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Wow, that's a huge compliment, thanks!
As for posing.. I am very picky and I strongly dislike it is poses look forced or stiff, unless they are meant to. Can't pull that off every time, true, but I'm still learning. I usually start with a general idea. Roughly pose the figure. Look at it from all angles and decide if it is anywhere near what I wanted. If it's not, start again. If it is, move from there and start the first round of fine-tuning. Pan around again. Not happy? Try again. Happy? Good! Now the fun begins. Little twists, bends, turns to subtly take out any leftover perfect symmetry. Look again. Still good? Then and only then I get to the hands and fingers (and feet and toes if I have to). It's a bit time consuming, but as it's also my favourite part, I don't mind that at all :D
I was playing around with two of what I lovingly call my Test Subjects. They mostly only feature in borderline insane scenes that are merely meant for those "What does that clothes set look like" and "what happens if I..." experiments. I kind of like how this turned out, even if the lighting/shadows could be better and her pose is a bit stiffer than I would have liked it to be..
I call it 'Summer Evening'.
Some postwork done to remove unsightly white spots from that stubborn Hampton hair.
This one needs a better background, for one thing, but still sharing this little thingy.
Meet Isabelle aka The One Who Started It All ;) Well, the original mindsharer anyway. Alright, I'm babbling, shutting up now :)
Still all open for suggestions.
"Memories"
Working on something new. Giving it a rest now and see how I feel about it later.
As always, I'm open for suggestions!
Been playing with Jerutha and some foresty backgrounds again. This is what I ended up with:
"Ranging"
Let me dig this up again :)
I was scrolling through the renders I did and found another old one that needs improving. Even if this already is the second version. I wouldn't mind having some ideas and input. I learned a few things since I last worked on it, but I want to learn more :)
What I want to achieve:
- Put more focus on Amber (the character) -> DOF should help there.
- Make the whole a bit less glowy and plasticky -> might achieve that by pulling out some UE or other (or blame the PS postwork I did and just keep my fingers crossed that it'll help).
She'll also get a new hairdo and possibly a different dress, but that's trivial.
Keep in mind that..
- This image started out as an experiment with shadows. It is not meant to have realistic shadows and lighting.
- The huge shadow falling over her, is the whole point: it's her owl companion Moon coming in for one of his rude landings.
- The little claw (inside the red circle) stays :)
When I look at a picture that wants some input, what I do is look away and then look at it again. The first thing I would do is get the post away from her head (since you want more emphasis on HER.) The post is somewhat light, and so is her hair. Move her to our right? (but not so much that the post in the background is coming out of her head.) That would also add more asymmetrical composition and make it even more clear that there is "incoming" on the left.
In addition to DOF, though, perhaps darken the background so you don't have all the clutter on OUR right so prominent.
Looks like a fun scene, as usual can't wait to see what you end up with!
Cathie
Thank you :)
So far, I slightly shifted the background building (will probably do some more of that), fiddled with the lights, changed the hair and dress and added DOF.
You're right that the backgroound could use some darkening apart from blurring, that will be the next step.
Here's the current version.
Really made a difference IMO! The color of her dress did too (I'm partial to greens though. And works so well with neutral stone colors.)
She's a druid, I like making her wear green ;) And it does work well with her light hair and strange eyes. At least, I think it does. I tried to put her in her leather armour, but all that did, was eat the shadows and make the pose look a little weird. Better luck with that next time then.
Darkened the area behind her, but left the rest light. Shadows became very dark and ugly and well, I think it draws the eye to whatever it is she's looking at (I'll post a pic that does include the owl at some point, don't worry, I just have to actually render it ;)). *Something* is happening up there and she sure finds it interesting enough to give it a smile.
I think I might do some minor post work touch ups, but on the whole, I think it improved.
*grins*
Playing and testing. Going back to old stuff is FUN!
On a serious note, I do think it helps to practise. After all, what can't old try-outs and experiments be new ones, at the same time? Even without having brilliant new ideas.
Almost forgot! I promised a shot that includes the owl!
Meet Moon, Amber's barn owl companion. He's rather rude and will not land on the offered arm. He prefers her shoulder and particularly enjoys tangling his claws in her hair and flapping his wings in her face. She doesn't mind, it's a bit of a game game they play.
Not sure if the next is a breach of forum TOS. There is no nudity. At all, but some as people are sensitive to this kind of silliness and prefer not to see it, the next image featuring my trusty (yet disobedient) Test Subjects will be provided in a link.
http://morimann.deviantart.com/art/Test-Subjects-Misbehaving-384610973
Yes, I kick around on dA, too. And yes, I dabble in other fields. Like pony customizing. Move along, nothing to see ;) (And fix these smilies, pretty please..)
Nothing even CLOSE to none TOS. Feel free to post things like this if you wish.
No problem with the TOS and that image that I can see. :)
Good :D I'll leave this one as is for now, but will slap related future idiocy directly on the forum. I should have known artists and the atrsy minded are generally more openminded. And understanding when it comes to experimenting with the characters at hand ;)
*grins* Oh this one was fun! I got some Roman style stuff and wanted to test it out. My way, obviously - meaning a silly pose and in this case, only 2 lights.
And so the Casual Roman was born.
