You can do better

HansmarHansmar Posts: 2,750
edited June 2021 in Bryce Discussion

Do you also have old renders, hiding in your computer, that are OKísh, but you know you could have done much better? I certainly have. I came upon an old render and decided to redo it, not from scratch, but by modification, addition of elements, etc. The general view is similar, but I hope the new version is improved.

So, I thought, would it not be nice if all of us select some of our old works and try to improve them and show the progress here?

It is not a contest, but it is meant for inspiration and to show that practice makes .... well, maybe not perfect, but at least less imperfect.

These would be the rules:

  • you select an old render
  • you modify the scene without changing it completely
  • you can e.g. add elements, change camera viewpoint, textures, sky, lights, etc.
  • you describe why and what and how you improved in the scene
  • you show both old and new render in this thread; watchers should have no problem to agree that it is basically the same scene

I'll make a start here.

The scene is of Antonia, with clothing I made years ago with Marvelous designer (when it did not have the subscription approach yet), bending over in a garden.

I added lots of grass and flowers via instancing, changed textures on the clothing (removed lots of ambience), added a fawn and a crested tit as well as a copy of the original mountains. I also changed the terrain texture and the sky and I added a volumetric sky slab by David Brinnen. The document setting is changed and so is the camera position. There was already a distant light, that I modified a bit to fill up the shadows a bit.

Here are the old and new render. Tell me what you think and please show your own progress too.

Antonia picking flowers.jpg
768 x 512 - 265K
Antonia bending3.jpg
1754 x 875 - 2M
Post edited by Hansmar on
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Comments

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,069

    Hansmar - it is not difficult to see which one is the newer render. The first is a nice try, the second beautiful.

    Good idea, I have a few old renders I remade. I looked for inspiration what I could do, found a "so-oh-la-la" scene and redid it, often kept the original or part of it and modified. I keep this thread in mind and go looking what I have already to contribute.

     

  • mermaid010mermaid010 Posts: 4,955

    Hansmar - what a lovely idea. The new version is awesome.

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,069
    edited June 2021

    I found 25 renders I made twice. I'm not showing all of them at once. I like the idea and hope others will also jump on the wagon.
    0185hc Conjunction: made in Bryce 5 on Sep 2004. The curtains are terrains, the water as well. The planets are spheres and above each one a spot. Rendered with Gamma Correction on.

    Conjunction

    00962 Many Spaces (Conjunction II): made in Bryce 7.1 on Dec 2017. Same setup but the Bryce 5 file is not fully compatible. Materials were changed, one sphere got an atmosphere, some lights added and the spotlights have edge softness. There is no Gamma Correction. More flowers (Lisa), a galaxy in the sky. The Bryce sun could not be rendered visible as in the first version and was replaced by a radial with a glow.

    Conjunction II

    01a_p0185hc.jpg
    600 x 800 - 112K
    01b_p00962.jpg
    600 x 800 - 190K
    Post edited by Horo on
  • adbcadbc Posts: 3,076

    Hansmar : nice idea, the new version is very beautiful.

    Horo : difficult to choose, I think I like the one with the flowers most.

  • ed3Ded3D Posts: 1,949

    ~  interesting and Well done  _

  • mermaid010mermaid010 Posts: 4,955

    Horo - both versions are very nicely done, the newer version is much better with the addition of the flowers and galaxy.

  • drachenlordsdrachenlords Posts: 821

    What a cool idea. It's a shame that I hardly have any old files. @ Hansmar: The second version is of course much better. This difference is fantastic. @ Horo: Both versions have something, with the second of course looking more mature with more details.

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,069

    Thank you adbc, ed3D, mermaid and drachenlords.

  • HansmarHansmar Posts: 2,750

    Horo, They are both very good. I think the flowers and the galaxy are a good addition. In both, I am not convinced by the water from the pipe. I think you can do that better (I probably would not).

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,069

    Thank you Hansmar. There is almost always something that could be improved.

  • mdk1960mdk1960 Posts: 37
    edited June 2021

    Long time user of Bryce. Original member of Renderosity. The following image was posted there Dec.16, 1999. Adapted my workflow over the years to using 2D picture objects of .pngs of figures imported from Daz studio instead of importing 3d figures - saving on file sizes, rendering times and also avoiding import issues. Looking at the original pic, I was using a Bryce metal texture on the Poser 3 figure since it captured light pretty well, but I had no real idea of what I was doing. Used a Bryce stone texture on the stone head. Flat plain - so funny to see that now. That and the tiled texture I used on the column to the left - that was from a found texture source which itself is lost in the sands of time. In redoing the image I used a .STL downloaded from the Scan the World project for the main fallen stone statue, converted to .OBJ in Zbrush and w/the standard snowy mountain terrain material applied in Bryce. Four terrains are used w/modified Bryce materials and the floating moon w/aura is a 2d picture object, as is the figure of the woman. So that's the you-can-do-better re-do. This was such a good idea for a thread. This is my first forum post, being only a lurker. I have learned a lot from this discussion forum over time. Thanks for all you're doing here.

