Stephen's Western Multi-figure images
sratliff
Posts: 74
A few of the threads I followed the most in the old forum, before I got a bit busy with the Knights of Columbus, were the multifigure threads. In one of them, I even posted my own. The goal of these threads were to create images with 100+ figures
When the new forums were announced, I decided that I'd start my own thread for multifigure images with how I got involved in creating them.
There are three images that I worked on are composite images of multiple renderings, which is pretty much the only way to get that high. No computer outside of the DoD has enough power to do exactly what we want.
The three images that I'm going to serialize (as there is a much lower limit to images on posts than in the old forums when I typed this) are:
The Indian Prototype "Dirty Little Tomboy": 15 figures, as a test of my plan, with a 4:3 aspect ratio created for a platinum club weekly contest.
The Indian Encampment: 62 figures, stopped because my scene file got messed up, and it was good enough.
The Western Town: 50+ figures and growing
I'm starting with the image of the Indian Prototype, the background, to which I added the foreground figures for placement...
Comments and like images are of course welcome.
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Comments
After doing the foreground image, I realized that I should have started at the back and worked forward.
So I went backwards and did three groups of young swimming boys way in the background, placing the first image aside until I finished that...
When I went to put those images together, however, I realized that I'd forgotten to turn on the shadows. I had to do that, so I re-rendered.
You'll also note a bit of a technique here. I did not save my stage assembled images, so these are the raw images before I put the whole thing together. I only rendered what I needed for some of these, then cancelled the render, saving the resulting partial image for the composite.
I then re-rendered the foreground figures, and put the whole thing together.
Having got good feedback on the first of my images, and being ready to expand it for the purpose of a picture above the windows of my sun room, I decided to see if I could get to 100 with a larger image. As the space I needed to cover was 44 inches by 8 inches, that dictated a 11:2 aspect ratio. I did not like the way the camera distorted the edges a bit, but it turned out fairly well.
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I'm going to serialize the images for this picture. I may actually be adding a few more figures, as the latest version of DAZ studio actually was able to open the old file that I hadn't been able to work with for a while.
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I'm going to include a close up, as well as the overall image to date.
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We'll start with Mother and Daughter. I'm not certain what the girl did wrong ... one suspects that she might have been playing when she should have been doing her chores...
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Stephen
After the first pair of images, I moved back to doing a lot of the river. Unfortunately, I forgot that I needed to do the other side of the river first ... a mistake that will drive me nuts for ever figure I place on the far bank of the river on the left side.
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For this image, I added Figures 3, 4, and 5, the first three of the swimming boys. I have a limited amount of swimming poses, so I'm afraid that I keep rotating both the images and the boys to make them a bit different.
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I also went back and re-rendered the mother (figure 1) which resulted in some poke through that I manually fixed later.
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Stephen
Figures 6, 7, and 8 are three more swimming boys...
Nice work! You've got one image where I count about 13 figures - man, that must make your computer work. But I guess if you can do it, then do it. I notice you have some water in your backgrounds that produces reflections. How is that done? Is it similar to a surface texture that will show a shadow, except it casts a reflection? Right now, I don't have any "water" to work with.
I've got one render that I did that features 4 figures (and all children at that!) that just about ate up all my system memory in the render process. But then, my system is about six years old and by today's standards is a bit slow where Daz is concerned. But I do what I can. Most of my renders feature 1 or 2 figures depending on what I'm trying to do.
to reflections:
you can let every items reflect the environment. just go to the surface tab and turn the reflection value via slider to the value you want :) and change the color of the reflection if you want.
for water you can use a simple plane with the right color and fix the reflection value. if you want some ripple on the water than create a bump map with a graphic programm or use a ready bump map from a product that could look like ripple and load it as bump map in the plane surface tab and fix the bump values via sliders (need some tries). if you want that the water is a bit transparent than load a oppacity map or just fix the oppacity value in the plane surface tab via slider.
the surface tab you find under "view" -> "tabs"
hope that helps a bit.
I will follow this. Always a sucker for multi-figure works.
Okay, after a long time where my connection wasn't the best, I went to broadband finally, and now I can resume the narration and the posting as it was created. I have saved every stage of the western figure project, so I'm going to be posting as if each stage were completed, just so it's properly documented.
Figures 9, 10, and 11 are a trio of swimming boys. I debated on the loin cloth on figure 9.
That final composite looks sharp. I did notice one problem with it though. The feet of the women and little girl are sunk into the ground; the little girl being the most grievous offender, given that she's sunk into the mound up to her ankles.
I'm not sure that I see what you're seeing. Assuming that we're both looking at the second series image, the little girl actually stands behind the fire, and is actually placed as seen in the first image, her feet on the slope of the fire pit.
I admit, however, that there are a couple figures later on that I had issues with dresses and ground. In fact there will be one to point out in a couple images.
Figures 12, 13, and 14 are three boys. Figure 12 has an issue with a foot too deep in the ground. He's running to meet his friends (13, 14) who are watching the swimmers.
Stephen
I'm not sure that I see what you're seeing. Assuming that we're both looking at the second series image, the little girl actually stands behind the fire, and is actually placed as seen in the first image, her feet on the slope of the fire pit.
I admit, however, that there are a couple figures later on that I had issues with dresses and ground. In fact there will be one to point out in a couple images.Actually, I'm referring to your first set of images of the women, where you see them from the side, not from behind the fire.
The first set, I still have accessible that scene file, which I looked at to see. The little girl is above the ground, though. I can actually see the full left foot without rotating. The right heel is a bit into the slope, but not more than .2 units. Now the mother ... that's an issue. She's a full centimeter in, but I'm not certain that it shoes that much, as I had to turn off the dress to discover that.
It was actually rather hard to pose on the fire's slope, and I nearly moved the little girl back, but it looked worse back there.
Stephen
Okay for the seventh installment of how the second Western image was created, I have three foreground girls as figures 15, 16, and 17
I spent a lot of time trying to get the dress the girls are wearing to move right for their poses ... and eventually gave up. The poses you see here are the un-post worked version. I didn't post work them until the full image was done.
Stephen