Non-photorealistic Renders (NPR)

mmitchell_houston

philebus said:

Just passing the time while I listen to some audio drama (I picked up the first series of Jago & Litefoot - a recent spin-off from an 70's Doctor Who story).

Sorry for taking so long to comment on this one. It's REALLY nice. I like how you provided us both versions -- with text and without. Nice job on the painted smoke. It's got that classic paperback cover look that I really miss in today's books. As for the figure... nicely done, but there's something a bit stiff about her pose. Part of the problem may be that the sexy turn of the hip to our right is kind of blending in with the demon's hip, thus diminishing her pose. I would suggest just exagerating her pose a bit more (arch the back, turn the wrists more, neck more to one side). Just a few tweaks to give us a sense of motion coming to a halt. Anyway, just a few notions as I fade off to sleep. Thanks for sharing a GREAT image.

Headwax

david_macrae said:

Nightgaunt - storyboard frame from upcoming animation 

wow David that is terrific :)

 

 

Headwax

jakiblue said:

I had a play with PhotoDonut the other day - I think @divamakeup mentioned it so I thought I'd give it a try. This was my first attempt. Click for full view. 

Original:

Photodonut:

 

 

 

that pencil linework is coming on strong

 

 

Headwax

jakiblue said:

oh Head Wax! how did you do the Phantom costume??? My hubby is a massive Phantom fan and I've always wanted to do one for him, but I can't get the Phantom costume right!! 

head wax said:

This is on the famous Nobbys break wall that surrounds our City's harbour entrance. The Red thing is a local icon and ships' beacon.

I left space for Text top left but refrained.

Carrara Job. Filter Forge filters ad infinitum

Any suggestions on Phantom Comic cover text welcome (not the title The Phantom- I'v sorted that one :) )

 

 

 

 

oh I did it so long ago!! I cant remember

the body is just boring old M4 retextured - I found some undepant things on sharecg as well as phantom rings

the gun belt is a standard western belt

the hood is a full hood that I painted a transmap on to reveal the chin

sorry to be no more help

:(

 

jakiblue said:

 

 

Headwax

mmitchell_houston said:

I decided to update a few illustrations for the Gutshot Rule Book. I decided to try two approaches. The first one is my standard "noir" style, and the second is the basketweave effect. 

Both images were created in Poser 11 with clean-up in Photoshop.

Image 1 -- Finishes in Manga Studio 5 EX (aka Clip Studio Paint).
Image 2 -- Basketweave effect created by India Ink plug-in.

Any opinions on which you like better?

​sorry to be late to the party - initially IO liked the top one better but the bottom one is very strong - just needs a dash more highlighting perhaps?

 

Headwax

gah so much good work in this sorry not to comment on more :(

Headwax

Carrara job:

 

I decided to reexplore Carrara's NPR engine - made a custom stipple brush rendered that out

then  combined with a normal shadow pass and a toon pro pass (lines) and coverage pass and also a diffuse pass

then ran it through filter forge after isolating the background elements with an object pass and painting in some fog as a separator

you can see the NPR texture in most of the image - I used vertical horizntal and U ticked for the brush direction and kept it fairly transparent and also kept the brush sizes to a min - just used diffuse in the NPR part 

please ignore the poke though on the boy's feet - its just an exersize in getting an NPR look

 

 

Headwax

Another Carrara job  , started with  carrara NPR again

 

mmitchell_houston

head wax said:

Carrara job:

I decided to reexplore Carrara's NPR engine - made a custom stipple brush rendered that out

then  combined with a normal shadow pass and a toon pro pass (lines) and coverage pass and also a diffuse pass

then ran it through filter forge after isolating the background elements with an object pass and painting in some fog as a separator

you can see the NPR texture in most of the image - I used vertical horizntal and U ticked for the brush direction and kept it fairly transparent and also kept the brush sizes to a min - just used diffuse in the NPR part 

please ignore the poke though on the boy's feet - its just an exersize in getting an NPR look

Thanks for the walk-through! Looks pretty good. Strictly in terms of composition, I think this would be stronger if the cars were significantly lighter in contrast.

Like what I see!