I don't even remember who I slapped into the armour. I suppose it doesn't matter much, anyway.
http://www.daz3d.com/forest
I was testing http://www.daz3d.com/forest, that didn't want to run very well in DAZ 4.5 for me. It seems to be much more cooperative in 4.6, for some reason. Of course, Amber insisted on sitting on a rock, staring thoughtfully over the stream.. And she wanted a nicer haircolour. Who am I to deny her that?
Here, have a low quality preview. And it's no more than that: a preview. *rubs hands*
Better quality render of the above. And a different camera angle, but I didn't change much else. I don't think I'm completely done with this yet, but I'm giving it a bit of a rest before evaluating. Let's say.. a few weeks?
Opinions and pointers are - as always - welcome.
Yes, I do think she's daydreaming about a certain moody ranger ;)
I keep fiddling with this and updating it for hair and accessories. And lighting. And other details.
Basically, I think it's kind of cute and I'm rather happy with their expressions here. Thoughts? I'd love to hear them :D (Yes, i know one of her curls is in her shoulder, I'll get to that ;) )
Ey.. he doesn't look moody.. *happy smile* she managed to shoo away his moodiness, if only for a while *smiles* I do love the whole scene, it speaks volume about he connection between these two. Looks like it's the moment before either of them leans forward and steals a kiss *winks*
That would be her, I believe (and then he'll pull her close and.. well, you get the idea ;) )
Glad you like it :) These are those special private moments when he allows himself to relax. That look is exclusively for her. Unless I am around with a camera *looks innocent*
Thihi.. oh yes, I get the idea... it's such a lovely day to just stay in bed isn't it *winks*
If it was up to Amber, I strongly believe she'd claim every day is a good day to stay in bed. She's a bit silly sometimes ;)
More of these two. Testing out stuff, so not a finished scene by far and not one I'm likely ever going to finish, but it works for testing just fine.
'Tomorrow' was a working title, because I had other plans, but they decided to make it more into a "Gods I was worried, I'm so glad you're okay" or "Be careful out there" thing. *shrugs* They never obey me anyway.
Also, thanks to Novica's thread, I plucked that braided hair completely apart again and apparently, I was blind the first time I did that, because now I did find the morphs. In the neck 'bone'. I'm so going to play with that :D For now, i fixed the 'sink into shoulder' thing it used to do.
Any tips and opinions are welcome, of course.
I promised I'd get back to this and now that I've FINALLY found working morphs for the hair (I swear they were not there before..), I decided to whip it out. Also shaders. No, I don't think it's done yet and no, I still don't believe the hair is good enough to allow myself to wiggle out of learning how to paint hair. But yeah, here he is again: the drunken ranger.
I'm rather sure the next one that involves him will hav all teh grump and moodiness that were not in these last few images.. *runs for her life*
This is what happens when I play with (stone and marble) shaders. It looked sort of temple-ish and that means Amber and Isabelle wanted me to finally have their "Long time no see" scene. Who am I to deny them that?
Of course, it's still a WIP and input is always welcome. Considered it for the Fun-In-The-Sun contest, but while it's rather sunne, they are pretty much out of the sun ;)
These are all coming along quite nicely!
Glad my thread could help out a bit- it took me forever to realize that going in the Scene tab and breaking down the hair (why the hair has a "hip" I'll never know) can lead to more morphs. I always just figured they would either be under Actor if not shown as Morphs, or under something in that section where the word Actor appears. The first time I realized the hair could break down, I actually thought I was exploring my CHARACTER and couldn't figure out what was moving, lol!
The only "tip" I might offer on this one of the gals in the temple is this- the one on our left has the source of light coming from behind her, which means it could shine on the woman's face that is on our right. That face, as it is, could use a bit of highlighting so the characters are more equal. (From body posture and expression, I assume both are. It appears no one is supposed to be dominating the scene, they are equally glad to be greeting each other based on their body language.) So maybe consider either extending the light already in place that is behind the gal on our left, or adding a soft distant light / spotlight, to get that other face softly lit.
You're ahead of me on the shaders, lol- I'll be PM'ing going- How do I do this?
Nice job, love surfing your thread!
Cathie
Thanks for looking and glad you enjoy looking at my humble dabblings. A good friend (and amazing 3d - Poser - artist), told me she should have told me about the neck bone, too. But hey, no better way to learn than to stumple into and all over stuff the hard way, right? I thought so!
The shaders I used for the marble are simply Floor and Wall Shaders for DAZ Studio (http://www.daz3d.com/floor-and-wall-shaders-for-daz-studio), but I like them. And I love fiddling with Uber Surface for hair models. Yes, I'm a masochist. Even if it improves how it looks only a teensy bit, I'll go for it.
Amber's face (yes, her again ;) ) is indeed a bit dark. I was careful with adding more lights, because while I only dragged in enough elements for half a building, it should be a whole one, even is it's an airy, light one. The light on Isabelle was originally pretty much on top of the camera. Until I moved said camera ;) It does need some more fiddling. They are very much equals: best friends seeing each othr again after a long time. And yes, I have too many stories in my head ;)
WIP :)
Isabelle doing cleric-y things. Like.. cleansing the place from evil spirits or something.
Finished the one above. At least, for now. Slightly different angle, smoothed out some stuff (I made the armor fit with a simple D-form, who'd have thought little ol' me could pull that off?)
Also, another angle in link, but I like the attached 'top down' best. She looks less.. constipated ;)
http://morimann.deviantart.com/art/Energies-Test-with-bg-388216672?ga_submit_new=10%3A1374778843