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April 2019 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Open Render Challenge

L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
edited June 2019 in New User Contests and Events

New User's Challenge - April 2019

Sponsored by DAZ 3D

Are you new to the 3D World? Are you at the beginning stages of learning 3D rendering? Have you been around for a little bit but feel you could benefit from some feedback or instruction? Have you been around awhile and would like to help other members start their creative journey? Well then come and join the fun as we host our newest render challenge.
 


"Open Render Challenge"

This challenge is a general render challenge with no real focus.  You can concentrate on using the skills learned in the past few challenges, create and focus on something new or that you've wanted to try out and try to combine and push the skills previously learned into new directions.
 


If you would like to review the previous topics and information you can find the topics/threads here:

Composition
Lighting
Posing
 

I will be checking in as will the rest of the Community Volunteers to try and help with anything you all may need.
For a list of the current challenge rules, please see this thread: Challenge Rules
 

Closing Date: April 30th, 2019

Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
«1345

Comments

  • DAZ_ann0314DAZ_ann0314 Posts: 2,847

    I am putting this up a little early as I will be out the first couple days of the month. Since it is here, feel free to start early if you like and have a little more time for your April Challenge artwork. Happy Rendering!

  • Shinji Ikari 9thShinji Ikari 9th Posts: 1,182

    Got myself started on this last night. here's version a

    april2019a.png
    1068 x 872 - 2M
  • sub0chick_13366e7840sub0chick_13366e7840 Posts: 3

    So, I just started using DAZ again last week after about a 6-7 year hiatus.  Things have a changed a little bit lol. I've been doing the tutorials but this is the first image I've put together from scratch, I'm actually pretty proud of it though I wish I could get some light effects to make things a little more interesting

    priestess.jpg
    672 x 874 - 680K
  • sub0chick_13366e7840sub0chick_13366e7840 Posts: 3
    edited April 2019

    @Shinji Ikari 9th Looks really cool, kind of expect to see the Joker or some of the other Batman villains running around lol.  Only thing I could suggest is maybe finding a way to get some of that green glow to show up on the monitors? Or dim them down a little? Everything else is tinted green except them so they become really distracting (my eyes are constantly drawn to that left monitor and I almost missed the guy completely).  Unless the monitor is supposed to be the main attraction?  I like the water reflection up on the ceiling and duct work and the glow seeping down the walls in the hallway

    Post edited by sub0chick_13366e7840 on
  • Shinji Ikari 9thShinji Ikari 9th Posts: 1,182

    @sub0chick_13366e7840 Thanks for commenting, and I agree that the monitors need some work. The set isn't made for Iray so I always have to tweek it now that I stick to the Iray engine for my renders. But then again I have to do that with any pre-iray monitors I decide to light up and depending on the display it can be a pain to get them showing right without being washed out in the bright areas.

     

    Now on to your render, the only thing that looks like it might need some work is her footing, her right foot looks like it is floating a little to me. Other then that, nice start that you have going there.

  • sub0chick_13366e7840sub0chick_13366e7840 Posts: 3

    @Shinji Ikari 9th Thank you so much! Yeah, her foot is at a weird angle and with the clunky boots that are the same color as the ground it makes it look kind of off. Or maybe I tweaked her foot at some point and didn't realize it, who knows lol.

    In playing around with the tutorials, I found out how to make a glowy sword using the "emissions" option under surfaces and you can change the color of the glow.  Could that maybe work with the monitors? more or less make them glow a little with some green light? Or can you maybe use the color adjuster to change it or mute it? Sorry, I'm not familiar enough to remember what the option names are

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    @sub0chick_13366e7840, When posing on a flat surface, I like to hide the set and use a Plane primitive, (Y-Positive) for the floor/ground with the Draw Mode set to Smooth Shaded. You can rotate the view in Perspective View to see the bottom of the plane, and adjust things until the soles are barely poking through. If the plane and the feet/shoes are the same color, it can help to set the Diffuse Color, (3DL,) or Base Color, (Iray) to something obvious, (I like Lime Green,) that you remove later.

