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October 2016 New User Contest - Atmosphere (WIP Thread)

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  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,345
    edited October 2016
    unLight865 said:

    Finally got a chance to work on this. 

    Ice Dragon Art said:
    dracorn said:

    I was having trouble getting the effect I wanted with Above the Fog, as I wanted the fog spilling out of the doorway rather than covering the ground.  So I had to scrap the first idea and opted instead for Ron's Dry Ice in Photoshop.

    This should be my final version unless somebody has any suggestions.

     

    Love the fog coming out of the door...

    Agreed, the fog-effect is great. smiley

    ( P.S.: Is he supposed to be a monster or an undead viking??  )

     

    Are you suggesting I should give him a spear and shield and put him on an opera stage?  wink

    Post edited by dracorn on
  • dreamfarmerdreamfarmer Posts: 2,128

    Another idea I've been working on:



    It's not yet right. I need to make some kind of decision about the fence and the nature of feet on the ground and maybe play with angles and the fog some. Bleah. Oh. And fix an expression.

     

    pumpkin patch5.png
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  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723

    Decided against using the screaming skull, and in its place use the Infernal Behemoth. Why settle for a skull when you can conjure up the entire beast? At least that is what my Summoner always says! smiley

    I changed this beast's material to a rock shader in Shades of Life by DimensionTheory ($7.49 on FastGrab!), so it would give the impression that it is coming from the stone platform. I also decreased its opacity at different levels, so it would look more like a summoned spirit.

    While I can tweak this to infinity, I think this is a good place to stop with this render.

    SummonerBehemoth1.jpg
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  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723
    edited October 2016
    unLight865 said:

    Great smiley - only the larger swirling effect  (I'd suppose it's a trail from his left-hand magic)  seems a bit too blurred for my liking - makes the image seem like hand-painted somehow, while the rest looks more realistic.

    Though, if you want it to look like that, then there's nothing wrong with that.

    Thanks @unLight865. I did that on purpose so that it would appear more like a fading trail. And I must say if there was a prize for most feedback in a single post, it should surely go to you! wink

    unLight865 said:

    Nice picture smiley , plus I agree to the "losing control"-point... laugh

    P.S.:  A lot of contradictory elements there... I wonder what that's supposed to be when the spell is finished ( provided he makes it... ) ?

    Thanks again. He's an elemental summoner so he likes to show off with multiple elements involved. smiley My initial thought was that the tornado was the end result, so I took it further and made the fires into mini-tornados.

    Post edited by dawnblade on
  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    dreamfarmer said:

    Another idea I've been working on:



    It's not yet right. I need to make some kind of decision about the fence and the nature of feet on the ground and maybe play with angles and the fog some. Bleah. Oh. And fix an expression.

     

    I like the feeling of mystery this is invoking.  The fog is so thick anything could come out of it.

    I am looking forward to your tweaks.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    dawnblade said:

    Decided against using the screaming skull, and in its place use the Infernal Behemoth. Why settle for a skull when you can conjure up the entire beast? At least that is what my Summoner always says! smiley

    I changed this beast's material to a rock shader in Shades of Life by DimensionTheory ($7.49 on FastGrab!), so it would give the impression that it is coming from the stone platform. I also decreased its opacity at different levels, so it would look more like a summoned spirit.

    While I can tweak this to infinity, I think this is a good place to stop with this render.

    Summoning demons is not for the faint of heart.  Your guy needs to be careful.  I hope he has a plan for dealing with the big guy.

    When I first saw this image scrolling across my screen all I saw of the demon at first with his raised arm and fist menacing your Summoner.  I think this was a good choice on your part.  It really tells a clear story.

  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723
    Kismet2012 said:

    Summoning demons is not for the faint of heart.  Your guy needs to be careful.  I hope he has a plan for dealing with the big guy.

    When I first saw this image scrolling across my screen all I saw of the demon at first with his raised arm and fist menacing your Summoner.  I think this was a good choice on your part.  It really tells a clear story.

    Thank you @Kismet2012!

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,345
    edited October 2016

    Here's my other idea.  I usually don't do toony renders, but I picked up both Little Mummy on Runtime and Skully on Daz from Runtime - both free.  There is no postwork yet in this render.  I don't plan on much - fixing a couple of things I don't like and adding a face to the moon.  I used RDNA Fog - which isn't bad once you figure out how to orientate it.  I select the surfaces with the Surface Selection tool so it's outlined, then I can move it around.  It left some lines at the edges of the "billboards" that I have to clean up though. 

