May 2016 New User 3D Art Contest "Action & Props" - WIP

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Comments

  • Shinji Ikari 9thShinji Ikari 9th Posts: 1,188
    Holloko said:

    This is an early attempt. I know the background and lighting are raw. I literally just loaded them and rendered. I also realize the figures are not touching the ground properly. 

    What I would like feedback on at this point is the posing. I'm trying to convey a single person throwing a javelin through a series of images. I created (from left to right) the first, second, and last poses from scratch based on several photos and sketches of javelin throwers. The hand holding the javelin is posed based on an image of a hand holding a javelin. The other two body poses were created using puppeteer (which I am really loving at this point!). 

    Additionally, to convey motion, I would really like to be able to focus on certain muscle groups straining. I don't know how to do this in Daz, however. Is it even possible? If it is, I would appreciate it if someone could point me to a thread or tutorial.

    I am also trying to decide on the best camera angle for this sequence. What I have is very functional, but rather boring. I thought about more of a focused head-on shot, with the earlier motions out of focus in the background. I was also considering an angled shot from above with the first figure being in the upper left and the last figure in the lower right. Initial thoughts?

    Finally, I was also seeking feedback about props. Is the javelin enough? I am thinking about turning these guys into hoplites. Then I would be adding helmet (helms of history) and shield. I don't want to miss the boat on the prop requirement.

    Thanks!

     

    Not a bad start, though if you had each pose rendered by themselves it would be easier to give feedback on that part.

  • HollokoHolloko Posts: 75
    edited May 2016

    Here are the requested renders of each individual pose. I removed the toga and added rock shaders so it is easier to see the actual pose. There are also a couple different camera angles. I also attached some of the reference poses. I did not completely copy any one, but used multiple as references.

    I'd appreciate any tips, hints and feedback. Thanks!

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  • Shinji Ikari 9thShinji Ikari 9th Posts: 1,188
    Holloko said:

    Here are the requested renders of each individual pose. I removed the toga and added rock shaders so it is easier to see the actual pose. There are also a couple different camera angles. I also attached some of the reference poses. I did not completely copy any one, but used multiple as references.

    The flow of your poses looks to be realy smooth. Forgot to ask, what character you're using there might be morphs out there depending on who it is that could help with the muscles.

  • Shinji Ikari 9thShinji Ikari 9th Posts: 1,188
    isidorn said:

    version c up

    This looks really good! You might want to have them firing their weapons, to get the "action" part of this month's theme in.

    Version d up. The flashes are from the guns I used last month so I had to eyeball the placing.

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  • HollokoHolloko Posts: 75
    Holloko said:

    The flow of your poses looks to be realy smooth. Forgot to ask, what character you're using there might be morphs out there depending on who it is that could help with the muscles.

    The character is Taric for Gianni 6. I saw this product: http://www.daz3d.com/muscularity-morphs-for-genesis-2-bundle. Is that the only way to get control of individual muscles (for example, showing someone flex a bicep)? If so, it is going to be awhile before I am able to shell out that kind of money!

  • ewcarmanewcarman Posts: 180
    Holloko said:

    This is an early attempt. I know the background and lighting are raw. I literally just loaded them and rendered. I also realize the figures are not touching the ground properly. 

    What I would like feedback on at this point is the posing. I'm trying to convey a single person throwing a javelin through a series of images. I created (from left to right) the first, second, and last poses from scratch based on several photos and sketches of javelin throwers. The hand holding the javelin is posed based on an image of a hand holding a javelin. The other two body poses were created using puppeteer (which I am really loving at this point!). 

    Additionally, to convey motion, I would really like to be able to focus on certain muscle groups straining. I don't know how to do this in Daz, however. Is it even possible? If it is, I would appreciate it if someone could point me to a thread or tutorial.

    I am also trying to decide on the best camera angle for this sequence. What I have is very functional, but rather boring. I thought about more of a focused head-on shot, with the earlier motions out of focus in the background. I was also considering an angled shot from above with the first figure being in the upper left and the last figure in the lower right. Initial thoughts?

    Finally, I was also seeking feedback about props. Is the javelin enough? I am thinking about turning these guys into hoplites. Then I would be adding helmet (helms of history) and shield. I don't want to miss the boat on the prop requirement.

    Thanks!

     

    I just did something similar with a dancer. Like you, I loaded all three dancers at the same time and worked out their positioning and spacing. I had to render then separately and combine them in GIMP later, otherwise their lighting and shadows interfered with each other. Using the same camera made combining them much easier. 

