August 2020 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Open Render Challenge
DAZ_ann0314
Posts: 2,847
New User's Challenge - August 2020
Sponsored by DAZ 3D
Are you new to the 3D World? Are you at the beginning stages of learning 3D rendering? Have you been around for a little bit but feel you could benefit from some feedback or instruction? Have you been around awhile and would like to help other members start their creative journey? Well then come and join the fun as we host our newest render challenge.
New this year, we are breaking down each month into 2 different challenges. A Beginner Challenge and then also an Intermediate Challenge.
So which "Challenge" should you choose?
Follow the Beginner Challenge if you are:
- New to the New User Challenges
- New to Daz Studio
- Newer to 3D Rendering in General
Follow the Intermediate Challenge if you have:
- Participated in the New User Challenge for awhile
- Know the basics of Daz Studio and would like to learn more in depth topics
- Been using 3D Rendering Applications for awhile and feel comfortable with learning Intermediate Topics
"Open Render Challenge"
The Open Render Challenge is also referred to as a "free" month, where you can concentrate on using and combining the skills you learned in the past few challenges. Please be sure to mention in which Open Render Challenge (Beginner or Intermediate) you wish to enter into when you add your image to the thread.
If you would like to review the previous topics and information you can find the topics/threads here:
Beginner/Intermediate: Composition/Instancing, & Duplication
Beginner/Intermediate: Lighting/Light Effects
Beginner/Intermediate: Posing/Posing II
Beginner/Intermediate: Using Props and Push Modifiers/Deformers
Beginner/Intermediate: Scenes, Landscapes, and Working Modularly
Beginner/Intermediate: Portrait Rendering and LIE
I will be checking in as will the rest of the Community Volunteers to try and help with anything you all may need.
For a list of the current challenge rules, please see this thread: Challenge Rules
Closing Date: August 31st, 2020
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Comments
Beginner entry:
As last month was the first time that I entered this challenge, and its only been a little over a month that I've used Daz, I've selected to do another "portrait", although I chose to have it be a bit more style-ized this time. While the focus is still on the face, there's a bit more going on here. I feel like I really need to work on lighting, so I'm going to take the month to also work on properly lighting this scene... so I guess I'm also doing the Lighting challenge...
This is a Nix 8 HD figure with Togatta hair, wearing a Space Uniform for Genesis 8 T-shirt and wielding a Harbringer Machine Pistol while standing in the entry hall to the SF Apartment. To make it a little cyberpunk, he's using the glowing eyes that come with Nix, but it does seem to be showing up right, I'll have to look into that. Currently, the lighting is nothing more than ghost lights placed in the same spot as the ceiling lights, set at 100,000 Lumens and 7K temp. The HDRI map is turned off, the environment is Scene Only. The scene to me is well lit, but not interesting. I'd love some suggestions from the group as to things I should go and study (tutorials and such) and then try out in the scene to make the lighting more interesting, and the scene better. I also don't like the hair at the moment, and may adjust it. It is dForce hair, so maybe I'll try my hands at a simulation.
Again, being still pretty new, I'd love suggestions, advice, and criticism to help me get better.
Also - kinda related: how do people put their images inline in their post? I see how to attach it to the post, but not how to display it larger within the post itself...
Thanks!
~ Andy
I like the image, the focus appears to be drawn to the gun at the moment (at least mine was when viewing in full size), you could try changing the light direction and intensity to give it a more ominous or interesting feel with shadows cast partially accross his profile. you could also light him from the door/panel behind and have him squinting into the darkness. I think the names I'm looking for are probably split and rim lighting.
you could also try a more actiony render in the midst of the recoil having taken a shot (or a burst of them) and light it from the muzzle flashes.
As for posting it inline I think once its attached you can get a link to the image and just use that in the standard image tag control thing, the button to the right of the flag.
@andy_akins_0d2ccc6e8d I do the following.
Thank you!
@andy_akins_0d2ccc6e8d As for your image, I like it.
However, if you allow me to make one observation is that there seems to be little detail going on besides the gun.
The character is cool and all, but with a grey shirt and a white background..I hope you see where I am going.
Here are a few ideas of what you might do:
Just my opinion on the matter. :)
Here's my start for the beginner challenge this month, going back to the story I was trying to tell with my project last month.
This is more just after my friend and I arrive in the Fallout version of our home town. It is about sunset and I have found myself being chased by something so huge, that if I was standing toe-to-toe with it I could try to headbut it where the sun don't shine, though why I'd want to try that I have no clue. In the background my friend is trying to get in position to try and help me.