    Dividing Candy - The story goes like this:

    Skully hasn't been able to trick or treat since the prank with Wolfie and Drac went terribly wrong.  So Mummy makes sure that Skully gets a share.  Drac and Wolfie will be out all night again. 

    1 Dividing Candy 13.jpg
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    Post edited by dracorn on
  • harrykimharrykim Posts: 225
    edited October 2016
    unLight865 said:

    For me even 100% often still stay pixeled, especially for dark scenes sad - what am I doing wrong there

     

    do you render with default settings and your renders usually takes longer then 2 hours ?

    Post edited by harrykim on
  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    harrykim said:
    unLight865 said:

    For me even 100% often still stay pixeled, especially for dark scenes sad - what am I doing wrong there

     

    do you render with default settings and your renders usually takes longer then 2 hours ?

    Dark scenes in iray can be a challenge.  Have you tired playing with the Film ISO settings under Tone Mapping?  Increasing the Render Quality under Progressive Rendering can help but will increase render times.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    dracorn said:

    Here's my other idea.  I usually don't do toony renders, but I picked up both Little Mummy on Runtime and Skully on Daz from Runtime - both free.  There is no postwork yet in this render.  I don't plan on much - fixing a couple of things I don't like and adding a face to the moon.  I used RDNA Fog - which isn't bad once you figure out how to orientate it.  I select the surfaces with the Surface Selection tool so it's outlined, then I can move it around.  It left some lines at the edges of the "billboards" that I have to clean up though. 

    Dividing Candy - The story goes like this:

    Skully hasn't been able to trick or treat since the prank with Wolfie and Drac went terribly wrong.  So Mummy makes sure that Skully gets a share.  Drac and Wolfie will be out all night again. 

    This is so cute.  Nice job with the RDNA Fog planes.

  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,668

    My render is cooking away here at 5% so got aways to get yet being done in IRay, so it could be a while :D

    I will post just as soon as it is done rendering.

    I added in something I learned just recently about glow affect in IRay using Geo Shells (Still used the Dust in it) it is going to interesting to see how it turns out!!

  • daybirddaybird Posts: 654

    Hi, after a long time i try again to make some pics with Daz.

    Iray is a big improvement, but i have also some problems.

    As you can see, the picture has still some grain after 2h rendertime and i don't know, how i can slightly lighten up, the cave behind her.

    Vampir 3.jpg
    1800 x 1200 - 2M
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Welcome back Daybird!  You can increase the render time under the Iray render settings and that will help get rid of the grain. I'm downloading stuff at the moment but if no one else pitches in I will post exactly where under your setting you can find it as soon as my download is done.  You could put a small linear point light with low illumination a bit further back from the entrance to the cave to help lighten the dark up just a bit.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    Kismet2012 said:
    dracorn said:

    Here's my other idea.  I usually don't do toony renders, but I picked up both Little Mummy on Runtime and Skully on Daz from Runtime - both free.  There is no postwork yet in this render.  I don't plan on much - fixing a couple of things I don't like and adding a face to the moon.  I used RDNA Fog - which isn't bad once you figure out how to orientate it.  I select the surfaces with the Surface Selection tool so it's outlined, then I can move it around.  It left some lines at the edges of the "billboards" that I have to clean up though. 

    Dividing Candy - The story goes like this:

    Skully hasn't been able to trick or treat since the prank with Wolfie and Drac went terribly wrong.  So Mummy makes sure that Skully gets a share.  Drac and Wolfie will be out all night again. 

    This is so cute.  Nice job with the RDNA Fog planes.

    I love this and really like the way the moon and brighter clouds are framed with the dark trees.

  • FastKattFastKatt Posts: 23
    dracorn said:

    Here's my other idea.  I usually don't do toony renders, but I picked up both Little Mummy on Runtime and Skully on Daz from Runtime - both free.  There is no postwork yet in this render.  I don't plan on much - fixing a couple of things I don't like and adding a face to the moon.  I used RDNA Fog - which isn't bad once you figure out how to orientate it.  I select the surfaces with the Surface Selection tool so it's outlined, then I can move it around.  It left some lines at the edges of the "billboards" that I have to clean up though. 

    Dividing Candy - The story goes like this:

    Skully hasn't been able to trick or treat since the prank with Wolfie and Drac went terribly wrong.  So Mummy makes sure that Skully gets a share.  Drac and Wolfie will be out all night again. 

    So awesome! Wonderful fun and spooky feeling looking at this!

