Learning Postwork?
XoechZ
Posts: 1,102
Hello!
How can I learn to postwork renders like he does?
http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/galleries/1759/
The images are awesome due to heavy postworking. Is there a general workflow? Where and how should one start to create images like this?
I have Photoshop CC, tons of brushes, a Wacom tablet and some painting skills. Now I need some tips and hints :-)
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Greetings,
I think mad, mad skills, probably born of years of practice, getting it wrong, and trying again...and again.
That said, they have a few tutorials on their deviantArt page which walks through their workflow for a few specific pictures.
I hope that helps!
-- Morgan
Basically only with practice. There are no shortcuts. The more you play around in photoshop and understand what it can do, the better you learn to utilize those features in postwork. Learn how layers, filters, masking and all those effects work together. It's a lot to take in, but after a year or two of experience you will get there. Yes, I said years:)
I highly recommend The Art and Science of Digital Compositing, by Ron Brinkman. It's the best book out there on Compositing, and not only is compositing one of the key skills in postwork, the skills used in compositing carry through to most other postwork. The first edition is a little out of date on some technical information, but Amazon has it for 43 cents plus shipping and all the concepts still apply. The second edition is $30 and is fairly up to date.
Steve Wright's Digital Compositing for Film and Video is pretty excellent as well. Second edition is used from $1.52 plus shipping. Third edition is $30, but again, the Second edition is nearly as good.
Containing some postwork info, and lots of other useful info, is Digital Lighting and Rendering by Jeremy Birn. First edition is a penny plus shipping, Second is $10, Third is $30. Here there's been more technological change, so books get better as you get more recent. It might be worth the $4 shipped to get the first edition to see if it is something you'd like enough to get the third.
As far as tutorials, I highly recommend PhLearn. They have a ton of free stuff on Youtube, and even more stuff for sale. The "ph" is for Photoshop, so if you're using another program for postwork their tutorials won't be as good. The concepts carry over just fine, but it'll be some extra work to figure out how to apply those in other software. The Gimp is free, and Photoshop Elements (Adobe's little sister to Photoshop) is $60 new at Amazon and has an interface very close to Photoshop proper.
(Ironically the compositing is the worst part of the postwork on that image. Compare the dull foggy light in the background to the sharp sunlight on her armor. His real skill is in digital painting - it looks like he uses the rendered images as a base to paint on top of. Afraid I don't have any good digital painting references, though it is something I'd like to spend some formal time with.)
(Edit - failed to remember you had Photoshop CC by the time I was at the end of my message. :) )
I agree with Zev0. Learn what Photoshop has to offer. After using it for over 25 years, I still find new techniques. Don't imitate others. Develope your own style.
Isikol did a workflow tutorial for his "War" contest submission. Should give you some pointers.
http://isikol.deviantart.com/art/WAR-WORKFLOW-TUTORIAL-253647576
Really important things to learn: Layers, masking, and blend modes.
Thanks for your answers!
The thing is, that I am used to the most common Photoshop techniques. I have been working with PS for a long time now, but never used it for postworking renders. So I am familiar with layers, masks, blend modes, filters and so on.
My problem is to learn to use (or abuse :-) ) these techniques for postworking and creating stunning images.
I will follow the links you posted and then I will see. Thanks!
3dbuzz.com has 24 free tutorials on photoshop. Paid membership of $35 for the month gets you 94, with the previous ones included in that count. Zac Parrish is awesome.
Post Work is not that difficult, mostly its just understanding layers in an 2D ap like photoshop or paint shop pro. learn to use layers and masks and the rest all falls into place.
Having an understanding of traditional art helps a lot
There are several postwork tutorials at Rendo, search on "postwork". How good they are I can't say though.
Udemy also has over 140 different PhotoShop courses:
https://www.udemy.com/courses/search/?q=photoshop
If you open an account there you often get discount offers on courses up to 70-90% off or more.
The thing about postwork is that while there are some folks who do absolutely amazing amounts of adjustments in photoshop, the effects that even minor adjustments can have are absolutely enormous. Even if you never do anything beyond adjust the exposure, contrast, color balance and color saturation, just tweaking those in any image editor will make a huge difference in how much more dynamic your renders can look.
Someone mentioned one of Isikol's tutorials at DeviantArt, but he's actually got quite a few of them over there, along with a number of other well-respected 3D-Arttists and many of DAZ’s own published artists. Yes, some of the work you run into in the process of surfing at DA can be a bit… er… over the top, but the price is right (free!) and groups like Daz Artists Guild and DAZ club have collected a lot of the better ones in some convenient tutorial galleries located here:
http://daz-artists-guild.deviantart.com/gallery/31436060
http://dazclub.deviantart.com/gallery/9229753
Hi there..the secret is one. Put your goals very high! That is essential for the psychological part of the story... Then all the above everyone mentioned is crucial. Tutorials, video tutorials, good use of layers and brushes, an eye to understand how light works, and a great appetite are your weapons to succeed in this. I dont believe in talent...no one was born with a talent in photoshop..i believe in perception and hard work. Start by trying to use real photo references for your models..then you will see that the models proportions are wrong here and there so you can fix them with the liquify tool...always use rim lights...they boost the picture. Always check the image in black and white so you can read the contrast correctly...use warm colors for things you want to bring forward and cool for things you want to send at the back. Composition is a real weapon to make a difference...imaginefx has a special edition somewhere about that which is helpful...
When doing post work, keep an open mind. Sometimes the best effects come from boo boo's. Save and the undo commands are your best friends.
Save often as separate files and if you do something that doesn't work, undo it. But remember it because while it may not work for the render you're working on at the moment, it may come in handy on another.
If you need to, keep a diary. It's very easy to forget what step went where when you are experimenting.
Experiment. You never know what you'll come up with.
Layers and blending are your best friends.
truth be told, what makes my work so good is the ability to cover things up. I worked as a freelance cartoonist. One of the first rules i learned as a cartoonist was "when in doubt, black it out". Comic book artist have this thing they used to do, if part of the pencil sketch wasn't so good, it was a bit weak, or poorly drawn, they just painted black ink over it. Then instead of pointing out your poor drawing ability people would compliment you on your "use of moody shadows". When I started doing post work in 3D I found that instead of "black it out", I could paint white over the bad areas and hit it with a gaussian blur and people would compliment me on my "use of atmosphere". Since then I have found many other ways to cover up bad areas of a render. Fire, dust, debris, mud sprays, water splashes, blood sprays etc. Chances are the thing you think is so kool about any of my works is covering up the crap i screwed up and never want you to see.