ToonyCam Pro: Toon renders, anyone? :) [Commercial] [Contest]

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  • zigraphixzigraphix Posts: 2,787
    edited December 1969

    Cute! :)

    I'm still recovering from a disgusting cold myself. :sick:

  • bad4ubad4u Posts: 684
    edited December 1969

    Get well soon :)

    For me it's bedtime, 2:00 in morning now, and I have to stand up at 7:30 again.

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591
    edited December 1969

    zigraphix said:
    Cute! :)

    I'm still recovering from a disgusting cold myself. :sick:

    I feel for you...I'm on my 3rd day home.
  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591
    edited December 1969

    Another render using Mavka...and I've realised that I need outlineID off with some hairs or the outline of the edge of the skull cap shows.

    foreverfiends_MAVKA2.jpg
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  • martinez.zora77@gmail.com[email protected] Posts: 1,345
    edited December 1969

    Ok. I was in a good assumption when I said that Zig ToonyCam is robust and better than PWToon, at least in two points very importants for me. It is about outlines.

    PT outline fail en some angles and in some flat geometries, It is no good for architecture and some accesories. Images 1 and 2 are thin and thick PT outline version. Outline color is blue. I tried to change parameters' outline to improve this but I don't have clue. I suspect that it can't be improve.

    Because this, I tried to do my own outline, but it is weak in object without gradual changes in curvature. Image 3, T_T

    Images 4 and 5 are one click ToonyCam, by diffuse and by node. I don't need say which is the better and consistent.

    zig_Node.png
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    zig_default.png
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    mine.png
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    PT_Thick.png
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    PT_Thin.png
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  • martinez.zora77@gmail.com[email protected] Posts: 1,345
    edited December 1969

    Now normal version.

    zig_normal.png
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  • hawkonthewinghawkonthewing Posts: 136
    edited December 1969

    Ok, here I played with layers in Photoshop. I normally wouldn't get so complicated with it, but I was testing a few things for some upcoming projects. And yes, it worked like a charm!
    I started with a base of the whole image with shading level at 2. I did just the background with shading level 6, then blended them with the darken setting. I then did a Mouse King fur areas only with a light grey outline to get the fuzziness. Clara's dress was giving me some fits as far as getting lines on all the ruffle layers went. I tried switching it to the node or zone, but I got the same error messages that were listed earlier. Regardless, I do like how it turned out.

    Nutcracker_blend_final.jpg
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  • zigraphixzigraphix Posts: 2,787
    edited December 1969

    It's so much fun to see these renders! Thanks for posting, everyone! :lol:

    Pendraia said:
    Another render using Mavka...and I've realised that I need outlineID off with some hairs or the outline of the edge of the skull cap shows.

    What you want to do there is set the skullcap to the same outlineid as the skin.

    @bad4u, that is so cute! But poor Clara won't be going there after all, since the Mouse King has her in his paws. ;)

    @gilikshe, I see what you mean-- yes, for architecture the method I use for ToonyCam is going to work better than what pwToon does. :)

  • zigraphixzigraphix Posts: 2,787
    edited December 1969

    Also, if you folks think of OutlineID presets you'd like me to include in future products (or updates to ToonyCam), let me know. Some things are too varied for me to deal with, like all the different names the mat zone for a skull cap might have, and I don't have all figures, so that limits me somewhat, but you are all coming up with such interesting ideas, someone might very well discover a simple preset that everyone else would also like to have. :)

  • martinez.zora77@gmail.com[email protected] Posts: 1,345
    edited December 1969

    zigraphix said:
    It's so much fun to see these renders! Thanks for posting, everyone! :lol:

    Pendraia said:
    Another render using Mavka...and I've realised that I need outlineID off with some hairs or the outline of the edge of the skull cap shows.

    What you want to do there is set the skullcap to the same outlineid as the skin.

    @bad4u, that is so cute! But poor Clara won't be going there after all, since the Mouse King has her in his paws. ;)

    @gilikshe, I see what you mean-- yes, for architecture the method I use for ToonyCam is going to work better than what pwToon does. :)

    Architecture is one. I will post another.

  • martinez.zora77@gmail.com[email protected] Posts: 1,345
    edited December 1969

    Problem # 2: I call this "ugly angles" because it happens only in certain camera angles and...I hate this effect, is not frequent, but I hate it.

    Image 1 is PToon, no nails outline and elbow outline is very very ugly.

    Image 2 is ToonyCam with different ID in forearms and nails. Very good results. Newly, is obvious which is more consistent.

    angle_zig.png
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    angle_PT.png
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  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591
    edited December 1969

    zigraphix said:
    It's so much fun to see these renders! Thanks for posting, everyone! :lol:

    Pendraia said:
    Another render using Mavka...and I've realised that I need outlineID off with some hairs or the outline of the edge of the skull cap shows.

    What you want to do there is set the skullcap to the same outlineid as the skin.

    @bad4u, that is so cute! But poor Clara won't be going there after all, since the Mouse King has her in his paws. ;)

    @gilikshe, I see what you mean-- yes, for architecture the method I use for ToonyCam is going to work better than what pwToon does. :)sorry Zi, but how do I do that?