  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723
    dracorn said:

    Here's my other idea.  I usually don't do toony renders, but I picked up both Little Mummy on Runtime and Skully on Daz from Runtime - both free.  There is no postwork yet in this render.  I don't plan on much - fixing a couple of things I don't like and adding a face to the moon.  I used RDNA Fog - which isn't bad once you figure out how to orientate it.  I select the surfaces with the Surface Selection tool so it's outlined, then I can move it around.  It left some lines at the edges of the "billboards" that I have to clean up though. 

    Dividing Candy - The story goes like this:

    Skully hasn't been able to trick or treat since the prank with Wolfie and Drac went terribly wrong.  So Mummy makes sure that Skully gets a share.  Drac and Wolfie will be out all night again. 

    This is cool. Nice work on the fog, and Skully's expression says it all: "Candy for Skully!!"

    Haven't done any toon renders in DS yet. Did you use the Cartoon render style built into DS?

  • BorisBadenovBorisBadenov Posts: 51
    edited October 2016

    After 2 weeks of messing with my earlier render and making no progress (can't figure out Cararra) I decided to give up on it and try again.  Sticking with a dragon theme, plus an autumn atmosphere for this one.

     

    Dragonrider_01.jpg
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    Post edited by Chohole on
  • dreamfarmerdreamfarmer Posts: 2,128
    Totte said:
    dreamfarmer said:

    I don't know if I should use this as an entry or not.

    "Awaiting Mama's Return"

    Much better! 
    Suggestion, try to make the light from the fire light up around the room a little more, and you have a very strong light hitting the back of the kids head, try to make that less focused, which might make the fire light look even better.

    Revised. I don't know how I feel about it. I wanted to show the atmosphere through the thickness of the light. This is brighter, maybe too bright. But everything I render ends up darker here, so... Previous version buried in replies above.

    Waiting For Mama relit7.png
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  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,345
    edited October 2016
    dawnblade said:
    dracorn said:

    Here's my other idea.  I usually don't do toony renders, but I picked up both Little Mummy on Runtime and Skully on Daz from Runtime - both free.  There is no postwork yet in this render.  I don't plan on much - fixing a couple of things I don't like and adding a face to the moon.  I used RDNA Fog - which isn't bad once you figure out how to orientate it.  I select the surfaces with the Surface Selection tool so it's outlined, then I can move it around.  It left some lines at the edges of the "billboards" that I have to clean up though. 

    Dividing Candy - The story goes like this:

    Skully hasn't been able to trick or treat since the prank with Wolfie and Drac went terribly wrong.  So Mummy makes sure that Skully gets a share.  Drac and Wolfie will be out all night again. 

    This is cool. Nice work on the fog, and Skully's expression says it all: "Candy for Skully!!"

    Haven't done any toon renders in DS yet. Did you use the Cartoon render style built into DS?

    This was my first toon render.  I didn't use any toon setting, in fact, I wasn't aware of one built into D/S. 

    I had received both Skully and Little Mummy free from Runtime DNA, which is what prompted this pic. 

    All the candy was done from one model which is morphable and I tweaked the surfaces and reflection settings.  It came with Community Candy Bag, which is also free on Daz.  You will need to go to Runtime to get Little Mummy.  All three are free.

    http://www.daz3d.com/community-candy-bag

    https://www.daz3d.com/downloader/customer/files#prod_28295

    Here's the final render which I have already posted.  I didn't like the glaring white moon so I replaced it.  Looks much better.

    Dividing Candy Postwork.jpg
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    Post edited by dracorn on
  • dreamfarmerdreamfarmer Posts: 2,128
    BorisBadenov said:

    After 2 weeks of messing with my earlier render and making no progress (can't figure out Cararra) I decided to give up on it and try again.  Sticking with a dragon theme, plus an autumn atmosphere for this one.

     

    I love the autumn colors here. And the golden clouds in the background! I kind of wonder if you could do more to indicate a brisk wind. There's a hint of it in her hair already.

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,345
    dreamfarmer said:
    Totte said:
    dreamfarmer said:

    I don't know if I should use this as an entry or not.

    "Awaiting Mama's Return"

    Much better! 
    Suggestion, try to make the light from the fire light up around the room a little more, and you have a very strong light hitting the back of the kids head, try to make that less focused, which might make the fire light look even better.

    Revised. I don't know how I feel about it. I wanted to show the atmosphere through the thickness of the light. This is brighter, maybe too bright. But everything I render ends up darker here, so... Previous version buried in replies above.

    That's the thing about lighting.  I would often do a dozen or more test renders to get the lighting right.  I agree that the golden glow around the ghost is just a little too bright.  You don't have to remove it, just tone it down a little. 

