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

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Comments

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,956
    edited December 1969

    Xangth said:
    Here are the new renders from the first two. Thanks for the suggestions kaotkbliss. I put a weapon in the hand of the female character. On the second I decided to change it up a bit. Suggestions and comments are always welcome as I am always trying to make my art better.

    Xangth, giving the woman a weapon was a good thing, now just thinking from a female point of view, if I was to intrude somewhere, I guess I would use a different clothing, but ok I guess thats different if one is a space heroine but I would suggest you rethink her posing, Currently she has that " look at ma I'm so sexy" pose, not very stealthy.
    In the second render the new environment is helping a lot, Its now getting more clear as well that the two are not chasing each other but try to get away.

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,956
    edited December 1969

    Teofa said:
    Evolution. Changed a lot of items, still needs much pose fiddling and etc. As far as the comfy chair being at a secluded meeting, well, she has henchmen. At last count, 5 henchmen assigned to comfy chair moving.

    "A nearly Perfect copy, General"

    This is a much more consisten story than in you first version, very nice turn and a much more fitting environment.
    I think that "throne" is a bit too dark, at leas on my screens its just a black blotch. The woman on the left side of your render, I believe she is the original the other one is copied from, has a weird stance, I guess the high heel pose ist still on, and I would think the hand on the bosses shoulder should rather have the fingers to the viewer.

  • TeofaTeofa Posts: 823
    edited December 1969

    Linwelly said:
    Teofa said:
    Evolution. Changed a lot of items, still needs much pose fiddling and etc. As far as the comfy chair being at a secluded meeting, well, she has henchmen. At last count, 5 henchmen assigned to comfy chair moving.

    "A nearly Perfect copy, General"

    This is a much more consisten story than in you first version, very nice turn and a much more fitting environment.
    I think that "throne" is a bit too dark, at leas on my screens its just a black blotch. The woman on the left side of your render, I believe she is the original the other one is copied from, has a weird stance, I guess the high heel pose ist still on, and I would think the hand on the bosses shoulder should rather have the fingers to the viewer.

    Yes, the feet all need pose tweaking. As far as the shoulder hand, it needs work but fingers front does not work. I've tried it at home and it is nearly an impossible twist unless standing behind.

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,956
    edited December 1969

    Teofa said:
    Linwelly said:
    Teofa said:
    Evolution. Changed a lot of items, still needs much pose fiddling and etc. As far as the comfy chair being at a secluded meeting, well, she has henchmen. At last count, 5 henchmen assigned to comfy chair moving.

    "A nearly Perfect copy, General"

    This is a much more consisten story than in you first version, very nice turn and a much more fitting environment.
    I think that "throne" is a bit too dark, at leas on my screens its just a black blotch. The woman on the left side of your render, I believe she is the original the other one is copied from, has a weird stance, I guess the high heel pose ist still on, and I would think the hand on the bosses shoulder should rather have the fingers to the viewer.

    Yes, the feet all need pose tweaking. As far as the shoulder hand, it needs work but fingers front does not work. I've tried it at home and it is nearly an impossible twist unless standing behind.

    Well I guess you are right about that, its the thing you can see in films but then they are standing behind

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,956
    edited December 1969

    New swashbuckler up, as well. pushed a lot of curtain around, but I fear the last bit will need to be covered in postwork.
    I changed her pose to just drawing the pistol, I'm still thinking what kind of gimmic could be his backup to the rescue.

    swashbuckler4.jpg
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  • thenotoriousjedthenotoriousjed Posts: 397
    edited December 1969

    Linwelly said:
    Wow. We aren't even half way through the month and everyone's images have improved a great deal.

    @thenotoriousjed - I know how it can be to constantly fiddle with an image. Your hard work is paying off. I love the sunglasses on the Sasquatch.

    Still fiddling but I've learned a lot already with this render and contest. Not just in making the image better but how to tell a story with it as well. My idea for an added character I hope adds to the story and the fun. Also fiddled with the gamma settings and added vascularity on for male figure. Darkened the Squatch a bit more.

    The darker skin works very well on the saquatch, though the shades are now getting lost a little. That racoon (I guess thats what its meant to be) is a funny idea but the character is a bit to "Ice age" for my liking, at least compared to the rest of your render.