Headwax

mmitchell_houston said:

head wax said:

Carrara job:

I decided to reexplore Carrara's NPR engine - made a custom stipple brush rendered that out

then  combined with a normal shadow pass and a toon pro pass (lines) and coverage pass and also a diffuse pass

then ran it through filter forge after isolating the background elements with an object pass and painting in some fog as a separator

you can see the NPR texture in most of the image - I used vertical horizntal and U ticked for the brush direction and kept it fairly transparent and also kept the brush sizes to a min - just used diffuse in the NPR part 

please ignore the poke though on the boy's feet - its just an exersize in getting an NPR look

Thanks for the walk-through! Looks pretty good. Strictly in terms of composition, I think this would be stronger if the cars were significantly lighter in contrast.

Like what I see!

 

thanks yes I hit them with a fog but should ramp it up a wee bit - thanks for the c and c :)

 

Headwax

more carrara NPR with the custom brush combined with ambient occlusion pass and toon pro

 

mmitchell_houston

head wax said:

more carrara NPR with the custom brush combined with ambient occlusion pass and toon pro

Very cute. Simple and effective. I love their expressions. This has the look of a tight, hand-sketched image, although I do think the steps are a bit too perfectly straight, if you know what I mean. The figures are tight, so the straight edges on the steps aren't out of place... but they are just a little too perfect. Nevertheless, I really think you're on to something with this approach.

mmitchell_houston

I took another pass at the first page of my comic. This is the establishing shot for the story. The subsequent pages take place inside the mountain cave. I've added the path and the road in an attempt to give it a little scale. The dialogue font is not final -- I'm waiting for Blambot.com's sale next week to pick up a few new fantasy-style fonts for this story. I also spent a lot of time on the sun effect for the sky, and I'm not sure what I think of it. I'm torn between loving it and hating it. My two thoughts are that it's very interesting or that it's just too busy and it's hard to tell that the sun is blaring down on them. I also think the path on the mountain and the ground needs a little more detail work. Also, the ground lines along the horizon are too thick.

What do you guys think (and you should probably look at this full size to get an idea of how the tone is affecting the sky)?

eugene_lab

head wax said:

 

thanks wsterdan  :)  and Sammy_jr_mart

Sammy, I agree with the dark layer behind the text.

eugene_lab ​ - pretty good image - I agree with the light source angle - it looks a bit odd at bottom left - top left is fine to my eye

 

 

 

Thank you again for your input, will work on re-doing this render.

mmitchell_houston said:

I took another pass at the first page of my comic. This is the establishing shot for the story. The subsequent pages take place inside the mountain cave. I've added the path and the road in an attempt to give it a little scale. The dialogue font is not final -- I'm waiting for Blambot.com's sale next week to pick up a few new fantasy-style fonts for this story. I also spent a lot of time on the sun effect for the sky, and I'm not sure what I think of it. I'm torn between loving it and hating it. My two thoughts are that it's very interesting or that it's just too busy and it's hard to tell that the sun is blaring down on them. I also think the path on the mountain and the ground needs a little more detail work. Also, the ground lines along the horizon are too thick.

What do you guys think (and you should probably look at this full size to get an idea of how the tone is affecting the sky)?

Very NICE!

eugene_lab

head wax said:

more carrara NPR with the custom brush combined with ambient occlusion pass and toon pro

 

Cool rendering.

Worlds_Edge

@mmitchell_houston - Your first page looks great.  It really gives a sense of how massive the rock structure is.  I hadn't noticed the thickness of the horizon lines, but now that you mentioned it, I agree the lines could be thinner.  I do like the sky and it is clear the sun is out.  I'm not certain that it is clear that it is blazing hot though.  Perhaps a star/flare effect over the current drawing (i.e., keeping your sky, but adding a sun flare over the spot where the sun is and extending into the sky)? 

 

@head_wax - your carrera figures look awesome. Like mmitchell_houston, I did sense that they are too perfect or perhaps too similar.  Upon taking a closer look, maybe it is a combination of the characters' features being too similar (in placement on the face - if just their face elements are differenty placed, they would be similar but not exactly the same), and the posing being a little too stiff.  Now don't ask me how robotic figures can be fluidly posed, lol.  But there is something to be said for combining boxy/straight characters with curves.  You already have some curves in the posing, so I wonder what would happen if you exaggerated them.  They have expressive little faces - very cool.

nonesuch00

head wax said:

more carrara NPR with the custom brush combined with ambient occlusion pass and toon pro

 

That is great.

mmitchell_houston

Worlds_Edge said:

@mmitchell_houston - Your first page looks great.  It really gives a sense of how massive the rock structure is.  I hadn't noticed the thickness of the horizon lines, but now that you mentioned it, I agree the lines could be thinner.  I do like the sky and it is clear the sun is out.  I'm not certain that it is clear that it is blazing hot though.  Perhaps a star/flare effect over the current drawing (i.e., keeping your sky, but adding a sun flare over the spot where the sun is and extending into the sky)? 

