Got slightly distracted working on something else - oops! Tried a different shader on the bench. I am not totally convinced with it but like that it is a better contrast now between bench and figure. Not sure what to do from here!
@pjscribble I love that new background and that glow around your figure - how did you get that? I also loved the arched eyebrow but I was wondering if you might soften the lighting on her forehead slightly? - It's slightly drawing me away from her eyes, which have a lovely sparkle to them.
@sueya I really love your bold use of colours. I am not sure if it was deliberate but my eye is drawn to the shoulder and slightly away from the face by the play of light. I'm really trying to get my head round all this lighting stuff myself, so I am really interested in different takes on things.
@myar Love the expression on the figure and the angle on it. What sort of lumens do you have on your points and spots? Also, would you consider a light source as part of the corridor - to give combined backlighting and maybe give a sci-fi feel to the corridor?
Any more advice very welcome and I hope people don't mind that I made a few comments myself. I'm really enjoying this right now and want as many different ideas as possible to try out next.
This is where things come down to personal taste and style. In your prior image the bench had a lighter tone which blended into the stone behind her and to a certain extent her white shirt. Your latest image with the darker wood on the bench offers contrast between the bench, her shirt and the stone but tends to match her hair and skin tones.
Niether is right or wrong...it is a matter of what you want in the image. If you are not sure look at them side by side or take a break from this image and work on something else for a while and come back with a fresh eye.
Here is my try Sci Fi Corridor, use gen 8 female three pointlights two spotlight, Don't ask me how, I've no clue
Al input is welcome good or bad.
Are you using 3Delight or Iray?
What is the black, metal, tube thing pointing at her right shoulder? Is it the barrel of a gun?
It is in Iray.
That's a butt stock of a 40mm
I thought it might be part of a gun or rifle of some kind.
I cannot find the sci fi corridor you used but it looks like there might be lights along the ceiling. Some sci fi sets also have accent lights along the walls. Is this supposed to be abanoned?
I really like the soft accent type lighting you have on her face but I think you need a soft rim light to help her stand out from the background. Is one of your lights behind and/or above her head?
This is for the beginner challenge - I'm new to Daz itself, but not unfamiliar with working in 3D or portraiture/photographic spaces. There's not a lot to this one - the stock Sahel figure and afro hair from the shop, a small array of point lights behind the model's head and a soft spot from the front. I like the lens/camera controls, and this look is mostly through tweaking ISO/Exposure controls and, obviously, lens length and associated depth of field.
I'm happy with the look overall, but the scatter/artifacting on the back shoulder/collarbone is something I'd like to see if I can smooth out, if anyone has any advice on that. Again, complete newbie here, but this is pretty fun.
This is for the beginner challenge - I'm new to Daz itself, but not unfamiliar with working in 3D or portraiture/photographic spaces. There's not a lot to this one - the stock Sahel figure and afro hair from the shop, a small array of point lights behind the model's head and a soft spot from the front. I like the lens/camera controls, and this look is mostly through tweaking ISO/Expsosure controls and, obviously, lens length and associated depth of field.
I'm happy with the look overall, but the scatter/artifacting on the back shoulder/collarbone is something I'd like to see if I can smooth out, if anyone has any advice on that. Again, complete newbie here, but this is pretty fun.
Thanks!
I really like the halo type effect behind. As someone new myself, I have been learning on the fly. I found this guide https://thinkdrawart.com/daz-studio-iray-tips-and-tricks#mesh-light with section 1 being about using Mesh lighting to soften the lighting. It might help? I like your softer focus - I have been wary of playing with the camera controls, as I confess they are still very alien to me!
Niether is right or wrong...it is a matter of what you want in the image. If you are not sure look at them side by side or take a break from this image and work on something else for a while and come back with a fresh eye.
Not a fresh eye, but a different persepctive... I'm going to take a look at some other figures and scenes and get some real world inspiration. Who knows,may come back and look at the figure later.