    Shinji Ikari 9th, I've never had to make a monitor reflect an environment color like that, but the first thing I would try is changing the reflectivity setting to 1.0 and see if the color is reflected. Hopefully it will be, and then you can dial down the reflectivity until you find the balance between displaying the screen and reflecting the green color that you like. I also recommend using the lowest Luminance you can on the monitor screens, though with the large white area, that may not work. How are your image editing skills? You could add an image to that white area, make it look like a security camera image, or some such. (Just tossing out an idea…)

  • daybirddaybird Posts: 654

    I was not very active in the last months. Greatest problem is to find a good start, but this time I think, I was hit by inspiration.

    I tried out a new purchase. The test rendering didn't look very impressive but it gave me an idea for another composition.

    Instead to create a lovely bride scene, I'll try to create more a sort of white lady.

    Here my starting scene, hope I will present a first update until the weekend

    The bride.jpg
    600 x 815 - 182K
  • Sisyphus1977Sisyphus1977 Posts: 306

    This is my "Day at the Beach" scene.  I have a lot going on in the scene, hence the wide shot.  Not sure if that is the best.  I will probably do two other shots to capture the two key groups.  I have to continue to work on the scene blocking.  I have discovered billboards, so the background actors are all billboards, which I need to work positioning more as some are floating above the ground (all could use repositioning somewhat).  Using an HRDI for the background, so need to work on the lighting more.  We will see how this ends up.

    Beach Scene Wide Shot v1-1.jpg
    800 x 450 - 467K
  • Shinji Ikari 9thShinji Ikari 9th Posts: 1,182

    Here's version b for this month, besides adding in a character returning fire coming in from stage left, if you look closely at the lower left corner of the main monator you can see a bit of reflection going on.

    april2019b.png
    1068 x 872 - 2M
  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,938
    edited April 2019

    This entry is withdrawn, in favour of a better one. cool

    Post edited by WinterMoon on
  • cordg_d200ab8c09cordg_d200ab8c09 Posts: 33

    its a "world of marylou" she's a handicapped girl ,but she have many imagination and perhaps super powers !

    to be continued...

    create and render in daz 3d/10 ,little post-work in photoshop

    THE WORLD OF MARYLOU.jpg
    2500 x 1628 - 5M
  • daybirddaybird Posts: 654
    TigerAnne said:

    Here's my contribution. It's a picture of two people who are not a couple. They are very, very much not a couple. That would be inappropriate, if they were.

    This is looking a bit bare, I know. I'll add in some clutter later, to make the scene more lived in. Right now I'm mostly wanting opinions on the composition, posing, etc.

    Great start so far. God poses on both and nice detail with the cuddeling cats. Maybe she should not wear her sneakers on the couch. *gg*

  • daybirddaybird Posts: 654
    sisyphus1977xx said:

    This is my "Day at the Beach" scene.  I have a lot going on in the scene, hence the wide shot.  Not sure if that is the best.  I will probably do two other shots to capture the two key groups.  I have to continue to work on the scene blocking.  I have discovered billboards, so the background actors are all billboards, which I need to work positioning more as some are floating above the ground (all could use repositioning somewhat).  Using an HRDI for the background, so need to work on the lighting more.  We will see how this ends up.

     

    Funny concept and the wide screen works very well in this scene. I love the idea and will be courious about your next entry.yes

    It would be great if you could add some gimmick details. Some cyborgs who use motoroil or some water repellent color, to care their bodys agains water and sand. 

    Could you tell more about billboards people? I have some of them in my wishlist, but I`m unsure if they work as easy as they tell. (What is with the shadows and camera angle when I use them? )

  • daybirddaybird Posts: 654
    cordg_d200ab8c09 said:

    its a "world of marylou" she's a handicapped girl ,but she have many imagination and perhaps super powers !

    to be continued...

    create and render in daz 3d/10 ,little post-work in photoshop

    Impressive posing of her and the inbreaking jungle looks great.