Thanks for the idea! I'm considering it as I do some work on the mountain and the path today.

Headwax

mmitchell_houston said:

I took another pass at the first page of my comic. This is the establishing shot for the story. The subsequent pages take place inside the mountain cave. I've added the path and the road in an attempt to give it a little scale. The dialogue font is not final -- I'm waiting for Blambot.com's sale next week to pick up a few new fantasy-style fonts for this story. I also spent a lot of time on the sun effect for the sky, and I'm not sure what I think of it. I'm torn between loving it and hating it. My two thoughts are that it's very interesting or that it's just too busy and it's hard to tell that the sun is blaring down on them. I also think the path on the mountain and the ground needs a little more detail work. Also, the ground lines along the horizon are too thick.

What do you guys think (and you should probably look at this full size to get an idea of how the tone is affecting the sky)?

Hya I purposefully havent checked other responses so sorry if I am repeating what others have said,

Sun effect looks fine and does the job by suggesting heat intensity - could you get away with little lines going up suggetsing steam ??? Maybe not - Maybe a skeleton in the foreground buried by sand (camel skeleton) but that' cliched perhaps.

There is a slight suggestion that is the large outcrop that is speaking - but I imagine that will be explained in the next graphic.

Road itself liiks fine but there asmall argument for more more vertical perspective - get slightly smaller at the top.

At the bas of the mountain/rock where the road approaches you could make more of a suggestion of the vertical base it is built on???

Where the horizon lines meet the outline of the mountain /rock tradtional pen and ink artists sometimes make a break so the lines don't quite meet. Maybe that would add to the feeling of distance (as well as reducing line widths?

Just thoughts - it looks like a dramatic start and asks questions and adds backstory all at the same time :)

cheers

 

Headwax

nonesuch00 said:

head wax said:

more carrara NPR with the custom brush combined with ambient occlusion pass and toon pro

 

That is great.

thanks nonesuch00  :)

 

Headwax

Worlds_Edge said:

@head_wax - your carrera figures look awesome. Like mmitchell_houston, I did sense that they are too perfect or perhaps too similar.  Upon taking a closer look, maybe it is a combination of the characters' features being too similar (in placement on the face - if just their face elements are differenty placed, they would be similar but not exactly the same), and the posing being a little too stiff.  Now don't ask me how robotic figures can be fluidly posed, lol.  But there is something to be said for combining boxy/straight characters with curves.  You already have some curves in the posing, so I wonder what would happen if you exaggerated them.  They have expressive little faces - very cool.

 

thank you Worlds_Edge  - that's great c and c - did a later play and added some morphs to the mouths to make them less glum - good idea about the curves, thanks!

 

Headwax

thank you eugene_lab  doing our bestto talk up Carrara :)

 

Headwax

mmitchell_houston said:

head wax said:

more carrara NPR with the custom brush combined with ambient occlusion pass and toon pro

Very cute. Simple and effective. I love their expressions. This has the look of a tight, hand-sketched image, although I do think the steps are a bit too perfectly straight, if you know what I mean. The figures are tight, so the straight edges on the steps aren't out of place... but they are just a little too perfect. Nevertheless, I really think you're on to something with this approach.

thanks for that ! yes those steps are too straight! _ I didnt really use much filtering on this image , mainly combined carrara render passes , the plugin filters would have dirtied them up . Carrara has the ability to isoltae u and v values in the NPR so I am searhing for a way of getting that to work with the NPR brushes to give more of a hand rendered look. There's plenty of leeway with the brushes - the ones that come with carrara are too dense. Thanks again. cheers.:)

 

mmitchell_houston

head wax said:

mmitchell_houston said:

I took another pass at the first page of my comic. This is the establishing shot for the story. The subsequent pages take place inside the mountain cave. I've added the path and the road in an attempt to give it a little scale. The dialogue font is not final -- I'm waiting for Blambot.com's sale next week to pick up a few new fantasy-style fonts for this story. I also spent a lot of time on the sun effect for the sky, and I'm not sure what I think of it. I'm torn between loving it and hating it. My two thoughts are that it's very interesting or that it's just too busy and it's hard to tell that the sun is blaring down on them. I also think the path on the mountain and the ground needs a little more detail work. Also, the ground lines along the horizon are too thick.