    As for some nitpicking: there is an unfortunate border in the tiles of your treebark right between the coffee and the sasquatch

    I was afraid he was a bit cartoony. He is a lemur I already had in my library, wanted to use a raccoon or squirrel but can't afford to buy the ones in the store right now. Maybe before the month is out I can. Hadn't noticed the seam but will try to fix it. Thanks

    Adam Thwaites has a free Raccoon here (scroll down page). It is a static prop though, no posing.

    Lyne's Creations here has quite a few different poseable animals but does not have a Raccoon. She does however have a skunk which could fit right in with your scene. Skunk looks like it could work. Will download and try it. Thanks

  • TeofaTeofa Posts: 823
    edited April 2015

    version 2. more changes and fixed feet poses, for now. It is coming out dark on my preview. looks ok in render window and corel.

    May seem like odd subject, but not if you have come out of a Caprica and BSG marathon.

    "A Nearly perfect Replication, General"

    CYBERNETIC4.jpg
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    Post edited by Teofa on
  • aaron575aaron575 Posts: 146
    edited December 1969

    Still in the early planing stage. I want to add some plants and young ones.

    NU-01.jpg
    1280 x 720 - 215K
  • thenotoriousjedthenotoriousjed Posts: 397
    edited December 1969

    Linwelly said:
    Wow. We aren't even half way through the month and everyone's images have improved a great deal.

    @thenotoriousjed - I know how it can be to constantly fiddle with an image. Your hard work is paying off. I love the sunglasses on the Sasquatch.

    Still fiddling but I've learned a lot already with this render and contest. Not just in making the image better but how to tell a story with it as well. My idea for an added character I hope adds to the story and the fun. Also fiddled with the gamma settings and added vascularity on for male figure. Darkened the Squatch a bit more.

    The darker skin works very well on the saquatch, though the shades are now getting lost a little. That racoon (I guess thats what its meant to be) is a funny idea but the character is a bit to "Ice age" for my liking, at least compared to the rest of your render.

    As for some nitpicking: there is an unfortunate border in the tiles of your treebark right between the coffee and the sasquatch

    I was afraid he was a bit cartoony. He is a lemur I already had in my library, wanted to use a raccoon or squirrel but can't afford to buy the ones in the store right now. Maybe before the month is out I can. Hadn't noticed the seam but will try to fix it. Thanks

    Adam Thwaites has a free Raccoon here (scroll down page). It is a static prop though, no posing.

    Lyne's Creations here has quite a few different poseable animals but does not have a Raccoon. She does however have a skunk which could fit right in with your scene. Okay the skunk makes it's debut. Also changed the bark on the log and the shader for the sunglasses.

    sasquatchskunk2.jpg
    1250 x 703 - 818K
  • TeofaTeofa Posts: 823
    edited December 1969

    TBH I think all of the small prop additions and extending the image to include them are distracting and take away the focus on the man and bigfoot just chatting. Cute, but becoming cluttered and side stories not needed.

  • TeofaTeofa Posts: 823
    edited April 2015

    Latest version.

    Not sure about the Eagles. I really wanted something flying in the sky. It just looked so empty otherwise. I tried a dragon but it was just too big. Could have scaled it smaller of course.

    I love the new kitty color, when black I couldn't see it had its head turned.

    I like the Eagles.

    I do think you are adding too many lurkers.. and they are really obvious. If it were my project, I would cut the lurkers down to the one Kitty has spotted and make him more subtle and sneaky.

    Just an opinion.

    Post edited by Teofa on
  • TeofaTeofa Posts: 823
    edited December 1969

    Updated :)
    Now that I have maybe 1/100th of a better understanding of DOF maybe I'll try again on the chase scene.

    This is nice. The DOF is very good.

  • TeofaTeofa Posts: 823
    edited April 2015

    h_habash said:
    Wow, Thousand thanks kaotkbliss :-) appreciate your suggestion, I've added some grass to the scene and really it brought life to it...

    I know you do not want to hear this... the grass and ground is too green and trust me... 30 years in the Horse business.. you don't find much grass in a barn they live in. Packed dirt..with perhaps some green struggling in the perimeters. No grass in the stall for sure.