This is for the beginner challenge - I'm new to Daz itself, but not unfamiliar with working in 3D or portraiture/photographic spaces. There's not a lot to this one - the stock Sahel figure and afro hair from the shop, a small array of point lights behind the model's head and a soft spot from the front. I like the lens/camera controls, and this look is mostly through tweaking ISO/Exposure controls and, obviously, lens length and associated depth of field.
I'm happy with the look overall, but the scatter/artifacting on the back shoulder/collarbone is something I'd like to see if I can smooth out, if anyone has any advice on that. Again, complete newbie here, but this is pretty fun.
Thanks!
Really nice haloing effect on her hair.
I am guessing you are using Iray. If you haven't already increasing the iterations it runs, the length of time and rendering quality should help to get rid of those artifacts. All of these will increase the length of time the render runs.
Niether is right or wrong...it is a matter of what you want in the image. If you are not sure look at them side by side or take a break from this image and work on something else for a while and come back with a fresh eye.
Not a fresh eye, but a different persepctive... I'm going to take a look at some other figures and scenes and get some real world inspiration. Who knows,may come back and look at the figure later.
That is a nice interaction between your figures.
You have cut off the right arm and shoulder of your oriignal subject. Perhaps a slightly wider frame would allow both girls to be in the image.
Hi. I´m not exactly new with DAZ, but I was off many years. Some time ago I found Daz again, and now I´m learning it afresh. I´m a complete rookie in iray rendering and never used the Layered Image Editor before, so I hope I´m qualified for Intermediate Challenge. My image is called The Guiding Crow. It´s inspired by a paintings by Robert Griffing. For lightning I used iray environment light, I mean the sun, only, and I had to experiment a lot with render settings in order to get the lights and the shadows in their place. The green bodypaint is made by using a green basecolour layer masked with a grunge-layer. I used the same technique with the red stripes around the eyes and yellow borderline on the loincloth. Composed and rendered in DS, slightly postworked in Photoshop. Images after and before postwork included.
Thanks! I'm indeed using Iray, and those tweaks make a lot of sense. Render times haven't been appalling yet - I have an RTX 2080 SUPER and can offload the scene to the CUDA cores, which is nice - the room doesn't heat up :)
I am guessing you are using Iray. If you haven't already increasing the iterations it runs, the length of time and rendering quality should help to get rid of those artifacts. All of these will increase the length of time the render runs.
Thanks! I'm indeed using Iray, and those tweaks make a lot of sense. Render times haven't been appalling yet - I have an RTX 2080 SUPER and can offload the scene to the CUDA cores, which is nice - the room doesn't heat up :)
I am guessing you are using Iray. If you haven't already increasing the iterations it runs, the length of time and rendering quality should help to get rid of those artifacts. All of these will increase the length of time the render runs.
You have cut off the right arm and shoulder of your oriignal subject. Perhaps a slightly wider frame would allow both girls to be in the image.
As suggested, have widened the frame slightly. I tried it as wide enough to include the original characters knee and hand but the way she is sitting leaves the framing a litle weird - with alot of space to the top left.
Coming back with a deceptively simpler second entry. Depth of field, and more complex lighting, though, went into this one. It's sort of a strange thing, but my inspiration for the lighting/posing was mainly that I was creating the image on Shabbat, and had been reading about how for some people, they mark the weekly rest day by taking a moment to look at their fingernails in the candles' light, after the usual weekly candle-lighting and blessings. Since Shabbat is all about that creating and preserving feeling of peace and rest in the middle of what otherwise might be chaos, I wanted the image to feel like that. Someone noticing their fingernails in the light and finding that same sense of spiritual grounding and centering.
This is my Beginner Challenge entry. I decided to add something else than a human to the mix - a nocturnal urban feline predator posing in its natural hunting grounds.
