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lol :D
"But they dForced me to do it!"
Twisted your arm, I seen it!!
This is a teeny snippet from one of the scenes in my Halloween themed book, which will be the second in the series. I'll be releasing two in the fall (or trying to, hope the hurricanes don't interrupt me.) This is before the special effects plug-ins/hand coloring/etc are done. I'm not linking any products as generally I don't share unreleased book illustrations, but this is only a small portion of the overall render. The outfit is FG Gamer Outfit (which makes NO sense whatsoever.) I used Growing Up on Xolile, and that wonderful staircase is in the Barlow House Ravenskull Stair Hall product. I had trouble finding a pumpkin candy holder so I went with Sveva's Halloween props at Rendo, then hand colored the pumpkins.
LOL it's so HARD when you do nice renders with great lighting and then Poof! the plug-in does what it's supposed to do and cartoons it or whatever. If you prefer realism, it takes a bit of getting used to.
A couple things I wanted to mention for anyone starting out doing ebooks and using Photoshop plug-ins:
1. make sure there is a LOT of contrast in your render, use your postwork to increase contrast, shadows, midtones and light areas. THEN do the plug-in.
2. many plug-ins run details together such as fingers, so if it's important to you the fingers are definitely separate, that should be the area you test for the plug-ins.
3. after you run the render, color in areas which may run together. I used this image for the example. I took out some of the shadows for that pumpkin because test renders showed the plug-in butchering the face
Have a question for anyone who has published print books-do the images tend to go darker in the print version, and who did you use? (Won't use Ingram, as hubby had a HORRIBLE time with them.)
@Novica, it's looking great so far, makes me look forward to the finished result :)
My unsolicited opinion - why mess with the filters? The first render looks so much nicer to me.
Love the little girl's expression @novica She looks bored an/or mad. Nice posing, everything looks loose and relaxed rather than stiff.
After I run a render through a toon filter, I sometimes layer it over the original, and then using a mask, take away parts of the tooned version that got too runny/confusing. I find that hands come out the worst and paint overs or reveals, or both.
Oh, a Halloween book.
@Novica, As I moved the screen from the wonderful picture of the little girl on the steps down to the cartoon version, I got the feeling that the character was melting away in the cartoon. Weird. She looks so fed-up with nothing to do, or no one to give candy to, or no tricks to zap someone with... Great image.
Mary
I had eye surgery a week ago and completed the six days and nights of head down positioning yesterday. That means I can start getting back to art again. I developed a macular hole in my left eye and to fix it, they drained the fluid and replaced it with a gas bubble that will slowly dissipate. Testing indicates all should be good but for the next few weeks I will be looking at the world differently. My best explanation is to compare it to looking through frosted glass with broad shapes and colors but little detail. I wondered if I could model it in Daz so here’s a fair representation of how I see right now.
Left Eye:
Right Eye:
BTW, the product I used is Autumn Cottage which is quite nice.
Loss of sight is one of my biggest fears. I hope it all turns out well for you!!!!!!
Other elements of the book (the main ones) look better with the filter, and they need to mesh. The realism also takes away from the fantasy aspects of it, and the style being cartoon worked better on the test audiences (aka kids. They chose the non-realistic, with eight samples (16 total. One real, one cartoon, of the same scene.) That snippet above is from a figure in the background too, the overall impression of the scene isn't quite as disjointed, for lack of better word. :)
She's in a group of kids at a deserted house and yes, they don't know what to do- but at that split second just heard something at the back the door. She's at that "Did I just hear something?" moment. It's fun. (And yes, she did.)
Here's the other person who is on alert. I really like this one. I had in my mind that she was speaking and the noise interrupted her. Both she and the other gal are looking past the camera so they hear something the reader has behind them.
She's got the perfect distracted "hey, wait a minute..." look on her face, so I think you nailed it.
LOL I love the way you showcased a product (Autumn Cottage) while you were sharing your news. Some habits are hard to break.
I've had eye issues and one thing I'm sure your doctor told you- REST IT. Even though you are past your six day mark, take it easy! We'd love to have you back, but we can wait for your recovery!