    Post edited by Teofa on
  • TeofaTeofa Posts: 823
    edited December 1969

    Well hat was a chore trying to position a primitive plane so it was off screen and positioned "just so" so that it would block the light from the sunny spots on the rocks.

    But I managed to get it :)


    My opinion, don't take it to heart. Were this my image I would dump the lightsaber on the chase char, focus her position more on determined riding of the chase bike, and get rid of the pink glow that is showing up all over.

  • Linwelly said:
    Wow. We aren't even half way through the month and everyone's images have improved a great deal.

    @thenotoriousjed - I know how it can be to constantly fiddle with an image. Your hard work is paying off. I love the sunglasses on the Sasquatch.

    Still fiddling but I've learned a lot already with this render and contest. Not just in making the image better but how to tell a story with it as well. My idea for an added character I hope adds to the story and the fun. Also fiddled with the gamma settings and added vascularity on for male figure. Darkened the Squatch a bit more.

    The darker skin works very well on the saquatch, though the shades are now getting lost a little. That racoon (I guess thats what its meant to be) is a funny idea but the character is a bit to "Ice age" for my liking, at least compared to the rest of your render.

    As for some nitpicking: there is an unfortunate border in the tiles of your treebark right between the coffee and the sasquatchI was afraid he was a bit cartoony. He is a lemur I already had in my library, wanted to use a raccoon or squirrel but can't afford to buy the ones in the store right now. Maybe before the month is out I can. Hadn't noticed the seam but will try to fix it. Thanks

    edit- sorry I missed the other post giving you the racoon link! If someone makes a skunk texture and wants to share it, I have been looking to do the same.

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

    h_habash said:
    I made the grass addition thanks you fionathegood you're really good ;-) I've managed to download the grass sets, and tried all of them in the scene, it took me some time to come out with this scene.

    I've changed the barn wood texture, I hope it's more acceptable than before as I see it.


    Like the grass and the bark wood texture... I would make the bark tile a few more times though, it is looking stretchy. Glad I could help.. search history is a great feature of chrome!

  • edited December 1969

    Linwelly said:
    I would suggest that everyone, who like me, has been frustrated with either having over-contrasted images with pure white and pure dark spots instead of colors in the darks and lights, or the opposite, everything looking greyed out, and being unable to find the happy medium, try this solution:

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/54913/#798288

    Gamma correction.. who knew?

    It looks complicated, but I skipped the shader version and simply did the skin materials correction, and holy cannoli what an improvement! MOREVER, the render actually looks like what I see in my viewport instead of some guess as to what I am going to see when I render. All in all, I will be doing this from now on.

    thenotoriousjedi- I think your scene, moreso than most, would benefit from this! Even if you stepped back a render to the overly contrasty version, I think you might be happy with the results. I was skeptical so I saved my scene and made a new version with these changes, and yeah. Seriously blew my mind. I would show before and afters but it is for a super secret project and my current project here has very little human skin. ;-) I could show you, but then I would have to find a place to hide the body... :-P

    Fiona, the thread you linked opend a whole new can of "I don't have a clou" soup... I guess It will take me moth to understand the first thing they are talking about there. As usual I go and throw the new things into one of my senes and see whats happening to my render, then I go back to the thread and look if I can find something that relates in the thread.. so sitting here rendering my mashine hot..

    That is how we learn Linwelly ;-)

    To sum up that thread, a bunch of people told her that her special gamma shader wasnt correct but the original gamma correction she did without the doodads was okay. At least, I think that was the jist of it. In any case playing with the gamma is now on my list of options and that is a good thing... smarter people than me can understand the math, I just need it to look right!

  • edited December 1969

    Linwelly said:
    New swashbuckler up, as well. pushed a lot of curtain around, but I fear the last bit will need to be covered in postwork.
    I changed her pose to just drawing the pistol, I'm still thinking what kind of gimmic could be his backup to the rescue.

    I respect how hard you have worked on that curtain and this is looking good. I agree bringing a pistol to a sword fight is gimmicy and bad karma unless he gets a toy too. ;-)

    I SOOO wish the whip prop I have was a freebie, him using the whip to snap the firearm out of her hand would be such poetic justice... maybe there is a freebie out there if you like the idea

  • edited December 1969

    Teofa said:
    Linwelly said:
    Teofa said:
    Evolution. Changed a lot of items, still needs much pose fiddling and etc. As far as the comfy chair being at a secluded meeting, well, she has henchmen. At last count, 5 henchmen assigned to comfy chair moving.