    The entire image is washed in a little too much gold.  Consider contrasting the gold with blue.  Try experimenting with blue ambient light as blue is a complimentary color to orange/gold.  This way the gold light from both the lamp and the fire will stand out much more and you can tone them down a little.  Also complementary colors will really make your image pop.  There's also symbolism in those colors: blue for the emotions of the child compared to the warm memory of his mother. 

  • dreamfarmerdreamfarmer Posts: 2,128
    dracorn said:
    dreamfarmer said:
    Totte said:
    dreamfarmer said:

    I don't know if I should use this as an entry or not.

    "Awaiting Mama's Return"

    Much better! 
    Suggestion, try to make the light from the fire light up around the room a little more, and you have a very strong light hitting the back of the kids head, try to make that less focused, which might make the fire light look even better.

    Revised. I don't know how I feel about it. I wanted to show the atmosphere through the thickness of the light. This is brighter, maybe too bright. But everything I render ends up darker here, so... Previous version buried in replies above.

    That's the thing about lighting.  I would often do a dozen or more test renders to get the lighting right.  I agree that the golden glow around the ghost is just a little too bright.  You don't have to remove it, just tone it down a little. 

    The entire image is washed in a little too much gold.  Consider contrasting the gold with blue.  Try experimenting with blue ambient light as blue is a complimentary color to orange/gold.  This way the gold light from both the lamp and the fire will stand out much more and you can tone them down a little.  Also complementary colors will really make your image pop.  There's also symbolism in those colors: blue for the emotions of the child compared to the warm memory of his mother. 

    Heh. A dozen or more test renders.... These are just the ones I saved for comparison purposes!



    Anyhow, blue light is an interesting idea. I like the symbolism aspect; I'm always thinking about that with my pictures, when I can work it in.  And hey, I realized I can use blue light to make a scene look dark while still lighting it!

    ScreenClip.png
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    Waiting For Mama relit9.png
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  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723
    dracorn said:

    This was my first toon render.  I didn't use any toon setting, in fact, I wasn't aware of one built into D/S. 

    I had received both Skully and Little Mummy free from Runtime DNA, which is what prompted this pic. 

    All the candy was done from one model which is morphable and I tweaked the surfaces and reflection settings.  It came with Community Candy Bag, which is also free on Daz.  You will need to go to Runtime to get Little Mummy.  All three are free.

    http://www.daz3d.com/community-candy-bag

    https://www.daz3d.com/downloader/customer/files#prod_28295

    Here's the final render which I have already posted.  I didn't like the glaring white moon so I replaced it.  Looks much better.

    Thanks for the links, and it does look better with the new moon.

    The Cartoon style is hidden in render settings, so click on the menu icon (shown circled in red) and select Show Hidden Properties.

    Then the Render Style dropdown appears, with Cartoon as an option. And...that's all I know. smiley Hopefully someone can chime in who has actually tried it out.

    I think PWToon is used more, but here's a forum post on Cartoon Rendering if you're interested.

    CartoonRenderSetting.JPG
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  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,345
    dreamfarmer said:
    dracorn said:
    dreamfarmer said:
    Totte said:
    dreamfarmer said:

    I don't know if I should use this as an entry or not.

    "Awaiting Mama's Return"

    Much better! 
    Suggestion, try to make the light from the fire light up around the room a little more, and you have a very strong light hitting the back of the kids head, try to make that less focused, which might make the fire light look even better.

    Revised. I don't know how I feel about it. I wanted to show the atmosphere through the thickness of the light. This is brighter, maybe too bright. But everything I render ends up darker here, so... Previous version buried in replies above.

    That's the thing about lighting.  I would often do a dozen or more test renders to get the lighting right.  I agree that the golden glow around the ghost is just a little too bright.  You don't have to remove it, just tone it down a little. 

    The entire image is washed in a little too much gold.  Consider contrasting the gold with blue.  Try experimenting with blue ambient light as blue is a complimentary color to orange/gold.  This way the gold light from both the lamp and the fire will stand out much more and you can tone them down a little.  Also complementary colors will really make your image pop.  There's also symbolism in those colors: blue for the emotions of the child compared to the warm memory of his mother. 

    Heh. A dozen or more test renders.... These are just the ones I saved for comparison purposes!



    Anyhow, blue light is an interesting idea. I like the symbolism aspect; I'm always thinking about that with my pictures, when I can work it in.  And hey, I realized I can use blue light to make a scene look dark while still lighting it!

    I had 33 test renders once!