Hi. I´m not exactly new with DAZ, but I was off many years. Some time ago I found Daz again, and now I´m learning it afresh. I´m a complete rookie in iray rendering and never used the Layered Image Editor before, so I hope I´m qualified for Intermediate Challenge. My image is called The Guiding Crow. It´s inspired by a paintings by Robert Griffing. For lightning I used iray environment light, I mean the sun, only, and I had to experiment a lot with render settings in order to get the lights and the shadows in their place. The green bodypaint is made by using a green basecolour layer masked with a grunge-layer. I used the same technique with the red stripes around the eyes and yellow borderline on the loincloth. Composed and rendered in DS, slightly postworked in Photoshop. Images after and before postwork included.
I do not use the sun option in iray very often as I find it difficult to get it pointed exactly where I want. This free Light Probe might be helpful to you in the future. I think it is designed for HDRI's rather than the sun though.
As for the Intermediate Challenge you are more than welcome to try. Sometimes we learn more by trying something we think is beyond our skill set.
Overall the effect looks quite believable. You got a nice blend between the green and the grunge.
You have cut off the right arm and shoulder of your oriignal subject. Perhaps a slightly wider frame would allow both girls to be in the image.
As suggested, have widened the frame slightly. I tried it as wide enough to include the original characters knee and hand but the way she is sitting leaves the framing a litle weird - with alot of space to the top left.
Cutting off body parts in images is acceptable...it's just doing so in a place that is not distracting. I like to load multiple cameras. I lock the one I feel is going to be my final image but then I will use others to experiment with different angles, focal lengths, widths, etc. When I used to do that with the original camera I could never seem to get it back exactly where I had it originally.
Once I am sure of my camera position I will get rid of the others if they are getting in my way.
Coming back with a deceptively simpler second entry. Depth of field, and more complex lighting, though, went into this one. It's sort of a strange thing, but my inspiration for the lighting/posing was mainly that I was creating the image on Shabbat, and had been reading about how for some people, they mark the weekly rest day by taking a moment to look at their fingernails in the candles' light, after the usual weekly candle-lighting and blessings. Since Shabbat is all about that creating and preserving feeling of peace and rest in the middle of what otherwise might be chaos, I wanted the image to feel like that. Someone noticing their fingernails in the light and finding that same sense of spiritual grounding and centering.
I love the concept and idea behind your image. Choosing to use black and white really forces the viewer to look at your figure without being distracted by any strong colours that may be present.
I think she has a wonderful pose and the geometrics on her dress offer interesting texture without being distracting.
However, I am finding her hair distracting. It is hiding part of her face and the light is very strong on the left side of the image and is drawing my eye away from her face and I really want to stay on her face.
This is a wonderful start and a great use of a simple background and DOF to make the figure stand out.
She has beautiful eyes and I find I am drawn to them. That strong black backdrop behind her does a nice job of framing her and the strong colours help her to stand out.
The posing may need a bit of tweaking. I think the hand on her hip may need to be rotate slightly to the palm is making better contact and then her fingers may need to be bent slightly so they are touching her hip/skirt. They might be floating at the moment?
This is my Beginner Challenge entry. I decided to add something else than a human to the mix - a nocturnal urban feline predator posing in its natural hunting grounds.
You have a striking figure with a strong presence. I really like the monochromatic feel of the image and the fur detail is great.
Unfortunately I think the fur is getting washed out a bit by the strong light. Can it be toned down a little without losing the details?
I really like the sweeping lines of the sword but the lower point is intersecting with your figure's mouth. Perhaps if you rotated it slightly towards the figure that point wouldn't intersect the figure's lip and might allow the light to show some of the lovely details and colours on the sword.
I really like the style of your character. She looks like coming straigh from a pixar movie ! May I ask what model did you used ?
The light work is adding a great depth to your image and the shadow's color on her skin looks very natural. It feels like the color of her hair is impacting the light and add some dark brown in the shadow. How did you do that ^^ ?
For the pose I agree with Kismet2012 and I also feel that her left hand is facing the wrong direction. May be it will be more natural for her left palm to be facing the camera.
