April 2015 New User Contest - Free Render Month (WIP Thread)

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  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    edited December 1969

    Okay... here's a fast Iray render, probably about 10% converged.

    I added an actual Iray photometric light source (beyond the Iray Emissives, which are the Lightsabers). This disabled the default lighting.

    I can see that the Lightsabers (with the Iray Emissive shader on the blades) actually are casting light into the scene. The Sith Warrior stands out a bit better against the background.

    The mood is better without the default light, although the lighting sucks. There's an odd shadow, cast against the background fog, which is coming off of the Sith Warrior via photometric light source (I think).

    The guy in the bottom right with the Sith Holocron needs better lighting. I wanted to stick a spotlight on the Holocron, but whatever I did, I didn't do it well. I think I'll drop a spot directly from above, onto the exact center of the Holocron.

    I still want to tweak both Jedi for a variety of reasons.

    One question I have is about your female Jedi. Is she supposed to look surprised? I can understand how the student would be totally oblivious as he is concentrating on his training and it is taking his full focus.

    Your Jedi was prepared enough to have her lightsaber lit. Or is she yelling a warning at her student?

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    edited December 1969

    I'm fairly new to the 3D-world, so this is my first render, intended for a book cover, "Dragontalk". Still without background. The lighting is fiery genesis preset.

    Of course the format is landscape, which is wrong for a book cover, but I didn't find a way to get another format (portrait) for the render picture so far.

    I like the interaction you have going between the figure and the dragon.

    The option to change the format is under the Render Settings. Unfortunately I am not at my rendering computer or I would provide a screen shot. I will check back when I get home from work tonight to give you the exact path needed.

  • The Blurst of TimesThe Blurst of Times Posts: 2,410
    edited December 1969

    Here's mine I started. In last month's contest it was mentioned that my background was too busy and it seems I do that a lot. Something about wanting to fill up the space with something interesting.
    Anyways, I've made the scene much simpler this time and I've yet to add effects (engine flames, gun bursts, motion blur, etc.) and proper lighting (right now it's using Ambush Alley's default light set)

    Anyways, here is my WIP!

    The Chase.

    I'm reminded of the warhammer 40k meme of the crazy guy in the tank commander seat, waving a sword around (because swords make everything better). Swords make so much more sense on motorcycle instead of a tank. The classic thing for motorcycles would be heavy chains, but cavalry swords work.

    So, lighting aside, the composition shows off the bikes well. It doesn't get at the faces well. With the lead rider looking back, I can think of another camera that might show off both faces well... but there's a ton of other dependencies there, including your intent. So this is just my opinion (from the awesome and accurate cell phone viewing, no less)

    Of course, backgrounds also drive all of us to make certain choices with the camera, so I don't know what is most feasible.

  • The Blurst of TimesThe Blurst of Times Posts: 2,410
    edited December 1969

    One question I have is about your female Jedi. Is she supposed to look surprised? I can understand how the student would be totally oblivious as he is concentrating on his training and it is taking his full focus.

    Your Jedi was prepared enough to have her lightsaber lit. Or is she yelling a warning at her student?

    Yeah, it was a mix of surprise and shouting a warning to the student (and, yes,I intended the female Jedi to be the competent one, and the male to be the fool. In my setup, the male is tagged "dumb guy"). I didn't like the non-emotive Jedi in the prequels (Anakin was just too emo, though)

    I had her saber lit because I wanted an eye catcher on that side of the image & to make it clear that she's Jedi. The intent is to have a light on the (currently non reflective) Sith holocron, the blue light saber framing the bottom left, and the Sith up top.

    I will swap things to see if it looks better with tomb robbers rather than Jedi explores, though.

    To sum up, I'm not totally sold on the bottom half of that composition either. There are options.

  • kaotkblisskaotkbliss Posts: 2,914
    edited December 1969

    I'm reminded of the warhammer 40k meme of the crazy guy in the tank commander seat, waving a sword around (because swords make everything better). Swords make so much more sense on motorcycle instead of a tank. The classic thing for motorcycles would be heavy chains, but cavalry swords work.

    So, lighting aside, the composition shows off the bikes well. It doesn't get at the faces well. With the lead rider looking back, I can think of another camera that might show off both faces well... but there's a ton of other dependencies there, including your intent. So this is just my opinion (from the awesome and accurate cell phone viewing, no less)

    Of course, backgrounds also drive all of us to make certain choices with the camera, so I don't know what is most feasible.