    I would definitely spread them out a little more. When they are bunched up like that they will end up looking cluttered and hide a lot of detail (isolated muscle groups you mentioned). Maybe you can convey your meaning with fewer actors?

    About the camera - once you have it where you want it, use the "lock" on each of the parameters for the camera to freeze it into place. I don't know how many times I have forgotten I was viewing through the camera and moved my view around only to screw up the camera position I worked hard to get just right. And since you will likely be doing multiple renders, you're going to want that camera stable.

    Good Luck!

     

     

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  • Shinji Ikari 9thShinji Ikari 9th Posts: 1,188
    Holloko said:
    Holloko said:

    The flow of your poses looks to be realy smooth. Forgot to ask, what character you're using there might be morphs out there depending on who it is that could help with the muscles.

    The character is Taric for Gianni 6. I saw this product: http://www.daz3d.com/muscularity-morphs-for-genesis-2-bundle. Is that the only way to get control of individual muscles (for example, showing someone flex a bicep)? If so, it is going to be awhile before I am able to shell out that kind of money!

    I think that the G2M part of that bundle would be a help for what you were thinking, but the bundle is $15 more and you get G2F as well. I here you about the finances though, I've had times like that were I see something that I want but just have to wishlist it.

  • HollokoHolloko Posts: 75
    ewcarman said:
    Holloko said:

    I just did something similar with a dancer. Like you, I loaded all three dancers at the same time and worked out their positioning and spacing. I had to render then separately and combine them in GIMP later, otherwise their lighting and shadows interfered with each other. Using the same camera made combining them much easier. 

    I would definitely spread them out a little more. When they are bunched up like that they will end up looking cluttered and hide a lot of detail (isolated muscle groups you mentioned). Maybe you can convey your meaning with fewer actors?

    About the camera - once you have it where you want it, use the "lock" on each of the parameters for the camera to freeze it into place. I don't know how many times I have forgotten I was viewing through the camera and moved my view around only to screw up the camera position I worked hard to get just right. And since you will likely be doing multiple renders, you're going to want that camera stable.

    Good Luck!

    Thanks for the ideas. I might try doing three positions instead of five. I kind of want the final ones to be close because the represent a single anchored point. With three figures I could spread them out anyway.

    thanks for the tip about locking the camera. I've made that mistake several times in the past! I'll see what I can do. Thanks again.

  • HollokoHolloko Posts: 75
    Holloko said:
    Holloko said:

    The flow of your poses looks to be realy smooth. Forgot to ask, what character you're using there might be morphs out there depending on who it is that could help with the muscles.

    The character is Taric for Gianni 6. I saw this product: http://www.daz3d.com/muscularity-morphs-for-genesis-2-bundle. Is that the only way to get control of individual muscles (for example, showing someone flex a bicep)? If so, it is going to be awhile before I am able to shell out that kind of money!

    I think that the G2M part of that bundle would be a help for what you were thinking, but the bundle is $15 more and you get G2F as well. I here you about the finances though, I've had times like that were I see something that I want but just have to wishlist it.

    Yeah, I saw they two morphs can be purchased separately, but for the money I think I would wait and buy the bundle. I did find out I have genesis muscle morphs. They were part of a free bundle at some point. But if I use genesis I run into the problem of clothing options... Choices, choices...

    thanks for the input!

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    Holloko said:
    Holloko said:
    Holloko said:

    The flow of your poses looks to be realy smooth. Forgot to ask, what character you're using there might be morphs out there depending on who it is that could help with the muscles.

    The character is Taric for Gianni 6. I saw this product: http://www.daz3d.com/muscularity-morphs-for-genesis-2-bundle. Is that the only way to get control of individual muscles (for example, showing someone flex a bicep)? If so, it is going to be awhile before I am able to shell out that kind of money!

    I think that the G2M part of that bundle would be a help for what you were thinking, but the bundle is $15 more and you get G2F as well. I here you about the finances though, I've had times like that were I see something that I want but just have to wishlist it.

    Yeah, I saw they two morphs can be purchased separately, but for the money I think I would wait and buy the bundle. I did find out I have genesis muscle morphs. They were part of a free bundle at some point. But if I use genesis I run into the problem of clothing options... Choices, choices...

    thanks for the input!

    Try the outfit on Genesis before you decide to switch outfits.  Some outfits will fit multiple figures either right off or with just a little fiddling. If it doesn't look right parented with autofit, try using the outfit unparented without the autofit and make adjustments then parent without using the autofit.  You might be amazed at how easy it is to get outfits to fit figures they weren't intended to fit.