By the way now I realized I am bad at posing. Next I will build pose with reference. By the way last version pose is one of library pose I applied it with little bit edit.
Comments
Are you using 3Delight or Iray?
What is the black, metal, tube thing pointing at her right shoulder? Is it the barrel of a gun?
This is where things come down to personal taste and style. In your prior image the bench had a lighter tone which blended into the stone behind her and to a certain extent her white shirt. Your latest image with the darker wood on the bench offers contrast between the bench, her shirt and the stone but tends to match her hair and skin tones.
Niether is right or wrong...it is a matter of what you want in the image. If you are not sure look at them side by side or take a break from this image and work on something else for a while and come back with a fresh eye.
It is in Iray.
That's a butt stock of a 40mm
Here same pic with other camera and with same preset.
I thought it might be part of a gun or rifle of some kind.
I cannot find the sci fi corridor you used but it looks like there might be lights along the ceiling. Some sci fi sets also have accent lights along the walls. Is this supposed to be abanoned?
I really like the soft accent type lighting you have on her face but I think you need a soft rim light to help her stand out from the background. Is one of your lights behind and/or above her head?
Hi all -
This is for the beginner challenge - I'm new to Daz itself, but not unfamiliar with working in 3D or portraiture/photographic spaces. There's not a lot to this one - the stock Sahel figure and afro hair from the shop, a small array of point lights behind the model's head and a soft spot from the front. I like the lens/camera controls, and this look is mostly through tweaking ISO/Exposure controls and, obviously, lens length and associated depth of field.
I'm happy with the look overall, but the scatter/artifacting on the back shoulder/collarbone is something I'd like to see if I can smooth out, if anyone has any advice on that. Again, complete newbie here, but this is pretty fun.
Thanks!
I really like the halo type effect behind. As someone new myself, I have been learning on the fly. I found this guide https://thinkdrawart.com/daz-studio-iray-tips-and-tricks#mesh-light with section 1 being about using Mesh lighting to soften the lighting. It might help? I like your softer focus - I have been wary of playing with the camera controls, as I confess they are still very alien to me!
Not a fresh eye, but a different persepctive... I'm going to take a look at some other figures and scenes and get some real world inspiration. Who knows,may come back and look at the figure later.
Really nice haloing effect on her hair.
I am guessing you are using Iray. If you haven't already increasing the iterations it runs, the length of time and rendering quality should help to get rid of those artifacts. All of these will increase the length of time the render runs.
That is a nice interaction between your figures.
You have cut off the right arm and shoulder of your oriignal subject. Perhaps a slightly wider frame would allow both girls to be in the image.
Portrait Rendering and LIE
Hi. I´m not exactly new with DAZ, but I was off many years. Some time ago I found Daz again, and now I´m learning it afresh. I´m a complete rookie in iray rendering and never used the Layered Image Editor before, so I hope I´m qualified for Intermediate Challenge. My image is called The Guiding Crow. It´s inspired by a paintings by Robert Griffing. For lightning I used iray environment light, I mean the sun, only, and I had to experiment a lot with render settings in order to get the lights and the shadows in their place. The green bodypaint is made by using a green basecolour layer masked with a grunge-layer. I used the same technique with the red stripes around the eyes and yellow borderline on the loincloth. Composed and rendered in DS, slightly postworked in Photoshop. Images after and before postwork included.
Thanks! I'm indeed using Iray, and those tweaks make a lot of sense. Render times haven't been appalling yet - I have an RTX 2080 SUPER and can offload the scene to the CUDA cores, which is nice - the room doesn't heat up :)
Nice.
As suggested, have widened the frame slightly. I tried it as wide enough to include the original characters knee and hand but the way she is sitting leaves the framing a litle weird - with alot of space to the top left.
Here is my version 4 I added a light behind his head.