     I'm curios, how you did the break in the wall? Have you just set two walls segments and put the other stuff in, or did you use some displacement technice?

    The room itself looks too abandom to me, more like the usual horror scenario. I know you will show us, how her imagine brings color and joy to her life, but this will also work with a more friendly surrounding.

  • cordg_d200ab8c09cordg_d200ab8c09 Posts: 33

    thank you, for opening in the wall, it's just a door. for the abandoned anbiance, I wanted to show the contrast between the girl and her overflowing and creative imagination and the difficult everyday life of the handicapped; it's a choice but I also understand your point of view!

     

  • WinterMoonWinterMoon Posts: 1,938
    edited April 2019
    daybird said:

    Great start so far. God poses on both and nice detail with the cuddeling cats. Maybe she should not wear her sneakers on the couch. *gg*

    Thank you! I was actually cringing a bit about the shoes on the sofa, but I was thinking "She's American, and they do that." Funny enough, I have no idea what this character's nationality would be if she were real, so I defaulted to American. blush Off with her shoes!

     

    @cordg_d200ab8c09 I really love your picture, both the idea and the execution. (That's such an ugly word!) My only suggestion is that maybe she should be wearing something else. Her nightslip is a little too glamorous (in lack of a better word) for the setting. She appears to have arthritis, judging by how you've posed her hands and feet. I think she should be wearing something a little warmer, as from what I understand, getting cold makes the pain worse.

    Post edited by WinterMoon on
  • daybirddaybird Posts: 654

    Here is my next try. It goes in the right direction, but I think, I should change the background and work on the light. 
    The background is a panorama circle and do not work very well in iray.

    I also was electrified from the name of the racked dress...BANSHEE...yeah, I think I should go more in that direction.^^

    white woman.png
    600 x 815 - 522K
  • Sisyphus1977Sisyphus1977 Posts: 306

    Here is my latest, unfortunately, after numerous Daz crashes and attempts to render the scenes, my last saved scene file will no longer load without an error message.  I will have to work on recreating the scene.  For the wide angle shot, I had to go to 2:35 to 1 aspect ratio for the scene blocking.

    daybird said:

    Could you tell more about billboards people? I have some of them in my wishlist, but I`m unsure if they work as easy as they tell. (What is with the shadows and camera angle when I use them? )

    For the billboards, I just loaded my figure in Daz and posed them, then rendered the image as a *.png file so I had the alpha background.  I use Gimp, but Photoshop would do the same thing to create the black and white opacity map that is used later.  Take the Daz image into your photo editing software.  Duplicate the image layer as a backup.  With the image layer selected (using Gimp as the tool), right click on it and choose Alpha to Selection.  This will select the character image, then go to Edit > Fill with BG (or FG) Color, whichever one is white.  If neither, then set one to white.  This will mask your image in white.  Then go to Select > Invert, this will select the alpha background,  Again go to Edit > Fill with BG or FG, whichever one is black and select it.  After you are done save it out as a *.jpg file.  Back in Daz, load an image plane (2 meter square, z positive orientation), then select the plane and under Surfaces > Diffuse Color, load the orignal *.png image file and under Opacity Strength, load the black and white *jpg file. 

    Now you have an image on a plane and when rendered it is the image with a transparent background that can be dropped into your scene. When initially setting up the image, try to use similar lighting as the scene they will be going in to best match the final scene.  As to camera placement, a little trial and error, but I point the plane at the camera so it is face on and not at an angle to get the best results.  You can cheat the angle somewhat, but too much and it shows.  A good YT video about the process is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U_cysHi39s. 

    I have attached one of my png images along with the black and white jpg so you can see the two.  Good luck with it, the really good thing with the billboards is that they render fast.

