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If I might make a suggestion ... I think the composition of Remember When is a bit heavy to the left. It looks off-balance to me. While the focal point of the image -- their kiss -- is more or less in the center, the bulk of the "weight" of the image is the man, and he's severely creating negative space to the right. IMO it ends up pulling the eyes (of the reader) away from where it should be. The imbalance of the composition is further intensified because the other elements are perfectly centered.
To be daring, I think I'd experiment by pushing the image further left, and move the author's name so it's more vertically aligned to the right. (Or reverse, and put the title there, and the author's name on the top.)
Also, while I get the ornamental treatment top and bottom (and I like the juxtaposition of the delicate Art Nouveau filigree with the steampunk gear tattoo), I wonder if the ornaments aren't wasting space. Is this part of a series that you might do a sales burst or crest of the series name there instead?
Finally, I'm sure it's just the coif, but she looks like she has an alien brain in there! Is she Not of This Earth?
Anyway, on the GenX2 product: the manual is a bit hard to get through, as I suspect English isn't the native tongue of the developer. But it's a terrific utility I could not do without. Saved me maybe $500 in not having to buy new morphs and non-dial characters for either G1F or G2F figures. I had a ton of stuff collected for V4.
I think you've got a good point. In fact, I liked him better on the right which is how the initial design of the piece which, as you can see, was better balanced. That's what happens when I cram a good idea into an itty bitty space and then add words.
Disappointing isn't it.
They are kinda a waste of space and I was playing with the idea of making them smaller to give a little more room on the upper portion of the picture and move the text away from the figures a bit as I think that's adding to the crowding on the left. Her hand that close to the type is honestly driving me crazy. I think if the whole central image was down about an inch the heaviness on the left wouldn't be so noticeable. The top feels super cramped to me.
I KNOW! Is that hair outrageous or what?
Well that's what I thought it was supposed to do, but I could never get the hang of it. I would LOVE to get my V4 and M4 facial morphs particularly over to the G1 and G2 platform since I already use the utility that moved all the skins and THAT worked like a charm.
Very nice pose, Manne. I love couple renders like this and you did it very well.
_manne_ The tattoo is anachronistic, which adds interest to the image. Is it an error, or intentional? Time travel? Alternate reality? I would flip the book to read the back. I do not like the back tattoo, though – it’s blurry and, at first, I thought those were his fingers reaching around her back. Speaking of which, in this type of embrace I would expect to see one of his hands.
I’m very impressed with the folds in his shirt sleeve. Did you list the model above, or was this in post work? Either way, nice detail. The background is okay, although I cannot help but think it would be a stronger image if you removed that patch of lighter color that starts around her chin. It’s not a bad distraction, but anything between the two faces diminishes the space between them and weakens the composition just a little bit.
My one real problem is in the title design. The top and bottom border elements are nice and help evoke a sense of period – kinda art deco-ish. But, they cut a nice straight line and then you place curved text next to it. They don’t clash, but they are not working together. I would suggest editing the top element so it has a nice curved white line that follows the curve of the text (I like the curved text better than I would like straight text (it does a nice job of framing their embrace). A curved white line would add interest to the cover that is currently missing.
Also, I’m not opposed to the blue top and bottom backgrounds behind the art deco elements, but have you considered a gold color? I can’t help but wonder how that would look.
EXCELLENT work all around. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Not to disagree with tobor, but I definitely prefer him on the left, coming over the spine. The "weight" he's referring to could be adusted by lightening the background behind her (and I agree, her head is a bit "alien" in the back). As for the top/bottom decorative elements, I'm pretty sure they're there to take up space because the image is too short. I actually like them and think they add interest to the cover. BUT -- maybe you could find a gear element, instead, to play up the Steampunk aspects? There's a nice (free) on here that you could cut in half: http://retrovectors.com/victorian/gothic-steampunk-ornaments/
Actually I suggested moving him further left, not flipping (eye gaze going toward the right), and then placing either the title or author name off-centered in the space that's created on the right. The balance can come from the elements, not just the central image. Because everything else in the original image is centered, the odd weighting of the main art is more obvious. Her bubble head isn't a key point, I wouldn't think, so it's okay to partially cover it up with text. Anyway, it's something to play with.