  • HollokoHolloko Posts: 75

     

    Try the outfit on Genesis before you decide to switch outfits.  Some outfits will fit multiple figures either right off or with just a little fiddling. If it doesn't look right parented with autofit, try using the outfit unparented without the autofit and make adjustments then parent without using the autofit.  You might be amazed at how easy it is to get outfits to fit figures they weren't intended to fit.

    I don't usually have problems going from genesis to gen 2. It is gen 2 to gen that I have problems with. Don't I need to have a gen 2 clone for gen to make that work? Seems like I read something about that when looking at gen 3 outfits for gen 2 figures. I will try it and see. Thanks.

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited May 2016

    I think it depends on the dress, maybe.  I have hardly ever had a problem fitting a Genesis 2 Dress to Genesis.  Sometimes there is a problem with a few dresses, but I'm not sure what it is that makes them different.  I tried to find the dress you are using, but I don't think I have it so I couldn't test it out for sure.  But there are a lot of G2F dresses that fit perfectly fine on Genesis using autofit.  I think the problem with G3F is that she has a lot of bones that are different than the previous versions.  G2F and Genesis are closer in how the bones are laid out than the other generations, I think.  It doesn't hurt, though, to try out the dress.  If you happen to have Fit Control by Zev0, that will make things easier if you run into problems, but, if not, using d-Formers will help for some fitting problems.  If you are familiar with a modeling program, you can also take the dress in there with your figure and fix most issues that pop up.

    edit to add: I forgot to answer about the G2F clone.  I don't happen to have a G2F clone, but I don't think you need one.

    Post edited by Knittingmommy on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,379
    edited May 2016

    version c up

    I like this lighting much better. You are getting there!

    Edit: opps, I replied before I saw version d with the muzzle flashes - it's even better, I think.

    Post edited by barbult on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    edited May 2016

    Thought I would try and get an entry in this month.  This is just the basic idea - Please ignore the glowing boots and buckles on the red pirate as clearly, that is not finished. I think I may want to tilt the boat a bit and change the poses a bit to reflect the fact that the boat is a bit unstable. I also need to add the reflection of the energy bolt onto the water because for some reason its not showing. I want to do some work on the sky as well.  Suggestions are welcome, this is just the first, rough, draft.

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  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,956

    Thought I would try and get an entry in this month.  This is just the basic idea - Please ignore the glowing boots and buckles on the red pirate as clearly, that is not finished. I think I may want to tilt the boat a bit and change the poses a bit to reflect the fact that the boat is a bit unstable. I also need to add the reflection of the energy bolt onto the water because for some reason its not showing. I want to do some work on the sky as well.  Suggestions are welcome, this is just the first, rough, draft.

    Nice start here though I wonder a bit what they are fighting, Just a thought that hopped into my mind : how about they fight each other (about to fall out both of them), they look ferovious enough that. I like that blue -red colour scheme.

  • ewcarmanewcarman Posts: 180

    Thought I would try and get an entry in this month.  This is just the basic idea - Please ignore the glowing boots and buckles on the red pirate as clearly, that is not finished. I think I may want to tilt the boat a bit and change the poses a bit to reflect the fact that the boat is a bit unstable. I also need to add the reflection of the energy bolt onto the water because for some reason its not showing. I want to do some work on the sky as well.  Suggestions are welcome, this is just the first, rough, draft.

     

    The first thing that caught my eye - the eyes.... Perhaps they could be more squinty or something showing determination and/or anger or something. It would seem they've gotten beyond the "shock and surprise" part of the encounter and are fully into the "engaged" part.

    Like Linwelly, I'm curious what they have run into. Even a reflection/partial reflection in the water of the "enemy" could be pretty cool.

    Interesting start. I look forward to see where you go from here.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    ewcarman said:

    Thought I would try and get an entry in this month.  This is just the basic idea - Please ignore the glowing boots and buckles on the red pirate as clearly, that is not finished. I think I may want to tilt the boat a bit and change the poses a bit to reflect the fact that the boat is a bit unstable. I also need to add the reflection of the energy bolt onto the water because for some reason its not showing. I want to do some work on the sky as well.  Suggestions are welcome, this is just the first, rough, draft.

     

    The first thing that caught my eye - the eyes.... Perhaps they could be more squinty or something showing determination and/or anger or something. It would seem they've gotten beyond the "shock and surprise" part of the encounter and are fully into the "engaged" part.

