Here is an intermediate update of my second concept. I used the previous black and white image as an opacity mask to combine a toon and NPR render. I also used 3D paint on a plane to create a guide for a color gradient in the background.
Very scary, Diomede. Even though the composition is very clear and well balanced. Dancing toonies are much more in your style. Thank you for the comment!
@Vyusur: Nice shading - as usual from you. Plus, I love the NPR brush effect on your background.
@evilproducer, it looks like a slightly different viewing angle. I like it better.
@Diomede Looks like a classic pulp book cover! I would be interested in learning exactly how you combined images, but if it is too much hassle right now, maybe later.
Thanks for the comments, Vyusur. It is true, I love comic and toon styles.
UnifiedBrain - the approach is similar to the one you used to combine elements of your images. I set up a base scene and save the camera position and aspect ratio. I render several styles and color schemes for that scene. I also render black and white NPR renders for opacity masks, as described below. In a new scene, I insert a plane of the dimensions of the base scene. Images can be combined by using a complex shader, either a multi-channel mixer or a layers list. In this case, I used a layers list. The key is that each new layer is on top of the previous layer.
So, I start with the background as the 1st layer and try to work forward. The first layer does not use an opacity mask. I simply used a color gradient driven by a grayscale image that I painted with Carrara's 3D paint tool.
In this case, the second layer is a mixture of the toon and NPR renders, but limited to the figure and gun by an opacity mask created by using the NPR renderer to do the scene on black paper, no background, and diffuse equal zero. The effect is muted by using a multiply function with the opacity texture map.
In this case, the third layer is used to create highlights for the figure and gun outlnes. For this layer, I used an opacity mask created by using the NPR renderer with paper set to black, no diffuse, and outline set to white. The effect is muted by using a multiply function with the opacity texture map.
camera angle wasn't different. The terrain that the vertex rock out crops were embedded in was shifted over somehow. Also the aspect ratio was changed from a 4:2 to 16:9. Here's the latest iteration with the terrain moved back to where it is supposed to be.
Camera angle wasn't different. The terrain that the vertex rock out crops were embedded in was shifted over somehow. Also the aspect ratio was changed from a 4:2 to 16:9. Here's the latest iteration with the terrain moved back to where it is supposed to be.
Kevin, I use something called the wife test. I bring in my wife, and say "look at this great render!" She is very literal. Instead of oohing and ahhing over the style and cool mood I created, she points to a detail and says "what's that?" Properly deflated, I return to work and usually make some sort of change. When she looked at your Northern Lights render, she immediately said, "What's that bright thing down there?" She apparently didn't care for your beach area near the bottom, which is a little brighter than the rest of the terrain.
When she saw the one with the terrain shifted, she liked it much better.
Camera angle wasn't different. The terrain that the vertex rock out crops were embedded in was shifted over somehow. Also the aspect ratio was changed from a 4:2 to 16:9. Here's the latest iteration with the terrain moved back to where it is supposed to be.
Kevin, I use something called the wife test. I bring in my wife, and say "look at this great render!" She is very literal. Instead of oohing and ahhing over the style and cool mood I created, she points to a detail and says "what's that?" Properly deflated, I return to work and usually make some sort of change. When she looked at your Northern Lights render, she immediately said, "What's that bright thing down there?" She apparently didn't care for your beach area near the bottom, which is a little brighter than the rest of the terrain.
When she saw the one with the terrain shifted, she liked it much better.
I appreciate the critique. The landscape is based loosely on an area in my state, and if you were to see the beaches and sand bars along the river in those areas, it wouldn't look too far off from what I'm depicting.
Diomede, I just bought 3DUniverse Jasmine and Jason bundle the other day. Tonight I had problems with the hair similar to yours. What I did was crank up Studio and quickly load and cloth Jasmine... then saved as a DS scene. I then opened the scene in Carrara and copied Jasmine to and medium scene and tested it out... all seemed to work fine... at least the hair was were it belonged. So I saved the Jasmine char out to my objects... loaded it up in a new scene and retested... appears to work ok. Oh I did not save anything as blended in DS. Thought you might want to try it to see what the difference is.