The main problem with the decorative elments top and bottom is that because they compete with the text, all the more so because they are delicate, and are the same color as the text. So instead of adding to the motif or implied story points, IMO they become a distraction.
Tobor: I should have read your comments more closely. Moving them a it does make more sense.
I generally agree with what you said. When you consider all of the elements at hand, it is a bit too centered. As for the decorative elements -- I do think they actually do a good job of making the horizontal image fit well into the vertical space, but (again), you are correct: they are a little distracting. I do think, though, that one at the top would be okay, and if it were changed to gears or something more steampunk, it might actually add to the illustration, rather than detract.
Thanks everyone for the well-wishes and support regarding my dad. My mom's a retired RN so I'm not in unfamiliar territory here. So far no change. We'll see how it goes.
Oh goodness another thing we have in common - I've done my share of archery too. The most fun thing was being a combat archer in the SCA. We cut the tip off the arrows and reinforce the wooden arrow shaft with the packing tape that has fiber in it so if the shaft breaks it doesn't shatter. After we cut off the tip we'd cover it with heavy rubber "thistle-missles". Think of it as a bird-blunt on steriods. It had to be a certain diameter so as not to go through the bars on the helms - which also have to meet regulation. Bows are recurve only can cant go over a 30lbs pull. That's just for combat. With everyone running around in leather, chainmail and plate armor, sometimes they don't even feel the hit. We also had target archery competitions and of course the arrows were "real" for that. Although I always had fun teasing my friend, the competition didn't separate recurve and crossbow. My friend would always sit down to shoot, especially if we were in a runoff between me and him. When he did that I'd give him a band time but because he could, he most often won - but I'd give him a run for his money with my recurve. lol!
In the image just getting her to hold the bow correctly was a huge challenge - forget the arrow. lol! Her left arm is bent a little too much but hey, it was the best I could do. ;)
I have the Optix Prime checked but thanks for the suggestion about the anti-virus. I didn't realize it was reading the render as it wrote to disk. I put DAZ on the exempt list and saw a huge improvement in the 4.9 public beta render. I saw they've done lots of stuff with 4.9 to ease up the cpu load. Now for a new problem - in 4.9 it gets to 100 percent and hangs. The renderbox never goes away and the video card driver stops responding. When I click cancel, the entire program locks up and I have to open the task manager to kill it and that of course kills the program and the render screen too. I tried going back to 4.8 to render and after an hour it was at 50% so I killed that and got a partial render.
Since I'm submitting Spirit of Dragons to the contest, I really need a new cover for it, so I'm working on that as well. This is Lathan. Now, before y'all laugh because he's not wearing a shirt, being romance has nothing to do with it. I'm using the Atlas character for M4 and I couldn't get anything to fit properly. Even the pants, which are ridiculously huge, had some serious poke through that I could only fix in Photoshop, not in DAZ. On the other hand, I was ecstatic that I got the Kourus Hair to look halfway decent. Getting the pose right was rough too.
This is just an idea I had, I still have to make the cover "romantic" so this might be in addition to the couple. I need to work on the heroine and Aro - the dragon.
Here's the Haunted Heart cover, I did this before I started working in DAZ but I think it will work as is. What do y'all think?
FIRST! Hi hun! How ya doing?
Actually, I'm with ya on the Asian thing. Tabor and others have chimed in and bring up excellent points, but I wanted to say that the tat brought to mind steampunk - I was thinking Asian - make the tat an Asian dragon and it works for me. My mind would automatically jump to "Girl With A Dragon Tattoo." It's a proven fact bring to the reader's mind a block buster like that it's a very good thing. So there's that to think about too. ;)
Woops - gotta run. I'll hopefully get to respond to more in a few.