    Harper_01 Beach Image Billboard.png
    1080 x 1080 - 322K
    Harper_01 Beach Image Billboard BW.jpg
    1080 x 1080 - 53K
    Wide Shot v2.jpg
    800 x 340 - 382K
    Full Shot Angle 1.jpg
    800 x 640 - 538K
  • daybirddaybird Posts: 654
    edited April 2019
    sisyphus1977xx said:

    Here is my latest, unfortunately, after numerous Daz crashes and attempts to render the scenes, my last saved scene file will no longer load without an error message.  I will have to work on recreating the scene.  For the wide angle shot, I had to go to 2:35 to 1 aspect ratio for the scene blocking.

    daybird said:

    Could you tell more about billboards people? I have some of them in my wishlist, but I`m unsure if they work as easy as they tell. (What is with the shadows and camera angle when I use them? )

    For the billboards, I just loaded my figure in Daz and posed them, then rendered the image as a *.png file so I had the alpha background.  I use Gimp, but Photoshop would do the same thing to create the black and white opacity map that is used later.  Take the Daz image into your photo editing software.  Duplicate the image layer as a backup.  With the image layer selected (using Gimp as the tool), right click on it and choose Alpha to Selection.  This will select the character image, then go to Edit > Fill with BG (or FG) Color, whichever one is white.  If neither, then set one to white.  This will mask your image in white.  Then go to Select > Invert, this will select the alpha background,  Again go to Edit > Fill with BG or FG, whichever one is black and select it.  After you are done save it out as a *.jpg file.  Back in Daz, load an image plane (2 meter square, z positive orientation), then select the plane and under Surfaces > Diffuse Color, load the orignal *.png image file and under Opacity Strength, load the black and white *jpg file. 

    Now you have an image on a plane and when rendered it is the image with a transparent background that can be dropped into your scene. When initially setting up the image, try to use similar lighting as the scene they will be going in to best match the final scene.  As to camera placement, a little trial and error, but I point the plane at the camera so it is face on and not at an angle to get the best results.  You can cheat the angle somewhat, but too much and it shows.  A good YT video about the process is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U_cysHi39s. 

    I have attached one of my png images along with the black and white jpg so you can see the two.  Good luck with it, the really good thing with the billboards is that they render fast.

    Cool, big thx for the explanation.smiley

    The only thing who seems a little difficult is to add a proper shadow on the ground. I use Gimp, but I'm not very familar with all the functions, but I should give this sort of work a try, to shorten the rendertime drasticaly on my old machine. 

    Post edited by daybird on
  • dragoneyes002dragoneyes002 Posts: 205
    daybird said:
    sisyphus1977xx said:

    Here is my latest, unfortunately, after numerous Daz crashes and attempts to render the scenes, my last saved scene file will no longer load without an error message.  I will have to work on recreating the scene.  For the wide angle shot, I had to go to 2:35 to 1 aspect ratio for the scene blocking.

    daybird said:

    Could you tell more about billboards people? I have some of them in my wishlist, but I`m unsure if they work as easy as they tell. (What is with the shadows and camera angle when I use them? )

    For the billboards, I just loaded my figure in Daz and posed them, then rendered the image as a *.png file so I had the alpha background.  I use Gimp, but Photoshop would do the same thing to create the black and white opacity map that is used later.  Take the Daz image into your photo editing software.  Duplicate the image layer as a backup.  With the image layer selected (using Gimp as the tool), right click on it and choose Alpha to Selection.  This will select the character image, then go to Edit > Fill with BG (or FG) Color, whichever one is white.  If neither, then set one to white.  This will mask your image in white.  Then go to Select > Invert, this will select the alpha background,  Again go to Edit > Fill with BG or FG, whichever one is black and select it.  After you are done save it out as a *.jpg file.  Back in Daz, load an image plane (2 meter square, z positive orientation), then select the plane and under Surfaces > Diffuse Color, load the orignal *.png image file and under Opacity Strength, load the black and white *jpg file. 

    Now you have an image on a plane and when rendered it is the image with a transparent background that can be dropped into your scene. When initially setting up the image, try to use similar lighting as the scene they will be going in to best match the final scene.  As to camera placement, a little trial and error, but I point the plane at the camera so it is face on and not at an angle to get the best results.  You can cheat the angle somewhat, but too much and it shows.  A good YT video about the process is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U_cysHi39s. 

