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The arm doesn't bother me but otherwise I agree with Kismet on all accounts.
Now for some random thoughts:
My first thought is - Where's the campfire? For a night time scene it is a lot of light and it seems to be a lot more than what the glowing orbs/sprites could provide. You say they are travellers. Are they travelling without packing? Some equipment/packing/bedrolls as well as a campfire would help sell the scene as travellers resting. See for example Sonja11's similar scene earlier in this thread (last seen on page 6 I think)
Otherwise perhaps some torches or braziers could be added as light sources and in that case I would think of the scene as perhaps two townspeople visiting a nearby temple ruin or something, perhaps to compose a new song for some upcoming festivities. ;)
Also, shouldn't the flute be pressed to the lips of the player?
As I said, just random thoughts and I'm no expert so please feel free to ignore me. Overall it's a good scene and as you can see it got my imagination going. :)
Any thoughts on my 2nd possible entry? Its IRAY and since it takes sooo long to render I am hoping for some feedback before I go make more changes and run it through again
The cube confuses me a little. It almost looks like it could be a cold, winter moon. If I were to peek inside, it would have to be a warmer glow, maybe illuminating a little more details of the inside.
Remember what I said in my "intro", though: I'm no art expert. :)))
I'd thought about a campfire and something roasting on a spit, but frankly could not find a decent-looking one that also had fire in it - I could 'fake up' a fire with some planes and a graphic but the wood and/or firepit is kinda beyond me at the moment - but decided to go with magic. Also, that gives me two sources of light to swing around. Some camping gear would indeed be good and I actually did think about that, but... finding the models is again something I haven't been able to do. Everything in my library, my friend's librarty, etc, looks too modern. I even tried looking around for some military props since those tend to include things like canteens, etc, and the design of those have not changed appreciably for some time now, but again, nada.
I do need to work on the flute player's pose.
I tend to agree with Ati about the cube. A warmer light would contrast with the cooler twilight colours. It also might not be necessary to have the cube visible to the viewer. Having an unidentified light source would also work.
You said you adjusted the sun. Did you do anything with the skydome? It looks a little too bright a blue to be twilight. Here is a Google search of twilight sky images: https://www.google.ca/search?q=pictures+of+twilight+sky&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CBwQsARqFQoTCK7AqsXCmskCFcasHgodRnUMIA&biw=1400&bih=763&dpr=1.2
The overall lighting is wonderful though. You have that feeling of twilight between full day and night. Not quite one or the other.
Awesome that is exactly the type of feedback that I needed Ati and Kismet! The twilight color, all I did was go into the sky dome's "sun" and change the color. Easy enough to play around with that. When I put the cube in I originally thought it would emit enough light on its own to make the room glow but, it didn't. I had orignally had a different angle that didn't show the cube but I like being able to see part of her face. The actualy glow is coming from a pin light and is also easy enough to change the color on. I want it to be a mysterious glow so there is a reason for her to be sneaking up on the door and being cautious.
The rectangular patch on the forehead is probably coming from the transparancy map on the skull cap of the hair. Iray can get touchy about rendering transparent items, especially if they have reflective or refractive properties assigned to them, even if they are "invisible." See if the hair has a skull cap adjustment morph, and that will probably fix it.
I have two observations about this image.
When Kismet mentioned that the "kitten" looks like he is about to play with the source of the light, I had to go back, and take another look at the image because I did not get that feeling when I first looked at it. Now I know why: to me, the upper light looked like it was coming from behind the moon. Like this:
(Image from somewhere on the Internet via google search... :))
The second observation is more of a personal taste: the night sky is divided into two by the remains of the wall. The two parts don't connect in any way, and it gives me an uneasy feeling. I would either include a bit more at the top, above the wall, so the two parts connect, and are no longer totally separated; or I would move the moon a bit to the right, to be visible in the right half of the sky, too. That way my brain would connect the two parts of the moon as being part of the same thing, and not have this feeling of the sky being cut in half.
This is just a personal taste, I have seen award winning photos and drawings giving me the same feeling, so I'm not sure anything needs to be done about it.
DOF version of the render finally finished.
I love DOF. With this picture, however, I did not originally want to give it any DOF because the island is not just there for background, it is the destination, a main part of the image. But I did the DOF version (just a tiny little), as ebonartgallery and isidorn suggested, and I quite like it. :)
What do you think? Which do you like better, the one with DOF, or the one without it?