I've never done competition. I just grew up with hunters that used both bows and rifles. I learned how to use both at an early age. I love shooting sports and one of my most prized possessions is my dad's flintlock musket rifle. He built it from a kit about thirty years ago and I was the one who got it after he passed away. When my sons became involved Scouts, I went and got certified so that I could teach the shooting sports which included slingshots, BB guns and recurve bows for the cub scouts (the 7 to 11 year olds) and then slingshots and recurve bows for the Boy Scouts ( the over 11 crowd). I had intended to take the course to become certified to teach rifle and shotgun to the older boys, but I could never seem to manage to be free when the NRA classes were happening as the BSA only uses NRA certified instructors for the rifles and shotguns. I had to look up the SCA as I had never heard of it before. It sounds like fun. I kind of do things like that locally. A group of us get together each year and put on spinning demonstrations at the fairgrounds in their historical village. It is a lot of fun and people are usually amazed at our spinning efforts. We give them a little bit of the making of yarn and thread history while we are at it. Some of us dress up in period costumes. It is a lot of fun.
I really like what you did with that hair. Where did you find the hair? I like the Haunted Heart cover. I actually remember seeing it on Amazon when I was getting Mist Warrior. So, was that all done in Photoshop? You certainly have some mad skills!!!
Kathryn, why don't you try hiding the hair in your render and see what your results are. Most of SAV hair increases render times astronimically. There's some setting you can turn on where it won't cast shadows that really helps too. I usually don't turn the hair on until I've the the render pretty well at a save state.
Oh it's completely intentional. I really liked the thought of a Noir/Steampunk mashup. I loved the juxtaposition of it.
Shirt is eldritch-seeker by Luthbel, he always does GREAT work on his clothing. None of the wrinkles were done post work, it's just that hi-def.
Thinking, thinking, thinking about the rest.
Hi everyone, just popping in briefly. I had a bit of a sewing machine emergency so I've been busy the last few days. I had to get a new machine so I have lots to learn as my old machine was 20 years old and a lot has changed since I bought my old one. Of course, it figures my old one would bite the dust while I was in the middle of a project.
Mmitchell_houston, I did see the comment you left on my latest render and left a comment back. I didn't start it with the intention of doing a cover, but he kind of morphed and, now, I'm seriously thinking of what I can do to turn it into cover. I'm actually happy with how the render turned out considering it was begun as just a skin test. I'll play with the lighting a little more and post to find out what you guys all think.
The results are in for last month's newbie contest. I don't know how, but I managed to get second place so I'm doing a happy dance.
Don't you just love that shirt. I agree, Luthbel does do GREAT work. That is the best outfit that I think I have purchased to date.
Congrats girl! Whoo hoo!!!!
Congrats on winning second place!
Nice work! I look forward to seeing your post.
Okay so talk about frustrating. I work like crazy on Heart's Ransom and Heart's War covers, I was also formatting Heart's Ransom in Adobe InDesign to upload. It was all done and just waiting for the covers. Well, with all of the clean installs of Windows I had to do, I think it somehow fell through the cracks and the completed InDesign file I gone. That means I get to redo the entire thing. Great, just fantastic. Grrrrr!
Anyway, I'm going to try to enter this month's contest, so I'm working on Lathan for Spirit of Dragons. At least that InDesign file is done. Ultimately the print book will be entered in the Rita Contest along with Haunted Heart. In order to make it a romance, I'm going to try a couple of elements here, this image is for the newbie contest and will be a smaller image on the cover.
In order to make it more in line with the romance genre, this is going to be the main image.
Putting them together without the cover becoming cluttered is going to be a trick however.
The hero's name is Lathan Aro, but Aro is not his family name. It's the name of his dragon spirit. When they are children, the Kindred bond with a dragon spirit granting them great magic and the ability to transform into dragons. But the dragon is a separate and unique personality, so Lathan and Aro constantly "talk" to each other and of course get on each other's nerves. lol! But I'm thinking about putting a dragon behind Lathan in the first picture - make it appear magical and more like a phantom. Since Lathan is the subject of the image, I don't want the dragon to compete for attention. But we'll see how it goes. The main image is going to take a lot of work I used Jepe's shiney sheets and they're not cooperating.
So that's where I'm at now.
Cheers,
Kath
The first picture looks dynamic, I like it. The second, the background looks cluttered, and he (especially his head) looks way too big compared to her. Even if she's a small, delicate woman, their heads should roughly be the same size, as human heads don't differ so much.
Cool thanks Cherp! I did reduce the head size a bit but haven't re-rendered the pair. I'm still tweaking the first image.
I created a new texture for the pants and put laces on the boots. I really like how my dragon scale leather turned out as a texture (this is 100% my creation in photoshop so I can post this lol!) I made it small because I put a lot of work into it. I even have it set for Iray. But for some reason it renders really crappy.