Thanks for the tip, wgdjohn. That workflow appears much more convenient than finding the figure's obj file in the geometries folder and using the Studio transfer utility to setup a new figure.
I think it is amazing and great that so many people have responded with wonderful NPR and toon renders. Just a quick reminder that there is also a challenge for "Best Photorealistic Render." You only have to use NPR or toon if you do more than one entry. This is UB's rule #3 for this challenge. 3. NPR/Toon. If you enter more than a single render (you are allowed 3), at least one of them must be done by using either the NPR render engine*, or the Toon! part lll filter.** The lighting requirement is waived for these entries.
UnifiedBrain - the approach is similar to the one you used to combine elements of your images. I set up a base scene and save the camera position and aspect ratio. I render several styles and color schemes for that scene. I also render black and white NPR renders for opacity masks, as described below. In a new scene, I insert a plane of the dimensions of the base scene. Images can be combined by using a complex shader, either a multi-channel mixer or a layers list. In this case, I used a layers list. The key is that each new layer is on top of the previous layer.
Diomede, thanks for the explanation. Some of it is still over my head, but it gave me a lot of practical things to think about.
Just a note, I don't know about the NPR renderer, but the toon filter respects alphas, so if you need an image with an alpha, render it to a format that supports alpha, like .tif, .png, photoshop, etc. and then if using in a shader, just load it into the color channel, and you will automagically have alpha. No need for a mask.
Evilproducer, thank you a lot for this tip of the day! I am still struggling with toon plugins; especially with Yatoon plugin. The behaviour of contours is wierd.
Evilproducer, thank you a lot for this tip of the day! I am still struggling with toon plugins; especially with Yatoon plugin. The behaviour of contours is wierd.
It is on Facebook, but it is public, so hopefully viewable. It is an example of some animations using the toon filter and alphas. It is comprised of many layers, and composited in Final Cut Pro.
A non-toon render, but also many layers and composited. Used fire primitive for rain curtains under clouds. Learned that one from one of our past challenges, so even us veteran Carrara users learn from these challenges! https://www.facebook.com/100012031746048/videos/104239579987100/
Hey Evil, you spell amature like I do :) thanks everyone for sharing their knowledge!
Here's another from me. Out of the box. Uses that fresnel thing. It's done with the photoreal engine. No postwork.Lots of glow. Used a wave modifier on some of the plants.
I will probably use one or both of these as entries but they have a bit of work yet to do. Jasime is applied to G1... the pose is for G3 so I had a lot or repositioning to do of course. The main thing I want to do is to incorporate a Toon III filter for the color background. I'm kinda happy with the line art render... note that it appears the pinky on right hand is sticking into the leg... not so... most of the fingers are bent and do not touch the leg... might try rotating it a bit to see what if I can get an outline there. Oh... both are rendered with Toon! Pro plugin from DCG.
John, your picture reminds me of Matisse art. Is there any way to get rid off jagged edges in Toon!Pro plugin?
There might be... I've only started playing with it since yesterday. Just noticed the left elbow is missing a line... grrrr. I'd adjusted the the default line from 2.00 to 1.00 so will have to bump it up a bit... see what happens. Guess I'd better read about all the settings too.
John, your picture reminds me of Matisse art. Is there any way to get rid off jagged edges in Toon!Pro plugin?
There might be... I've only started playing with it since yesterday. Just noticed the left elbow is missing a line... grrrr. I'd adjusted the the default line from 2.00 tp 1.5 so will have to bump it up a bit... see what happens. Guess I'd better read about all the settings too.
Nice work - it's a good plugin. You can play with the missing lines by adjusting the depth setting (think that is what its called)
Vyusur, I had my line thickness at 1.00... thought I had it at 1.50... I corrected my error in earlier post. I was able to get rid of the jagged edges.
Andrew, I set Depth Cueing at a lot of various settings with no apparent change to the open areas where lines should be... also changed a lot of other settings and even lights. Will have to try on a different figure to see if same problems occurer.
I consider it as lineart-like... since it lacks the nice clean lines. I also noticed some artifacts in the render... perhaps with practice I might get a bit better.