Coming back with a deceptively simpler second entry. Depth of field, and more complex lighting, though, went into this one. It's sort of a strange thing, but my inspiration for the lighting/posing was mainly that I was creating the image on Shabbat, and had been reading about how for some people, they mark the weekly rest day by taking a moment to look at their fingernails in the candles' light, after the usual weekly candle-lighting and blessings. Since Shabbat is all about that creating and preserving feeling of peace and rest in the middle of what otherwise might be chaos, I wanted the image to feel like that. Someone noticing their fingernails in the light and finding that same sense of spiritual grounding and centering.
Waiting for you.
Daz Studio Iray with post work skin tone
This is my Beginner Challenge entry. I decided to add something else than a human to the mix - a nocturnal urban feline predator posing in its natural hunting grounds.
Entry title:
Surprissse...
Software used: Daz Studio 4.12 (no postwork)
Gallery link with a list of products used: https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/1047311
@sueya use this image to adjust your monitor. I suspect your monitor brightness is too high.
Make sure you can see every shade seperately.
I do not use the sun option in iray very often as I find it difficult to get it pointed exactly where I want. This free Light Probe might be helpful to you in the future. I think it is designed for HDRI's rather than the sun though.
As for the Intermediate Challenge you are more than welcome to try. Sometimes we learn more by trying something we think is beyond our skill set.
Overall the effect looks quite believable. You got a nice blend between the green and the grunge.
Cutting off body parts in images is acceptable...it's just doing so in a place that is not distracting. I like to load multiple cameras. I lock the one I feel is going to be my final image but then I will use others to experiment with different angles, focal lengths, widths, etc. When I used to do that with the original camera I could never seem to get it back exactly where I had it originally.
Once I am sure of my camera position I will get rid of the others if they are getting in my way.
It is a subtle difference but it works. Small adjustments can really make a huge difference.
I love the concept and idea behind your image. Choosing to use black and white really forces the viewer to look at your figure without being distracted by any strong colours that may be present.
I think she has a wonderful pose and the geometrics on her dress offer interesting texture without being distracting.
However, I am finding her hair distracting. It is hiding part of her face and the light is very strong on the left side of the image and is drawing my eye away from her face and I really want to stay on her face.
This is a wonderful start and a great use of a simple background and DOF to make the figure stand out.
She has beautiful eyes and I find I am drawn to them. That strong black backdrop behind her does a nice job of framing her and the strong colours help her to stand out.
The posing may need a bit of tweaking. I think the hand on her hip may need to be rotate slightly to the palm is making better contact and then her fingers may need to be bent slightly so they are touching her hip/skirt. They might be floating at the moment?
I am glad you did.
You have a striking figure with a strong presence. I really like the monochromatic feel of the image and the fur detail is great.
Unfortunately I think the fur is getting washed out a bit by the strong light. Can it be toned down a little without losing the details?
I really like the sweeping lines of the sword but the lower point is intersecting with your figure's mouth. Perhaps if you rotated it slightly towards the figure that point wouldn't intersect the figure's lip and might allow the light to show some of the lovely details and colours on the sword.
I really like the style of your character. She looks like coming straigh from a pixar movie ! May I ask what model did you used ?
The light work is adding a great depth to your image and the shadow's color on her skin looks very natural. It feels like the color of her hair is impacting the light and add some dark brown in the shadow. How did you do that ^^ ?
For the pose I agree with Kismet2012 and I also feel that her left hand is facing the wrong direction. May be it will be more natural for her left palm to be facing the camera.
Corrected version of waiting for you as suggested by Kismet 2012 and PixelReaper
Still waiting for you
Daz Studio Iray with post work skin tone
Item used https://www.daz3d.com/fw-monie https://www.daz3d.com/hi-lo-dress-for-genesis-2-female-s https://www.daz3d.com/ultra-mod-beach-house https://www.daz3d.com/cats-meow-hair-for-genesis-2-females
I tried with another pose
Tried with another pose. Now I might update one of these (out of three) version.
By the way now I realized I am bad at posing. Next I will build pose with reference. By the way last version pose is one of library pose I applied it with little bit edit.