    Anyway, I like the blue - nice contrast.  Since the boy is now really blue, maybe add a soft white light on him to neutralize it a little. I work in 3Delight, but I believe maybe bouncing light off a plane in Iray may give you the effect you want.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    dracorn said:
    dreamfarmer said:
    dracorn said:
    dreamfarmer said:
    Totte said:
    dreamfarmer said:

    I don't know if I should use this as an entry or not.

    "Awaiting Mama's Return"

    Much better! 
    Suggestion, try to make the light from the fire light up around the room a little more, and you have a very strong light hitting the back of the kids head, try to make that less focused, which might make the fire light look even better.

    Revised. I don't know how I feel about it. I wanted to show the atmosphere through the thickness of the light. This is brighter, maybe too bright. But everything I render ends up darker here, so... Previous version buried in replies above.

    That's the thing about lighting.  I would often do a dozen or more test renders to get the lighting right.  I agree that the golden glow around the ghost is just a little too bright.  You don't have to remove it, just tone it down a little. 

    The entire image is washed in a little too much gold.  Consider contrasting the gold with blue.  Try experimenting with blue ambient light as blue is a complimentary color to orange/gold.  This way the gold light from both the lamp and the fire will stand out much more and you can tone them down a little.  Also complementary colors will really make your image pop.  There's also symbolism in those colors: blue for the emotions of the child compared to the warm memory of his mother. 

    Heh. A dozen or more test renders.... These are just the ones I saved for comparison purposes!



    Anyhow, blue light is an interesting idea. I like the symbolism aspect; I'm always thinking about that with my pictures, when I can work it in.  And hey, I realized I can use blue light to make a scene look dark while still lighting it!

    I had 33 test renders once!

    Anyway, I like the blue - nice contrast.  Since the boy is now really blue, maybe add a soft white light on him to neutralize it a little. I work in 3Delight, but I believe maybe bouncing light off a plane in Iray may give you the effect you want.

    Getting lighting right can be difficult no matter which render engine you are using.  I am currently working on a image using Iray and I am up to 35 test renders (that I was willing to save...there were even more that I simply deleted).

    Going back my record appears to be about 73 test renders...twice.  But I average around 30.

    It can be frustrating but when you find that magically combination that works for your image all the hard work is worth it.

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,345
    Kismet2012 said:
    dracorn said:
    dreamfarmer said:
    dracorn said:
    dreamfarmer said:
    Totte said:
    dreamfarmer said:

    I don't know if I should use this as an entry or not.

    "Awaiting Mama's Return"

    Much better! 
    Suggestion, try to make the light from the fire light up around the room a little more, and you have a very strong light hitting the back of the kids head, try to make that less focused, which might make the fire light look even better.

    Revised. I don't know how I feel about it. I wanted to show the atmosphere through the thickness of the light. This is brighter, maybe too bright. But everything I render ends up darker here, so... Previous version buried in replies above.

    That's the thing about lighting.  I would often do a dozen or more test renders to get the lighting right.  I agree that the golden glow around the ghost is just a little too bright.  You don't have to remove it, just tone it down a little. 

    The entire image is washed in a little too much gold.  Consider contrasting the gold with blue.  Try experimenting with blue ambient light as blue is a complimentary color to orange/gold.  This way the gold light from both the lamp and the fire will stand out much more and you can tone them down a little.  Also complementary colors will really make your image pop.  There's also symbolism in those colors: blue for the emotions of the child compared to the warm memory of his mother. 

    Heh. A dozen or more test renders.... These are just the ones I saved for comparison purposes!



    Anyhow, blue light is an interesting idea. I like the symbolism aspect; I'm always thinking about that with my pictures, when I can work it in.  And hey, I realized I can use blue light to make a scene look dark while still lighting it!

    I had 33 test renders once!

    Anyway, I like the blue - nice contrast.  Since the boy is now really blue, maybe add a soft white light on him to neutralize it a little. I work in 3Delight, but I believe maybe bouncing light off a plane in Iray may give you the effect you want.

    Getting lighting right can be difficult no matter which render engine you are using.  I am currently working on a image using Iray and I am up to 35 test renders (that I was willing to save...there were even more that I simply deleted).

    Going back my record appears to be about 73 test renders...twice.  But I average around 30.

    It can be frustrating but when you find that magically combination that works for your image all the hard work is worth it.