What do you guys think (and you should probably look at this full size to get an idea of how the tone is affecting the sky)?

Hya I purposefully havent checked other responses so sorry if I am repeating what others have said,

Sun effect looks fine and does the job by suggesting heat intensity - could you get away with little lines going up suggetsing steam ??? Maybe not - Maybe a skeleton in the foreground buried by sand (camel skeleton) but that' cliched perhaps.

There is a slight suggestion that is the large outcrop that is speaking - but I imagine that will be explained in the next graphic.

Road itself liiks fine but there asmall argument for more more vertical perspective - get slightly smaller at the top.

At the bas of the mountain/rock where the road approaches you could make more of a suggestion of the vertical base it is built on???

Where the horizon lines meet the outline of the mountain /rock tradtional pen and ink artists sometimes make a break so the lines don't quite meet. Maybe that would add to the feeling of distance (as well as reducing line widths?

Just thoughts - it looks like a dramatic start and asks questions and adds backstory all at the same time :)

cheers

 

THANKS! Great suggestions, and I've already started on it.

I really am thinking hard about making the path narrower at the top, but have concerns that it might close up in print. I'm gonna think about that, and Im pretty surdits will be made. And I'm now breaking up the lines on the horizon. As for "backstory," there isn't much to speak of, really. This is the Dragon's lair. The entire story takes place inside the cave near the top, and the mountain only appears in two panels. BUT... it's the first panel of the story, and it really needs to set the tone and sets the location for the story. Without it, the story isn't grounded.

THANKS to everyone for all the suggestions. New update before Monday.

algovincian

mmitchell_houston said:

I took another pass at the first page of my comic. This is the establishing shot for the story. The subsequent pages take place inside the mountain cave. I've added the path and the road in an attempt to give it a little scale. The dialogue font is not final -- I'm waiting for Blambot.com's sale next week to pick up a few new fantasy-style fonts for this story. I also spent a lot of time on the sun effect for the sky, and I'm not sure what I think of it. I'm torn between loving it and hating it. My two thoughts are that it's very interesting or that it's just too busy and it's hard to tell that the sun is blaring down on them. I also think the path on the mountain and the ground needs a little more detail work. Also, the ground lines along the horizon are too thick.

What do you guys think (and you should probably look at this full size to get an idea of how the tone is affecting the sky)?

Would you consider adding a 4th color so that white is reserved for the sun, or other lights? The white on the ground could be changed to a light gray, and the existing gray darkened a bit. Just a thought.

- Greg

kenmo

JCThomas said:

Here are some samples from my recent graphic novel, The Gates of Dawn. I render in octane, run a custom photoshop action that utilizes some filter forge filters and changes layer styles, then embed a clay render on top, run more filters, and then touch up by hand.

 

Theselook awesome....

akmerlow

If i may, this is something that was very first for me. More than 10 years ago, my uncle introduced Poser to me. I guess it was Poser 4. And of course sketch render caught my attention. Along with other things like... ability to glitch model through crazy limitless numbers. So i rendered this "guy" which became my avatar and talisman for several years.

 

I like "3d glitch" even today yeah sorry :D Too much listening to Aphex Twin also helps.

kenmo

Daz Studio 4.10, 3D Delight renderer, Mystical Mage character purchased at DAZ, Photoshop CC 2018, Topaz Studio Impression & Filter Forge 6.

Influenced by the work of comic book artist Barry Windsor-Smith who is my most favorite Conan the Barbarian comic book artist of all time.

 

kenmo

 

 

The Gunship - I modeled the spaceship from scratch using Groboto3D, Hexagon 3D 2.5, Silo 3D & 3D Coat 4.5. Model was also textured and rendered in 3D Coat.

Post processing done in Photoshop CC, FilterForge 6 & Corel Painter 2017.

 

Headwax

akmerlow said:

If i may, this is something that was very first for me. More than 10 years ago, my uncle introduced Poser to me. I guess it was Poser 4. And of course sketch render caught my attention. Along with other things like... ability to glitch model through crazy limitless numbers. So i rendered this "guy" which became my avatar and talisman for several years.

 

I like "3d glitch" even today yeah sorry :D Too much listening to Aphex Twin also helps.

nice and loose, almost abstract!