Novica & Serene Night's Renders, Tips, Tutorials & Product Reviews Part 1
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Josh + .50 Hiro 4
And here is Hiro who has upped his game. Next up, we'll look at African American with a negative number first- you'll love the Benjamin morphs!
Josh + Benjamin -50.3
Benjamin for M5 really gives you a lot of influence- in positive and negative slides! Let's start with a strong negative.
http://www.daz3d.com/benjamin-for-m5
Josh + 22.5% Benjamin
Going positive with Benjamin, love the versatility! Compare the nose from the last post to this one. We will continue and increase the morph in the next post to 55%. For now, here he is at 22.5%
Here's the mug shots of the last six fellas.
I'll put the first group back so you won't have to scroll to see and compare. They'll be first.
So.....did any of the last group overtake the first group for your favorite?
Josh + 55% Benjamin
And the last Benjamin. Next, let's compare to African American Sean. (for David 5)
Josh + Sean -100%
So Sean is going strongly negative- take a look!
http://www.daz3d.com/sean-for-david-5
Josh + 50% Ken
And we will end with Ken 50%. For an ultra strong jaw and chin change!
Now, check back, as I will remove the restriction of only adding one morph at a time- I will keep Josh at 100% (plus the few morphs posted in the first post) and I will combine several of these characters. EDIT: Doing it now. Couldn't wait until tomorrow.
JOSH COMBO: RENDERING NOW:
Let's see how all these characters do together. Keeping them in order:
Toon Amy 2.9
Infernal Behemoh -.029 (positives open mouth and show snarl)
Freak 4 .40
The Girl 4 .038
Momo 11.5
Jasmin 6.4
Azumi 6.4
Jason -.058
Hiro 4 .019
Benjamin 6.4
Sean -7.7
Ken 14.5
Now, here is Josh with every single adjustment (from the first post) stripped off, and JUST 100% Josh. (First image) vs my new character!
Your renders all looks great Novica ,
I've been lurking
Two Or More People /Objects Interacting In A Scene
There is a new contest for June, and with that in mind, I'm going to share some thoughts on what I consider when two people are in a scene- the contest says it can be people with people or animals (or monsters, etc) The focus is on the interaction between characters, so I'll explore that- and a bit more. As always, this is just my opinion- hope it helps you.
TIP: New Characters? Pose First, Hair LATER!
Let's say you don't have your characters, so you do the morphs, clothes, hair, and are ready to go. Then you pose. THEN you see the hair blocks the face because of the style you chose. (And perhaps spent so much time on, doing smoothing, collision, morphing.) Either render from a different angle (and one you may not be thrilled with, or have to "settle" for, which I NEVER do!) or it's bye bye hair.
TIP: New Characters? Pose First,Clothing LATER!
Again, if you are starting from scratch, it will make a difference as to not only the hair, but the CLOTHING. That flowing cape might not have the morphs to do what you want it to do- that outfit may lose its appeal from a certain angle...You may not be happy after spending a lot of time with gorgeous clothing and hair THEN finding out you've got pose and camera angle problems. Get your pose and then clothe- some outfits REALLY change depending on the pose!
And most of the time, I do the lights BEFORE the clothing. Why load up the scene and take longer to spot render and render? (Although you can close the eye of the object in the SCENE section to remove it temporarily from the viewport/spot render) If your lights look good on that arm, it will look good when you add the clothes. May even dazzle you if it's shiny armor! Then tweak the lights if you want more pizzaz in certain areas.
Regarding other things to consider, it might help to ask these questions. Body language has to do the talking for you in a still scene!
1. Who is more important or dominant? Are they both equals?
a. Who is leaning forward / leaning back?
b. Are the hands relaxed or tensed?
2. Are they supportive of the other person/thing? How do you tell?
a. Is one person talking- while the other is looking away?
b. What signs do you give for lack of respect? (rolling eyes, mouth off to the side, pursed, like "anyday now....")
3. Are they tired or energetic? Sad or happy? Pensive?
a. do their faces reflect their state of being?
b. do their bodies support what the face is reflecting? If you have a weary look on the face, those shoulders should be drooping!
c. closing off your body with crossed arms, vs hands on hips- is a good way to show defensive behavior, being open to suggestions, or aggression.
4. How well do they know each other-are they in each other's personal space?
5. Does one know something the other one doesn't? Did you let the viewer in on it? How? (Remember VIEWS. It can't be a secret if
you don't have whatever it is out of view of the unsuspecting person!)