    I have attached one of my png images along with the black and white jpg so you can see the two.  Good luck with it, the really good thing with the billboards is that they render fast.

    Cool, big thx for the explanation.smiley

    The only thing who seems a little difficult is to add a proper shadow on the ground. I use Gimp, but I'm not very familar with all the functions, but I should give this sort of work a try, to shorten the rendertime drasticaly on my old machine. 

    with photoshop you can just use the original PNG the character without any background will be only the character and if you have floor selected when making the character pose the shadow will be there so you will have to do proper lighting to match the environment you plan to add the character to in photoshop. Use a distant light and turn off the headlamp with a few point lights for ambient lighting

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    daybird said:

    Here is my next try. It goes in the right direction, but I think, I should change the background and work on the light. 
    The background is a panorama circle and do not work very well in iray.

    I also was electrified from the name of the racked dress...BANSHEE...yeah, I think I should go more in that direction.^^

    You could try a ghost light somewhat close to the area of the panorama in the camera frame. Make it very large but not very bright, one-sided pointed toward the panorama.

    @TigerAnne, I'm American. I don't think twice about my shoes on the sofa! lol

     

  • dragoneyes002dragoneyes002 Posts: 205

    here is my entry called "Flyby" its a bit out there but turned out OK

    Flyby1a.jpg
    3840 x 2160 - 2M
  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,944
    cordg_d200ab8c09 said:

    its a "world of marylou" she's a handicapped girl ,but she have many imagination and perhaps super powers !

    to be continued...

    create and render in daz 3d/10 ,little post-work in photoshop

    I like this idea of going into the imagination of that girl and especially how you solved the problem of introducing that world as it is coming through the doorframe. That is really neat.

    Some things are throwing me off in the moment though. The combination of the rotten environment with her spasm poses give me some creepy vibes (you know the zombie poses are often like that) maybe making the hallway less rotten would help the viewer to see the spasm instead of the zombie. But that depends if you wanted the rotten environment be part of her imagination or part of the real world she lives in.

    Maybe placing that toy elephant in one of her arms and she holding onto it with that arm would help as well. One last thing, I'm not sure but I have the feeling she's looking past the tiger, maybe looking at it would give it a stronger connection.

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,944
    daybird said:

    I was not very active in the last months. Greatest problem is to find a good start, but this time I think, I was hit by inspiration.

    I tried out a new purchase. The test rendering didn't look very impressive but it gave me an idea for another composition.

    Instead to create a lovely bride scene, I'll try to create more a sort of white lady.

    Here my starting scene, hope I will present a first update until the weekend

    ok, that is one strange sort of wedding photo. I guess you need to make the viewer understand why she's tanding in the middle of nowhere in her wedding gown glaring at the viewer while the rest of her seems posing?

    I like her windblown hair and vail, fits the waether nicely, and obviously her mood as well!

    Did this break up just before the wedding? Did the get a car breake down many options, I wanna know which will you choose :D

  • daybirddaybird Posts: 654
    Linwelly said:
    daybird said:

    I was not very active in the last months. Greatest problem is to find a good start, but this time I think, I was hit by inspiration.

    I tried out a new purchase. The test rendering didn't look very impressive but it gave me an idea for another composition.

    Instead to create a lovely bride scene, I'll try to create more a sort of white lady.

    Here my starting scene, hope I will present a first update until the weekend

    ok, that is one strange sort of wedding photo. I guess you need to make the viewer understand why she's tanding in the middle of nowhere in her wedding gown glaring at the viewer while the rest of her seems posing?

    I like her windblown hair and vail, fits the waether nicely, and obviously her mood as well!

