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Love the way the wings glow a bit. I can't help with Iray as I haven't ventured very far into those waters.
Starting with a bodysuit and a displacement texture would be a good idea.
Okay. I changed the background the forest was too busy and you couldn't really see the details of the main characters very well. I made a plane and pulled a premade background onto it. (I was shocked and pleased at how very easy that was). I changed the color and texture of the straps on the armour, changed the metal buttons to a copper and made the metal plates less shiny since he is a working dragon and its been a long day. No polished armour. Changed her undershirt to a more soft grey fabric. Worked on her hair and forgot it has three or four sections so now I need to go in and get them to all the same numbers. Added a pin light to the fire but I think its too bright. I need to soften it and have it spread a bit further I think. The first one the distant light is the preset. The second one I changed the distant light color to a darker blue so it would be just around or past twilight. I used the rule of thirds with the dragon being on the lower left point. Opinions and suggestions are welcome. I am leaning toward the darker one but want to play with the light colors and the fire a bit more. The ground is a tile shader.
I would like to add a bit of grunge to the womans clothing as well as to the dragons armour but not sure how to accomplish this without doing post work. I don't have any grunge shaders. And even if I did I dont' know how to selectively apply it to only patches of skin and clothing. (Is that even possible). I do however have a vast array of textures that I use in photo shop and could add that in postwork if its allowed.
Sounds good! Thank you!
@dHandle
Its very strange I got your message in my email but its not showing in my messages here at all. In fact none of my recent messages are showing. I'm sorry you didn't get it (I was pretty proud of myself, it was a detailed map to each item lol) should have saved it I could have resent it. Sorry!
I know right? Sooo much info and lots of super cool freebies!
There's a couple of ways of going about that...
One, postwork, you are already familiar with and that one doesn't really need much mention, except that it isn't partuclarly 'materials and surface' related.
Another is to use some general overlays and apply them with the LIE (Layered Image Editor). This can do well for a general effect and with a bit of effort, even a targetted/localized on. But you are somewhat limited in what you can do...there only a couple of ways of blending those layers and multiple masks and such are difficult to impossible to pull off.
Then there is using the texture templates and building a completely new texture set...this can be as simple as just redoing the diffuse map or going all the way and redoing all the maps (diffuse, specular, bump/displacement and any others in the set). This route can aslo provide you with a 'final' overlay that can be used in the LIE.
Hmm redoing the maps sounds rather interesting if time consuming. I want to learn to do really good texturing anyway so may give this a go. Thank you!
If you're using photoshop why not edit the materials in photoshop and then bring them into Daz? I've found this really handy... Photoshop bridge isn't working for me at the moment so I export the model as a .obj then open it in Photoshop, paint and play with the materials then export the files from PS and attach them through surfaces in Daz... there is probably an easier way to do it but I found that a really effective way to get good results.
White Rabbit, This link will show you how to register at FaerieWyld.
That's certainly one way to do it...but since I don't have PS, I can't give tips on how to do it. Also any 3D paint program would allow the same...
Great start, everyone, on your renders this month.
Knittingmommy, cute bear. Here are a few things to shoot for. In addition to getting the materials and surfaces right, the companion that will make your materials/surfaces really work for you will be the lighting. It will be a combination of the two. If you look at the two bear images I've attached to compare to your initial render, hopefully what you see in the photos is the way the light shows off the tufts of fur. This will make the difference in making the fur feel dense and reactive to light. The fur should have specular and the lighting will enhance this, so they work hand in hand. This goes not just for fur, but for anything. You can have top-notch materials that don't look right because the lighting isn't working in tandem. Also, make sure that the eyes and nose have good specular; they are bright, wet areas on the bear. The pads will have specular, depending on how much dry dirt, which can dull the shine down. Just some things to consider. :)
Whenever possible, pick up scads of reference, if the objects are things you can find photos for, to see just how the surfaces work and react with light and environment. An artist is, more than anything, an observer and then we translate those observations in our own particular style to paper, canvas, cinema or digital realm.
One thing to keep in mind if you use HD morphs, they do not work with Catmull (Legacy). I found that out the hard way.
Sonja11, a fun composition. I would move the camera to the left to make the image balance out just a bit more. You have the dragon's right wing almost touching the left border of the image and there is more space between the right side of the image and the dragon's left wing. I would do this because of the square format of the image. I would also pull the campfire into the center of the image. It is very bright and your eye is drawn to the fire and what you really want to do is focus on the girl and dragon. Also by moving the fire into the center of the image you will be bringing back balance to the image.
