament.
Bonus FilaToon render for the day. Besides, I'll be busy tomorrow. DAZ Galleries link, which includes a silly "bloopers" photoset [x].
I wanted to use their original textures, but it didn't work out. The good thing is that they can easily use pre-existing LIE makeups. Also, I wish I could blur the dome/photosphere in DS. I had to do it in GIMP. I'm also trying to figure out how to make them have shadows.
My OC Giacomo in G9 looks so different in an Anime/Filatoon preset. I didn't do anything different to his shape. The skin is almost the same, except I manually added the masculine V9 diffuse/base maps. I just need to find rounder eye shape and extremely straight eyebrows for him and he'd be perfect for my uses. I like this look for renders and what I did with my current icon.
I don't remember where in the forums I saw the question, but you could "simulate" background contrast by inserting a low opacity plane behind the character to make them stand out from the background. That's what I did here.
As for the character himself, he is supposed to be a bard. He even studied music and loves composing music, but he never went to a Bard College, so he doesn't consider himself a real bard despite clearly having the talent and skill for it. I also wanted him to look like a jester/The Joker. The Iray version captured the vibe I was aiming for perfectly. Somehow, this toon version with similar skin and exact shape, he just looks like a regular pretty boy and has no cheeky prankster aura whatsoever. I'm sure with different eyebrows, he'd look accurate again.
In a surprising twist, decided to render something quick in Iray, so I could enhance it with KREA AI. DAZ Galleries link [x].
Here are the befores...the render and my quick manual mashup of the render and an AI pic, before giving it to KREA AI.
If I'm able to, I like to show the before and after. Mostly because one of my biggest pet peeves with the "DAZ Community" is that they're always tight-lipped about their work process or what they use. It's just bizarre to me. I come from drawing and writing communities, where everyone is always sharing their "behind the scenes" processes. (Some are able to screencap their digital drawings, others post screenshots.) Most people post their WIPs as teasers for their followers or for feedback/critique. But since I see myself as a [traditional] illustrator, I will try to share my WIPs like the 2D illustrators do.
Anyway, since I strive to make presentable art no matter the medium, I treat DS like "easy" sketches and drawings. So naturally, I'm going to talk about what I do. Perhaps my crude, unorthodox methods are inspiring to the lurkers. We have plenty of tools available to make cool pics. If a simpleton like me can do it, so can you.
I'm currently doing another KREA AI pic, that's essentially me trying to combine two different AI images that DAZ AI Studio gave me. Anyway, a "bias" that this AI has is that it keeps trying to lighten up the Michael 9 skin. So when I'm working, I have to figure out how to darken it back to how Michael 9 is supposed to be. The MS Paint pic is the KREA AI enhancement. The GIMP pic is my current WIP where I've finished combining Michael 9 to the enhancement.
The DAZ model I used was Michael 9 because DAZ AI Studio gave me a pic that was clearly him. But I added Nahuel's beard and eyebrows which completely changed his appearance. Speaking of Michael 9, he and his "canon remixes" have immediately become my favorites, especially Michelle. And yes, I got Mickey 9 too, his eye bags won me over. I'm curious if they make a Hiro 9 Anime, but tired!Mikey is adorable.
I have been busy doing more KREA AI remixes, but I feel that my ending results don't have enough "clearly obvious DAZ assets," so I've been posting some of them on deviantART, and not here. (I'm trying to "clean up" my downloads folder where I've collected a bunch of AI image results I like. I know this is a hot take; but AI has both made me love photo-manipulation and rendering with Iray all over again.)
Here is the finished pic. DAZ Galleries link [x] which includes the original DAZ AI Studio renders.
I didn't write it in the description but those two plants in the "foreground" the one between the two characters and the one behind the woman were both plant .png's I found. As for the orange bell pepper, that's the GIMP Pepper brush, but I dyed the pepper orange, so it could stand out more. The leaves right above the pepper are GIMP Ivy brush but blurred that they looks like random vegetation. Do not question the logic of the environment.
Do y'all remember the Multiplane Cyclorama? I decided to see if I could add some of the DAZ AI Studio "no people" images I got to make a background. My intention is to make some properly illustrated toon backgrounds for my Filatoon renders.
I've uploaded the background I made as well. The top third is made from 3 different DAZ AI Studio images, combined with KREA AI and GIMP. The middle texture and bottom texture are both originally made from some GIMP textures -- "Stone" and "Crack" but recolored. Decided to share (an updated version) in case anyone wanted to use a 2048 x 2048 image as a reference to make your own backgrounds. You may also use the image as a background as is.
This is a test render of a character I'm making as a drawing reference, with the AI Multiplane Cyclorama background I made. No post work.
I think I may need to make lighter/brighter backgrounds.
Doing stuff IRL, no time to set up scenes. If things work out, I'll be busy next year. But I'll try to render something to not keep this thread from dying, because forum rules are vague in this regard and I don't want to bump or "necro" my own art thread.