    Like Linwelly, I'm curious what they have run into. Even a reflection/partial reflection in the water of the "enemy" could be pretty cool.

    Interesting start. I look forward to see where you go from here.

    Haha apparently the 100% anger expression on the red girl isn't translating well.  I wasn't super thrilled with either expression either but am not very good at tweaking individual features of the face yet to get the look I want.  I will work on those..

    Linwelly, it might be fun to have them fighting each other and toppling out of the boat!  Mabye I will do two versions if I have the time.

    Not quite sure how to indicate who they are fighting without totally changing the scene but will think on it a bit, maybe have bullets streaking toward thems or some thing along those lines.  I don't think I can get anything close enought to reflect on the water right next to them but will play around and see.  Oh... I have an idea.... Will work on it

  • bunglebungle Posts: 38
    edited May 2016

    Looking for critiques and ways to improve this.

     

     

     

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  • bunglebungle Posts: 38
    isidorn said:

    version c up

    This looks really good! You might want to have them firing their weapons, to get the "action" part of this month's theme in.

    Version d up. The flashes are from the guns I used last month so I had to eyeball the placing.

    Nice Lighting. You might go into the surface geometry on the floor and up the number of horizontal and verticle tiles.

  • Shinji Ikari 9thShinji Ikari 9th Posts: 1,188
    bungle said:
    isidorn said:

    version c up

    This looks really good! You might want to have them firing their weapons, to get the "action" part of this month's theme in.

    Version d up. The flashes are from the guns I used last month so I had to eyeball the placing.

    Nice Lighting. You might go into the surface geometry on the floor and up the number of horizontal and verticle tiles.

    Here's version e, fresh out of iray.

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  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,956

    Haha apparently the 100% anger expression on the red girl isn't translating well.  I wasn't super thrilled with either expression either but am not very good at tweaking individual features of the face yet to get the look I want.  I will work on those..

    Linwelly, it might be fun to have them fighting each other and toppling out of the boat!  Mabye I will do two versions if I have the time.

    Not quite sure how to indicate who they are fighting without totally changing the scene but will think on it a bit, maybe have bullets streaking toward thems or some thing along those lines.  I don't think I can get anything close enought to reflect on the water right next to them but will play around and see.  Oh... I have an idea.... Will work on it

    Maybe you have something with a tentakle to reach into the scene?

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,956
    edited May 2016
    bungle said:

    Looking for critiques and ways to improve this.

     

     

     

    Great start and there is some really good action going on! And the idea of fighting ofer the bouquet is funny. There are some things that make your render a bit hard to read mostly so I guess is the reflective floor, maybe you could reduce that, its a nice feature though. One idea could be to swap the hair colours of the girls so the blonde will be more remacable on the dark floor and the dark one in front od the lit tent ceiling.

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • ZamuelNowZamuelNow Posts: 753
    dHandle said:

    Continuing from last month with the same character...she's on a mission. 

    In keeping with this month's theme...interaction with props, I was thinking I would like to add some motion blur, but I have to research how to do that. She takes a swing with the pole axe, and whacks the demon upside the head.

    Instead of trying to setup motion blur in Daz, part of me thinks it might work better to do that in postwork. Regardless, you might want to slightly adjust your lighting or your shaders since the two characters don't seem to be in the same scene despite being in the same image. It might only need subtle changes.

    Thought I would try and get an entry in this month. This is just the basic idea - Please ignore the glowing boots and buckles on the red pirate as clearly, that is not finished. I think I may want to tilt the boat a bit and change the poses a bit to reflect the fact that the boat is a bit unstable. I also need to add the reflection of the energy bolt onto the water because for some reason its not showing. I want to do some work on the sky as well. Suggestions are welcome, this is just the first, rough, draft.

    The main thing I'd suggest would be ripples or splashes in the water where the boat is. It'll better sell the believability that they're in the water. There's store props and at least one freebie prop for that. Might want to slightly adjust the pose of the woman shooting the magic blast since there's a lot of spine twist. The hand of the pirate with the gun needs slight adjusting to wrap the fingers around.

  • bunglebungle Posts: 38
    edited May 2016
    bungle said:
    isidorn said:

    version c up

    This looks really good! You might want to have them firing their weapons, to get the "action" part of this month's theme in.

    Version d up. The flashes are from the guns I used last month so I had to eyeball the placing.

    Nice Lighting. You might go into the surface geometry on the floor and up the number of horizontal and verticle tiles.