One thing nice is the availability to have a backdrop. Renders and settings are below... note the backdrop was the 1st pic I grabbed... just wanted to see what it would look like.
Nicely done, John. Thanks for posting the screenshot and highlighting the settings.
Headwax, lots of great little touhes. I especially like the water reflections. How long does that take to render?
Working on the background for my angry mob. Changed the camera angle and added some clouds. The moon is just a vertex oval. The sky is a bigradient put in the backdrop channel.
Comments
My try two WIP: «They come out»
Carrara NPR render, no post work.
Male clothing was stolen from Michael 4 and re-purposed to G2 base male.
@Vyusur: Very nice work!
Here's a wide aspect of the Northern Lights scene. I will break it down later when I have more time.
@evilproducer, thank you very much!
Hmmm.... Somehow my terrain got moved... rerendering to fix the issue.
Evilproducer, but the lighting is much improved.
Thank you!
Excellent, Vyusur and Evilproducer.
Here is an intermediate update of my second concept. I used the previous black and white image as an opacity mask to combine a toon and NPR render. I also used 3D paint on a plane to create a guide for a color gradient in the background.
Very scary, Diomede. Even though the composition is very clear and well balanced. Dancing toonies are much more in your style. Thank you for the comment!
@Vyusur: Nice shading - as usual from you. Plus, I love the NPR brush effect on your background.
@evilproducer, it looks like a slightly different viewing angle. I like it better.
@Diomede Looks like a classic pulp book cover! I would be interested in learning exactly how you combined images, but if it is too much hassle right now, maybe later.
Thanks for the comments, Vyusur. It is true, I love comic and toon styles.
UnifiedBrain - the approach is similar to the one you used to combine elements of your images. I set up a base scene and save the camera position and aspect ratio. I render several styles and color schemes for that scene. I also render black and white NPR renders for opacity masks, as described below. In a new scene, I insert a plane of the dimensions of the base scene. Images can be combined by using a complex shader, either a multi-channel mixer or a layers list. In this case, I used a layers list. The key is that each new layer is on top of the previous layer.
So, I start with the background as the 1st layer and try to work forward. The first layer does not use an opacity mask. I simply used a color gradient driven by a grayscale image that I painted with Carrara's 3D paint tool.
In this case, the second layer is a mixture of the toon and NPR renders, but limited to the figure and gun by an opacity mask created by using the NPR renderer to do the scene on black paper, no background, and diffuse equal zero. The effect is muted by using a multiply function with the opacity texture map.
In this case, the third layer is used to create highlights for the figure and gun outlnes. For this layer, I used an opacity mask created by using the NPR renderer with paper set to black, no diffuse, and outline set to white. The effect is muted by using a multiply function with the opacity texture map.
camera angle wasn't different. The terrain that the vertex rock out crops were embedded in was shifted over somehow. Also the aspect ratio was changed from a 4:2 to 16:9. Here's the latest iteration with the terrain moved back to where it is supposed to be.
Kevin, I use something called the wife test. I bring in my wife, and say "look at this great render!" She is very literal. Instead of oohing and ahhing over the style and cool mood I created, she points to a detail and says "what's that?" Properly deflated, I return to work and usually make some sort of change. When she looked at your Northern Lights render, she immediately said, "What's that bright thing down there?" She apparently didn't care for your beach area near the bottom, which is a little brighter than the rest of the terrain.
When she saw the one with the terrain shifted, she liked it much better.
I appreciate the critique. The landscape is based loosely on an area in my state, and if you were to see the beaches and sand bars along the river in those areas, it wouldn't look too far off from what I'm depicting.
UnifiedBrain, thank you very much for kind words!
Diomede, I just bought 3DUniverse Jasmine and Jason bundle the other day. Tonight I had problems with the hair similar to yours. What I did was crank up Studio and quickly load and cloth Jasmine... then saved as a DS scene. I then opened the scene in Carrara and copied Jasmine to and medium scene and tested it out... all seemed to work fine... at least the hair was were it belonged. So I saved the Jasmine char out to my objects... loaded it up in a new scene and retested... appears to work ok. Oh I did not save anything as blended in DS. Thought you might want to try it to see what the difference is.