    Did this break up just before the wedding? Did the get a car breake down many options, I wanna know which will you choose :D

    In the beginning I had a picture with her and flowers in mind and thought it would be a good choice to put her in the green, but after the render I must see, that it looked not half as good as expected. Then I saw the different materials from the wedding skirt and the name gave me a total different idea of the scene I wanna do...not lovely, more scary, I think. devil

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    daybird said:

    Here is my next try. It goes in the right direction, but I think, I should change the background and work on the light. 
    The background is a panorama circle and do not work very well in iray.

    I also was electrified from the name of the racked dress...BANSHEE...yeah, I think I should go more in that direction.^^

    I like where you are going with this.  This is much more interesting to me than the "wedding photo" type image. 

    I would like a little more light on her face but it is a great start.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    sisyphus1977xx said:

    Here is my latest, unfortunately, after numerous Daz crashes and attempts to render the scenes, my last saved scene file will no longer load without an error message.  I will have to work on recreating the scene.  For the wide angle shot, I had to go to 2:35 to 1 aspect ratio for the scene blocking.

    daybird said:

    Could you tell more about billboards people? I have some of them in my wishlist, but I`m unsure if they work as easy as they tell. (What is with the shadows and camera angle when I use them? )

    For the billboards, I just loaded my figure in Daz and posed them, then rendered the image as a *.png file so I had the alpha background.  I use Gimp, but Photoshop would do the same thing to create the black and white opacity map that is used later.  Take the Daz image into your photo editing software.  Duplicate the image layer as a backup.  With the image layer selected (using Gimp as the tool), right click on it and choose Alpha to Selection.  This will select the character image, then go to Edit > Fill with BG (or FG) Color, whichever one is white.  If neither, then set one to white.  This will mask your image in white.  Then go to Select > Invert, this will select the alpha background,  Again go to Edit > Fill with BG or FG, whichever one is black and select it.  After you are done save it out as a *.jpg file.  Back in Daz, load an image plane (2 meter square, z positive orientation), then select the plane and under Surfaces > Diffuse Color, load the orignal *.png image file and under Opacity Strength, load the black and white *jpg file. 

    Now you have an image on a plane and when rendered it is the image with a transparent background that can be dropped into your scene. When initially setting up the image, try to use similar lighting as the scene they will be going in to best match the final scene.  As to camera placement, a little trial and error, but I point the plane at the camera so it is face on and not at an angle to get the best results.  You can cheat the angle somewhat, but too much and it shows.  A good YT video about the process is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U_cysHi39s. 

    I have attached one of my png images along with the black and white jpg so you can see the two.  Good luck with it, the really good thing with the billboards is that they render fast.

    In the wider angle shot I love the cyborg opening the fridge door.  Not sure why it just hits me as funny.  You have a variety of posing on all the different figures which is great. 

    On the closeup shot of the man on the lounge and the woman in the bikini - The man's pose is great.  Looks natural to me.  Is the woman telling the man to get his lazy self off that lounge?  She is pointing but I am not sure who or what she is referencing.  If it is the man having her look at him would help to tell the viewer.

    The cyborg behind the umbrella pole is a bit of a distractiong to me.  If he was moved slightly to  image right, so he is still behind the pole but his head is a little more in full view? 

    These are just suggestions.  These are your images and your vision.

     

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    dragoneyes002 said:

    here is my entry called "Flyby" its a bit out there but turned out OK

    The only critique I have is the poses on all the kids look the same to me.  Perhaps having one standing up a little straighter, another leaning...slight variations can make a difference.

     

  • dragoneyes002dragoneyes002 Posts: 205

     

    Kismet2012 said:
    dragoneyes002 said:

    here is my entry called "Flyby" its a bit out there but turned out OK

    The only critique I have is the poses on all the kids look the same to me.  Perhaps having one standing up a little straighter, another leaning...slight variations can make a difference.

     

    thought of that but wanted the look of them trying to get as close to the window as possible which kids do when they are excited to see something.for themselves. 

    forgot to post rendered in Iray 4.10 Daz studio 

    have another flyby but it has a character from an existing series so may post it not as an entry for a different perspective to the same kind of event

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