    You're right, Kismet. I had 33 textures... that I SAVED! I'd say at least 50% of my renders I don't bother saving. Since I use progressive render, I don't even let most of them finish but stop them when there's enough detail to see that I don't like the results.
  • unLight865unLight865 Posts: 95

    Sadly didn't get to make much of a render yet. sad Well, maybe tomorrow - or maybe next month... frown

     

    Kismet2012 said:
    dracorn said:
    dreamfarmer said:
    dracorn said:
    dreamfarmer said:
    Totte said:
    dreamfarmer said:

    I don't know if I should use this as an entry or not.

    "Awaiting Mama's Return"

    Much better! 
    Suggestion, try to make the light from the fire light up around the room a little more, and you have a very strong light hitting the back of the kids head, try to make that less focused, which might make the fire light look even better.

    Revised. I don't know how I feel about it. I wanted to show the atmosphere through the thickness of the light. This is brighter, maybe too bright. But everything I render ends up darker here, so... Previous version buried in replies above.

    That's the thing about lighting.  I would often do a dozen or more test renders to get the lighting right.  I agree that the golden glow around the ghost is just a little too bright.  You don't have to remove it, just tone it down a little. 

    The entire image is washed in a little too much gold.  Consider contrasting the gold with blue.  Try experimenting with blue ambient light as blue is a complimentary color to orange/gold.  This way the gold light from both the lamp and the fire will stand out much more and you can tone them down a little.  Also complementary colors will really make your image pop.  There's also symbolism in those colors: blue for the emotions of the child compared to the warm memory of his mother. 

    Heh. A dozen or more test renders.... These are just the ones I saved for comparison purposes!



    Anyhow, blue light is an interesting idea. I like the symbolism aspect; I'm always thinking about that with my pictures, when I can work it in.  And hey, I realized I can use blue light to make a scene look dark while still lighting it!

    I had 33 test renders once!

    Anyway, I like the blue - nice contrast.  Since the boy is now really blue, maybe add a soft white light on him to neutralize it a little. I work in 3Delight, but I believe maybe bouncing light off a plane in Iray may give you the effect you want.

    Getting lighting right can be difficult no matter which render engine you are using.  ...

    Seems so - didn't yet get a lighting I really liked for any render sad - and long render times don't exactly make testing it easier...

    Kismet2012 said:

    ...  I am currently working on a image using Iray and I am up to 35 test renders (that I was willing to save...there were even more that I simply deleted).

    Going back my record appears to be about 73 test renders...twice.  But I average around 30.

    It can be frustrating but when you find that magically combination that works for your image all the hard work is worth it.

    ... make that "when" a capital "IF" for me, thanks. frownblush But am still working on some older scenes... and not counting the test-renders there anymore frown .

    Which reminds me (or would that read "Witch" today?winkcheeky) - I still wanted to post the darker version of last months' render - would it be appropriate to put into last months' WIP-thread, or would that be considered "necromancing"?

    dracorn said:

    unLight865 said:

    Finally got a chance to work on this. 

    Ice Dragon Art said:
    dracorn said:

    I was having trouble getting the effect I wanted with Above the Fog, as I wanted the fog spilling out of the doorway rather than covering the ground.  So I had to scrap the first idea and opted instead for Ron's Dry Ice in Photoshop.

    This should be my final version unless somebody has any suggestions.

     

    Love the fog coming out of the door...

    Agreed, the fog-effect is great. smiley

    ( P.S.: Is he supposed to be a monster or an undead viking??  )

     

    Are you suggesting I should give him a spear and shield and put him on an opera stage?  wink

    Depends... Do you like the audience or not? winklaugh

    dreamfarmer said:

    Another idea I've been working on:



    It's not yet right. I need to make some kind of decision about the fence and the nature of feet on the ground and maybe play with angles and the fog some. Bleah. Oh. And fix an expression.

    I see - so the Borg are visiting for Helloween, too ?  surprise *shiver* ...     wink

    dawnblade said:

    Decided against using the screaming skull, and in its place use the Infernal Behemoth. Why settle for a skull when you can conjure up the entire beast? At least that is what my Summoner always says! smiley

    I changed this beast's material to a rock shader in Shades of Life by DimensionTheory ($7.49 on FastGrab!), so it would give the impression that it is coming from the stone platform. I also decreased its opacity at different levels, so it would look more like a summoned spirit.

    While I can tweak this to infinity, I think this is a good place to stop with this render.

    Hm... is he supposed to be summoning the golem or defending himself from it? - For the latter case ( which was my first assumption ) , the angle between them is somewhat strange... I'd think the golem should come from the right side, should that be the case.