    "A nearly Perfect copy, General"

    This is a much more consistent story than in you first version, very nice turn and a much more fitting environment.
    I think that "throne" is a bit too dark, at leas on my screens its just a black blotch. The woman on the left side of your render, I believe she is the original the other one is copied from, has a weird stance, I guess the high heel pose ist still on, and I would think the hand on the bosses shoulder should rather have the fingers to the viewer.

    Yes, the feet all need pose tweaking. As far as the shoulder hand, it needs work but fingers front does not work. I've tried it at home and it is nearly an impossible twist unless standing behind.

    I am still not reading that one is a clone of the other and an object "for sale" so to speak. I think maybe putting her on some sort of sci-fi ish pedestal? I have used the window from the sci fi corridor, flipped around, as a base... http://www.sharecg.com/v/62012/browse/11/Poser/Universal-Window-1-for-Steampunk-Corridor

    Or some electric sparks style magic such as from jepe's special z? http://shop.poseraddicts.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=3002 (not all of them are rainbow bubbles, some look like sparks!)

    Or perhaps some sort of "packaging" that makes her look like a product, almost the way you would package a barbie? I am not sure. I find the freebie contest where they focused on cyber-themes to be very inspirational, maybe something that she plugs into? or some doo-dad gismo to make her look like she is a bot? These have a lot of freebies and ideas that might be inspirational and helpful
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/39416/P75/#591221
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/39416/P90/#592337
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/39416/P15/#582361

    I think the problem is she is a toooo perfect copy... it needs something to make her look "plastic" or fake.

  • edited December 1969

    Linwelly said:
    Xangth said:
    Here are the new renders from the first two. Thanks for the suggestions kaotkbliss. I put a weapon in the hand of the female character. On the second I decided to change it up a bit. Suggestions and comments are always welcome as I am always trying to make my art better.

    Xangth, giving the woman a weapon was a good thing, now just thinking from a female point of view, if I was to intrude somewhere, I guess I would use a different clothing, but ok I guess thats different if one is a space heroine but I would suggest you rethink her posing, Currently she has that " look at ma I'm so sexy" pose, not very stealthy.
    In the second render the new environment is helping a lot, Its now getting more clear as well that the two are not chasing each other but try to get away.

    Gamma is my new thing, the first one looks over contrasty and the colors too saturated and thats an area where gamma correction might help. The first one is looking awesome. I am thinking you might benefit from doing this as a composite of layered renders and adding some motion blur to the right side where the bike comes around the curve? I really really like the first one, it is coming along really well.

  • TeofaTeofa Posts: 823
    edited April 2015

    Fiona, she is supposed to look nearly perfect. The eyes are the tell.. and the skin tone. Whether seen or not in the image, this is supposed to be far beyond a "Robot" and I'm sticking to that. No tesla coils, no bolts. I will, however, remove her brows and makeup.

    Thanks for the links and suggestions. They will be helpful if I decide to do a "Borg" type cybernetic.

    Post edited by Teofa on
  • edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    I will have a word with Ann on that and get back to you.

    I have a question- I never entered my second pose WIP from last month. I found some things that are offsetting my previous frustration with the image and want to continue working on it....is it okay to enter it this month? Or does the image have to be something started new for this months challenge?

    Since the focus for that was posing and this month it will be on the full presentation and as it was never submitted anywhere for voting etc, that is fine if you would like to finish your pose etc and use it for your image this month :)

    Thanks!

  • Teofa said:
    Fiona, she is supposed to look nearly perfect. The eyes are the tell.. and the skin tone. Whether seen or not in the image, this is supposed to be far beyond a "Robot" and I'm sticking to that. No tesla coils, no bolts. I will, however, remove her brows and makeup.

    Thanks for the links and suggestions. They will be helpful if I decide to do a "Borg" type cybernetic.

