July 2017 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Portrait Rendering

Lomrik

tkz said:

@lomrik - wow that eye color is something else! 

Take this as thoughts from a newb... but seems that the luminosity difference between the key and fill lights is a little too much... thinking that I would turn down the key a touch, and the fill up a touch... Thinking i'd also boost the back/hair light a bit too.... 

What hair-do are you using? I don't think I've seen that one....

Thanks tkz, the eyes are Hyperreal eyes for G3F https://www.daz3d.com/da-hyperreal-eyes-for-genesis-3-female-s and the hair is Agent Hair

The hair is Agent Hair https://www.daz3d.com/agent-hair-for-genesis-3-female-s-and-male-s

Thanks for all the comments and everyone is correct in saying the lighting was a bit harsh. I am working on that at the moment.

There are a lot of good starts here and forgive me if I don't comment on them, I find it hard to critic other peoples work when I am not satisfied with my own.

 

Kismet2012

sueya said:

Here is my second version. I have changed the pose slightly so that his arms are clearly folded. I have also added a subtle distant light to the right side of the figure (from the viewer's point of view).

 

I like the adjustments you have made to his pose sueya.  You have some interesting shadows on his face.  That is something I am always trying to create in my portraits. 

If you want to soften the shadows on his face you could add a fill light from our right.  That is up to you.

A rim light behind him that illuminates his shoulders will help him stand out from the background.

 

Kismet2012

NastyHeadwound said:

Trying a slightly different post treatment, some more lighting adjustments, and bringing back some of the sci-fi element since I lost her leg from the original post.

 

I really liked your original image but agreed with Linwelly that it was not a portrait style image. 

I love her pose and the sassy look on her face.    The cyborg style elements are a nice touch and introduce some interesting reflections.  Her skin looks much better in this version than the last one you posted.  She looks like she has a nice sheen of sweat which is what you wanted I believe.

I looked for the hand HD morphs you mentioned ealier and could not find them.  I looked through the store to see if it was an add-on option with a morph set and did not find anything.  That doesn't mean it does not exist.  I just couldn't find it.

 

Kismet2012

Aloreea said:

Ok, so I decided to try the cyperpunk thing, but I like my orignal more. I will still experiment with both and see which one turns out best. 

The top one is my cyberpunk attempt( With one part of her glowing tattoos) and in the bottom one I wanted to see how her glowing tattoo would look. I stopped them at about 50% so I could get the basic look.

 

 

 

I think I'm leaning more towards the original.

I agree 100%.  I love your first one more but the glowing tattoos on the cyberpunk girl have some potential.  I would suggest adjusting the camera angle on her to allow those tattoos to show up better.  Right now you have a hint of them and I would love to see more.

Kismet2012

Twisty said:

My second image entry, this one was a nightmare.

Literally over 50 hours of render time if I include two CPU crashes. I strugged badly to remove the graininess from the image, asked for some advice in a couple threads, none was forthcoming so I turned to google instead which provided some great help, though it took days of trial and error and many renders. I'm 99% happy with the final result now.

Title: Fireball 

Daz Studio, Iray with some touchups done in Gimp

Now to go back and re-render my first submission also with what I've learned to help reduce its graininess too!

We have all been there with those images you have to fight with tooth and nail. 

Your figure stands out quite well.  My eyes are drawn to her face.  I like the movement from her hair.

 

Kismet2012

daybird said:

First try this month, but I'm not really good in portraits.

I like your pose and camera angle.  You have a small amount of poke through on her rib cage below the breast.

Perhaps a fill light to illuminate her face.  It is a little dark compared to the brightness of the background.

 

Kismet2012

carmenlestoreadors said:

"Daughter of the Wind" 

An Arabian Fantasy / Battletech crossover
My first Daz3D 'serious' project!

This is my Battletech roleplay character. Not exactly Arabian fantasy - BT is a very diverse game universe set in the 31st Century and I play House Marik which has a lot of roots in Indian and Arabian subcultures of 'ancient' Earth. I add a lot of ethnic flair to the group as a result. 

Sgt. Carmen Toreadors has an interesting taste of fashion during undercover operations on a certain Periphery world. She wears what her team members call a "gaudy monstrosity" that was apparently snapped up on the cheap from this years Ramadan Bazaar. And oh, before you ask, yes she is quite fine shooting left-handed, and yes that is an antique slug-thrower patterned after the Colt Peacemaker of Terran antiquity once again. Because last time the game-master put her near advanced weaponry, a whole neighborhood on Galatea caught fire.

