Post Your Renders - Happy New Year yall
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Tim, those tower interiors look incredible! Great work.
doin a carrarathon with the landscape scenes :)
In the forest, gamma on/off - apparently there's more to gamma than toggling it on and off :lol:
in the forest, gamma off, caustics on
icy mountain, caustics on, sky on
rendering strata rocks - is going on 53 minutes and still chunking
Messing around with things.
Modelled in Daz3D Carrara, Transferred to Genesis in Daz3D Studio
Rendered in Carrara using the Octane for Carrara plug-in.
Looks great Andy! Very retro/mod looking.
Hi EP .:)
It's a work in progress, some things don't work well right now, ..like the shoulder lights, which are being warped by the head / neck weight mapping, ..some tweaks needed there.
I also though of adding some sort of back pack / air cleaner thing,.. connected to the helmet
I just wanted to see how easy it was to make conforming clothing using the transfer utility in DS.
pretty simple. Import model, use a genesis base in the transfer utility to add the rigging to the imported model, save as a Scene Asset, /Follower / prop and it'll show up in Carrara's smart content.
:)
Nice, just started discovering the wonders of the transfer utility in Daz Studio myself thanks to several posts by Wendy on getting the Genesis 2 beard to transfer with morphs and visemes into iClone.
Playing with video filters to come up with a style for my characters. This is for animation so there's no GI or SSS.
OOOH! Smokin. Perfect. More please.
OOOH! Smokin. Perfect. More please.Ditto!
Ditto on Dart's Ditto!
Ditto on Dart's Ditto!
Thanks guys! It helps to know I'm going in the right direction :-)
A slightly different perspective which I hope might be of benefit to some.
First, I need to make a Carrara Forum Disclaimer (henceforth referred to as the CFD)...
In no way am I saying anything bad about anybody's image or trying to be mean. So there's no need to take anything personally, okay? Nor is there any need to take offense on someone else's behalf. This is merely an attempt to provide a slightly different perspective, in the hopes that we all have an opportunity to learn from each other and hopefully improve.
I will provide some more objective evaluations of the image, since "awesome" and "perfect" don't really provide much objective assistance in evaluating an image, assuming that's someone's intent.
And again, this is not directed at stringtheory or any one individual. It is merely an objective procedure that some artists use in evaluating their images, and hopefully someone here can benefit. If stringtheory feels that it is the look he is going for, then there's nothing wrong with that and nobody can comment. Only if the intent is to get objective feedback from other viewers regarding how they perceive the image does it apply.
Now, with that out of the way... :) :)
As an objective evaluation of, say, a photographic image, many photographers would look at the image and evaluate the "levels" in the image, and see an image that is either totally dark or totally light, with very few midrange values. In general, people GENERALLY (though not always) try to avoid that. Again, that's not always the case. Sometimes for artistic reasons, such as to add drama or whatever, an image will be skewed to an imbalanced range. But it's something to consider. People (including you and I...) GENERALLY like images with a lot of midrange values, which implies interest and detail.
Another thing to consider in an objective evaluation are the intent and goals of the image. What are you trying to say with the image? What story are you trying to tell, or what emotion are you trying to convey to the audience? Stringtheory mentioned he's trying to find a "look" for his animation...and generally that implies you're trying to make the viewer feel a certain way about the image and what it's saying. Now, in this case, with the very bright background and dark, un-detailed hair, what are you trying to say to the viewer? You and I generally associate bright with happy. But the facial expression, with her head down and her eyes looking like she's off in dreamland, imply (to me at least) that maybe she's a bit sad or daydreaming or something. And that seems to conflict (to me at least) with the bright background.
So I took his image and tweaked it a bit to give it a more daydreamy feel to it. Again, the only purpose of this was not to criticize, but to give one viewer's perspective on how you might convey a certain feeling in your image. I changed the camera perspective, adding a vignette, did a little sharpening and such.
Again, I apologize if anyone takes offense at this (as I'm sure someone will) but my intent is only as an objective learning opportunity. If what I say does not apply to anyone, then please just ignore everything I've said, and try not to take offense.
And one more point that I think is pertinent...
Most viewers, including you and I, when we look at images, our eyes TEND to GENERALLY immediately focus on the brightest part of the image FIRST. We tend to expect that the important part of the image is generally the brightest area, and the dark part is the background. Again, that's just a general tendency to be aware of.
And what is the brightest part of the image he posted? The window off on the far right of the image, which is totally bright white.