    DEEP-EGYPT-purple1-sm.png
    1650 x 881 - 2M
    3bf42d2851ffffc996cac4f914d9e78a_not-original.jpg
    768 x 512 - 304K
    Post edited by mdk1960 on
  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,069
    edited June 2021

    mdk1960 - welcome to this forum and thank you for participating in this thread. You certainly did a great job re-doing the old artwork - which is in itself already very well done.

    Post edited by Horo on
  • mdk1960mdk1960 Posts: 37

    Horo said:

    mdk1960 - welcome to this forum and thank you for participating in this thread. You certainly did a great job re-doing the old artwork - which is in itself already very well done.

    Ah, thank you, sir! Bryce is a godsend for creating artwork, so glad that there is a forum devoted to it!

  • HansmarHansmar Posts: 2,750

    mdk1960, welcome to the forum. Nice of you to rise to this challenge and show your progress. Very nice idea and great work, specifically on the second one with the terrains.

  • mdk1960mdk1960 Posts: 37

    Hansmar said:

    mdk1960, welcome to the forum. Nice of you to rise to this challenge and show your progress. Very nice idea and great work, specifically on the second one with the terrains.

    Ah, and thank you for the kind welcome, Hansmar!  I know I'll continue to find new ways to explore Bryce in this forum, I especially like how so many resources have been carefully collected and are easy to find!

  • mermaid010mermaid010 Posts: 4,955

    mdk1960 - welcome to the forum, two very nice examples and both are nicely done. Hoping to see more you your work.

  • adbcadbc Posts: 3,076

    mdk1960 : welcome to the forum. Both examples are awesome.

  • mermaid010mermaid010 Posts: 4,955
    edited June 2021

    Browsing my folders, I have more incomplete work than those I would like to improve on. Here’s one which I entered in a challenge, I think the Resolution one, which I think needs a bit of improvement. I only changed the sky and added a galaxy.  

     

     

    resolution1.jpg
    900 x 450 - 70K
    robby2-fantasy.jpg
    900 x 450 - 340K
    Post edited by mermaid010 on
  • adbcadbc Posts: 3,076

    mermaid : The new sky makes the details of the scene better visible. The galaxy is a nice addition.

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,069
    edited June 2021

    mermaid - very nice scene, the new one is definitely better. The windows in the buildings are better visible and there are shadows cast on the ground by the chaps and the sky fits the scene.

    0247wc Vault: made in Bryce 5 on Apr 2005. Walls and arches were drawn in Visio, converted to grey scale in Photoshop and imported in the TE, so the building consists of terrains. The armour was exported from 3D Game Studio, the lamps were made with spheres.

    Vault

    01236 Mad Passage: made in Bryce 7.1 on Sep 2019. The terrains were kept, the lamps became bulbs, the material was adjusted and three Daz figures added. In front of the camera the EWL (fisheye lens).

    Mad Passage

    02a_p0247wc.jpg
    800 x 600 - 104K
    02b_p01236.jpg
    800 x 520 - 120K
    Post edited by Horo on
  • mermaid010mermaid010 Posts: 4,955

    Thanks Adbc and Horo

    Horo - the 2019 version of the Vault is definitely fantastic, much more details and the EWL gives the scene a cool effect..

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,069

    Thank you mermaid.

  • adbcadbc Posts: 3,076

    Horo : I agree with mermaid, the 2019 version of the vault is outstanding.

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,069

    Thank you adbc.

  • HansmarHansmar Posts: 2,750

    Horo, both versions are very good, but the second one is even better than the first.

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,069

    Thank you Hansmar.

  • ed3Ded3D Posts: 1,949

    ~  pretty good _

  • HoroHoro Posts: 10,069

    Thanks ed3D.

  • ed3Ded3D Posts: 1,949

    Horo said:

    Thanks ed3D.

    ~  you're very welcome _

  • spuddyspuddy Posts: 449
    edited July 2021

    Lovely idea Hansmar and great re renders by everyone

    here is one from me 

    original

    update using things I've learned since

    changed the viewing point added building and derelict car added a background turned off the sun and lit with a coloured  radial light ....just to make a plain scene pop a little

    a dessert1.png
    1200 x 800 - 884K
    a dessert1newA.png
    1200 x 800 - 888K
    Post edited by spuddy on
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