And that was even before they set off on their first contract. Not only are Marik girls weird and dangerous, this one is suspected to be an agent of S.A.F.E., which is the term for Marik special intelligence... not that anyone realized it yet.

You see Ivan, when need of undercover, dress in ridiculous! Enemy will never take second glance. 

Nice image and a great story. 

Kismet2012

tkz said:

Starting on the pose / expression...

Some thoughts:
I think may have taken a little too much light away, the lipstick is looking really thick / plastic like. Switched the eyes over to ones from Phoenix, toned down the cleavage / breast size a bit. Put a little twist in her stance and tweaked both arms... I think a little bend in the mid section to go with the twist might help, but it's getting too late / early. I'm aiming for a light smirk with her mouth, but it's not looking dialed in yet. 

Night! 

I really like the last version.  She has a great expression. 

You will need to do a little bit of postwork to deal with the issue of the areola peeking through.

Kismet2012

Shinji Ikari 9th said:

Made some adjustments to his hands to try and get them closer to where they should be, as well as giving him his gloves (that I only remember him taking off only one time in the entire show.)

The hands look much better Shinji. 

Lomrik

Changed everything and like think this is a better image.

carmenara

< Image removed by author as I had submitted too many images >

Kismet2012

Lomrik said:

Changed everything and like think this is a better image.

Her eyes are very captivating and I really like the highlights you created in her hair.

 

Twisty

I re-rendered my first submission "Showoff" with different settings and it came out a lot better, far less grainy! :)

Zero postwork on this one, pure render.

Twisty

 

 

Kismet2012 said:

 

 

We have all been there with those images you have to fight with tooth and nail. 

Your figure stands out quite well.  My eyes are drawn to her face.  I like the movement from her hair.

 

Thanks for the compliment and encouragemet, Kismet 

I learned a lot while trying to perfect that render. It's seeing me go back and re-render a lot of my earlier stuff now as a result.

I tried to remain conscious of the theme and it's focus on expression. While I didn't give her much of an expression (beyond confidence) I found myself always drawn to her face also, possibly due to the movement of hair and fireball beside it. Despite the agony it was a fun pic to render and one of my favorites so far.

NastyHeadwound

Okay, I think this is where I'm going to leave this image. Lots more adjustments to light placement, a shift in camera angle to bring more of the bike into the image and also provide a stronger backdrop, and a return to the stronger light bloom in post. I could fiddle with this forever, but I'm pretty happy at this point.

I still like my original post better in terms of attitude, but I do feel this final image is much more inline with the contest theme and has its own merits.

daybird

After some lousy adjustments I was not really happy with the result and erased my first try completely.
Here is my second try. I still play with the glow effect, but I'm not sure if he works in this sort of picture..

daybird

After some lousy adjustments I was not really happy with the result and erased my first try completely.
Here is my second try. I still play with the glow effect, but I'm not sure if he works in this sort of picture..

NastyHeadwound said:

Okay, I think this is where I'm going to leave this image. Lots more adjustments to light placement, a shift in camera angle to bring more of the bike into the image and also provide a stronger backdrop, and a return to the stronger light bloom in post. I could fiddle with this forever, but I'm pretty happy at this point.

I still like my original post better in terms of attitude, but I do feel this final image is much more inline with the contest theme and has its own merits.

For me it's equal, if this pic is a portrait or not. It looks fantastic and you had done a great job.

NastyHeadwound

daybird said:

After some lousy adjustments I was not really happy with the result and erased my first try completely.
Here is my second try. I still play with the glow effect, but I'm not sure if he works in this sort of picture..

I think you're on a much better track with this image... I love the idea of making the portrait a selfie! A little fill light on her face would make a big difference in selling it... maybe a little cellphone flash.

Nice work, looking forward to seeing where you take it from here.

NastyHeadwound

Sorry, duped a post... not sure how to delete. 

NastyHeadwound

NastyHeadwound said:

Okay, I think this is where I'm going to leave this image. Lots more adjustments to light placement, a shift in camera angle to bring more of the bike into the image and also provide a stronger backdrop, and a return to the stronger light bloom in post. I could fiddle with this forever, but I'm pretty happy at this point.

