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To answer your questions (and in case any one else will find the information useful):
While your image was very nicely done and looked to be headed in a good direction, sadly, we had to remove it as the baby needed to have some kind of covering around the lower part of the body (IE Diaper or something which we realize wouldn't fit the subject of the image)
To answer your question on the images you used from around the internet, if the source site allowed their use then how you acknowledged them would depend on the site's requirements, but if there was no explicit permission to use the images then adding an acknowlefgement would not be enough to make the use OK
We appreciate you taking the time to ask as we realize that starting out sometimes all the different "rules" can be confusing so asking questions is the best way to ensure there are no issues :)
Giovanni, I think you have a very beautiful image. From your comment you say that you wanted it to seem there were people around. I would suggest that you put a light or two in one or two of the buildings. That way the viewer will know they are around but inside. Just gives a visual reason for why the door of the truck is open and the lights on the other truck are on. There is no fault with what lighting you have developed for this image but if you are adventuresome I would suggest that you try some volume lights to add some mist or fog to your image. Doing such will diminish you goal of a painting but who knows you might find another style you would like to explore further. Another suggestion would be to add an animal, like a fox to the picture. We all know that an animal's presence is fleeting and by adding one in your image you can provide the viewer with a sense of a moment in time.
All of these ideas are just things for you to play with if you want. Looking forward to seeing what you do.
Linwelly, I hope you will find another idea to work on in here. I do want to say that it is not your shoulders on your lady scientist but her arm pits. In the image below, I have on the left is what you have and on the right is my poor attempt to show you what should be seen at this bend. It might be better if you just go into the bath room take your shirt off, put your arms in the position you have your scientist in and look at the area. There are products that fix that but since I don't know what figure you are using I can't point you to any particular product.
Just added the other sponsor for this month's contest. Go check out ThespiSis!
I hope its okay that I throw my 2 cents in. I enjoy the process of working together and I hope everyone feels encouraged by the feedback. Also everyone is very welcome and encouraged to comment on my work. I have taken Dollygirl's suggestions to heart and ought to be posting something here soon that shows the changes. (I am not happy yet with the progress... getting there... slowly! I appreciate the feedback about decreasing render time, I am down to about 45 mins per render. Whohooo!)
While I have been waiting for renders, I have been thinking not only about my own work, but about others. I compiled something for Kismet... wow what a difference he has made already! One thing I like to do in my creative process is stick my work in the middle of a blank photoshop file, and then search the internet for color, lighting, and composition references. I put before and after pics in the middle, and the references around my render... I am attaching an example of the process with Kismet's piece with some ideas drawn from the references that I feel might improve the image further. If the suggestions help, use them, if not leave it. I look forward to seeing what you do. I agree with the others....The changes in the grass in are amazing! It shows a huge growth curve. When someone shoots through the roof like that it makes me very excited to see where they will take the image next.
Thank you for the information DAZ_ann, I admit I'm a bit sad for my render but I can see the reason for those rules.
Thanks to Fiona, that ist some useful information for the area head lamp blocker, I guess this will help me.
@Dollygirl, yes I can see what you mean with the armpit. I fear that is because I used a Tshirt on her that ist meant for another figure.
Well all these will have to go back to the corner and wait while I try to come up with a different scene.
For those interested in the effects on the test tube I put the lilly instead and replaced the console screens with the original ones. This will not be a part of the WIPS anymore.
I created the test tube from a primitive cylinder, turned the opacity to 6.8% and the glossyness to 7.2% . the reflection strength is about 40% ( I guess that could be turned even higher).
But the main effect came from the refraction:
I turned the refraction strength to 99.6% and the Index of refraction to 0.12
It seems to be a tight balance between those two and one has to render each time to actually see the difference.
I guess an even more realistic result would be if I placed two cylinder into each other one representing the glass wall and one the liquid inside, each with it's own refraction.
Dollygirl, thanks for the wonderfully constructive input. I'll be back to work on this today, already have some ideas to explore your suggestions. You mention "volume lights," I'm unfamiliar with that, could you suggest a link that would educate me, I like the thought of being able to explore what you have suggested. Thanks for your input. :-)
Fiona, kudos to you for the time you took giving feedback to Kismet. Excellent!!! :cheese:
I do Google images to try and get lighting, poses, etc as realistic as possible but the idea of putting reference images together with the render is genius. I never would have thought to do this and will definitely use this technique in the future.