6. If they are romantic/ supportive- have you been creative in having them touching?
7. How have you involved the viewer in the scene- is one character looking straight at the camera? (that can be fun!) Is there something the viewer sees that neither of the characters see?
8. Does the lighting help one character more than the other? Does it set the mood? Does it showcase the most important aspect of your scene, aka, the action and the most important character? Does it make the viewer feel what the people /critters in the scene feel? (Apprehension, can't see things, awe at the beauty of the scene, etc.)
This should get you started. Happy rendering! And if you're a newbie, give it a go for the contest.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/23114/
Anyone want to offer more suggestions, feel free. I'm zipping out the door and this was just a starting point :) (have they fixed these stupid smilies YET????)
You and me both kiddo! :) I'm nowhere NEAR ready to do animation. So jealous!
Oooh! I'm delighted to say I received Honorable Mention in the New Users contest involving lighting. (The Riley + morphs) I got to select from ARTCollaborations store (except for bundles) and I have a lot of those products already (great vendor!)
I want to share three of the renders that you animal / critter lovers should see, in case you didn't visit that thread. I thought these were very, very good.
Go Carola!
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21482/#326291
And LisaDM
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21482/#328662
and I LOVED the humor here, with Rock 'N Troll. Care to dance anyone?
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21482/#336665
My Honorable Mention is below, I posted it several days ago but here tis again. It's Riley with the morphs that are included in the upcoming Fun With Morphs video 2. That is the Genesis cloak, and it's fun to work with.
Here's a few more links to "Questions & Answers" from the threads. Some may have been covered before, I'm still going throught the 28 pages of my art studio and doing the links
Info: Power Pose!
Hmmm, so I'm not the only one who didn't know this existed... HeraldOfFire explained:
"... There are tools which can help the process though. The main one in Daz Studio is called Power Pose. This can be found by clicking Windows -> Panes (Tabs) -> Poserpose which will bring up a window with a figure outline. Click on various dots on the figure to access that particular body part and move it around. This allows you to more easily select fiddly parts of a figure, such as the fingers, for example, or simply to quickly switch between different body parts to speed up the process."
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/23142/
Info: What To Check If Skin Is Mottled Or Splotchy
Yep, check those surfaces. Here's a setting that may be wrong-
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/23192/
Info: Posing- How To Choose Where The Character Will Load, How To Keep Figure In Place When Applying A Pose
Jaderail to the rescue for both!
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/23114/#341822
Let's look at hand posing.
ZOOM. Change views- if you are in a view more than five minutes, that's about three minutes too long, lol. Don't forget the TOP view, that really shows you quickly if you have something in front of, or behind, the other hand / object / body part.
I'll share screenshots of something I am working on that goes with the New Users contest of posing two things together. Probably not entering (don't really know what a new user is, but I think brand new users should be the priority. As of Sept, it will be a year for me and although I've done very few renders, I practice for hours every week on the basics and real newcomers haven't.) So here ya go-
a shot of two hands. You can watch it evolve (or not, lol- I do not have it finished. This is WIP as I am doing it. Keep checking back, I'll reserve some posts so everything is in one place.
Lighting is not done, not spot rendered. Just posing!
Edit: Photo 2, same view. Moving hands together. His is in back, will be gently holding hers. I'll keep the same view for another one as I move it- then change views which is SO important.
Edit: Photo 3: Going to decrease these in size so they're not so "in your face!" I bent a finger and moved the thumb. Can't see much difference from this view- which is why you should CHANGE VIEWS. Now get ready- you think these two are close to touching or touching and you're SO pleased....
Edit: Photo 4: EEEEEEK. Nuff said. Look at the blue cube- that's why top view is so important!
Edit: Photo 5: ZOOM. Getting ready to pull his hand out. Her hand needs to stay put for now.
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: As these shots are now showing people, I'll point out the woman does not have pants on, and is not fully dressed because when posing, I want to see where the legs are going. I do put tops on the ladies, as that is just downright distracting to me when posing! The man is fully dressed because initially he was alone in the scene and I just left him that way. It renders quickly. (Lighting not done.)
Photo 1: I am NOT using the Universal Tool cube (what I call that square with arrows) nor am I using the Parameters. If you get good at clicking and dragging you will get more options in my opinion- by dragging and seeing the item change as you drag, you'll go, "Ooooooh.... I like that BETTER!"