    Or maybe his magic is auto-tracking? wink

    Personally I preferred the black skull-ghost, and for your question "why that when..." - Well, ghosts usually can't be attacked as easily as a golem - but ofcourse it's your pic, so you can choose a lore that says differently... smiley

    dawnblade said:

    unLight865 said:

    Great smiley - only the larger swirling effect  (I'd suppose it's a trail from his left-hand magic)  seems a bit too blurred for my liking - makes the image seem like hand-painted somehow, while the rest looks more realistic.

    Though, if you want it to look like that, then there's nothing wrong with that.

    Thanks @unLight865. I did that on purpose so that it would appear more like a fading trail. And I must say if there was a prize for most feedback in a single post, it should surely go to you! wink

    Thanks... I was just trying to catch up on the topic, plus anyway have a tendency to write long posts... ( as witnessed here again...blushangel )

    unLight865 said:

    Nice picture smiley , plus I agree to the "losing control"-point... laugh

    P.S.:  A lot of contradictory elements there... I wonder what that's supposed to be when the spell is finished ( provided he makes it... ) ?

    Thanks again. He's an elemental summoner so he likes to show off with multiple elements involved. smiley My initial thought was that the tornado was the end result, so I took it further and made the fires into mini-tornados.

    Oh, so the others are just prerequisites. -  And there I was imagining some weird mixed monstrosity at the end... blushangel   ( some fire-electro-something-tornado maybe wink, or some complicated elemental... )

    harrykim said:

    unLight865 said:

    For me even 100% often still stay pixeled, especially for dark scenes sad - what am I doing wrong there

     

    do you render with default settings and your renders usually takes longer then 2 hours ?

    Not exactly default... but likely I didn't change what was necessary, and yes, usually more than 2 hours - You do sound like you have a likely cause in mind??

    (  Wait... wasn't there something about not letting rays escape to infinity? D*mn, had forgotten that one... though, how does it relate to the pixeled sideeffect ?  )

    Kismet2012 said:

    harrykim said:
    unLight865 said:

    For me even 100% often still stay pixeled, especially for dark scenes sad - what am I doing wrong there

     

    do you render with default settings and your renders usually takes longer then 2 hours ?

    Dark scenes in iray can be a challenge.  Have you tired playing with the Film ISO settings under Tone Mapping?  Increasing the Render Quality under Progressive Rendering can help...

    Thanks. smiley

    ...but will increase render times.

    ...right, just what anybody needed. surprise *ouch*

    Still, thanks smiley .

    daybird said:

    Hi, after a long time i try again to make some pics with Daz.

    Iray is a big improvement, but i have also some problems.

    As you can see, the picture has still some grain after 2h rendertime and i don't know, how i can slightly lighten up, the cave behind her.

    Exacty my problem. Hope you get a grip on it  ( and I too... ) .

    Ice Dragon Art said:

    Welcome back Daybird!  You can increase the render time under the Iray render settings and that will help get rid of the grain. I'm downloading stuff at the moment but if no one else pitches in I will post exactly where under your setting you can find it as soon as my download is done.  You could put a small linear point light with low illumination a bit further back from the entrance to the cave to help lighten the dark up just a bit.

    Thanks again smiley ( since I basically am experiencing the same problem ) .

    BorisBadenov said:

    After 2 weeks of messing with my earlier render and making no progress (can't figure out Cararra) I decided to give up on it and try again.  Sticking with a dragon theme, plus an autumn atmosphere for this one.

    Nice! yessmiley ... and very well-lit, too.

    dreamfarmer said:

    Totte said:
    dreamfarmer said:

    I don't know if I should use this as an entry or not.

    "Awaiting Mama's Return"

    Much better! 
    Suggestion, try to make the light from the fire light up around the room a little more, and you have a very strong light hitting the back of the kids head, try to make that less focused, which might make the fire light look even better.

    Revised. I don't know how I feel about it. I wanted to show the atmosphere through the thickness of the light. This is brighter, maybe too bright. But everything I render ends up darker here, so... Previous version buried in replies above.

    So you finally added a glow-/ghost-effect to the neclace, too. - Good. smiley Forgot to mention I was wondering about it last time...

    I guess this is with 3Delight ?  ( atleast looks like pwGhost to me ) - For that the atmospheric effect looks great. smiley

    Oh, and... - is there a small axe hidden in that table-lamp? Nearly seems so. surprise   ( Well, today that might be appropriate, huh? wink )

     

     

     

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,345

    Hi unLight865 -

    It was easier for me to copy out your comments that I wanted to respond to rather than delete all the previous comments in so many layers.  If I want to make comments on multiple renders, I will do a separate post for each - makes it easier for people to reply (just a suggestion).

    unLight865  ... Seems so - didn't yet get a lighting I really liked for any render sad - and long render times don't exactly make testing it easier...