  • martinez.zora77@gmail.com[email protected] Posts: 1,345
    edited February 2014

    I follow.

    If you want add more outline detail, you can mix it with another surface shader outline. I mix with my own outline. Both work perfectly. Image 1.

    Another difference just I found (basically de same problem # 1).
    Image 2 PToon with outline very thick
    Image 3 TCam with outline very thick

    I try with animation too. In http://youtu.be/_tYAwcF57HA there is a short short short test with an aniblock.

    Of course the rest of the product is wow! but outline was my principal problem.

    I am very happy with this product. Totally Happy. Thanks Zigraphix !! You teach me to understand surface shader with your free tutorial and now you give me a total PRO tool. The most funny thing is DAZ finally published this in my birthday :D

    thick_2.png
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    thick.png
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    angle_zig_+_mine.png
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    Post edited by [email protected] on
  • zigraphixzigraphix Posts: 2,787
    edited December 1969

    Pendraia said:
    zigraphix said:
    It's so much fun to see these renders! Thanks for posting, everyone! :lol:

    Pendraia said:
    Another render using Mavka...and I've realised that I need outlineID off with some hairs or the outline of the edge of the skull cap shows.

    What you want to do there is set the skullcap to the same outlineid as the skin.

    @bad4u, that is so cute! But poor Clara won't be going there after all, since the Mouse King has her in his paws. ;)

    @gilikshe, I see what you mean-- yes, for architecture the method I use for ToonyCam is going to work better than what pwToon does. :)

    sorry Zi, but how do I do that?

    I will write a tutorial about manually editing OutlineIDs, and add it to the product.

    In short, when you turn on outline rendering, a new parameter is added to every surface in your scene. By default, every surface gets a unique outlineID. This is saved as a color. In the first render pass, an image is created with all the shapes of the scene in flat colors using the OutlineID. This is used to create an outline image wherever the colors change.

    I've included some utilities to edit the OutlineIDs, but you can also just go into the surfaces panel and manually change them. Find out what OutlineID your figure is using on face skin, and then look for the Material zone for the hair scalp. Set the OutlineID of the scalp to the same value as the face skin.

    Let me know if you have further questions....

  • martinez.zora77@gmail.com[email protected] Posts: 1,345
    edited December 1969

    Sunhall. A few IDs manually changed.

    sunhall.png
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  • knitpixelknitpixel Posts: 8
    edited December 1969

    Renpatsu said:
    pwToon and ToonyCam combined ...

    This is really inspiring stuff - and thank you for ToonyCam, it's a great new tool to produce something a little different! I really enjoy looking at the images of all the renders to get new ideas. I love the effect that Renpatsu achieved in the image on page 8 of this thread. I've been having a play with ToonyCam and pwToon, but not managed to achieve such elegant results. Any tips or suggestions?

    Thanks

  • RenpatsuRenpatsu Posts: 828
    edited December 1969

    knitpixel said:
    Renpatsu said:
    pwToon and ToonyCam combined ...

    This is really inspiring stuff - and thank you for ToonyCam, it's a great new tool to produce something a little different! I really enjoy looking at the images of all the renders to get new ideas. I love the effect that Renpatsu achieved in the image on page 8 of this thread. I've been having a play with ToonyCam and pwToon, but not managed to achieve such elegant results. Any tips or suggestions?

    Thanks

    Thank you :) It is done very simple, so I cannot really take credit for anything except for the dabbling fun, but I like that look as well :)

    The render is using the Crescent's pwToon Cel Shader Presets for most part on the figure, using the thin edges - white on skin, scleras, lacrimals, red on lips, irises, and black on pupils and hair. The black is basically a modified white preset (there is no full black in Crescent's shader presets), just use the white preset with full black color on diffuse and the shading. Then the ToonyCam Pro is set up with a low Shading Levels Count (if I recall correctly I used 2) and low Blend (10). Outline Style was set to normal. For the eyebrows I needed to use LIE (Layered Image Editor) to use the eyebrow map included in Fiends Forever as an alpha blend over the "Face" surface, so that I got the eyebrows in the end. Keep the light setup very simple or even no lights at all. Hope this helps a bit :)

  • snowsnow77snowsnow77 Posts: 94
    edited December 1969

    How do you keep the background from rendering white? I have it set as black, but it renders white with the Toony Cam.

  • bad4ubad4u Posts: 684
    edited December 1969

    How do you keep the background from rendering white? I have it set as black, but it renders white with the Toony Cam.

    I think you need to add a background (e.g. a primitive and change diffuse color or use some backdrop/skydome). The default background isn't an object (no matter if white of black) and would appear transparent in 3Delight renders too, if you save it as *.png (with alpha channel).