    I miss my old games of warhammer, maybe someday I'll be able to pull out and dust off my miniatures again.

    I'll have to take a look at a camera angle from the front, but I'm afraid that the lead vehicle would hide the chasing bike and rider.
    Also, the chaser's helmet is nearly completely enclosed so getting any kind of angle to see the face is near impossible. (although I might be able to have her looking backwards too, perhaps at an object the lead character threw?)

  • DollyGirlDollyGirl Posts: 2,656
    edited December 1969

    I wanted to poke my head in to say hi... and a special hello to the new folks. Glad you could join us and I hope you are having fun so far. :-)

    snip....
    I hope everyone who celebrated one of the holidays over the last few days enjoyed their time with family and friends, and for those who didnt celebrate, that you had a great week just because. :-)

    I wish you good journey on this day. May the docs be guided by the wisest and the best. May good fortune shadow you and serve you well when you need it. Good luck my dear.

  • h_habashh_habash Posts: 230
    edited December 1969

    Linwelly said:
    h_habash said:
    Here is my first render scene, and it's also my first post to the forum. After a quick thinking to what I can participate in to this contest, I've brought this scene to implement my techniques I've been learning for the last 4 months in DAZ Studio. I hope you'll like it, I'll be glade to receive any opinion to my posting. The name of the render is " Barn with Horses" and I have used DAZ Studio 4.7 to create the scene, and DAZ Studio 4.8 for rendering.

    ---------------{ UPDATED }----------------

    I've managed to update the scene according to the comments and suggestions received for the first render, I hope this time I've done it properly. :coolhmm:

    h_habash, a small note on the readability of this threat; it would be easier if you not update in your original post, usually people come to the end of the thread to look around what is new. so just post anew when you have new renders to share. It will be a good thing for you and everone else as well to look at the development your your image makes through the month.

    Now for your new render, those are very good improvements. The background is very fitting, the positioning of the horses and the boy looks very nice like this and the horses look like they have fur and the figures have much better interaction with each other.

    For the next step maybe you look at you lights. I can see some shadows on the boy but neither he nor the the horses or the barn have shadows on the ground. If you add more light and allow shadows for your main light everything will gain more substance. and the attention of the onlooker will be drawn to the interesting places of your image.
    Then I would suggest as well to look at the bump of your floor. I guess that if you increase the bump the ground will look less blurry.
    One last minor aspect for your render to think about is the barnpost that hides the hindquarter of your Grey. Either think of making that invisible or pan your camera angle so that the overlap will be less troubling.

    Very nice work so far.

    HI every one, and thank you Linwelly for your note suggestions, I've updated the post because it was duplicated, if you review the posting, you'll see my first render at the top of the updated one, anyway it was not in intention and it didn't come to my mind to put the second render in a new one, sorry for that, I'm new to forums world so if I've made any error or mistake, please pardon me and accept my apologies in advance... :)

    When I created the scene "first and second", it took around 3 to 4 hours to complete the render, and sometimes it takes more time and I had to cancel the render and do some adjust/delete/hide some elements and adjust the render setting to minimize the time of the render, I'm not sure if it's my computer hanging or the options I'm using.

    Your suggestions is valuable to me and build my knowledge, I'll do my best to put your suggestions in place, wait for the 3rd render.

  • kaotkblisskaotkbliss Posts: 2,914
    edited December 1969

    Added some color (but still some adjustments to make, the lead driver's eyes are a little too bright I think and the ground by the bike looks wet and shiny)
    Also showing 2 different views and I'm thinking I like the view from the front a bit better so I may turn the lead's head forward looking towards the camera so you can see both faces.

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    The_Chase_-_Front.png
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  • DollyGirlDollyGirl Posts: 2,656
    edited December 1969

    Added some color (but still some adjustments to make, the lead driver's eyes are a little too bright I think and the ground by the bike looks wet and shiny)
    Also showing 2 different views and I'm thinking I like the view from the front a bit better so I may turn the lead's head forward looking towards the camera so you can see both faces.