Now, if there's a reason why you want the viewers to immediately look at that area of the image first, then you've served your purpose. However, if you want them to focus on a different area, it's good to keep in mind how viewers tend to look at images.
Again, if this doesn't apply to anyone here, please ignore it and try not to take offense.
It is for a video, so it is impossible to tell the composition of the scene from just one freeze frame. The camera could be following the movement through the scene and the bright (I assume) window is in-frame at this point.
The original image suggests to me a bright morning lit room with a gauzy filter on the lens to soften the image.
Joe's color and levels corrections, while probably technically correct remove the warmth from the original image, and the added contrast, while providing separation with the background also reduces the softness of the lighting. My personal opinion is that the original looks better even if it breaks a few rules.
If there is a need to provide separation from the background, I would suggest a rim light or halo light restricted to the figure to provide highlights around the edges of the figure.
My example has much different lighting obviously, but if you look at the top of the figure's profile, you can see a very fine rim light. It helps to define the shape of the figure and provide separation.
Wow, I didn't see that coming... :) :) :)
Wow, I didn't see that coming... :) :) :)
Say what you will. I think the original looks better. The corrected version you posted lacks a certain warmth and life. I also have said repeatedly, that it is good to know the rules, to understand them, but not to be afraid to break them if you need to. Understanding them will tell you how to get away with breaking them if you need to. The rules serve the artist, but the artist does not serve the rules.
Judging by Stringtheory's other works that he has been kind enough to share with us, he definitely has a grasp of them.
Hi JoeMamma2000, I always appreciate feedback from you,
You are right about the levels and traditionally golden rules are good to follow. However I have been looking at a lot of fantasy art for inspiration and it's crazy how visually stunning some of it is. One of my goals is to try capture some of that. A good example is this artist.
One thing I've notices is that often the lighting makes no sense but the piece looks amazing. They are clearly cheating all over the place when it comes to lighting but no one cares because it looks cool.
Perfect example. There's way too much light on the viewers side but I'm buying it!
So to evils point, breaking the rules can often lead to a stunning visual.
Since I am doing all animation by mocap (facial included), when I'm experimenting with lighting, I have a bad habit of dropping my characters into the scene and not touching them again. So yes, the mood of her expression is in total contrast with the surrounding which in turn was a casualty of my filter experimentation. But since I will be compositing my characters against the environment I am not to focused on that balance right now.
Another thing that caught my attention while analyzing some painted fantasy art is that the characters looks so believable even though there is not a lot of very fine detail. So of course I jumped all over that since I can cut down my rendering time significantly. But it's those fine details in bump map and highlights that "paint" the light into the right places. So the lesson I learned is to create something visually and artisticly stunning without worrying too much about whether it is accurate in a physical sense. And it has to render in my lifetime. So I've been playing with ways to accomplish that by adjusting my lighting in my final render to complement my post filtering to derive the final look I am trying to achieve.
Step one (first image) is to create a rather dark and dull looking render. Not much detail and the lighting looks quite horrendous (but it's really carefully tuned for the post filter). This renders in a minute on my core2 duo. The hair is the big killer. 10 seconds without it.
The second step I did in photoshop mimicking a filter available in most video editing packages. It's a duplicate of the original image with a Gaussian blur at about 15% opacity.
The third step is cranking up the levels on the highlights of the blurred layer and doing some overall brightness adjustments to get the character to sit well with the background (not part of this test).
And lastly the fourth step is color adjustments to get the hugh to blend with the background (not this one but a comped in background).
In a sense its like taking a film grading approach but with 3D: Example.
It's probably a little outside the box and there's still things I need to work on but I'm starting to like the end result since it gets the style I'm going for while keeping render time down.
Say what you will. I think the original looks better. The corrected version you posted lacks a certain warmth and life. I also have said repeatedly, that it is good to know the rules, to understand them, but not to be afraid to break them if you need to. Understanding them will tell you how to get away with breaking them if you need to. The rules serve the artist, but the artist does not serve the rules.
Judging by Stringtheory's other works that he has been kind enough to share with us, he definitely has a grasp of them.
Thanks for the compliment evil!
While that can be true, in practice it's one of those things that is very easy to say, but far more difficult to get away with...
