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Comments
Hehe, make me smile...
The scene looks good and DoF is perfect.
Only the Glas seems to big and it looks, like the little guy sit on the whiskey.
Thank you, daybird. But indeed, the glas is to big. Such a stupid mistake! I'm going to correct this. The lil guy is intended to sit on one of the ice cubes. That 's way the lady is so angry!
Thank you, I have a lot to learn but finding these "contests" have been wonderful. I love how there's links to tutorials. I may go back and read them all now. Wish I'd discovered this sooner..
I wasn't sure about commenting on others pics, I think it's great as beginners to get others points of view though, I just didn't want to overstep. I thought maybe the "mods" or more senior people were the only ones who were supposed to comment..
Hello all.
I just started using Daz less then a month ago, so you can assume I'm still very fresh in all of this.
Anyway, decided to submit this image I was working on yesterday night. I called it "Cerimonial Grounds" and it has no post work.
Any kind of tips, advices and critiques are welcome as I'm just starting to discover the 3d world.
Here goes a second entrance. Since the first one had a dark feeling to it, I decided to do one with a more lighter feeling.
The Water Sorceress
Once again, no post work done.
Mhh, I prefer your first entry.
So, I set up a scene with two very far apart focal points, and proceded to continue to be indecisive over which should be the focus. I don't think I have the focus quite right yet... Any ideas on which way I should concentrate my render time, or how I should tweak the focus? Or any other comment/criticisms, for that matter?
EDIT: Right now, I'm thinking that the left image would do with a tighter F/Stop. I kept trying to make some details visible, but now I'm starting to think I shouldn't bother if they aren't going to be in focus anyways... Right now, it looks like the information loss to DoF is neglegible next to the distance. Anyhow, I'm pretty sure that the detail I hoped would be legible isn't just due to how tiny it is at that distance and how much stuff is in focus to keep the sniper team from completely fuzzing out the screen.
I think that outfit works better with the first image's colouration/lighting, where it serves as a backdrop for the character, accentuating her from the background. In the second, the outfit's colour and brightness are the bits of the image that stand out the most, with the sorceress's skin taking distant second fiddle, and the spell not showing up until most of the background has been parsed.
In your first image, near the center are RED GLOWING EYES! This draws the eye and serves as an anchor point, with the rest of the character following shortly due to her bright colour against the darkness of the rest of the scene.
The engine that drives art is CONTRAST. This is what moves the viewer's eyes around the scene, sparks interest and narrative, and communicates meaning. The only way to have a lack of contrast work is to provide the contrast on a meta level. See "Ceci n'est pas une pipe."
In general, a verb in your scene should be placed front and center, with lighting to yank the eye to it first thing. Your second image would work better if the spell was gleaming bright (like the red eyes in your first attempt) it would help a ton, as shadows would guide the eye to rest on it first. Placing it in a corner makes your job harder, as you either have to make the center be extra uninteresting, or make sure that the verb in question is not meant to be the focus.
Given the theme of this challenge, I have a more specific recommendation: try shrinking your F/Stop. You can find that by selecting your camera and going to the Cameras tab (Window->Panes(Tabs)->Cameras). Unlike real cameras, we have separate F/Stops for focal length and exposure, with the Camera tab adjusting the former and Render Settings the latter. Right now your DoF is on the subtle side and it'd be interesting to see it a little heavier-handed.
I've made what I think will be the last change to my render for this month and have it rendering as I type this post. Here's hoping that I don't go loosing power or something like that because it's been storming like mad where I'm at. Heck I hope I can get some sleep with how loud the thunder that I've been hearing outside has been.
Well, off to try and sleep for the night, and if everything goes well with the render I'll have version m posted before I'm off to work in the afternoon.
Here we go with version m. More then likely this will be my list version for this month, but who knows I might have an idea for a final tweek when I get home from work tonight. (Hope not though, I've had it rendering for 6 hours on the latest versions and with an earlier shift in the morning then today I might not be able to get things posted before I've got to be out the door.)
I like this final version a lot. The orange, smokey like and flames - even the fireflies - contribute to the mood. It's been fun watching you work through it all.
Personally, I like the version with the closer focus. I think that may be partly because the figures of the snipers create a sort of frame for the landscape in the distance. When they're out of focus, I'm just struck with an urge to take off my glasses and clean them :D
Pretty impressive work for someone who has only been playing with this for a month! I really want to like your lighter render better, but this one has so much more life, movement and tension to it. The Water Sorceress just has a static, posed feeling to it.
@snoopzone - I love your concept, and your alien is a cute little bugger!
@sueya, I don't know how I missed this earlier. I love the concept and posing on this, and nice job on getting the focus on the singer's face and upper body. It's a little grainy still - I've had to let some renders go for days in iRay to get them where I wanted them. You could also try rendering the figures and the interior model separately, then combining them to see if that cuts down on the render time.
City Limits - Blue Moon
Final version for entry
Here is my final version of Fart ("No, you are NOT sweet!")
So, I decided to stick with a PVC floor instead of a wooden floor. The Numbers now, tell enough of the story to give the viewer some ideas. Like actual clues do for CSI members. ;) And they show the fall off the DoF, from 1 to 6.
"Zahlen-Krimi"
Software used: DAZ Studio
Postwork: None
Yeah... The second version would work better with a different camera placement, with the snipers taking up a lot less of the frame.