    Getting better kaotkbliss. I too like the first image. I think I would add a bush or a couple of grass bunches just to break up the strong vertical lines you have created.
  • Shinji Ikari 9thShinji Ikari 9th Posts: 1,188
    edited December 1969

    3ch0_419 said:

    Thanks for your feedback Times, I tried to mess with the lighting some after reading your post but I think it still needs some work.

    Another thing. How did you do the muzzle flare? Is it casting light? That's probably a easy way to pump up the lumens in a believable way. In Iray, you throw an emissive shader on it. I forget the 3delight toggle. Ambient? Under the Surfaces tab. Or put a point light somewhere in that.

    The lack of light casting from the muzzle flare is maybe the oddest thing, looking at your image. That should give us a better view of the beastie in the wall.

    I think a lot of us strive for realistic light patterns, and not necessarily the art of lighting in a way that shows off our work, so our scenes don't pop as much as they should. When I have the spare $$$, I'll buy that digital lighting textbook because lighting is srs business.

    The flare is just a prop that isn't casting light (for now at least. I downloaded the iray plugin, but still need to learn it.) I switched up things
    with the hand we see of the character who's pov we're looking from as well as the lighting.

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  • kaotkblisskaotkbliss Posts: 2,914
    edited December 1969

    Made some posing mods, fixed some of the lighting, added a few bits and found out I can't do motion blur yet. It's not in Daz's Iray (yet)
    Changed the color of the Banshee Flyer so that the rider was not blending in so much.

    So for now I know I need to add some sort of background sky in.

    The_Chase_(rev_2).png
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  • DollyGirlDollyGirl Posts: 2,656
    edited December 1969

    Made some posing mods, fixed some of the lighting, added a few bits and found out I can't do motion blur yet. It's not in Daz's Iray (yet)
    Changed the color of the Banshee Flyer so that the rider was not blending in so much.

    So for now I know I need to add some sort of background sky in.

    Looking good kaotkbliss. I like the added greenery.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    edited December 1969

    Made some posing mods, fixed some of the lighting, added a few bits and found out I can't do motion blur yet. It's not in Daz's Iray (yet)
    Changed the color of the Banshee Flyer so that the rider was not blending in so much.

    So for now I know I need to add some sort of background sky in.

    Looking good kaotkbliss. I am looking forward to seeing it with a sky.

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,956
    edited December 1969

    next step for my swashbuckler.
    I gave a different outfit to the lady and a different skin texture, which i like (for the moment). Thanks for the link to that video dollygirl, I was to late for the cheap buy, but I got it on my list now.
    I tweaked the lights as well a little, which might have helped the skin some more.
    Have not yet gotten to that d-former business

    @ Blurst of times, na, I'm still to fresh with 4.7 to dare touch the Iray. I 'd rather have a better understanding of the things I'm using now.
    As for your other ideas, I aimed for a situation on the verge, so his left foot already is half off solid ground. Him planning to use that curtain for a way down. For the lady, my idea was that she is just about to draw that pistol, trying to get a clear shot within the next moments, once he's not half covered behind the column and curtain, Well, from your comment I guess that has not been clear enough in my render so I will think about how to further develop the story.

    swashbuckler2.jpg
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  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    edited December 1969

    Linwelly said:
    next step for my swashbuckler.
    I gave a different outfit to the lady and a different skin texture, which i like (for the moment). Thanks for the link to that video dollygirl, I was to late for the cheap buy, but I got it on my list now.
    I tweaked the lights as well a little, which might have helped the skin some more.
    Have not yet gotten to that d-former business

    @ Blurst of times, na, I'm still to fresh with 4.7 to dare touch the Iray. I 'd rather have a better understanding of the things I'm using now.
    As for your other ideas, I aimed for a situation on the verge, so his left foot already is half off solid ground. Him planning to use that curtain for a way down. For the lady, my idea was that she is just about to draw that pistol, trying to get a clear shot within the next moments, once he's not half covered behind the column and curtain, Well, from your comment I guess that has not been clear enough in my render so I will think about how to further develop the story.

    I read once in an Art Thread that an action pose is more dynamic when using either the beginning of the action or the end of the action.

    In the case of the pistol action it looks to be in the middle. She has already drawn it but hasn't yet aimed. Perhaps having it pointed a little more at the swashbuckler trying to escape or in tighter to her body like she is still in the process of drawing will achieve what you trying to convey.

