January 2021 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Composition, Instancing, & Duplication

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Comments

  • vamokvamok Posts: 238

    aprilshowers2065 said:

    Version 2. Just realized that her hand was on the wrong side of the bowstring for her to actually draw it (oops). Fixed now!

    Good catch, she looks much more natural now. I had to look at your origianl again to see what was going on. That would have been one awkward archer! ...and I finally found that third snake! 

  • vamok said:

    aprilshowers2065 said:

    Version 2. Just realized that her hand was on the wrong side of the bowstring for her to actually draw it (oops). Fixed now!

    Good catch, she looks much more natural now. I had to look at your origianl again to see what was going on. That would have been one awkward archer! ...and I finally found that third snake! 

    Thanks. And yay! 

  • Alias52Alias52 Posts: 284
    edited January 2021

    Almost There!

    Intermediate Instances

    Got a little carried away with this! The forward half of the boat has duplicate groups, to allow some  tweaks to pose and textures. The stern has instances repeated from the duplicate groups to give a little more variety. Had quite a few tweaks to do to get the rowing position, in order to get the oars through the holes into something resembling a rowing stroke. (I also realise that it may not be possible for people to actually see that - but I know...) Not entirely happy with the water, but I want to get on with something else and maybe come back later.

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  • MoonCraft3DMoonCraft3D Posts: 379
    edited January 2021

    Alien landscape. I used a -lot- of instances and duplicates with the plants. The sky and planet are my own creation

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    Post edited by Chohole on
  • katywhitekatywhite Posts: 414
    edited January 2021

    Linwelly said:

    katywhite said:

    Title: Caaaake....Caaaaakkkeee.....

    Software: Daz 3D

    Challenge: Intermediate

    Trying out the intermediate challenge this time round. Feedback much appreciated!
    The instances are the gravestones and of red panda figure, Ping.

    Tried a couple of versions, one at a later time setting.

    7pm:

    8pm:

    Probably something in between or if you choose the darker setting, think about some highliting your character in front. 

    I like the use of instances you tried here, but in the current way it doesn't get entirely clear if that group is following the one in front of just standing and gazing. it's probably not simple to convey motion with that plushy

    also check if you have a solid connection to the ground with the stones and the character, it looks to me like they are floating (shadow missing?)

    @Linwelly
    Thanks for the suggestions!

    So...he's actually touching the ground not sure where his shadow is. I'm using sun-sky for the lighting, I changed the time to 7:30pm so something inbetween the two lighting I did before and I tried a different angle to see if it woud help. As you can see the shadows show up for the the Pings but not for Pounce for whatever reason.  I added some grass instances too to try to help connect him to the ground better. And I moved the Pings a bit to see if they look more like they are moving after him. I also added some light source near him but I couldn't think of any reason there would be one unless he was carrying a lantern but I liked him clutching the cake with both paws so the lantern ended up on teh ground...maybe he dropped it in his hurry to get away from the Dessert Zombies. I actually turned up the shadow intesnity from 1 to 2 as well but I'm not sure if that did anything (or what that is actually supposed to do - I thought it might make the shadows darker based on the name?)

     

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  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,795

    @katywhitehis shadow is.

    I like the new light setting and the dropped lantern helps telling the rush he's in. The motion from the others is better visible now as well. The added grass helps a lot to connect, still I'm puzzled what is going on with the ground. Since you mention using sunlight, this is not HDRI ground but a real ground (with HDRI I don't manage to get figures located properly on the ground, but that's not it here) I never used ground shadow intensity, so I have to test what it actually does, but I would have expected the same as you. Could it be that the ground is mostly a flat plane with that grassy groud image on it? Then maybe try to add or increase bump/normal for it (displacement is not as efficient in iray), If there are not maps for that you can make a bump map from the groundtexture by turning it into a greyscale image in a photomanipulation program and save as bump map.