@Shinji Ikari 9th You had a good idea here. The background trees and the sky is spot on. May I make some remarks though?
Anyway, these are just my opinions, take them as you want. :)
Thank you very much! Very good points! I definitely agree that the gun is an excellent prop, and seems to pull more attention than the Nix model... I'll think a bit on what to do about that.
Title: Trusted Allies
Caption: His best friend and his right hand, the only two he truly trusts.
Software: Daz 3d studio, Photoshop (only to patch the noise - all effects done in Daz 3d)
I guess I'm in the beginner challenge? First time trying this. =)
P.S. Is it okay my image is a .png not .jpg or do you need it as a .jpg?
Effort 2.0.
I like this version better - but would certainly like to get more advice/critique on it...
~ Andy
I'm loving the update to this, you could try make the muzzle flash an actual emissive and tinker with its luminance to light the scene instead of the spot, otherwise maybe tone down the spot a bit
usually you'd expect the flash to be a spherical light so bright back splash to his face but also bright spots on the walls closest to the gun barrel.
not sure how much the machine pistol would recoil but maybe tilt the gun up juust slightly and keep tha flash where it is. might be something that needs to be done in post but a small amount of motion blur on the front barrel and a bit on the slide and sights might show the rapid fire motion, the current freeze frame works just fine though and could arguably be better depending on the images intent (a time freeze or high speed camera wouldn't really have blur)
I like the fact that you added some color, it is certainly an improvement.
As a side note, I should tell you that Daz studio's Iray does not support motion blur, so if you want to add it to the bullets, you'll have to do it in postwork.
Keep doing great work! :)
So, per the suggestions, here's a version with the spotlight removed. I first tried to up the emission of the muzzle flash itself... but that didn't look right. So instead, I turned the spot off, and added a point light at the end of the barrel.
Apparently, however, using a point light appears to be much more compute intensive than the spotlight - I don't have a good computer for this (yet)... my poor box worked on this version for 10 hours over night, and only got to under 20% convergence... I imagine that's why its so grainy. I'll either need to use Scene Optimizer and see if that helps, or set up some time where it can run longer (which is difficult, as I need to use my computer for other stuff). The weekend of the 15th I'm going on a trip... I could let it run for a day or two... Or, perhaps reduce the resolution for now (I'm rendering at 1920x1080 right now)...
Assuming I keep with this, and enjoy it, I plan on buying/building a computer for rendering sometime later this year. Right now I'm on an older iMac with only 8GB RAM (and no NVidia, of course :-( ).
The muzzle flare and smoke (according to the prop, it's there) are prepositioned by the prop... I can try to manipulate them...
It looks like this scene might be a little dark, but maybe that's okay...
Comments, as always, appreciated...
~ Andy
@andy_akins_0d2ccc6e8d How many hours? 10? Ouch!
Back to your render (now I feel bad for giving you these pointers :( ):
The muzzle fire was better in the previous image, now it seems to be intersecting with something and creating those weird straight lines.
The bullets coming out of the gun look great now!
Try a soft light (maybe a bit orange? experiment) coming from the right (perpendicular to Nix's left cheeck) hitting Nix on the face, and the inner side of his arm holding the gun just so as to give him some highlights (try to preview your render in the viewport before your finalizing it).
That's it! You are certainly improving stuff.
Ok, here is my first entry (I had to "cook" at great length to make it work), but I'm finally getting it in the direction I want.
I posed everything manually, and added some VFX in postwork. Let me know what you think!
Rendered in Daz Studio - Iray
Challenging the Undead Wizard [this entry was revised]
NOTE: I'm still not too sure about the background. I's interesting but dark. Maybe I should re-frame the whole thing.
point lights can have their emitter shape changed much like other lights, so in the light settings under area you could set it to sphere instead of point, tell it to render emitter so you can see where it is placed, and then position the sphere to be just outside the barrel (turn the render emitter setting off again when you're done though).
you can also bump up the luminous flux under photometrics up to around 1500000 and set the temp to around 4000 (play around and see what you like best).
the brighter the image the faster it should render, if its too bright you can adjust the exposure down in the render settings under tone mapping
Versions B, and C here.
Main changes are to the pose of the enemy's arm and hand, my pose and bringing my other weapon to bare and firing it, having my friend look more at the enemy, giving us some expresions and changing part of my outfit. Version C is simply doing some retexturing of my new clothes that I missed before rendering version B.