I still like my original post better in terms of attitude, but I do feel this final image is much more inline with the contest theme and has its own merits.

Also... I forgot to give a really big shout out to the real artists behind my image. I can give an unequivical "BUY IT NOW" to all of the items below... great stuff and, no, I'm not getting a kickback from any of them. 

Marcius for the outstanding Jiao figure... she is truly beautiful: https://www.daz3d.com/jiao-for-genesis-8-female 

AprilYSH for the Voss hair: https://www.daz3d.com/voss-hair-for-genesis-3-8-female-s

outoftouch for the Mega Wardrobe shorts (super jeans) and cami top: https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-female-mega-wardrobe

ZKuro for the chrome cyborg/armor Sci-Fi Samurai elements: https://www.daz3d.com/sci-fi-samurai-for-genesis-8-female-s

Stonemason for the amazing Urban Future 5 set: https://www.daz3d.com/urban-future-5

Parris for his BotMoto bike: https://www.daz3d.com/botmoto

sueya

I have added a rim light behind Brayden. I'm happy with the way this looks now.

Chohole

Aloreea

Kismet2012 said:

Aloreea said:

Ok, so I decided to try the cyperpunk thing, but I like my orignal more. I will still experiment with both and see which one turns out best. 

The top one is my cyberpunk attempt( With one part of her glowing tattoos) and in the bottom one I wanted to see how her glowing tattoo would look. I stopped them at about 50% so I could get the basic look.

 

 

 

 

I think I'm leaning more towards the original.

I agree 100%.  I love your first one more but the glowing tattoos on the cyberpunk girl have some potential.  I would suggest adjusting the camera angle on her to allow those tattoos to show up better.  Right now you have a hint of them and I would love to see more.

Ok, so I rendered a different view to show the glowing tattoos, but the hair decided to do weird things.XD I forgot to check it before I went to bed.(I'll fix it later) Plus, I forgot to fix the cybernetic part of her face, I moved it away from her face temporarily and forgot to move it back. Then I wanted to try a new glowing dragon tattoo that I just made, so I rendered that too. I stopped it at 60%.

 

For my original, I'm going to get rid of the lotus glowing tattoo and keep it simple. I think that's what it needs.

NastyHeadwound

Aloreea said:

Kismet2012 said:

Aloreea said:

Ok, so I decided to try the cyperpunk thing, but I like my orignal more. I will still experiment with both and see which one turns out best. 

The top one is my cyberpunk attempt( With one part of her glowing tattoos) and in the bottom one I wanted to see how her glowing tattoo would look. I stopped them at about 50% so I could get the basic look.

 

 

 

 

I think I'm leaning more towards the original.

I agree 100%.  I love your first one more but the glowing tattoos on the cyberpunk girl have some potential.  I would suggest adjusting the camera angle on her to allow those tattoos to show up better.  Right now you have a hint of them and I would love to see more.

Ok, so I rendered a different view to show the glowing tattoos, but the hair decided to do weird things.XD I forgot to check it before I went to bed.(I'll fix it later) Plus, I forgot to fix the cybernetic part of her face, I moved it away from her face temporarily and forgot to move it back. Then I wanted to try a new glowing dragon tattoo that I just made, so I rendered that too. I stopped it at 60%.

 

For my original, I'm going to get rid of the lotus glowing tattoo and keep it simple. I think that's what it needs.

I really like the new pose with the glowing dragon tattoo, but the foreground lighting on the girl seems a bit dim. Maybe a gentle fill light that gives the impression the arm tattoo is illuminating the face? Also, I love that our images have the feel of being tied to the same universe... very cool.

Blade Runner has been a major source of inspiration to me for 35 years and BR-inspired work like Shadowrun is a close second. All of this is making me want to read Neuromancer for the 5th time. 

Aloreea

 

Kismet2012 said:

Aloreea said:

 

NastyHeadwound said:

Aloreea said:

Kismet2012 said:

Aloreea said:

Ok, so I decided to try the cyperpunk thing, but I like my orignal more. I will still experiment with both and see which one turns out best. 

The top one is my cyberpunk attempt( With one part of her glowing tattoos) and in the bottom one I wanted to see how her glowing tattoo would look. I stopped them at about 50% so I could get the basic look.

 

 

 

 

I think I'm leaning more towards the original.