And I've found that often the "breaking the rules" mantra is used as an excuse by those who are better characterized by "Screw the rules and leave me alone, I'm playing !!!" :) :) :)
It's one thing to really know the rules (which few do, since it involves some rather deep understanding of people's perceptions and expectations when viewing images), but it's another thing altogether to know when and how you can break them. And breaking the rules successfully is mainly accomplished by those who have clear goals for their images, and specific emotions or stories they want to convey, and find they need to stray a bit in order to accomplish their goals. But they also know the limits they need to maintain in order for their viewers to buy the concept. It requires a lot of skill and knowledge, but also a lot of talent.
In any case, I'm not really sure what you're referring to about the images you referred to being examples of breaking the rules. They generally follow the basics of composition and lighting, and lead the viewer's eyes to the important stuff, and the lighting and shadows generally follow what viewers expect for real world lighting. Yeah, some of the images have questionable light sources, but that's generally not that big a deal as long as the lights obey the general properties of light sources.
I especially love the image of the girl sitting on the rock. And in that case the artist gives the viewer some incredible detail and interest as well as some gorgeous lighting. It also has a nice vignette to draw the viewer's eyes to focus on the subject, and the artist doesn't make one of the most common mistakes of rendered images, which is hiding dark areas of the image in total black, rather than use the opportunity to provide subtle but dramatic detail and interest.
Yeah, the lighting on the girl doesn't match the setting sun in the background, but the artist KNEW that as long as the lighting he gave the image was realistic and dramatic, the viewer wouldn't see it as wrong, but beautiful. But knowing that he could cut that corner is not something that comes easily to most. You really have to know what you're doing and how to accomplish it. Because if it was that easy, we'd be seeing tons of gorgeous images like that in these forums, the kind of images that take your breath away. :) :)
Hi JoeMamma2000, I always appreciate feedback from you,
You are right about the levels and traditionally golden rules are good to follow. However I have been looking at a lot of fantasy art for inspiration and it's crazy how visually stunning some of it is. One of my goals is to try capture some of that. A good example is this artist.
One thing I've notices is that often the lighting makes no sense but the piece looks amazing. They are clearly cheating all over the place when it comes to lighting but no one cares because it looks cool.
Perfect example. There's way too much light on the viewers side but I'm buying it!
So to evils point, breaking the rules can often lead to a stunning visual.
Since I am doing all animation by mocap (facial included), when I'm experimenting with lighting, I have a bad habit of dropping my characters into the scene and not touching them again. So yes, the mood of her expression is in total contrast with the surrounding which in turn was a casualty of my filter experimentation. But since I will be compositing my characters against the environment I am not to focused on that balance right now.
Another thing that caught my attention while analyzing some painted fantasy art is that the characters looks so believable even though there is not a lot of very fine detail. So of course I jumped all over that since I can cut down my rendering time significantly. But it's those fine details in bump map and highlights that "paint" the light into the right places. So the lesson I learned is to create something visually and artisticly stunning without worrying too much about whether it is accurate in a physical sense. And it has to render in my lifetime. So I've been playing with ways to accomplish that by adjusting my lighting in my final render to complement my post filtering to derive the final look I am trying to achieve.
Step one (first image) is to create a rather dark and dull looking render. Not much detail and the lighting looks quite horrendous (but it's really carefully tuned for the post filter). This renders in a minute on my core2 duo. The hair is the big killer. 10 seconds without it.
The second step I did in photoshop mimicking a filter available in most video editing packages. It's a duplicate of the original image with a Gaussian blur at about 15% opacity.
The third step is cranking up the levels on the highlights of the blurred layer and doing some overall brightness adjustments to get the character to sit well with the background (not part of this test).
And lastly the fourth step is color adjustments to get the hugh to blend with the background (not this one but a comped in background).
In a sense its like taking a film grading approach but with 3D: Example.
It's probably a little outside the box and there's still things I need to work on but I'm starting to like the end result since it gets the style I'm going for while keeping render time down.
lovely glow string theory, the other thing is the far away look in her eyes, adds humanity and warmth and another dimension
Here's some stuff from me, the image I made for a big religious prize here in oz.
I've posted it here before in digital form but this is the print so you can see how it turned out.
"The Body of Christ, The Tree of Life"
182cm X 78cm (w x h)
Pigment print on Hahnemuhle 100% cotton rag
Artist: Andrew Finnie, 2014
It's being hung at the moment at the church where it will stay for a few weeks. I'm giving a talk on the work on Wednesday next..
thanks for looking ;)
Stringtheory, back to your image and the look you're trying to achieve...