    ... make that "when" a capital "IF" for me, thanks.  But am still working on some older scenes... and not counting the test-renders there anymore frown.

    Dracorn: ​ Ever consider trying 3Delight instead?  It may be a viable alternative if your computer takes such a long time rendering Iray.  Secondly, I recommend investing in a lighting tutorial - Dreamlight tutorials are high quality and offer great information.  I've gotten some for 75% or more off when they go on sale.

    unLight865  Which reminds me (or would that read "Witch" today?) - I still wanted to post the darker version of last months' render - would it be appropriate to put into last months' WIP-thread, or would that be considered "necromancing"?

    Dracorn: ​ Your Halloween wit is cracking me up.  laugh​  Go ahead and post it in this WIP thread, as long as you don't post it in the Entry thread.  You can let people know that it is from last month's contest and why you are posting it here.  In fact, people who are not eligible to enter the New User's contests can also post in the WIP's just for feedback - they comment "not entering" on their post.  You will get more feedback in this current WIP (or even next month's WIP) because people won't be looking at the old WIP once the contest is finished.

  • unLight865unLight865 Posts: 95
    edited October 2016
    dracorn said:

    Hi unLight865 -

    It was easier for me to copy out your comments that I wanted to respond to rather than delete all the previous comments in so many layers.  If I want to make comments on multiple renders, I will do a separate post for each - makes it easier for people to reply (just a suggestion).

    Good idea, but I thought double-posting was discouraged?

    Anyhow, I should at least have deleted the older references inside, I think...

    dracorn said:

    unLight865  ... Seems so - didn't yet get a lighting I really liked for any render sad - and long render times don't exactly make testing it easier...

    ... make that "when" a capital "IF" for me, thanks.  But am still working on some older scenes... and not counting the test-renders there anymore frown.

    Dracorn: ​ Ever consider trying 3Delight instead?  It may be a viable alternative if your computer takes such a long time rendering Iray.

    Thanks for the tip, but I actually started with 3Delight quite a while ago (explained here) ... And while switching back to it would certainly improve render-speeds, it wouldn't really improve the images, I think.

    dracorn said:

      Secondly, I recommend investing in a lighting tutorial - Dreamlight tutorials are high quality and offer great information.  I've gotten some for 75% or more off when they go on sale.

    Actually I got one or the other, but yet have to get to watch them... frown But likely a good hint to do so soon, thanks smiley .

    dracorn said:

    unLight865  Which reminds me (or would that read "Witch" today?) - I still wanted to post the darker version of last months' render - would it be appropriate to put into last months' WIP-thread, or would that be considered "necromancing"?

    Dracorn: ​ Your Halloween wit is cracking me up.  laugh​ 

    Ok, ok - not the most creative joke, I admit...

    dracorn said:

    Go ahead and post it in this WIP thread, as long as you don't post it in the Entry thread.  You can let people know that it is from last month's contest and why you are posting it here.  In fact, people who are not eligible to enter the New User's contests can also post in the WIP's just for feedback - they comment "not entering" on their post.  You will get more feedback in this current WIP (or even next month's WIP) because people won't be looking at the old WIP once the contest is finished.

    Ok,then:

    The following is not intended for this months contest, but just a slight improvement to my entries from last month!

    First a only slightly darker version without DoF, because the figures were blurred far too much in the DoF-renders:

    Then the same view, but with even more reduced environment lighting ( it is supposed to be a night-scene, after all )  :

    And lastly the darkened version of the boat-view:

     

    So, any comments, please?

    ( Just to double-check: This is NOT for entering this months' contest. )

     

    dragTest___05aaaaaca___fireT01adc___transpar+light+Emiss2ab_-acab--negFStop___DoF-test-_ab-_noLight_DrEmT01caccd___gmtrySh-T01acfdcde___pic06-dark_cut___C078.png
    1650 x 1008 - 2M
    dragTest___05aaaaaca___fireT01adc___transpar+light+Emiss2ab_-acab--negFStop___DoF-test-_ab-_noLight_DrEmT01caccd___gmtrySh-T01acfdcde-___dark___C092Focus--___pic01cut___C092.png
    1650 x 1008 - 2M
    dragTest___05aaaaaca___fireT01adc___transpar+light+Emiss2ab_-acab--negFStop___DoF-test-_ab-_noLight_DrEmT01caccd___gmtrySh-T01acfdcde-___dark___pic03cut___C073.png
    1650 x 1007 - 2M
    Post edited by unLight865 on
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