Kismet you have done a wonderful job on the grass. Can you share with us about your success, please?
Very much of an improvement. As Giovanni has mentioned you could lighten up your cowboy to add interest. My suggestion would be to put the cowboy and the horse more in shadow making them a silhouette instead. Both of these ideas could be good ones but they do demonstrate that as a certain point an image has pretty much all the most egregious issues in lighting and composition addressed and now it is time to just play and tweek until you get something you like.
Looking forward to seeing what you do.
My “success” involved a great deal of trial and error…and actually reading the ReadMe that came with the product. ;-)
I used Age of Armour’s Grass Shader for DAZ Studio with Dimension Theory’s presets. AoA always provides great documentation and tips with his products.
I kept trying to change the preset on the grass and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t changing. So I finally resorted to reading the ReadMe and when I still didn’t have any success I removed the existing environment, put it in again and reapplied the Grass Shader. It was at this point I realized I had applied the shader to 2 different areas of the set and I was making changes to the wrong one. :red:
Once I had that fixed it was just a matter of referring to the ReadMe provided by AoA, trying various presets provided by Dimension Theory and playing with the adjustments until I had something I liked. It took me most of a very frustrating day.
Thank goodness for the Spot Render tool.
Edited to add: I concentrate on 1 item first. IIRC Szark mentioned in one of his threads to change 1 setting and see what it does. If you change 2 or more settings at once you have no idea which setting caused what change, good or bad.
Fiona, what a marvelous idea. I am glad that you shared your technique with us. Thank you. I am also happy that some of my ideas were of help to you. Lights can be a bugger sometimes. Looking forward to seeing what you came up with.
I have changed my project, with the first one I started playing with the surfaces of the clothes and ended up ruining everything.
Still experementing with AoAs lights and his atmospheric camera and like how this is coming along.
You're more than welcome :) and wow you did a wonderful job of re-adapting the image to reflect the changes :) I really love the pink light under the flower in the bottom of the tank especially, it really adds something :) I can appreciate the time you spent rearranging and rethinking the concept. If it makes you feel any better, when I was new on the site (and some others) I've had to do this as well as I sorted out what is or isn't allowed etc. or later because someone asked me to do something and my vision wasn't what theirs was etc. Being able to adapt your work and change concepts etc is one of those things that happens (especially if people hire you to do xyz and then as they see things they change their mind) so the fact you did that so well and adapted so nicely is really wonderful :) It's tough to change pace or direction so I can appreciate the work that goes into that :)
That is actually something I do as well and it is a very handy tip! Thanks so much for sharing it! :)
Linwelly, I think that going ahead with this render might be a good idea, especially after what Ann said. It is so true. I am working with a musician that wants some art work for his new album. So I worked up some ideas for him, thought I had nailed it and got shot down on the inside cover artwork. I mean I have to go in a totally different direction. Boy was that a shock. It was a really cool piece too but that is life and if you can push through the sap on your creativity it is a great lesson to have had.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with playing with reflection, refraction and lights on your tube. Not sure you know this but the refraction function inside DAZ Studio is actually an equation used in the real world to measure the effect of light going through substances. Something handy to have is a table of refractive indices http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_refractive_indices. It is also good to know what will happen when you do change a parameter so if you are interested in the science behind the slider have a read here. :-)
On the t-shirt I do believe you would have to use d-formers. With the arm touching the body collision and smoothing probably just won't cut it. Do you want some pointers on how to go about getting the look you want?
Giovanni, You make a girl do her homework! So I have compiled some links to articles and videos that will further explain volume lights for you. But first what DAZ has is actually a shader that will take a default light and make it a volume light. This comes with DAZ Studio. There are other volume light options such as Age of Armour's set that uses a slightly different approach. There are also volume camera presets that you can buy that can do some of the different types of volume effects we see in our world. So first the free light option:
Free with DAZ Studio products:
Volumetric Lights
User's Guide
Daz3D 4.6 UberVolume Quick Setup Tutorial
Some fun effects and how they were made http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/13631/
Paid products:
Volumetric Lights
http://www.daz3d.com/advanced-spotlight
Read post #1 for a how to create a more complicated scene of mixed light types.
Thread talks about an issue with using this technique.
Using Volumetric Camera
http://www.ageofarmour.com/3d/tutorials/AoA_atmospheric_cameras_help.html
And you are most welcome. Looking forward to seeing what you have done.