    Something else I like to do is add another camera. If I like a certain camera's position and angle but want to try something different I add another camera. This way I can go between them as I am changing things and make a final determination closer to the end. One angle will usually appeal to you more than the other. Or you may choose to use both. I have done that too.

  • kaotkblisskaotkbliss Posts: 2,914
    edited December 1969

    This may be it (unless there's an update to Iray this month allowing me to add motion blur :) )
    Adjusted the lead driver's arm a little and added sky :)

    The_Chase_(rev_2).png
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  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    edited December 1969

    I'm fairly new to the 3D-world, so this is my first render, intended for a book cover, "Dragontalk". Still without background. The lighting is fiery genesis preset.

    Of course the format is landscape, which is wrong for a book cover, but I didn't find a way to get another format (portrait) for the render picture so far.

    I like the interaction you have going between the figure and the dragon.

    The option to change the format is under the Render Settings. Unfortunately I am not at my rendering computer or I would provide a screen shot. I will check back when I get home from work tonight to give you the exact path needed.

    To change the format click on Render Settings > Dimension Preset (Global) > ISO Paper - Portrait (1.1.4142)

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  • The Blurst of TimesThe Blurst of Times Posts: 2,410
    edited April 2015

    This may be it (unless there's an update to Iray this month allowing me to add motion blur :) )
    Adjusted the lead driver's arm a little and added sky :)

    Very well done. I could pick nits, but the work looks good. The lighting is very nice, especially with the surfaces you've used.

    It makes me wonder what happens next in the scene. I really think this is a more evocative way to image a chase. The rear view was proficient, but a little clinical for me.

    Post edited by The Blurst of Times on
  • kaotkblisskaotkbliss Posts: 2,914
    edited December 1969

    Very well done. I could pick nits, but the work looks good. The lighting is very nice, especially with the surfaces you've used.

    It makes me wonder what happens next in the scene. I really think this is a more evocative way to image a chase. The rear view was proficient, but a little clinical for me.

    Thank you :) and if you have nits to pick then by all means, pick away :)

  • The Blurst of TimesThe Blurst of Times Posts: 2,410
    edited December 1969


    Thank you :) and if you have nits to pick then by all means, pick away :)

    Ha!

    Ok, in the absence of motion blur, the space to the left of the lead bike in the image (I.e. The biker 's right) and the space to the right of the chase biker (the biker 's left) is kind of dead space. You've got room to show off the fine details on your figures a bit more, I think.

    If you could add motion blur, then the comments about my perception of dead space in your composition would not be at all the same. The space would be working to convey motion instead.

    I'd need a real monitor (not my cell phone) to really nit pick. ;-)

  • kaotkblisskaotkbliss Posts: 2,914
    edited December 1969

    You know, I had actually thought at one point to try and zoom in for a closer, clearer image of the riders. But then I completely forgot about that.

  • The Blurst of TimesThe Blurst of Times Posts: 2,410
    edited December 1969

    You know, I had actually thought at one point to try and zoom in for a closer, clearer image of the riders. But then I completely forgot about that.

    :-)

    Many ways to make use of the space. The way you framed the scene makes sense for motion blur, but since you can't use it without post, I thought I'd point out the space.

    You added a lot of nice details to the surfaces and lighting, so the empty space stuck out the most to me as an extra set of eyes.

  • One way to get the motion blur that you want would be to do 2 renders, one of the background, and one of the riders in the foreground with an empty background. Take the 2 renders into photoshop, motion blur the background, add the second render on top, and there ya go... motion blur on what you want it, without it on what you dont. I guess Iwas glad to learn that compositing multiple renders is perfectly acceptable! As is postwork.

    TY for all the encouragement all. Even when I cant be in front of the computer monitor, YES, thinking about what I am working on is a great escape. I will try to look at everyone elses images more carefully and come to some analysis, but this came to me as a simple fix.

    Post edited by Whitehart Creative Arts 3-D (fionathegood) on
  • edited December 1969

    Linwelly said:
    Here is my updated render using suggestions for more interaction. I also added a couple little things like the watch on the male's arm just for a little extra touch.

    I imagine Squach saying something like "No, seriously it was a ghost. I saw it myself" with the man's reply "I don't know about all that."