Photo 2: Not changing anything, just showing you the importance of another view. I could care less if the fingers are going through her arm, I am still posing. Don't fix things if you're not in the location you want to be!
So what you should be getting from this- zoom in , change fingers/hand, do at LEAST two views.
Photo 3: So let's try it from HIS point of view, looking from shoulder. But wait! The wall is in the way! YOU know what to do, right?
Photo 4: Click on the object. If it's part of a set though, you have to expand the set and find it. And it did not select when I clicked on it (aka the wall) so you will have to go into the set and just click on things under the set, CLOSING THE EYE TO REMOVE IT FROM THE SCENE TEMPORARILY.
Now I can swing my camera around and get a better view, and more easily grab the arm and elbow if I want to. If you are having trouble grabbing onto body parts or objects, hide parts of your scene. I discussed this at the very beginning of my thread- that's how I got Kaetl's finger precisely placed. (Baby dragons and her leg was in the way every time!)
Photo 5: What a difference that made in getting to see the hands! (No changes made.) You are THE WALL at this point!
Okay, moving his hand forward, still from the Wall view. Don't worry about how the hands intersect, just get them where they need to GO.
I don't want him grabbing her hand, I'm trying caressing. If I don't like it, no biggie, back it will go. So I am going to have him "unhand her!" (next photo)
Photo to far right: Next, let's go from behind the woman. That wall still needed to be off, I had to latch on and drag his arm and the wall parts were in the way.Can't really get his hand up from this view unless I use Parameters, but I am sticking to the drag and pull method for now. I am going to show you that you can turn off her arm to bring his hand up, without changing views. Remember those drop downs for the figures- you don't have to turn off the entire figure! I can make just her forearm disappear temporarily.
Next photo: Notice her hand and forearm went POOF. The screenshot shows you in the SCENE tab what I did. Just closed the eyes.
SO NOW I HAVE AN EASY WAY TO GRAB ONTO HIS HAND AND PULL IT.
EDIT: Well, that isn't working- his elbow needs to come back so the hands intersect more comfortably. So I'll leave her hand and forearm in the POOF zone, and zip to the front and pull his arm back. Again I am NOT using the Universal Tool cube, I clicked on his forearm!
Last photo: Let's head to the front view. YOU WOULD NOT EVEN SEE HIS HAND! The forearm would be blocking it if it were put back in the scene.
Next post, we'll go to the BACK view. And how easy it will be to pull UP from there.
Photo 1: You can see (if you look closely) her hand and forearm are still gone- but how HIGH they are. Next post, I'll raise that arm from this position. (You again are the WALL. If you did not hide it, you would be missing this opportunity.)
I turned her forearm/hand back on as now I'm ready to tweak their fingers and get the hands touching. Keeping them off only would only make a slight difference if I were to spot render (in the time- turning things off speeds you up) I just didnt need the arm and hand back on at the time.
Here we go again. (No surprise to me, just making a point.) The hands are not together, see how changing the view really makes a difference? Now here I go spouting my philosophy, but at least read it-
You are doing yourself a disservice if you only worry about the render view while posing. If you settle. DON'T SETTLE. You should be able to
render from ANY ANGLE and not have floaters (legs in the air), things that really don't touch... be picky. I will be able to have SO many different renders from this one setup! And remember- I can save this as preset poses and use these in a different scene, different angle, and WOW.
So, keep tweaking folks. I've been doing this for hours now. (Stopping to screenshot and post of course is 90% of that time.) Going to be 103 degree heat index in Pensacola today, so staying indoors and on computer.
Last photo: Okay the dilemma. I can move her back or him forward. I need to analyze what aspects of this scene are important. HER ELBOW ON HIS LEG MUST STAY THERE. It's intimate. You'll understand when you see the scene. I love this one! So, I've moved HER arm further into his leg, and brought HER hand back.
TIP: To Avoid Floaters I took her elbow down into his leg until the tip of her elbow was GONE. That also tells me it is not in front, or behind the leg. Then I raised it. No matter what angle or view, I KNOW that elbow is resting on the leg. When I see folks who have floaters, I know right away they have not viewed the offender from different angles or lowered parts until they disappear. And I empathize- It's hard to remember after you tweak something!
EDIT: Will answer the PM next post :) Be happy to share that info.