Forum did a timeout and resubmit form. Daz has been slow these past two weeks and I have had several timeouts on the forums, not the store.
Thanks! She's to (our) left of the gal on the stairs, so that's why the stair person is looking straight on and this one is having to look further to the side. What's at the back door was a real hoot to render. (No, NOT an owl.)
Sorry! I hope your vision heals quickly.
Nothing to do with Studio or 3D but thought it was interesting for someone with my imagination :)
@RGincy take it easy and don't stress your eyes. Your image reminds me just a bit how my eyes were for three weeks when I had that infection earlier this year.
@Novica, The older girl image is tells an excellent story of shock and worry.
@Fishtales, I worry for you but you have the same memory and imagination as my flatmate. Scary!
Bugsy survived his surgery yesterday. Initially was to be for dental cleaning, but bloodwork showed 'issues', so an ultrasound was ordered, then we took the opportunity to remove masses off of his back and leg. He came out of there with five teeth and seven masses removed. Stitches come out in two weeks.
While he was at the vet's my daughter-in-law texted me that her father who was in late stage Cancer passed on Sunday, two days after their family returned from the vacation he insisted them to go on. He was a wonderful man, in his 80s and my son loved him. They worked on so many house projects together and had a great relationship. I was trying to figure out how to get Bugsy and me back for the furneral, but trains and airplanes are out. After getting Bugsy's post-op instructions, driving is out too. But they are setting up streaming the funeral for all the out of state family. Apparently that has become all to common in the time of Covid.
Yesterday was stressful. We ended the day with a great thunder & lightning storm, that had us shutting down all the computers.
Hope everyone's weekends are peaceful and safe and creative. Love your families and share your joys.
Mary
@fishtales It's all your fault. I'll leave the middle bottom part to someon else. Now I can't unsee that Wookie LOL.
One of my friends lost the sight on one of his eyes when he was a teen. It was quite impressing to see how he managed to get by later in life - got a drivers license for big trucks, worked for an electrictiy company out in the field working with overhead power lines (you really got to be careful there), started his own company with hand grinding and polishing crystals and stones and working with many other things that require good eye sight. If you didn't know you couldn't tell he only could see with one eye, I hardly ever thought about it.
@Novica Why did you share these, now I can barely wait for your books to be out. That will be wonderful to look at.
Awwww. Well, maybe it will get others to start on books instead of just rendering for the forums?
The talent in the forums could be shared worldwide. I'd love to see what you folks come up with.
Someone asked me who that second girl was, it's Morgana and Growing up (I think it was 9-10 year old) and the African American gal is Xolile and Growing up. They both make an adorable child! Morgana has great eyebrows to use for a child or teen.
Be aware this product is in the 60 percent Egyptian section but you can get it for free with the code FREE4ME when you buy ANY new release. I just got this to qualify and the main dress is also new so saving that for another time when a new item is required. I've learned to put the NEW deeply discounted PC+ in the cart and then just wait for a new release requirement.
thanks @barbult I have that same fear
@Novica I definitely heed the doctor's advice. Vision is improving every day as details return but still a ways to go.
@nonesuch00 thank you!
@memcneil70 we both know the feeling now
@Taoz My son-in-law has a sister with only one working eye. For years we didn't know it until it came out one day she had eye cancer when younger. Even knowing I really can't tell she has no sight in that eye.
@memcneil70 Somehow missed your Bugsy post. Poor baby! Is he feeling better and healing as the days pass?
I published a pinup art book directly through Amazon’s on demand service and it looked fantastic! Very high quality. And buying copies for myself was only around $5.00 each and I resold them at conventions for $25 signed. Amazon keeps changing the price on it for some reason and other retailers are trying to sell it sometimes for exorbitant amounts. Retailers can buy the book cheap too and you make less money from them.. The best way to make money is to buy your own copies and sell them in person directly to customers or some local bookstores if you bring it in person will buy a few copies at a discount and I signed them so they can bump up the price up to whatever they want.