Thanks for the tip, wgdjohn. That workflow appears much more convenient than finding the figure's obj file in the geometries folder and using the Studio transfer utility to setup a new figure.
Reminder
I think it is amazing and great that so many people have responded with wonderful NPR and toon renders. Just a quick reminder that there is also a challenge for "Best Photorealistic Render." You only have to use NPR or toon if you do more than one entry. This is UB's rule #3 for this challenge. 3. NPR/Toon. If you enter more than a single render (you are allowed 3), at least one of them must be done by using either the NPR render engine*, or the Toon! part lll filter.** The lighting requirement is waived for these entries.
My idea #3 is brought to you by Mel Brooks. Here is the inspiration.
.
Here are some quick props.
.
Here is a quick terrain. Time permitting, I may post the terrain workflow in my "No one asked me" thread.
Diomede, thanks for the explanation. Some of it is still over my head, but it gave me a lot of practical things to think about.
Just a note, I don't know about the NPR renderer, but the toon filter respects alphas, so if you need an image with an alpha, render it to a format that supports alpha, like .tif, .png, photoshop, etc. and then if using in a shader, just load it into the color channel, and you will automagically have alpha. No need for a mask.
Evilproducer, thank you a lot for this tip of the day! I am still struggling with toon plugins; especially with Yatoon plugin. The behaviour of contours is wierd.
It can be finicky, but worth it!
It is on Facebook, but it is public, so hopefully viewable. It is an example of some animations using the toon filter and alphas. It is comprised of many layers, and composited in Final Cut Pro.
https://www.facebook.com/100012031746048/videos/104217849989273/
A non-toon render, but also many layers and composited. Used fire primitive for rain curtains under clouds. Learned that one from one of our past challenges, so even us veteran Carrara users learn from these challenges!
https://www.facebook.com/100012031746048/videos/104239579987100/
Hey Evil, you spell amature like I do :) thanks everyone for sharing their knowledge!
Here's another from me. Out of the box. Uses that fresnel thing. It's done with the photoreal engine. No postwork.Lots of glow. Used a wave modifier on some of the plants.
I will probably use one or both of these as entries but they have a bit of work yet to do. Jasime is applied to G1... the pose is for G3 so I had a lot or repositioning to do of course. The main thing I want to do is to incorporate a Toon III filter for the color background. I'm kinda happy with the line art render... note that it appears the pinky on right hand is sticking into the leg... not so... most of the fingers are bent and do not touch the leg... might try rotating it a bit to see what if I can get an outline there. Oh... both are rendered with Toon! Pro plugin from DCG.
John, your picture reminds me of Matisse art. Is there any way to get rid off jagged edges in Toon!Pro plugin?
There might be... I've only started playing with it since yesterday. Just noticed the left elbow is missing a line... grrrr. I'd adjusted the the default line from 2.00 to 1.00 so will have to bump it up a bit... see what happens. Guess I'd better read about all the settings too.
Nice work - it's a good plugin. You can play with the missing lines by adjusting the depth setting (think that is what its called)
Vyusur, I had my line thickness at 1.00... thought I had it at 1.50... I corrected my error in earlier post. I was able to get rid of the jagged edges.
Andrew, I set Depth Cueing at a lot of various settings with no apparent change to the open areas where lines should be... also changed a lot of other settings and even lights. Will have to try on a different figure to see if same problems occurer.
I consider it as lineart-like... since it lacks the nice clean lines. I also noticed some artifacts in the render... perhaps with practice I might get a bit better.
One thing nice is the availability to have a backdrop. Renders and settings are below... note the backdrop was the 1st pic I grabbed... just wanted to see what it would look like.
Nicely done, John. Thanks for posting the screenshot and highlighting the settings.
Headwax, lots of great little touhes. I especially like the water reflections. How long does that take to render?
Working on the background for my angry mob. Changed the camera angle and added some clouds. The moon is just a vertex oval. The sky is a bigradient put in the backdrop channel.