Will's ink style experiments

Oso3D

I have a webcomic, and I've been experimenting with postwork to make pages look inked. I don't care about 'fooling' people or rendering completely hand-drawn-looking stuff, just achieving a bigger stylistic impact.

A bunch of people think I'm nuts to try to do this with Iray rather than 3Delight, but I find Iray more intuitive. A light is a light, and does stuff you expect.

Anyhoo, here are some of my experiments so far making stuff.

Oso3D

3 more tests:
http://willbear.deviantart.com/art/Emily-on-Subway-536056178
http://willbear.deviantart.com/art/Cricket-and-pixie-536049243
http://willbear.deviantart.com/art/Cable-sweater-536048471

I really like the style for portraits. It's a little trickier for bigger scenes.
I'm also finding I need to try different things, depending on the scene. Sometimes I use certain filters, sometimes others. I wish I had a good 'despeckle' filter, though. Hrm.

Pendraia

Very cool effects...how are you achieving this in iray? is it the shaders you are using?

evilded777

Those are postworked... I assume its a PS or Gimp filter... but timmins really hasn't said yet (I don't think) where he's doing his postwork.

Pendraia

evilded777 said:

Those are postworked... I assume its a PS or Gimp filter... but timmins really hasn't said yet (I don't think) where he's doing his postwork.

Aah...I read the part about Iray in his OP and assumed it was done with shaders...still very interesting effects.

Oso3D

Thank you!

Yes, postwork in Paint.net.

Basically, two layers:
First layer Multiply, with Ink Sketch.
Second layer, take the image and 'flatten' luminosity with Curves.

The intent is to get most of the shading in the form of the ink layer, and then just color from the second layer.

I go back and forth a bit until I'm happy, and maybe adjust levels further. Sometimes I flatten color completely, other times I just 'pull' the bottom up (since the multiply tends to darken the image). Sometimes I use Ink reduced just to b&w, sometimes I preserve a little gray.

It depends on the image.

One upside is Iray render times are very short because I don't need NEARLY the same fine details as a regular render.

More experiments:

Oso3D

Rerendering something I worked on a few months. One nice thing about this post work is that I can have the accuracy and natural lighting of Iray, but the process 'hides' a lot of unrealistic stuff, too.

For example, the backdrop here is a flat surface. It's barely noticeable on the regular render, but with the ink, it's seamless. (Same with the ground lacking bump)

Pendraia

Very nice work...I have used filters and layers to achieve different results from time to time. Haven't done it in a while though.

Did have a play with the basic sketchcam recently which gave good results...that's why I thought it might be shaders you were using

Oso3D

Nice, yeah, I like the effect.

Oso3D

Experimenting with looks for 'not really humanoid robot.'

I like this look, but it looks maybe a bit too like an organic thing in a suit.

Oso3D

One thing I'm finding about this art style is that it changes my approach to renders. Yes, I'm using Iray, but I don't need to work on fine details as much.

I also prefer lighter scenes. I don't want really dark shadows, because those will tend to turn into big blobs. These are things I can correct with post work, but since the explicit point is to turn the render into ink, I can save myself effort if I approach it that way.

But I want enough contrast between foreground and background so that there is enough separation for the ink process to catch.

First image is a selfie postworked. Hee!

Second is finally a brand new render -- been taking the semi-easy route of using older images or scenes and working on them to practice. Half the time I don't even save the result, just experimenting to get the sense of what works and what doesn't.

Another thing I love is that I don't even need to convert shaders most of the time. The only shaders I changed in the second image was the glass on the windows and the water in the bucket. Everything else is actually original (3delight-oriented) shaders. Works well enough -- the key is to get good color, pattern, and lighting. The subtle interacts of materials just aren't going to impact the final image, so hey, skip it.

Oso3D

Pleased with my progress... here's my latest.

jerriecan

Really liking your work, especially the last. I'm getting somewhat similar results with my experiments. No Iray, just 3Delight - my computer is already overtaxed. :(

Oso3D

I'm actually reconsidering my 'Iray über alles!' stance.

There are a few upsides to using 3delight for this.

I may even render things in both, we'll see.

(And thank you!)

Oso3D

I'm continually amazed at the lack of documentation of Daz3d. Man.

After grousing a lot about lack of good outlining, I finally stumbled on the 'cartoon' and 'outline' render options in 3delight. Safely hidden from sight in the basement.

While it isn't perfect, it's also free, so there's that!

It's helping build a more solid line around figures, although not every image needs it.