As a texture the black looks like shadows on the figure in a full render - it looks like I drew black scales on him.
At least the laces on the boots came out okay.
I changed up his pose and the camera angle just slightly. Not sure which one I like.
Cheers,
Kath
Hi Kathryn,with regard to your texture, did you also create/apply the bump and displacement maps? What didn't work in the render? As I am looking at your figures below, the actual silhouette of the pants seems very smooth and silk-like. I was expecting a bit more texture to them(more like crocodile skin). Perhaps this is due to how evenly your light is reflecting off of them.
As far as the camera angle goes, I'm sure it's clear from my work I like heroic shots, however that aside, what are you trying for here with this shot? The second picture feels to me more like we (the viewer) is more in an attack position above the hero so there's more tension there. Is that the intent? The first picture is a bit more passive. Just a side note, your hero's foot is cut off in the second shot. Just some things to think about.
Definitely the second version, looks more alive, more dramatic.
kathrynloch The image is improving -- I liked the second one a little better because the lightning was more dynamic (although why is the white sphere showing hard edges -- perhaps you need to increase the smoothing or resolution?).
Moving on to other things, consider adding a belt in a lighter material, and lighten the boot leather more toward the tan. All the dark brown is becoming too monochromatic.
Secondly, the angle of the sword is not working for me at all. I realize it is more realistic to have it facing toward the person he is attacking, but we're almost entirely losing it due to foreshortening. Seriously consider turning his wrist so it is pointing up where we can see it.
Finally, tone done his thighs and pecs just a little. I know he's muscular, but he looks more musclebound than muscular.
Love the direction it's going! Keep up the good work.
Thanks Cherp and Mitch! Sorry I got a little side tracked with making a tutorial. I posted it in the newbie contest but I figure maybe some folks would like to check it out. We've talked about it before - how to customize textures for DAZ in Photoshop, but this time I did a full on vid and I made the brushes I used available for download as well.
https://youtu.be/dn7ShFkdJNs
Now maybe I can get back to work on my stuff! lol!
Cheers,
Kath
This might be a smidge off topic, but this is a cover for a book (or in this case, a magazine). This is a fun cover I did for a group called Collectors Club, and it focuses on comics, SF and stuff like that. This is a cover for an issue to be released next year, and features two new superheros I created for the cover: The Black Owl and Hooty The Adventure Kid. These are 1940s-style, "Golden Age" heroes, so I had a bit of fun with them.
Tech notes: This was made from layering different Iray and 3Delight renders to bring out various elements (the base render of the sewer opening, for example, was super bright and was just a red blur, so I rendered a much-darker version and just kept that part of the image so we could see some detail behind the grate). FIGURES INCLUDE: The boy is Genesis with "Growing Up" dials added for a teenaged body. The woman is V3 (yup, I went old school with her) and the zombie is G2 High-Def Zombie, Long Time Dead for G2 Male. Various guns and props were brought in from a variety of sources that I will identify when I post this to my gallery (which will probably not be until this actually sees print).
The cover itself is a wrap-around, so picture it folded right in the middle.
Very nice done! It has a modern 3D cartoon/comic look, without that tell-tale "plastic" appearance.
You can always tell a V3 figure. You didn't need to tell us!
One of these years I might try my hand at book covers. God knows I have read enough of them lol.
I do hope your dad is doing better!
I love the cover!! I love how you did it so the front and back are folded, but one large render. The colors are nice and bold. I'm still learning how to work with layers. But, I can see how it would be useful using layers with a cover like this. I can't imagine trying to have all of those elements look great in all one go. There is a new thread in the Art Studio for postwork that I have been following. I've learned tons just buy seeing everyones' before and after render examples. I, also, like your typography, too. ( I learned a new term in my book cover research and actually know what that is now.
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Love it! Great job capturing the golden age look and attitude. When I read your post, and right before clicking on the image to take a peek, my first thought was that "Hooty" was going to have blue and yellow spandex. lol! You've got the blue and yellow just not on the same character.