Initial image for this months Intermediate Challenge
started this one with the pose, the environment is temporary still deciding what I want, was thinking of a evening blasted plain desert type thing with some dust and drag marks from the whip.
I used some dforce experiments to make the flame ball in her hand and the image was denoised in post using the intel denoiser and the mcjdenoise script.
I would appreciate any suggestions for her pose, if I stick to a passageway or dungeon environment I was thinking of moving the pose a bit so that she uses the fireball sort of like a torch.
@skinklizzard I like it, very effective use of lights!
Here is what I think of it:
Well, just my opinion :)
So here is a revised version of my render. I decided to go for a close up instead, added depth of field, and went for something more dynamic.
Motion Blur on the Barbarian was added in postwork. I hope I did it well.
The lightining? Courtesy of Thor
Edit: Edited the postwork to improve things with the Barbarian. He looked odd.
This is my Intermediate entry. I've been really working on creating my own distinct style with DAZ character creation. Hope you like it!
What an awesome character, she looks great. Look forward to seeing what sort of mischief she creates.
I will try to get this finished on time this month. The last two months I lost track of time and before I knew it the competition was closed.
This is for the intermediate challenge, the poses and expressions could do with some fine tuning.
Really great job so far everyone!
I have some little thoughts here and there but really all of them look very well done so far 
I actually really like this version (Sometimes that happens..where different people see different things or like something in different ways...what really matters is what you like in the end
) If it were me, I think I would perhaps "turn down" juuuuust a little bit on this spotlight but I actually like the white light and I even really like the strength... To me it pulled him out of the background a fair bit and added some drama to the image. That said, its about where you envision him being. The setting seems to be more sci-fi so if it is like a sci fi hallway you could try playing with the spotlight colors. Since the shirt is orange, you could try a contrasting spotlight color (like blues or purples - even light blues and purples) which may calm down the strength but still create an interesting contrast that should make the scene seem eerie but still make him sort of pop. You could also try a complimentary color (that will blend him into the scene more as well) such as yellows or oranges. Or you could leave it like this. I would try doing some quick tests (save them as different scenes) and then see which you like best and then full render that one. Sometimes just changing light colors to something else can add a lot to an image so playing with that (I think) is always fun 
A png is fine though if you want to add larger sizes, generally a jpg is best (for posting) since there are some caps on the MB size you can post in the forums/galleries. But it can take either.
On the image, I note there is a guy (I believe) in the background there (standing) He is sort of hard to make out and see. It may be worth adding a backlight to him to outline his shape or adding a touch of very sort light just to make him a touch more visible while still keeping him in the shadows
I agree on what was said about the pose, that said I also get what you're going for. Maybe look up some references online for that sort of shooting and see how the body is posed? I could be wrong but I think all that may be necessary to fix it may be to turn his upper body at the lower abdomen and upper abdomen just a bit so you can unbend the arm some. That may resolve the arm a bit better for you.
That said, really love the scene. The only other thought I could really give is to maybe add one soft light (or perhaps some side spotlights) to make the people pop a touch without losing the overall scene color/mood. You could try experimenting with some light orangey spotlights placed in front or possibly behind them (depending on the look you want) just to sort of pop them a little.
I really like what you have so far but I think maybe a diff camera angle would be fun. If you want to sort of see the skull back there...I would possibly try to zoom into the people a bit more but then make the camera an up angle aimed at the people/skull. May be able to get closer to the two battling beings and also get the skull in that way. Also moving the skull further into the background may help as well (and maybe a smidge of Depth of Field with the focus on the two characters in the foreground) That said, very fun image so far
I really like C...love the new poses and love the expressions etc as well. (I also prefer the red shirt which actually makes him pop more without tons of extra lights) Really nice job!
I actually really like this. If I had any advice (and its more things to try moreso than anything necessary) I would try creating a bit larger area of backlight so it hits her sides further down in addition to her hair..That said I would put it at a down angle so it looks like maybe something up above is giving off that backlight (that way you don't lose the mysery/darkness of your hallway) I would just see if you can get it to softly light her edges just a bit more.
You could also try just a very very soft/dim light in front of her just to bring more of her details out a tiny touch
You could also try a medium toned to light toned purpley light towards the front which would brighten some bits but leave it still fairly dark (especially at lower levels if you don't turn the light up too too high) And orange or yellow light could work as well. It will make it all together warm rather than sort of contrasting warm and cool tones like the purple will
That said, neither is necessary...it may just add a bit more of the details back in. That said, the dark with just the glowing bits adds a lot so you could choose to leave it as is.