    I think that is a great idea. Is there something that you could do to make her pose look more rigid, perhaps? Right now she reads as a soldier in standard rest pose, I am not sure what about her is supposed to say "clone"

    edit to add... a prop such as a blueprint might do it, too. It just needs something more to tell the story.

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

    aaron575 said:
    Still in the early planing stage. I want to add some plants and young ones.

    This is a really fun image!

  • edited December 1969

    Teofa said:
    h_habash said:
    Wow, Thousand thanks kaotkbliss :-) appreciate your suggestion, I've added some grass to the scene and really it brought life to it...

    I know you do not want to hear this... the grass and ground is too green and trust me... 30 years in the Horse business.. you don't find much grass in a barn they live in. Packed dirt..with perhaps some green struggling in the perimeters. No grass in the stall for sure.

    I think Teofa and I are in the same time zone/awake space, we frequently post at the same time. She has a very good point about the grass growing in the barn! Color is an odd beast... the color intensity has to be realistic relative to everything else in the scene. If you like the grass green, give everything else more color, if you like the color of the rest, make the grass more grey. If you have exhausted the possibilities you can obtain with tweaking lights, maps, and shaders to get them right relative to each other, there is always the option of doing layer pass renders for each element in the scene, color correcting each element to the right hue/saturation/value as well as brightness/contrast, and then compositing them. It is very important when beginning though not to rely on this last technique as being able to quickly and effectively set up basic lighting and shaders is an important skill set to work towards obtaining.

  • giovannipaologiovannipaolo Posts: 249
    edited December 1969

    The Conquest

    Greetings all!

    As I mentioned earlier, I have been away. so haven't had time 'til now to participate. I've been working on this piece and its finally at a stage where I feel feedback could be helpful. Looking forward to your comments. :)

    Conquest_April_Contest.jpg
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  • aaron575aaron575 Posts: 146
    edited December 1969

    aaron575 said:
    Still in the early planing stage. I want to add some plants and young ones.

    This is a really fun image!
    Thank you!

    Made lots of changes.

    NU-02.jpg
    1280 x 720 - 227K
  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,956
    edited December 1969

    The Conquest

    Greetings all!

    As I mentioned earlier, I have been away. so haven't had time 'til now to participate. I've been working on this piece and its finally at a stage where I feel feedback could be helpful. Looking forward to your comments. :)

    Congrats on first in the entry thread.
    If you don't mind me asking, what happened to that other WIP? It suddenly was gone and so was my response to it.

    For this render, would you mind changing that saluting gesture of the two women in the back ? Being from Germany I might be oversensitive to this kind of things, but there it is.

  • giovannipaologiovannipaolo Posts: 249
    edited December 1969

    Linwelly said:
    The Conquest

    Greetings all!

    As I mentioned earlier, I have been away. so haven't had time 'til now to participate. I've been working on this piece and its finally at a stage where I feel feedback could be helpful. Looking forward to your comments. :)

    Congrats on first in the entry thread.
    If you don't mind me asking, what happened to that other WIP? It suddenly was gone and so was my response to it.

    For this render, would you mind changing that saluting gesture of the two women in the back ? Being from Germany I might be oversensitive to this kind of things, but there it is.

    Entschuldigung Linwelly, Ich verstehe das. I will play with other poses just for you.

    As to the other WIP, it is still a work in progress as it too had some "sensitivity" issues.

    Danke sehr! :-)

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

    3ch0_419 said:
    Wow. We aren't even half way through the month and everyone's images have improved a great deal.

    @3ch0_419 - I can really see the action in your image now. When I saw the tentacles from your monster almost touching the soldier firing I thought "Holy #&%@" If you want to keep it that close you might want to give the soldier a bit more expression. Either a really determined "I am going to go down fighting" or "Oh man. This thing is about to get me". Right now he does not seem to be reacting emotionally to this monster at all except to fire at it. It will not be easy because only half his face is showing but eyes are quite expressive.

    I made some changes that are rendering as I type this. Pointed the shooter's eyes at the monster and tried to give some determination to his eyes. I also pulled the monster back into the hole more so as to have it just launching itself out.

    I'll more then likely be posting the result again after I'm back from work once more, however if things are ready before I have to leave then it'll be posted sooner.

    Here we go, dang render took longer then expected because the laptop went into sleep-mode with out my knowing it before things were done.

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