Okay, the question was "What did you pull on to move the forearm? The hand or arm?" It was the forearm itself. I stayed away from the elbow- it's wise to do that. If you are near bendable things, they, well, bend! And in the first photo, I pulled from the middle of her upper arm, towards me.
PHOTO 1- Dragging her arm back, using upper forearm. NOT Universal Tool cube. (my name for it. That thing with the arrows) Wall still off or this would be impossible.
Interesting changes, but one thing looks off when you moved the arm the way you did. The upper arm looks stretched and thus disproportionately elongated in that last picture.
I'll double check with some of the screenshots (since I have that one numbered, I'll know where to jump in and check.) Pretty sure it's just the angle :) Some of these you'll be looking from the wall's point of view and other weird angles we wouldn't be able to get to with the scene left visible. I've actually finished the posing (took about 150 screenshots) and will wade through so it doesn't take as long to get the gist of what's going on. I wanted to challenge myself and get two figures intertwined (Might as well jump in with both feet, right?) and have I also have the restriction of a wall that keeps me from taking the easy route and just pulling elbows out. Man, it was HARD. (Why I do these things to myself...this is the first duo, ever, for me...)
The final picture will have her leg under his, one knee bent with the foot having to go under his leg and to the side, one hand on someone else's knee, the other two hands holding...and all done without pinning a single thing. (And keeping hiney's on the floor, and feet on the ground.) I did it all with dragging and only used Parameters three times!
What is interesting is this is not the character I am using, she has not been morphed yet. It IS the Josh that I demonstrated being morphed, which is what started this entire scene. (And no, not the contest posing two people/critters for newbies. I wanted to use Josh! That was a nice coincidence though!)
EDIT: Will be grouping pictures as it will be impossible timewise to take you through each one- just watch as it evolves. What you are seeing is totally different than the end result. This is the journey to get there.
Yes. Am checking back on the screenshots. Can't go into the studio at the moment as am rendering. I didn't pull the arrows at all from the Universal Tool cube, stayed well away from it, so pretty sure it's just the angle of the screenshot. But I will check, thanks!
Checked, arm is same length as other arm. But thanks for pointing out the possibility- I appreciate extra set of eyes to help catch boo boos.
This set-
Experimenting with the hand to the cheek, having to pull forward and check from different views.
Want you to notice how the guy disappears on one of these. I had to see how to pose her and he was in the way. Bye bye- shut the eye in Scene to remove him for a few minutes.
Did you notice any SIGNIFICANT pose change in the last several sets? Here's a tip for you newbies- because ALL this effort could have been wasted....
Don't get sidetracked, finish what you start. I FORGOT TO BEND HER KNEE AND HER LEG WAS DISAPPEARING STRAIGHT DOWN THROUGH THE FLOOR. (the one by the wall.) Go ahead, go back and look at the first shots where some of the thighs are showing. Great, eh? Well, I'm experienced enough now that I knew for me, it's easier to straighten the leg out totally, then bend it back toward her. (Had to make him disappear again. He's tired of being Houdini.)
But save yourself the headache and finish the basics before you start finessing.
I will jump ahead now and show you the finished pose- that will totally have to be "changed." After rendering, I thought it was too competitive with another aspect of the image which should be the focus. So I will be lowering the hands.
TIP: Jazz Up Your Stone
So...you have just the perfect spotlight illuminating your person or object....and want a bit more contrast. Add a bit of pizazz to your background stone! These are all spotlights at 100% but turning them down to 8-15% gives you a nice glow, sets the stone apart from other sections of the wall, and helps with the aura you're creating. It depends on how dark your original stone is, of course.
Newbies- if you don't want to use spotlights, you can use these colors over in Surfaces, use them for diffuse. You click on the surface that you want to experiment with, click on the surface selection tool (three sheets of dark paper, by the Universal tool) then go into Surfaces.
Shown is the original stone mask, photo 1. The rest have the colors supplied. Have fun experimenting and creating your own palette :)
And my favorites- the blues. Love this with moonlight.
Is this new? You can now download directly from My Orders in your account section! You don't have to go to the product library to do it. That is so cool, particularly if you were using Taozen's downloader and have your stuff organized by order date. (I do, on an external hard drive.)
Just found this out at 11:30pm June 4th (Central time, USA)
INFO: Making Photoshop Textures Tutorial By Chohole
Excellent screenshots, step by step. Even if you aren't doing it, check out the second link and see how it's done. Fun!
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/23279/
http://chohole.ovbi.org/texture_tutorial.htm