If I may add to Kismet's fine suggestions...
They are, of course, only suggestions and the visual suggestions were quickly done to try to bring across the points. I did have a hard time working with him with the background...somehow it's fighting him. :) I look forward to seeing what more you do.
Glad you're learning. I am not familiar with the hair, but is it pushed in a bit too much on the sides?
Think of displacement as changing silhouette, and normal and bump for adding detail. It's an excellent way to work with existing models like those from Daz.
I did an auto-adjust for levels to see what you had in your pic. You have a good start.
Good start; now to focus things.
Some suggestions:
Work with the lighting to simulate the warmth of the firelight within what would basically a cool environment: forest in the evening. Here I dropped the levels down and saturated things a bit. I cooled down the image with warm tones at the campfire. The fireglow would be cast onto the figures and the shadows would be dark because of the strong but small light.
Try different croppings using the law of thirds and the Golden Spiral to guide you to focus on the figures in the scene. Look for reference photos of people at campfires to see what you can observe.
I also pulled in the campfire closer to them.
I look forward to you developing this.
Thanks!
Thanks for the heads up!
What type of file would I save this as and how do I get them into the surfaces tab here? I have been playing with templates for a dress (different project) and usually just click on the diffuse tab and browse to the file to apply. I dont know how to actually get a texture file into Daz. I can't use the bridge since I have elements and not the full program
Thank you! I am definitely working on the lighting to make the campfire light better.
You could take those textures for Photoshop and create a grunge texture that you can overlay on the clothing, skin and dragon armour by using either a Geometry Shell or in LIE. If using the Geometry shell method you would also need a transparency map.
I'll try to create some guidelines for you and will post when done.
Thank you! I had the fire in the middle originally and it blocked the line of site for the girl. so I may just do a bit of overall rearranging. The dragon is on the bottom point of the rule of thirds but I think I will add something to the scene yet to balance things out a bit. Maybe a bedroll and some gear slightly in the background as well
Thanks Sonja11! I've never gotten a message in the messages thingy here. And I didn't get a copy of your message in my email. I must have a box unchecked somewhere. I am finding some of the materials. I found the mats for the backdrop even before someone posted about it. I went back to the .zip file ( i normally delete those imediately) and looked in the file structure and noticed something about the pose folder. When I went and looked, the materials for the backdrop were in there, and they worked just fine.
The problem is...am I really supposed to remember where they are for the next project 3 months from now?
You mentioned it took you 3 weeks to get your file structure organized so you can find stuff easily.
Ouch.
Anyway..thanks for taking the time to help out. I don't want to hijack this thread any further, and distract people from learning the new stuff for this month. I will get this sorted eventually. Heck, I haven't even started thinking about this month's project yet!
: )
David
Thank you, I'm goning to stick with 3Delight for this one, was reading about the renderer and they did things like District 9 with it.
It is a bit dark idd
Here is the Geometry Shell Tutorial. I hope it makes sense to anyone interested in trying this technique.
I tend to save texture files in jpg format but others might be better.
To get a file into the surfaces tab you click on the down arrow beside the channel > choose browse at the top of the window that opens > go to file location on your computer > click open
I'm not sure if I should post this here but I made some screenshots for some tricks I've figured out because this drives me nuts too. It's the only complaint I really have about DAZ otherwise I love the program. But I've started using the 4.9 Public Beta and I've noticed quite a few changes for the better that I really like.
First, if I may ask, why don't you use the install manager? I find it quite handy for two things and I'll show you those in a bit, but first since you don't have the install manager, KA1's suggestion of categories works nicely and there's more you can do in 4.9 (I was working on my entry so ignore the image).
Click the Corner Tab on the Content Library for the popup menu.
Notice I have the boots selected in the Content Library and the DB Editor lists everything that's represented by the icons.
In the top of the Editor, select the one you want to edit.
Let's say you want to add a few tags. At the bottom select the Tags Tab then select the product listing and right click. Another popup menu appears.
Click Add Tags and it opens a little window where you can add your tags separated by a comma.
By doing that you can then use the search box function in the content library and go straight to the product you want in an instant rather than slogging through everything trying to find something.
Of course until you get everything the way you want it, you'll have to slog through stuff adding your categories and tags and whatnot, but it's worth it in the long run.
I've got some stuff I discovered with the install manager with creating a csv report and using the little I button to quickly figure out where the new stuff is, but I've got real life getting in the way here. I'll have to post it later. Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Kath