I guess I'm not really clear on what look you're trying to achieve. :) :) :)
I think the areas that stand out for me are the background and the hair. Generally (again, not always, but in general) people tend to find really bright backgrounds to be a bit annoying and distracting from the subject of the image. Especially bright yellow backgrounds that don't provide much or any detail or interest. I think the images you referenced in the Gallery tend to employ dark backgrounds, with the subject/s being lit to focus viewer attention.
Also, whenever an area of an image is fully black (such as the hair in your image) it is generally seen as a lost opportunity for providing some detail and interest. It doesn't have to be bright and obvious, but viewers generally like to see some detail and interest. The image you referenced of the girl sitting on the rock is a great example. Even areas of darkness have great detail and interest, including the dark horizon.
And in this case especially, when there's apparently so much ambient light as evidenced by the super bright background, you would think the hair would have all kinds of highlights and detail. It's those small details that viewers subconsciously recognize immediately and think "hmmm, there's something wrong here...".
I think the woman's face and expression in your image are wonderful, but it's now a matter of deciding what you want the image to say and what you want to convey. And BTW, that's what led me to focus on the face of the girl in the modification I made. The real area of interest is in the expression of the girl, and as Headwax said, the eyes. So I formed a simple vignette and changed the camera view to focus on the face. And I left a bit of a glow in the background to give a little magical glow to the scene.
I'm not saying that's correct, or the right way. But it's one example of how you can decide what you want to convey and how you might go about that, and why. It's all about purpose and goals.
My project is a dark fantasy, with an evil witch, a princess and a noble hero (yes I know, how very original! lol) so I'm hoping to achieve a dark ethereal look with the end result. I'd like to capturing the humanity of the character but without the ultra realism. If I could get a hand painted look, even better! Mainly I want it to look very moody and contrasty.
Also, whenever an area of an image is fully black (such as the hair in your image) it is generally seen as a lost opportunity for providing some detail and interest. It doesn't have to be bright and obvious, but viewers generally like to see some detail and interest. The image you referenced of the girl sitting on the rock is a great example. Even areas of darkness have great detail and interest, including the dark horizon.
And in this case especially, when there's apparently so much ambient light as evidenced by the super bright background, you would think the hair would have all kinds of highlights and detail. It's those small details that viewers subconsciously recognize immediately and think "hmmm, there's something wrong here...".
I think the woman's face and expression in your image are wonderful, but it's now a matter of deciding what you want the image to say and what you want to convey. And BTW, that's what led me to focus on the face of the girl in the modification I made. The real area of interest is in the expression of the girl, and as Headwax said, the eyes. So I formed a simple vignette and changed the camera view to focus on the face. And I left a bit of a glow in the background to give a little magical glow to the scene.
No qualms with this except that this was purely a focus on the character facial/tone/lighting style I am trying establish. I grabbed a random background from my object browser so I could see the outer borders of the hair line. Although not super clear my comment "Playing with video filters to come up with a style for my characters." was an attempt to put focus on the character and not the compositional balance and background of the image since this was purely a character styling exercise. I posted the image because I was staring to see a glimmer of life/humanity behind her eyes (which I've toiled many a late night on) and wanted to see what kind of reaction it would generate from our community, which I deeply respect. In fact it was this image from Dart that inspired me to go in this direction.
So in respect to a completed work your comments are all very valid and noted and I always appreciate the time you take to share your knowledge. :-)
Super cool, head wax. And congratulations!
Thanks head wax :-)
While that can be true, in practice it's one of those things that is very easy to say, but far more difficult to get away with...
And I've found that often the "breaking the rules" mantra is used as an excuse by those who are better characterized by "Screw the rules and leave me alone, I'm playing !!!" :) :) :)
Probably more accurate to say, you ASSUME, based on limited or no knowledge of individuals, that it is a Mantra that is used as an excuse, blah, blah, blah. :smirk:
Very nice work Andrew! Congratulations!
I guess we have one less hobbyist now. ;-)
ah Carrara is bringing in a small income for me - which is nice of it
never a hobby, always an addiction, as it is for most of us here ;)
A menu background for a Blu-Ray disc of our Christmas 2014 trip to Salt Lake City.
Finally got a chance to work on this. Here's the final on my "virtual vacation" photo - Byodo In temple, Hawaii. I had to prepare an Art-Look version as well to help explain to my relatives what the heck I'm doing. See... I added that picture of me into this 3D model then tweaked the appearance :)
- Don