I agree 100%.  I love your first one more but the glowing tattoos on the cyberpunk girl have some potential.  I would suggest adjusting the camera angle on her to allow those tattoos to show up better.  Right now you have a hint of them and I would love to see more.

Ok, so I rendered a different view to show the glowing tattoos, but the hair decided to do weird things.XD I forgot to check it before I went to bed.(I'll fix it later) Plus, I forgot to fix the cybernetic part of her face, I moved it away from her face temporarily and forgot to move it back. Then I wanted to try a new glowing dragon tattoo that I just made, so I rendered that too. I stopped it at 60%.

 

For my original, I'm going to get rid of the lotus glowing tattoo and keep it simple. I think that's what it needs.

I really like the new pose with the glowing dragon tattoo, but the foreground lighting on the girl seems a bit dim. Maybe a gentle fill light that gives the impression the arm tattoo is illuminating the face? Also, I love that our images have the feel of being tied to the same universe... very cool.

Blade Runner has been a major source of inspiration to me for 35 years and BR-inspired work like Shadowrun is a close second. All of this is making me want to read Neuromancer for the 5th time. 

Thank you!

also I noticed that too, the lighting on her is pretty dim. I'll see what I can do to fix that. 

Our pics do kinda have the feel of being in the same universe,  Awesome! Also I can tell, your image really reminds me of Blade Runner! And your lighting is amazing! Greatwork!

 

Kismet2012

Twisty said:

 

 

Kismet2012 said:

 

 

We have all been there with those images you have to fight with tooth and nail. 

Your figure stands out quite well.  My eyes are drawn to her face.  I like the movement from her hair.

 

Thanks for the compliment and encouragemet, Kismet 

I learned a lot while trying to perfect that render. It's seeing me go back and re-render a lot of my earlier stuff now as a result.

I tried to remain conscious of the theme and it's focus on expression. While I didn't give her much of an expression (beyond confidence) I found myself always drawn to her face also, possibly due to the movement of hair and fireball beside it. Despite the agony it was a fun pic to render and one of my favorites so far.

We usually learn more from a frustrating render than we do from one that comes easily. 

Shinji Ikari 9th

Turned out that he was farther from the table then I thought so I moved him closer.  Also changed the settings of his lenses, tilted his head forwards to try and catch some of the light on the lenses, gave him some expressions and used one of the visemes settings to have him saying something.

3Diva

carmenlestoreadors said:

Karli by @divamakeup 

She graciously gave me tips on how to test her new G8 morph and I thought showing her off all normal and perfectly at home in lifelike scenery would be the way to go! I notice iRay tends to overlight the scene and fill in the shadows a little too well. Once I set a Distant Light object it seems the point lights and spotlights are almost completely ignored. How do I set proper lighting for daylight shadow effects? Reduce intensity of Distant Light? Use fill lights only? Help welcome so I can re render a better scene! I loved how the setting turned out so I want it even better!

 

Thanks again for testing my morph! 

As for the shadows - make sure you have "Draw Ground" on and make sure under Environment >> Environment Mode it's set to "Dome and Scene" if you're using both an HDR as well as your own added lights. If the shadows are still too subtle, you might try going under Tone Mapping and turn up "Crush Blacks".

Noswen

Lots of good images in this month's thread!

Here's my first attempt at making something for it as well.

Survivor

Not quite sure where to go with this yet, but oh well.

NastyHeadwound

divamakeup said:

carmenlestoreadors said:

Karli by @divamakeup 

She graciously gave me tips on how to test her new G8 morph and I thought showing her off all normal and perfectly at home in lifelike scenery would be the way to go! I notice iRay tends to overlight the scene and fill in the shadows a little too well. Once I set a Distant Light object it seems the point lights and spotlights are almost completely ignored. How do I set proper lighting for daylight shadow effects? Reduce intensity of Distant Light? Use fill lights only? Help welcome so I can re render a better scene! I loved how the setting turned out so I want it even better!

 

Thanks again for testing my morph! 

As for the shadows - make sure you have "Draw Ground" on and make sure under Environment >> Environment Mode it's set to "Dome and Scene" if you're using both an HDR as well as your own added lights. If the shadows are still too subtle, you might try going under Tone Mapping and turn up "Crush Blacks".

You might also try turning off the Headlamp in the General Render Settings and on the Camera.