  • martinez.zora77@gmail.com[email protected] Posts: 1,345
    edited March 2014

    I found in render/temp folder images of oulines. I invert white to black in photoshop and mix ID version with normal version. So now I can achieve the perfect description of the image only with zigraphix camera.
    1. ID version
    2. Normal version
    3. ID + Normal in photoshop

    Edit: Ok, I now set ID and Normal to 1, to obtain both in one render, set sunhall toon image as backdrop. The only thing is I can't have is different thick for ID and normal

    4. All in DS4, ID like a silhouette + normal + backdrop

    ana_sunhall_2.png
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    ana_ID+Normal.jpg
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    ana_Normal.jpg
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    ana_ID.jpg
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    Post edited by [email protected] on
  • zigraphixzigraphix Posts: 2,787
    edited December 1969

    How do you keep the background from rendering white? I have it set as black, but it renders white with the Toony Cam.

    I'm away from my computer right now, but I believe I included a Background option in the camera, which you could set to black. (I know this is in SketchyCam, and I'm pretty sure I had it in ToonyCam as well.) Otherwise, add a plane behind the rest of your scene and set its color to black.

    Also, be sure you are saving as jpg, not png. The png format in DS leaves transparency anywhere you don't have anything in the scene, even if you set a background color in the render. This is handy for post work, but confusing in other cases.

    That Sun Hall image is gorgeous. I am often surprised at how different models look when renderd in this style. Different details are emphasized and I see new aspects and possibilities that I'd never noticed before. :)

  • wsterdanwsterdan Posts: 2,339
    edited December 1969

    Just a quick test using a comb of pwToon and ToonyCam, absolutely love this camera.

    Thanks again for a great product, really looking forward to the next one. Will you be starting a preview thread for it?

    -- Walt Sterdan

    ToonyCamTest00.jpg
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  • zigraphixzigraphix Posts: 2,787
    edited December 1969

    Regarding documentation, what would you folks prefer, a written PDF or a set of short video tutorials?

    The main topics/questions I've collected so far are, generally:

    - How to combine ToonyCam Pro and OutlineCam with other shaders (Like Manga Style) without distorting the other shader effects too much
    - How to adjust OutlineIDs to control where outlines appear
    - How to choose between outline styles
    - Simple lighting for toon images

    What other questions do you folks have?

    Note that if I write a tutorial on "how the heck did you make that camera?" it won't be a freebie. It took a lot of work to figure out, and it would take a lot more work to teach someone else how to do it. ;)

  • zigraphixzigraphix Posts: 2,787
    edited December 1969

    wsterdan said:
    Just a quick test using a comb of pwToon and ToonyCam, absolutely love this camera.

    Thanks again for a great product, really looking forward to the next one. Will you be starting a preview thread for it?

    -- Walt Sterdan

    I haven't decided yet about a separate preview thread....

    Is there a clothing converter for Toon Generations? How did I miss that???

  • snowsnow77snowsnow77 Posts: 94
    edited December 1969

    Thanks badu4 and zigraphix. I keep forgetting that I have Daz set to save as png for post work.

  • CybersoxCybersox Posts: 8,762
    edited December 1969

    zigraphix said:
    Regarding documentation, what would you folks prefer, a written PDF or a set of short video tutorials?

    I prefer PDFs, though getting both is the ideal situation. Videos are useful if they're well narrated and hi-rez enough to make out the details (the ones at Videocopilot.net are a great example of it being done right), but in general I've found that the linearity of video hampers their effectiveness, as there's a lot of scanning and rewinding if you're just looking for clarification on one thing. Also, my experience has been that many artists tend to make assumptions about the viewer's knowledge level on a subject and often gloss over some aspects when speaking out loud whereas actually having to type it out forces them to at least allude to every step.
  • bad4ubad4u Posts: 684
    edited December 1969

    zigraphix said:
    Is there a clothing converter for Toon Generations? How did I miss that???

    That's quite new. Only available for few weeks now.

    PS: Wouldn't it help people finding information to change thread title and include ToonyCam Pro in some way ?

  • martinez.zora77@gmail.com[email protected] Posts: 1,345
    edited December 1969

    zigraphix said:
    wsterdan said:
    Just a quick test using a comb of pwToon and ToonyCam, absolutely love this camera.

    Thanks again for a great product, really looking forward to the next one. Will you be starting a preview thread for it?

    -- Walt Sterdan

    I haven't decided yet about a separate preview thread....

    Is there a clothing converter for Toon Generations? How did I miss that???

    Yes, is a new CrossDresser license.

  • wsterdanwsterdan Posts: 2,339
    edited December 1969

    zigraphix said:
    wsterdan said:
    Just a quick test using a comb of pwToon and ToonyCam, absolutely love this camera.

    Thanks again for a great product, really looking forward to the next one. Will you be starting a preview thread for it?

    -- Walt Sterdan

    I haven't decided yet about a separate preview thread....

    Is there a clothing converter for Toon Generations? How did I miss that???

    Came out recently (sorry you missed the half-price sale); you missed it because you were too busy giving us ToonyCam Pro. ;-)

    -- Walt Sterdan

  • georgewrestlinggeorgewrestling Posts: 11
    edited December 1969

    Hi zigraphix, today bought this great product, but i'm a novice and when i try to make a render
    DAZ tell me "This action requires a camera designed to use the outline compositor render settings.
    please verify that you have selected an Outline Camera"

    Obviously i don't know how to fix this problem.
    Thanks for your answer and keep the great work!

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