  • TirickTirick Posts: 227
    edited January 2021

    Princess in the Tower

    Intermediate Challenge

    I have been slowly constructing a cityscape for use in this challenge, but until now had not been inspired for an actual shot. It isn't finished, but is far enough along that I feel its ready for some feedback. This city is entirely made of instances of hidden objects (below grade, if you will), including the bridge, which was modified from the original mesh (GIS skyway) to look more like a suspension bridge, then carefully instanced in different groups to stretch across the span. In order to get a more 'realistic' depth of field everything is scaled 'correctly'. The bridge stretches almost 2km across the water and the city is 2-3 km deep. I lost count of the number of instances honestly, between 3 sets (2 building sets and a roadway set) but upwards of 2-300 overall.

     

    One of challenges I've found though is setting a focal distance and fstop that shows the foreground character in detail, and still shows the city in some (if slightly out of focus) detail. I think I've found a good setting, but would appreciate some advice. Setting it too high I find the city looks too toylike. 

    I plan to render some traffic billboards to stretch across the skyline. I'm also not fully sold on the doorway. It's set open/close parameter doesn't allow for a good camera angle, and while like the bokeh effect it does obscure a little more than I really want. I might explore unlocking the rotation and reversing it to open outward.

    Thank you!

    Tirick

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  • vamokvamok Posts: 238

    All Must Kneel

    Beginner Challenge - Composition

    This is my second entry for the month. The other is for the intermediate. Can I do both? I am a newbie, but I could not find a rule saying I could not do both. I meet the eligibility rules for the Beginner challenge. If not, hey, here is a scene I made :-)

    Created in DAZ. Background lighting was adjusted in Photoshop Elements 2020 (took 23 hours to render just the background or I would have attempted to fix it in DAZ).

    Criticism is welcome.

    Assets Used:

    Palace

    The Brute 8 Pro Bundle (The Brute 8, Shield from Gladiator Outfit, Untamed Poses, Death Shadow outfit - used on the Drow, MRL flat top Hair and Beard - Used on the Drow)

    Jingle and Belle for Topsy 8 and Genesis 8 Female (Belle used)

    Dark Fantasy Weapons for Genesis 3 and 8 Female (both weapons seen)

    Dokkalfar the Dark Elf for Genesis 8 Male

    101 Expression Library with Dials for the Genesis 8 Male

    101 Expression Library with Dials for the Genesis 8 Female

    Perrin Hair for Genesis 3 & 8 Female

    Shadow Thief Outfit for Genesis 8 Female

    Dark Prince Outfit for Genesis 8 Male (On The Brute)

    Skies of Economy Redux - Volume 1

    Facial Hair and Short Hair for Genesis 8 Male (On the Brute)

    All Must Bow Comp 2.png
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  • Shinji Ikari 9thShinji Ikari 9th Posts: 1,163
    edited January 2021

    Sorry about going quiet this month, but I started messing around in Minecraft last weekend, and have been rather distracted.

    Edit, I did get the idea of trying to recreate a room from my largest so far using primitaves and instancing, so who knows.

    Post edited by Shinji Ikari 9th on
  • TirickTirick Posts: 227
    edited January 2021

    Princess in the Tower v2

    Intermediate Challenge

    I made a few alterations. I unlocked the rotation of the balcony door to open the doorway up fully, changed the HDRI to a brighter image with a bit more blue than red and added some sky traffic. The billboard I made for the traffic did not play nicely with the default Iray fog settings so I replaced it with layered TerraDome3 atmospheres. I did end up rendering in two passes however. The foreground is a separate render from the full background and layered for this result.

    Thank you,

    Tirick

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    Post edited by Tirick on
  • Alias52Alias52 Posts: 284

     

    I made a few alterations. I unlocked the rotation of the balcony door to open the doorway up fully, changed the HDRI to a brighter image with a bit more blue than red and added some sky traffic. The billboard I made for the traffic did not play nicely with the default Iray fog settings so I replaced it with layered TerraDome3 atmospheres. I did end up rendering in two passes however. The foreground is a separate render from the full background and layered for this result.

    Thank you,

    Tirick

    Really like that improvement. Both elements work so much better. I really like what you did with the cityscape.

  • vamokvamok Posts: 238

    Tirick said:

    Princess in the Tower v2

    Intermediate Challenge

    I made a few alterations. I unlocked the rotation of the balcony door to open the doorway up fully, changed the HDRI to a brighter image with a bit more blue than red and added some sky traffic. The billboard I made for the traffic did not play nicely with the default Iray fog settings so I replaced it with layered TerraDome3 atmospheres. I did end up rendering in two passes however. The foreground is a separate render from the full background and layered for this result.