My “success” involved a great deal of trial and error…and actually reading the ReadMe that came with the product. ;-)
I used Age of Armour’s Grass Shader for DAZ Studio with Dimension Theory’s presets. AoA always provides great documentation and tips with his products.
I kept trying to change the preset on the grass and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t changing. So I finally resorted to reading the ReadMe and when I still didn’t have any success I removed the existing environment, put it in again and reapplied the Grass Shader. It was at this point I realized I had applied the shader to 2 different areas of the set and I was making changes to the wrong one. :red:
Once I had that fixed it was just a matter of referring to the ReadMe provided by AoA, trying various presets provided by Dimension Theory and playing with the adjustments until I had something I liked. It took me most of a very frustrating day.
Thank goodness for the Spot Render tool.
Edited to add: I concentrate on 1 item first. IIRC Szark mentioned in one of his threads to change 1 setting and see what it does. If you change 2 or more settings at once you have no idea which setting caused what change, good or bad.
Thanks Kismet for providing us with the tale of your adventure. Yes our Szark is very wise. It is what people tell us of their solutions that help us figure out our problems. Sharing experiences is what makes us all better artists.
Oh to bad about your earlier render. It would have been a nice one.
So you have not said too much about your current render so these will be suggestions only. For your current render I think I would work on some ring lighting on the right side of your image to help separate the bull from the background. I would also work on getting some light reflected from the bull's eyes. Make him more alive. Would add some secularity and glossiness to his nose too. Cows have very wet noses you know. I raised steers as my 4-H project when I was a kid. To this day seeing a 90 pound girl dragging a 1200 pound steer around the barnyard makes me laugh. I so do believe in Ferdinand the Bull's story.
Yes I must admit that AoA's lights, cameras and shaders have really enhanced DAZ Studios assets. Excited about seeing where you will go with this render.
Linwelly, I think that going ahead with this render might be a good idea, especially after what Ann said. It is so true. I am working with a musician that wants some art work for his new album. So I worked up some ideas for him, thought I had nailed it and got shot down on the inside cover artwork. I mean I have to go in a totally different direction. Boy was that a shock. It was a really cool piece too but that is life and if you can push through the sap on your creativity it is a great lesson to have had.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with playing with reflection, refraction and lights on your tube. Not sure you know this but the refraction function inside DAZ Studio is actually an equation used in the real world to measure the effect of light going through substances. Something handy to have is a table of refractive indices http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_refractive_indices. It is also good to know what will happen when you do change a parameter so if you are interested in the science behind the slider have a read here. :-)
On the t-shirt I do believe you would have to use d-formers. With the arm touching the body collision and smoothing probably just won't cut it. Do you want some pointers on how to go about getting the look you want?
Hm, with all those positive replies I really might do some more work with that render, thank you all for the heads up.
Fun fact, I had been looking at the wiki site with the refraction indices to find out what might be useful.
And knowing a first thing about d-formers would come very handy. I tried on some occasions to use a d-former but never saw something change
Hm, with all those positive replies I really might do some more work with that render, thank you all for the heads up.
Fun fact, I had been looking at the wiki site with the refraction indices to find out what might be useful.
And knowing a first thing about d-formers would come very handy. I tried on some occasions to use a d-former but never saw something change
Your wish is my command.
This first video is for DAZ Studio 4 the first 8 minutes deal specifically with the d-former tool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoGqfV8E7Co
I would watch this to get familiar with what the d-former tool currently looks like. This second video demonstrates the tool using Studio 3. The functionality of the tool did not change from 3 to 4 but names and locations on the tool bar did. Hope this helps you see some results.
I can't help but comment that you appear to be composing to an overlay. Do not be afraid to bend the rules now, changing pose and body expression to suit the story even if they stray out of the grid a bit. No one has ever been executed for breaking a "golden rule" of composition.
Oh to bad about your earlier render. It would have been a nice one.
So you have not said too much about your current render so these will be suggestions only. For your current render I think I would work on some ring lighting on the right side of your image to help separate the bull from the background. I would also work on getting some light reflected from the bull's eyes. Make him more alive. Would add some secularity and glossiness to his nose too. Cows have very wet noses you know. I raised steers as my 4-H project when I was a kid. To this day seeing a 90 pound girl dragging a 1200 pound steer around the barnyard makes me laugh. I so do believe in Ferdinand the Bull's story.