    Here's version e, fresh out of iray.

    Looking really good. Maybe more you could show some recoil with a barrel angled slightly up, and maybe the feline could have a wider deeper stance, leaning in a little to brace for it. You may also want to adjust the tiling resolution on the wall texture.

    Post edited by bungle on
  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,669
    edited May 2016

    Yay I finally got time to do a WIP my lappy finally decided to co-operate with me!!!!

    Rendered seperately in Daz Studio 4.9 3Delight and postwork done in PSP9

    Any and all comments or advice is so welcome at this stage

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  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    edited May 2016

    Okay added a monster for them to fight, changed the lighting and changed the expressions.  Now I need to totally change the mage fire direction and will probably use something more lightning or fire like.  and need to change the direction the gun is shooting in as well.  Will see about adding ripples I have several props for that and want to tilt the girl standing so she looks a bit more unstable.  I also need to change either the tenticle or the direction of the sunlight so we can see the red pirated face... Any other suggestions?  This is taking hours to render I think its the blue magic so I might position it and then turn it off until I have everything else set up.  I can't wait 9 hours in between renders to see how stuff is looking lol.  Even spot rendering is taking forever.  Not usually a problem

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  • ZamuelNowZamuelNow Posts: 753

    Outside of rotating the light angle, I think this has been improved greatly.

  • bunglebungle Posts: 38
    edited May 2016
    Linwelly said:
    bungle said:

    Looking for critiques and ways to improve this.

    Great start and there is some really good action going on! And the idea of fighting ofer the bouquet is funny. There are some things that make your render a bit hard to read mostly so I guess is the reflective floor, maybe you could reduce that, its a nice feature though. One idea could be to swap the hair colours of the girls so the blonde will be more remacable on the dark floor and the dark one in front od the lit tent ceiling.

    So I played with the hair and ended up changing the sky for more contrast. I also might be butchering stuff to much in post. Here is the Iray followed by the postwork version.

    Iray:

    Post:

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  • HollokoHolloko Posts: 75

    Okay added a monster for them to fight, changed the lighting and changed the expressions.  Now I need to totally change the mage fire direction and will probably use something more lightning or fire like.  and need to change the direction the gun is shooting in as well.  Will see about adding ripples I have several props for that and want to tilt the girl standing so she looks a bit more unstable.  I also need to change either the tenticle or the direction of the sunlight so we can see the red pirated face... Any other suggestions?  This is taking hours to render I think its the blue magic so I might position it and then turn it off until I have everything else set up.  I can't wait 9 hours in between renders to see how stuff is looking lol.  Even spot rendering is taking forever.  Not usually a problem.

    If that is Ocean you are using, I know that slows my renders WAY down. It looks great when it is done, but it appears to take a long time to render. I found that out in the March contest. I actual turned visibility off the ocean until I had everything else situated. You may want to do the same. You could also progreesivemre

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191

    Sonja - I agree with Holloko, turning the ocean off while moving things around and doing test renders might be a good idea. If you find that it still takes a long time to render test renders, try removing the ocean completely.  One trick is to save your scene as a subscene with only the ocean selected.  DS will keep everything you've done to that ocean such as position, morphs, shaders, etc.  Do all of your test renders that don't have anything to do with the ocean and merge that subscene with your ocean back in.  It should be in the exact same position as before.  Just make sure you don't end up moving the boat as it might line back up the way you want when you merge the ocean back in.

    @bungle that is such a fun scene.  I'm not sure which version I like better.  Both have good points about them.  If I had to lean toward one I would say probably the postworked version which I don't usually say about an iray render as I like the more realistic stuff, but I really like the softened effect you got with postwork.  There are things I like about the sharper unpostworked version, too, though.  Sorry about that wishy washy kind of input!

    @Saphirewild  Looks like a great start.

    Shinji -  I really like what I'm seeing in your image.  Some one said something about showing recoil for the Cheetah girl.  Try it.  It might be a nice effect, I don't know.  There is something off about her stance.  I think the thing that bothers me the most is that her back foot isn't planted.  I know she could be walking and shooting at the same time, but, for some reason, it just seems off to me in the image.  I would either try adding some recoil or planting her foot and lean her back a little and see how that looks or if you want her walking, lean her more into the stance since that back foot is already kind of in motion.  I hope that makes sense.

    As always, remember I'm still basically a beginner, too, and I just see things differently.  It doesn't mean that what I see is right.  If anything I suggest goes against your gut feeling, please go with your gut!

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