    Thank you,

    Tirick

    Wow, this is a massive improvement from your original shot. I love the clarity of the background and the lights. Opening the door s more was also a very nice touch. I can totally relate to the multi-layer composite process. I have to do that on nearly everything. Excellent render!

  • OriginalSamhainOriginalSamhain Posts: 38
    edited January 2021

    My entry for the Composition challenge. Heavily inspired by one of the reference images, I wanted to do something with a lot of negative space and heavy contrast. I really like how it turned out but I definitely see room for improvement. I'd love to hear your feedback! 

    Hello Goodbye.png
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    Post edited by OriginalSamhain on
  • Here's my attempt at what I was thinking of last post. I ended up using over 200 instances of the cube primative used for the main part of the build (225 if I remember right) alone. The lights are another cube primative along with 23 instances of said cube.

     

    Took me the better part of an hour or two to arange everything in the proper settup.

     

    Only things I can think of are to see if rotating the instances in mixes of 90 digrees will do mutch with the repatition of the shadding on the walls/floor/roof. and maybe add a character or two if I keep messing with it. I was curious about if I could pull it off more then anything.

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  • sueyasueya Posts: 826
    edited January 2021

    I have rotated some of the flowers to make them look less identical and added a V4 skin with bolder makeup to the Sprite 

    Feedback welcome

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    Post edited by sueya on
  • katywhitekatywhite Posts: 414
    edited January 2021

    Second entry...will work on my first one next with your suggestions....

    Title: The Discourager of Hesitancy

    Caption: This is based on the story, The Discourager of Hesitancy, the sequel to the story, The Lady, or the Tiger? For those who don't know it, this scene is where the prince must identify the woman he married while blindfolded, else he'll be executed by the Discourager. He has to determine who out of a crowd of 40 women. He narrows it down to two, one lady smiling and one frowning. It is at this point this scene takes place.

    Software: Daz 3D

    Challenge: Intermediate

    The instances are the women to create a larger crowd.

     

    The Discourager of Hesitancy 2.png
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    Post edited by katywhite on
  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,815

    vamok said:

    O'l Jeb Fogs the Orchard Version D

    Render time 25 + hours (finished over-night).

    Fixed some things...broke some things...sigh

     

    Versions C and D are definitely my personal favorites.  I think I may like D the best of the two though. Really nice job on all the reworking! heart

  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,815

    katywhite said:

    Second entry...will work on my first one next with your suggestions....

    Title: The Discourager of Hesitancy

    Caption: This is based on the story, The Discourager of Hesitancy, the sequel to the story, The Lady, or the Tiger? For those who don't know it, this scene is where the prince must identify the woman he married while blindfolded, else he'll be executed by the Discourager. He has to determine who out of a crowd of 40 women. He narrows it down to two, one lady smiling and one frowning. It is at this point this scene takes place.

    Software: Daz 3D

    Challenge: Intermediate

    The instances are the women to create a larger crowd.

     

    Really nice job on the instancing. I had to really look hard and hunt for them. They were done really well heart You made a very large convincing crowd! 

  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,815

    sueya said:

    I have rotated some of the flowers to make them look less identical and added a V4 skin with bolder makeup to the Sprite 

    Feedback welcome

    The rotations did a lot and it looks very natural. I can't really tell the flowers arent different. So very nice job on that. Rotating is definitely a key thing when it comes to stuff like that (especially with natural elements like flowers and trees)  Really nice work! heart

  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,815
    edited January 2021

    Shinji Ikari 9th said:

    Here's my attempt at what I was thinking of last post. I ended up using over 200 instances of the cube primative used for the main part of the build (225 if I remember right) alone. The lights are another cube primative along with 23 instances of said cube.

     

    Took me the better part of an hour or two to arange everything in the proper settup.

     

    Only things I can think of are to see if rotating the instances in mixes of 90 digrees will do mutch with the repatition of the shadding on the walls/floor/roof. and maybe add a character or two if I keep messing with it. I was curious about if I could pull it off more then anything.