Yes I must admit that AoA's lights, cameras and shaders have really enhanced DAZ Studios assets. Excited about seeing where you will go with this render.
Thank you for the tips Dollygirl, I did think about the nose looking wet but the whole body is one material map (if thats what you call them). I am also thinking of adding some bones and a character as in an Ancient Greek Labyrinth.
Greetings all!
Still a WIP, but with some of Dollygirl's suggested enhancements added. I am studying the info on "volumetric lighting" and will see if I can add this to the image in someway that improves the overall mood. A teacher much of my life, it's nice to be a student for a change. Thanks once again Dollygirl! :-)
I have included two images, one is a cropped outtake to better show detail where changes have taken place. Looking forward to your feedback. :cheese:
work in progress 4 point lights, 2 distant (one specular), uberenvironment2, 1 spot.
This is a Teir'Dal, from Everquest. Not drow so no tats.
Hi everyone,
while I'm not totally new to daz3D anymore, this is my first entry to a contest, so please be nice :D
I am rendering in Octane, so I didn't use any of the lightning presets from daz studio. Effectively the idea behind the two images was less about choosing the right lightning but more about how it can be affected and changed by certain materials and shapes. So what I did was putting 4 spheres within each other with the intention of later adding appropriate opacity maps and materials to let them do most of the magic. There was a lot of experimentation involved but in the end I got to the point where I was satisfied with the results, both aesthetically and regarding their suitability for the contest. The first picture shows the spheres from a far distance, while the second render is taken from the inside of the innermost sphere. It may be worthy to mention that the only post-processing I did was adding a background layer with a simple color transition and my insignias.
I consider both images finalized (which doesn't mean I don't appreciate criticism or other feedback) and mainly post them here first since I wasn't sure if the second image contained too much nudity. (before I post them in the official thread I will also convert them into jpgs)
Best regards,
Eomolch
edit: removed the picture of the dancer until it's 100% within TOS terms
edot2: image up again
Thank you for the tips Dollygirl, I did think about the nose looking wet but the whole body is one material map (if thats what you call them). I am also thinking of adding some bones and a character as in an Ancient Greek Labyrinth.
Well that is a bummer. Cool idea.
Your welcome Giovanni. So don't know if you know of this site but Lynn has many different free animal species. Some require ownership of a paid animal but some are stand alone. She has such a wonderful sense of what critters should be. They are older models so some of their textures need some work, eg bump, spec and displacement. This is true especially for Studio, she is a Poser lady.
Love the additons! So are you an art teacher?
I like your use of light to separate the subject from the background Teofa. Are you doing a night scene or a day scene? I think that I would see about getting a reflection from the metals in the image like the nice one you have on the arm cuff.
A very nice start. Looking forward to seeing what you do.
Ok, I spent some thought and work on this scene, reworked the screens with some own renders to show the science of the flower.
I fixed the shirt of the scientist, well i think it's better but not perfect. I tried to work with the d-former but that was not as successfull as I wished, guess it takes some more time to really figure out how.
I'm still wondering what to make of the tube hanging around in that container. It feels right that there is something besides the flower, but for the moment it has no use..
I like your use of light to separate the subject from the background Teofa. Are you doing a night scene or a day scene? I think that I would see about getting a reflection from the metals in the image like the nice one you have on the arm cuff.
A very nice start. Looking forward to seeing what you do.
Late dusk is what I am aiming for. Yes the whole plan was to have the Katana reflect, but as usual I can't bend that dragon tutorial gear to my will. I think I'll just replace it, even with a specular dedicated to it all I am getting is high ambient..
Well, I ended up cranking one of my specular point lights up to ludicrous level and finally got something back from the Katana, and then I had to go reduce specular reflection on every other item in the scene.
Before I forget @ Aaron you can select and make your own material zones. I was raised on a ranch, wet sheen on a cows nose is pretty much the norm and really noticeable on dark cattle.
Lovely renders Eomolch. Octane is on my wish list. Would be interesting to see how Studio would work with the same set up. Really like the shadow play on the dancer and the idea of spheres within spheres is inspiring.
As for critique. I would wish for a square mat on the spheres image. This is not because what you have is not acceptable but I see having a set with two square framed sphere images on either side of a framed dancer image. Not quite a triptych but something like that. Sure would look cool on a wall.