    This is an interesting scene with a nice natural light and environment. I think you could drive the story a bit further, I mean there is a guy sitting with some strange humanoid creature having a nice chat, the man obvioulsly isn' thinking this a weird situation but I guess you want the viewer of the scene to be thinking of the weirdness. Maybe you can let them share a few beers or a pizza, something like that.

    I think I would make a newspaper in photoshop with an article about sasquatch on the front page, and work it into the scene, perhaps on the front page, but the man is showing the sasquatch an article on something completely else in the middle of the newspaper,\, and completely oblivious to the headline. I agree though that it is an interessting fun idea that could be pushed a little further to tell the story. Coming along nicely though!

  • Shinji Ikari 9thShinji Ikari 9th Posts: 1,188
    edited December 1969

    I used the uberarea shader on the muzzle flare to have it help light up the alien(mutant?) emerging from the wall.

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  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    edited April 2015

    3ch0_419 said:
    I used the uberarea shader on the muzzle flare to have it help light up the alien(mutant?) emerging from the wall.

    That has made a huge difference. At least for me. I have had trouble "seeing" your alien in previous versions.

    Well done.

    You have a nice rim light going on the shooter from the light coming through the door. Perhaps another, really soft, low light to help light up his back and help him stand out from the background. Is there a hallway behind him? Light could be coming from there.

    Another soft rim light on the hand/arm of the guy who's perspective we are looking from would also help it stand out from the background.

    These are just suggestions. This is really looking good.

    Post edited by Kismet2012 on
  • kaotkblisskaotkbliss Posts: 2,914
    edited December 1969

    One way to get the motion blur that you want would be to do 2 renders, one of the background, and one of the riders in the foreground with an empty background. Take the 2 renders into photoshop, motion blur the background, add the second render on top, and there ya go... motion blur on what you want it, without it on what you dont. I guess Iwas glad to learn that compositing multiple renders is perfectly acceptable! As is postwork.

    TY for all the encouragement all. Even when I cant be in front of the computer monitor, YES, thinking about what I am working on is a great escape. I will try to look at everyone elses images more carefully and come to some analysis, but this came to me as a simple fix.

    I'm not good at all in photoshop, but that got me to thinking of doing 2 renders, 1 of the background in 3Delight with motion blur and 1 of the chase with Iray, but the problems I see with that is I wouldn't be able to put motion blur on the bike tires or machine guns (not that you can really see them at this angle) I dunno. I'll give it a try and see what it looks like

  • kaotkblisskaotkbliss Posts: 2,914
    edited December 1969

    I forgot, Iray and 3Delight don't use the same lighting so without setting up a whole new set of lights, the background (even though it would be blurred) wouldn't even come close to matching the characters :(

    So here's the zoomed in part at least.

    Pick nits!

    The_Chase_(rev_2).png
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  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    edited April 2015

    I forgot, Iray and 3Delight don't use the same lighting so without setting up a whole new set of lights, the background (even though it would be blurred) wouldn't even come close to matching the characters :(

    So here's the zoomed in part at least.

    Pick nits!

    Another alternative might be DOF but I am not sure you can keep both bikes and riders in focus while blurring the background. Might be worth experimenting with though.

    Looking good as is...Judges are going to have fun again this month trying to judge. :coolgrin:

    Post edited by Kismet2012 on
  • The Blurst of TimesThe Blurst of Times Posts: 2,410
    edited December 1969

    Here's a failure (about 5-6% converged test image, not a full Iray run). I just wanted to show how it's not all roses during the learning process for me :-)

    I tried bumping up the camera ISO to an interior-type setting (since the default is ISO 100?), and dialed down the lights & emitters. Obviously, the effect wasn't enough. I need to mess with the lights. I also need to switch the overhead photometric point light (why did I pick that? dunno) to a broad overhead photometric spot.

    I do like the focused, higher intensity spot on the Sith holocron. And it's reflecting again after I swapped out the entire prop object to clear out whatever I did to it in prior experiments. You can see some reflections starting to form on the guy's face. I think I'll add Emitter objects to the non-visible sides of the holocron so that I can throw more lumens towards both Jedi.

    I switched off the Jedi Master's lightsaber, but I also changed some of her clothing surfaces with Iray things to pick up the color/eye appeal that I lost when I turned off the lightsaber. I like the idea in concept, but I haven't made it work yet.

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