    Rotation would help to break up any texture patterning. That said, there are other ways of doing it as well with materials and shaders (though that is a different contest but you could look for the previous contest on that topic if you wanted to play some) That there is lots of cubes though smiley heart

    Post edited by DAZ_ann0314 on
  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,815
    edited January 2021

    OriginalSamhain said:

    My entry for the Composition challenge. Heavily inspired by one of the reference images, I wanted to do something with a lot of negative space and heavy contrast. I really like how it turned out but I definitely see room for improvement. I'd love to hear your feedback! 

    I really like this one. Its different and unique and the dead space gives it a very interesting feel and focus. You could potentially pull in a bit closer to them to maybe cut out some of the negative space but I admit I kinda really love it as is. Something about the negative space really draws your eyes and makes it more dramatic. heart

    Post edited by DAZ_ann0314 on
  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,815
    edited January 2021

    Tirick said:

    Princess in the Tower v2

    Intermediate Challenge

    I made a few alterations. I unlocked the rotation of the balcony door to open the doorway up fully, changed the HDRI to a brighter image with a bit more blue than red and added some sky traffic. The billboard I made for the traffic did not play nicely with the default Iray fog settings so I replaced it with layered TerraDome3 atmospheres. I did end up rendering in two passes however. The foreground is a separate render from the full background and layered for this result.

    Thank you,

    Tirick

    Really pretty. I really love the full impact of the setting around her. If I was to critique anything it would be to maybe work on her posing just a smidge to get it looking more natural/balanced. That said, posing is a different challenge so not necessary to this challenge to resolve. Just something to do if you were so inclined (more her back hand than anything). I really love everything though. The full scene is quite eye catching and engaging and there is a lot there to look at. heart 

    Post edited by DAZ_ann0314 on
  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,815

    vamok said:

    All Must Kneel

    Beginner Challenge - Composition

    This is my second entry for the month. The other is for the intermediate. Can I do both? I am a newbie, but I could not find a rule saying I could not do both. I meet the eligibility rules for the Beginner challenge. If not, hey, here is a scene I made :-)

    Created in DAZ. Background lighting was adjusted in Photoshop Elements 2020 (took 23 hours to render just the background or I would have attempted to fix it in DAZ).

    Criticism is welcome.

    Assets Used:

    Palace

    The Brute 8 Pro Bundle (The Brute 8, Shield from Gladiator Outfit, Untamed Poses, Death Shadow outfit - used on the Drow, MRL flat top Hair and Beard - Used on the Drow)

    Jingle and Belle for Topsy 8 and Genesis 8 Female (Belle used)

    Dark Fantasy Weapons for Genesis 3 and 8 Female (both weapons seen)

    Dokkalfar the Dark Elf for Genesis 8 Male

    101 Expression Library with Dials for the Genesis 8 Male

    101 Expression Library with Dials for the Genesis 8 Female

    Perrin Hair for Genesis 3 & 8 Female

    Shadow Thief Outfit for Genesis 8 Female

    Dark Prince Outfit for Genesis 8 Male (On The Brute)

    Skies of Economy Redux - Volume 1

    Facial Hair and Short Hair for Genesis 8 Male (On the Brute)

    Really nice job on the composition elements. It draws you right into the people and what they are doing (ouch!) I don't think that poor guy kneeling is going to have a very good day AT ALL LOL Really nice job! heart 

  • katywhitekatywhite Posts: 414

    DAZ_ann0314 said:

    katywhite said:

    Second entry...will work on my first one next with your suggestions....

    Title: The Discourager of Hesitancy

    Caption: This is based on the story, The Discourager of Hesitancy, the sequel to the story, The Lady, or the Tiger? For those who don't know it, this scene is where the prince must identify the woman he married while blindfolded, else he'll be executed by the Discourager. He has to determine who out of a crowd of 40 women. He narrows it down to two, one lady smiling and one frowning. It is at this point this scene takes place.

    Software: Daz 3D

    Challenge: Intermediate

    The instances are the women to create a larger crowd.

     

    Really nice job on the instancing. I had to really look hard and hunt for them. They were done really well heart You made a very large convincing crowd! 