Anyhow, here's my final version:
Sniper Ambush
And, for comparison's sake, here's a version with a bit wider DoF:
In case it's not obvious, I intend the former version as the canonical. Both of them link to the full size versions hosted here. All versions were made in DAZ Studio without any postwork.
Sorry for the late entry folks. Been crook as a dog for the last 2-3 weeks due to picking both versions at the same time of a nasty fly doing the rounds in Australia (it has claimed a few lives). Very hard to render pictures when you are coughing, sneezing and passing out from low blood pressure/nausea.
Anyway, the plan was to have a knight doing her nightly vigil with spirits etc in the background to test her resolve. Sadly just ran out of time so did the basics to gather feedback on my DOF settings.
Main products used: GDN Sarah for Genesis 8 Female (SKU: 46195) - One of my personal favourite PA's.
The Legend For Genesis 3 And 8 Female(s) - Awesome package that allows you to make 100's of clothing combinations to suit most needs.
All work done in Daz3D 4.9.4.122
No post work done (once again due to time constraints).
Good luck to all entrants again this month,
David
Thanks for the feedback and all the tips rcbcgreenpanzer! I was trying to make some changes to the scene, but I ended up doing some "noobish" mistakes which I won't go into detail and ended up ruining the save file. But anyway I took note of everything you said and will try to keep your advices into account on my next renders.
As for the spells I tried to make both of them light emiting objects (which they are, specially in the first image where it's the main light source), but I also wanted them to have a texture, the first one has fire texture and the second a water texture, but it seems that by doing that they lose the ability to glow. I tried a few things to get around that, but wasn't able to find a way to do it, so I ended up just reducing their opacity to try to make them look more like a spell, but I think that both of them still appear way too flat. Not sure if what I wanted is possible to do in Daz or just in post work in Photoshop. If the latter is the case, then it will still take sometime for me to do it properly, as I also have no experience whatsoever in Photoshop, althought I already signed up for a course in Udemy's site, which I intend to start doing next week.
Regarding the F/Stop, I was making the other day a test render following the advices of Shibashake on how to make wet skin and ended up playing a bit more with the DOF. I think you meant for me to try something like this? (I'm not putting this image up for the contest).
Couldn't resist sneaking in one more attempt before the end of the month - happy for any and all feedback, even after deadline.
title of this one is: After Hours in the Teachers' Lounge - After what she saw through the half-open blinds, Missy was pretty sure she could get an A in English without even trying.
Going by paragraphs here:
1. I did that last month! :D I was working on getting an underwater look going, when Iray decided "You know what makes sense here? White pixels. And more white pixels. And even more bloody white pixels." It wasn't a bloom or brightness thing; they were randomly scattered around the image. These didn't show up in the preview, nor for the first few seconds of a visible image with a long render, bur inevitably, after a couple minutes of rendering, the image would go from nothing amiss to white spots all over. Undoing the last couple things didn't fix it, it was late, and I was tired and frustrated, so I just threw my hands up with it all. That sort of thing happens to every noob sooner or later!
2. Since you're using Iray, making objects glow is easy! The one-click way to get mostly there is under 'Shader Presets'->'Iray'->'DAZ Uber'->'Emissive'. Of course, this is a bit dim, as it uses values for a somewhat dim bulb, whereas the default Iray tonemapping is for outdoors with bright sunlight. The easy solution is to go to the Surfaces tab->Luminance Units->'kcd/m^2' instead of 'cd/m^2'. Apply some sort of texture to the emission color, and you'll have a nice, glowy spell.
3. That looks awesome!
Spotlights to be announced soon :)
September 2017
Showcased Participants for the September Focus/Depth of Field Challenge
That is Deep - For this showcase we chose the person who showed the best overall depth in their image by using Depth of Field.
For those reasons we have selected snoopzone to showcase
The Heart of the Matter - For this showcase we chose the person who used Depth of Field in a way that had an emotional impact on the image
The New User we felt best showed that this month was HighElf
Thanks for the Help - For this showcase we decided to spotlight two people who consistently gave helpful advice and encouragement to their fellow Challenege Participants in the thread
The New Users we felt best showcased their willness to help others was daybird and Ricswika (Please be sure to check out the thread to see all their wonderful encouragement and advice)
New User - Welcome
pedmpmar
Congratulations to everyone! <3 And thanks so much for everything all of you do to make this challenge fun and accessible to everyone <3
Folks, I'm overwhelmed! I really appreciate this! I ment this a though contest to be, so many surprising entries and fascinating arts. I look, I am amazed of what I see and I learn. Congratulations to all showcased guys, and tribute to all participants. Many thanks the jury.
Thanks. It was a lot of fun and congrats to the winners!
Congrats to all the winners - the recognition is well-deserved!
Congrats to all the winners ...and to all the others...don't be worry.
If we win or not. I know this thread is one of the best things I found. I learn constantly and every day,
I load this side, to see if someone have posted new entrys. I really enjoy to see the works and read all the comments.
Congrats to everyone, this was my first challenge, so I now know how things work. Wasn't sure about commenting since I'm a noob myself. I learned a lot and had fun!
oO *falls from his chair*
Woah. Uhm. Currently I'm a little bit speechless by the surprise.
Thank you, and congratulations to all participants.