Changes made after comments. I DID find a nice campfire on ShareCG; I also found a few Poser-only light-emitting ones I might have to purchase. I got rid of the spheres since they were now not needed, and changed the leopard's focus. Also repositioned the flue player and tightened up his hand and flute poses considerably. Also added some camp gear. If i can find a nice long stick from somewhere (might be time to try and make my own object), I'll add some meat smouldering over the fire.
I also added the cape back to the flute player, which I'd changed the mats on, and found a pattern that show up much better on his companion. Also changed out the mats on the towel.
I love the changes! The image now has a positive feel, it almost speaks, saying "It's been a great day".
Thank you. I also had the chance to play around with the Linear Point Light in the fire, changing it's settings and intensity until I got what I wanted.
Really like this one.
I like the use of the DOF. In the earlier version the island and boat where competing for attention...now the boat with the figures has my attention.
I like the one with the DOF. It doesn't take away from the island but snaps the focus to the boat and passesngers.
This has turned into a very nice image. The figures looked very relaxed and seem to be enjoying each other's company and the music. I like the change to the sky...it is nice seeing all those stars along with the Moon.
I like where you're going with this but your subject is really blending into the scene, especially since you made it twilight. Don't get me wrong, I love what you're doing with the textures and the lighting inside. In fact, I think that's your scene without the extra exterior. Is she looking around to see if anyone spots her taking a peek inside? Why? There's no one around.
Now draw the scene in tighter with your wondeful glowy light on the interior, let us see her face and maybe her eyes wide with - what? Surprise? Fear? Is this Pandora's box she just opened? Let the picture tell a story just like a book but with people as your subject you got to engage them into the scene with action and emotion. I can't tell what she's doing as is now but I think if you fast forward into the scene with her reaction to what she sees - that would be far more engaging. Make sense?
Cheers,
Kath
If you make a "cut out" out of your campfire you can hit with the DAZ emitter then you have your campfire. I did an image similar not to long ago and you can get a real nice glow from the campfire.
Okay so I've been playing around with the lighting and some minor pose tweaks. This one has some minor postwork done. I think I like just the basic gradient background rather than having stonehenge or whatever. It detracts from the hero too much, I think. I could be wrong though.
Whatcha think? Any suggestions or ideas welcome!
Cheers,
Kath
:Thank you! I'll have to check it out.
I'm intrigued by where you are going with this. I want to know what's in the room too, and that's a good thing. When you made the scene twilight, the sky image you can see peeking through on the right seems out of place and a little bright.
Do the fingers of his hand holding the sword intersect each other?
I agree with you about the gradient background. The intensity in his eyes is really evident now.
Oh! Much much better!
Try adding just a bit of grey or possibly dark blue to the diffuse channel for the sky. It needs to be darkened slightly to feel like twilight. Currently the brightness of the sky is competeing with the light from inside the building.
The addition of a more yellow light is a very nice contrast with the rest of the light in the image.
Thanks Kismet! Actually they're not. It's his pinky on that hand that's causing the problem and for some reason I can't get it to wrap around the hilt right. I've tried to fix a zillion times, I'm starting to wonder if it's the sword. It's the Valiant Sword with the Dauntless texture (tweaked of course), but the sword seems to be a bit flat - no real Z dimension, so I wonder if that's the problem. I'll try changing out the sword, being flat aside, I really like it. Fantasy-esque without being over the top stupid big or something silly like that. lol!
I'm really liking this. The only thing besides the pinky issue you mentioned is that to me, his nipples are too dark for his skin tone and hair. Sounds silly I know but I think they need to be lighter. But take that with a grain of salt because it might just be me.
hehe - one thing I learned with writing is that when something is bugging me, I don't really say anything, then if my editor doesn't say anything, I know it's a non-issue, but if she flags it then yup it's a problem. And I thought the same thing. I'll see if I can fix that without it looking like I fixed it - ya know? If it becomes glaringly obvious I won't mess with it. I think in this case subtle is best.
I'm working on his hand again. ARGH! I remember learning to rig in Cinema 4D. I hated the fingers! lol!
Thanks Sonja!
Know exacltly what you mean!
You are right. I worked on the pose, made it look more like a kick but withthose shoes :). That seems not to bright. I messed the color's up as well. So it would indeed be better to go on with the first one. I got the easy volume camera and lamps from the store They are real cool only the color camera makes no sense to me.
BTW English is not my native language so I'm sorry if I wriet to muchmistakes or if I am unclear