    Thank you! =)

  • TirickTirick Posts: 227
    edited January 2021

    DAZ_ann0314 said:

    Really pretty. I really love the full impact of the setting around her. If I was to critique anything it would be to maybe work on her posing just a smidge to get it looking more natural/balanced. That said, posing is a different challenge so not necessary to this challenge to resolve. Just something to do if you were so inclined (more her back hand than anything). I really love everything though. The full scene is quite eye catching and engaging and there is a lot there to look at. heart 

    Thank you! Your advice about the pose is spot on; something about her left hand didn't look right so I took another look at it. I ended up shifting the right hand first, to more properly rest on the railing, which shifted her posture pose a bit. I then moved her left hand to what looks like a more natural resting position. Rendering this in two groups meant I was able to just re-render the foreground and layer, so it was overall a quick fix.

    Princess in the Tower v3.5

    Intermediate Challenge

    Thank you,

    Tirick 

    Minor edit: Making a few adjustments had shifted the outer dress a bit and I didn't notice until I had posted; I've adjusted everything so it drapes a little nicer and there is no pokethrough.

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    Post edited by Tirick on
  • OriginalSamhainOriginalSamhain Posts: 38
    edited January 2021

     

    DAZ_ann0314 said:

    OriginalSamhain said:

    My entry for the Composition challenge. Heavily inspired by one of the reference images, I wanted to do something with a lot of negative space and heavy contrast. I really like how it turned out but I definitely see room for improvement. I'd love to hear your feedback! 

     

    I really like this one. Its different and unique and the dead space gives it a very interesting feel and focus. You could potentially pull in a bit closer to them to maybe cut out some of the negative space but I admit I kinda really love it as is. Something about the negative space really draws your eyes and makes it more dramatic. heart

     Thank you! I totally take your point about pulling it a little closer, I cropped it just a tiny bit and I really like it, it's still got the same effect but slightly less dead space.  

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    Post edited by Chohole on
  • vamokvamok Posts: 238

    DAZ_ann0314 said:

    Versions C and D are definitely my personal favorites.  I think I may like D the best of the two though. Really nice job on all the reworking! heart

    Thank you for your comments, DAZ_ann0314. I appreciate your input!

     

  • aprilshowers2065aprilshowers2065 Posts: 702
    edited January 2021

    Wasn't quite sure if #4 for the challenge rules meant that we could have a total of 2 entries or if we could have up to 2 for each level. If it's the latter, than this is for the beginner's challenge (haven't participated in the Composition challenge before), if not, then this one is just for fun! Either way, would love to hear feedback!

    Title: Dark Flame

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    Post edited by aprilshowers2065 on
  • katywhitekatywhite Posts: 414
    edited January 2021

    Linwelly said:

    @katywhitehis shadow is.

    I like the new light setting and the dropped lantern helps telling the rush he's in. The motion from the others is better visible now as well. The added grass helps a lot to connect, still I'm puzzled what is going on with the ground. Since you mention using sunlight, this is not HDRI ground but a real ground (with HDRI I don't manage to get figures located properly on the ground, but that's not it here) I never used ground shadow intensity, so I have to test what it actually does, but I would have expected the same as you. Could it be that the ground is mostly a flat plane with that grassy groud image on it? Then maybe try to add or increase bump/normal for it (displacement is not as efficient in iray), If there are not maps for that you can make a bump map from the groundtexture by turning it into a greyscale image in a photomanipulation program and save as bump map.

    So....I increased the bump map from 20% to 100% and added a Displacement and a normal map...they had the files for all three but for some reason only the bump was actually used. THis is the result. Still no shadow for our furry cake friend. Not sure why that is happening.

     

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    Post edited by katywhite on
  • davidjones8418davidjones8418 Posts: 166
    edited January 2021

    Title: After Hours Explanations at the Pussycat Lounge

    Software: Daz 4.12.1.118 (iRay), Gimp, Affinity Photo

    Challenge: January Beginner (Compositing)

    Pretty happy with instancing so thought I would challenge myself to compositing.

    Tiny bit of tidying up in GIMP and various bits of processing in Affinity.

    Picture of a man explaining himself in a nightclub

     

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    Post edited by davidjones8418 on
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