That's interesting you rendered in layers between 3Delight and Iray as I was just reading some posts about doing that. My question is do you have to change the lighting? For example if my scene is light with my HDR Mesh Lights for Iray, do I have to change everything to render in 3D light?
Hi Sonja! I hope you give it a shot, I bet you'd have fun doing them and you never know, you might just blow everyone out of the water.
If you work on covers for any length of time, you and Google Web Fonts are going to become very fast friends. Not very long ago if you wanted to put any sort of professional photo on a cover, you'd have to pay someone a huge chunk of change plus royalties. Then we finally got to the royalty free stock so us indies can compete against major coporations. Unfortunately, font is similar but hasn't quite caught up to the royalty free pricing model - almost but not yet.
I also format all of my novels for both ebook and print, and on top of the cover issue I have another one. Unfortunately fonts have to be specially licensed to be used in ebooks as well. Right now most fonts if you want to purchase them to be used in ebooks are $400 to $800 and that's for ONE ebook! Fortunately, any fonts that come preloaded on your computer when you purchase it, and that come with any special software that you buy, are free and clear when it comes to ebook and cover use. As a member of Adobe Creative Cloud, I also get a membership to Typekit and certain fonts there can be used in ebook and on covers. But other than that, you have to look at either freebies at places like dafont.com - you have to read the license - most freebies are only for personal use, but there are several that a free for any purpose - I download those whenever I find them even if I don't have a use for them at the moment, I most likely will in the future.
All that's left after that is public domain. Google web fonts are public domain and while made for website use, you can also download them for use in ebook and on covers.
I guess people have been pretty flippant about restricted font usage because I've heard that some of the larger founderies are cracking down and taking offenders to court.
So double check those fonts everyone!
Cheers,
Kath
I did not know all of this about fonts. What about font packages that have like 5000 fonts for one low price? Any experience with these? It says there is a commercial lisense. Can I not use these for ebooks? Also, if I were to publish my book through Createspace or Scribd or any of the other venues for self-published authors, don't they provide fonts? or have a list of fonts available for authors to use? are those fonts extra?
I admit, it has been awhile since I have actually bought a print book. I have been doing digital for the last few years and enjoy it. Most of my ebook purchases are through Amazon and I have to admit that one of the first things I do is change to the font I like the best on my Paperwhite if it isn't already selected. Until I started doing research, I just thought the fonts used were pretty much universal. I wouldn't have thought that there was much difference in fonts for most ebooks. The major difference I see as a reader might be the chapter heading, first letter of the first word in a chapter, etc. However, supposing I publish through something like Createspace which offers the sale of printed copies, it is something I will have to start thinking about in more detail.
It might be naive, but I kind of thought that I would just publish my first book through Createspace with their do-it-yourself option, but selling through KindleDirect only on Amazon, just to test the waters as it were, might also be an option. I know there are some breaks that Amazon gives authors who are willing to sell through them exclusively. At minimum, Createspace will end up costing me money if I opt for one of their packages instead of their free version. Until my manuscript is closer to being finished, I haven't made any definite plans one way or the other how I will proceed as a new author. My only thought at the moment is that I am pretty sure that I will try the self publishing route. The drawback to Createspace, as a first time author, is the upfront money that I would have to invest while not knowing if I would even be able to break even if I were to chose one of their packages. I already know that I will be willing to hire an editor to give my novel an edge with proper editing, but even with that, it is possible I won't even break even. Even with self publishing, risks for an unknown author is still relatively high. The draw to those free options is pretty big and I guess I need to decide if I believe in my manuscript enough to pay for both the editor and a custom package. At this point, I just don't know. I may know better once I actually finish my novel.
So, how do you publish as an Indie author? I know you sell on Amazon, but you aren't exclusive through them, are you? Do you use Createspace and, if yes, do you do everything yourself or do you use one of their packages? I know a little about the process you go through for your covers by reading this thread, but do you mind giving an insight into how you publish a new novel?
I know there is still a lot I need to learn once my manuscript is ready for publication. It seems, though, that every time I turn around, there is something else I need to consider before I publish.
The author of the book I illustrated last year, my friend, Shelly, showed a pic of the poster for Blood Moon at a Chicago store. This didn't start out 3D, it was drawn and painted in Corel Painter. I'm working on the second cover and doing elements in 3D that will be painted over.