Anyway, I finally got around to recreating my bunny boy OC on G9. Currently, I'm trying to find an "accurate" skin tone for him with what I've got in my library. I did want to use Nahuel HD's skin on him, but it's too "rosy" for my liking. My OC has a more "golden brown" skin tone because he's part-cinnamon roll. Michael 9's skin is a tad too dark and it has crow's feet and under eye circles that don't match the character. Interestingly, the genderbent Michael 9 (Michelle) doesn't have the bags, but it is still too dark. Here is a test render I did with Michelle's texture. Now, at least in this test render, my character no longer has stubble or Michael 9's crow's feet.
I am using InTheFlesh's ITF Dev Kit Vol. 2 (available at Renderhub and Gumroad...not sure if they're at other store fronts.) It works well and has a lot of other features I don't really use, but it has G9 chest UVs that allow the nipples to be placed in the proper masculine position. (I had seen someone mention wanting such a product, and I even made a thread a while back. From the inactivity of said thread, I will assume that I am the only person who sincerely wanted such a product. So I am satisfied with my purchase.)
My conclusion, so far is that I may end up using Nahuel HD skin after all, just need to figure out how to tweak the settings. But also, I need to paint the striped skin my OC has. Hopefully, I'll get to it soon. Might make a young Michael 9 render later with Michelle's skin and the aforementioned UVs, to keep this thread from dying.
According to GIMP, I have spent about 1 hour and 30 minutes trying to draw my bunny boy's arm swirls. In the story I'm writing, others assume that he's got full-body tattoos. (So I still have a long way's to go because the head, legs and torso textures are required.) To make it easier on my old weak laptop, the textures are being painted at 1024 x 1024 on 3DCoat with me going back and forth with GIMP.
This first cropped screenshot is the shaky swirl I did on a G9 .obj shaped like my OC. He is also supposed to have stripes on his face. Hopefully, I'll have time later.
The second cropped screenshot is the redone arms on GIMP. They were tricky to do since the arm maps aren't perfectly mirrored. As a result, the arm swirls are actually a bit asymmetrical. His left arm is acceptable, just need to fix his pinky, but his right arm needs work. I will have to repaint his right arm and possibly redraw the swirls. His torso/body texture will be easier to make symmetrical. So perhaps I should try working on it before I try the right arm.
My intention is that once I finish all the markings with black and white, and make them as "seamless" as possible, I'll soft select the black and then try to "color" it like that. I'm hoping that my natural shakiness can be passed off as "drippy," since this character is meant to be a literal cinnamon bunny. After that, perhaps I should texture his outfit. But then, my actual goal is to have a consistent reference for his swirly stripes, since it's easier to draw him than render something accurate in DAZ Studio.
(EDIT: The DAZ Forums are acting weird. They moved my screenshots to my next post, where they're not really relevant.)
To clarify, I am writing a story with my OCs. So the story is in text form, but I want to create illustrations for it. However, my plan is to make these OCs hand drawn, so I'm using DS to make consistent references of them. That way I can pose the models and then eyeball them, while I sketch them by hand. There's no point in trying to just do "proper" renders of them in DS because assets required for the mains' unique looks just don't exist, except in my imagination. (I will never find long, voluminously thick mane-like hair for the main guy. So it's best for me to draw that from scratch. I've done so several times already.)
But this bunny boy is not really a main character, at least right now. (I've barely introduced him in my WIP. There was another character not intended to be "important," but the developments said otherwise.) The bunny boy has a very striking appearance, so he needs a reference model. I also need to find rabbit ear props. Even if it's just a headband with bunny ears, because I don't care for clipping. I also know that he'd look sick in Filatoon Filament, so I might do a half-drawn/edited toon render of him, if I ever finish. Though the half-drawn would already be in the texturing as well, because that's currently the only way I can edit DS assets to my specifications.
The other characters from my story are all mostly regular-looking humans. So I just need to dial spin whatever DAZ figure, and get something close enough. I strongly prefer a unisex figure like G9, but I don't mind using G8F or G3M or whatever older models.
All that is left is to do the legs. The rough black and white (which has been tinted brown on DS), is "good-enough" as a drawing reference, but unusable for DS because his stripes are not supposed to contrast this much.
His theme is "Moon Rabbit (Cinnamon Bun) but for Dungeons & Dragons." However, this is the "vaguest" way I can say that he is supposed to be like Bugs Bunny, and that he may be a lit of a lunatic, but described in way that someone who has never heard of Bugs Bunny wouldn't be confused by not knowing the reference. His face markings were also intended to loosely resemble Selûne's symbol, but he looks like a bootleg Darth Maul.
I'm tempted to make the markings a bit "pointier" but I don't want to mess with it too much since I'm mostly happy with how it turned out. I really need to fix the arm seams.