October 2015 New User Contest (WIP-THREAD)

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Comments

  • daybirddaybird Posts: 654

    Not bad, but i think it' too much light. I would put the cross and the vampire in the sweet spots.

  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,668
    edited October 2015

    I had to make a few adjustments to my picture for it to be able to attach the right way but I finally got it to work right!!

    Now I just need to know what you all think of this render cause I think I might enter this one unless I need to tweek it more?

    Dancing In The Rain with Daughter and Sister.jpg
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    Post edited by Saphirewild on
  • daybirddaybird Posts: 654

    Hi shadowcry 39,
    I have a big problem with your pic. I think the people should show a surprising expression in their faces, when snow falls in middle of the summer. Without this expression it's not easy to realise what you will tell us in this pic.

  • KA1KA1 Posts: 1,012

     

    I had to make a few adjustments to my picture for it to be able to attach the right way but I finally got it to work right!!

    Now I just need to know what you all think of this render cause I think I might enter this one unless I need to tweek it more?

    There doesn't appear to be any emotion in any of their faces - are they happy? Laughing? Sad? Having fun? Expressions on each of their faces could really breath some life into the picture - thats just an observation from another newbie though :)

  • Okay, finally done rendering.  I think I finally got all of the lighting worked out.  She has been fun to play around with.  I think she is done unless anyone finds anything really glaringly odd or out of place.  I'm very happy with how I got Noodles to look in Iray, too.  He was the hardest thing about this whole render because of what Iray did to his settings.  I had to go in and figure how out to fix things.  This is also my first render where I did all of the posing for everything without starting with an existing pose and modifying which is my usual method.  But, I've been trying to work on my posing skills.  So, I posed Willow, the broomstick, her hat and Noodles!!  Another first for me was changing the backdrop with a something outside of Daz instead of just using the materials that came with a prop.  In this render, atmosphere has more to do with mood than anything else although I think I've hinted at some of other kind a little.  Let me know what you think, but I think she's ready to post in the contest thread.  Now that I've had time away from him, I'll be revisiting my Vampire In London and see what tweaking I think I'll need to do there. 

    WillowWitchIray07.png
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  • KA1 said:

    I was working on a second render for this months competition, not sure I'm that happy with my current effort though. Still, feedback is always useful regardless so heres what I was working on.

    KA1, I'm not sure that the vampire girl behind your guy would actually be cowering that badly with the cross so far away from her.  You might want to try posing her as if she were sneaking up on him and see if you like that better.  I'm not sure if it is just the angle of the mirror, but shouldn't your guy be reflected in the mirrow?  He seems a little disconected to the room and double check his foot placement.  From this angle, he seems as if he is a tad off the floor.  If you go under edit>figure>move to floor, that is a quick easy way to make sure your characters' feet are where you want them.  The foot that is off the floor, you might want to bend the toe just a smidge.  Even shoes that don't bend, like men's shoes typically, still have a slight angle to them simply because of the repetitive way that we walk from heel to toes.  Over time, well worn shoes will have slight bend even on very solid sturdy soles.  Just don't crazy.  I'm talking about a slight maybe 1% to 5% not 20% or anything dramatic.  There are a lot of things I like about this...the candles, the skeleton sitting in the chair, the expression and posing on the girl closest to the cross.  What I think needs work ... the girl crouching behind the guy, the one lamp that is visible in the mirror looks more modern (just an impression as I can't really tell from the reflection) and yet there are candles on the wall (that kind of throws me off balance), the expression on the guy's face could use a little tweaking.  These are all of my impressions, though.  Please take what you want to work with and throw out anything you don't agree with.  I see a lot of promise there, but remember, I'm a newbie, too.

  • IceCrMnIceCrMn Posts: 2,129

    emotional expression isn't all that easy to do :(  , I've been using the expression preset poses (found under Parameters pane when you select your characters head). All the small changes to the face that get made when we smile or laugh are hard to make. So my characters tend to look a bit "cold" and "unfeeling" as well :P I'm just not very good at posing yet :)

  • daybird said:
    KA1 said:
    daybird said:

    Argh, another render for the trashcansad

    Fortunately i have read the ToS, before i have post it. I have directed the beam to the Head of the victim, but i think thats a clear transgression to the violation rule, so i have to render again.frown

     

    I'm not sure how that rule actually plays out, have you seen the promo images for thee genesis "severed man"?? http://www.daz3d.com/severed-man

    Holy shit, that's hard stuff, maybe i should try to post my render. If the result against the ToF, a mod should delete it.

    In this try, i use the bloom setting for the first time. I am not really happy with the result. The Beam came out great, but the background was to blur.

    I learned, while doing my first render using bloom, that it doesn't take much and it does tend to blur some things out that you may not want blurred.  Try dialing back and increasing in small increments until you get the look that you want.  Also, I'm not sure about the laser beam going through the head either. Not that I have a problem with exit wounds, it is just that you don't have an exit wound and it might look better to either have the beam absorbed and stopped or do something creative with your laser beams exit wound.  What I do like is the girl's basic pose and expression.  I would just modify her arm just a little so that she looks a little more realistic shooting a gun.  It is hard to shoot a gun from that angle and be able to shoot acurately.  Bring her arm forward, closer to the center of her body.  It doesn't have to be much to make it look more realistic.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    icecrmn said:

    emotional expression isn't all that easy to do :(  , I've been using the expression preset poses (found under Parameters pane when you select your characters head). All the small changes to the face that get made when we smile or laugh are hard to make. So my characters tend to look a bit "cold" and "unfeeling" as well :P I'm just not very good at posing yet :)

    Getting a good emotional expression is not easy but a very slight change in an eye setting, or perhaps the eyebrows or mouth can make a difference.

     

    When you use the presets, do you mix them?  Use a percentage of one plus a percentage of another?

  • KA1KA1 Posts: 1,012

    Thanks for your feedback knittingmommy, the lamp is indeed a little strange, it's all part of the Rosehill Moor set though, I did question myself on changing that when I saw it appear in the reflection. I think the angle is why the Hunter guy doesn't appear in the mirror, I was surprised myself he wasn't in the mirror! I think I'm going to rest this one a bit, my computer hates it, cpu render would take forever and it far exceeds my 2gig graphics card for accelerated rendering for now. Must grab a 4gig soon.

  • IceCrMnIceCrMn Posts: 2,129
    icecrmn said:

    emotional expression isn't all that easy to do :(  , I've been using the expression preset poses (found under Parameters pane when you select your characters head). All the small changes to the face that get made when we smile or laugh are hard to make. So my characters tend to look a bit "cold" and "unfeeling" as well :P I'm just not very good at posing yet :)

    Getting a good emotional expression is not easy but a very slight change in an eye setting, or perhaps the eyebrows or mouth can make a difference.

     

    When you use the presets, do you mix them?  Use a percentage of one plus a percentage of another?

    I've been experiementing with that apporach.

    0.23 Happy

    0.12 Suprised

    it's much better than what I can do on my own so far.

    When I dial Happy all the way up to 1.0 it's more of a cartoonish style happy with nearly the whole head warping into a cresent moon shape :)

  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,668
    KA1 said:

     

    I had to make a few adjustments to my picture for it to be able to attach the right way but I finally got it to work right!!

    Now I just need to know what you all think of this render cause I think I might enter this one unless I need to tweek it more?

    There doesn't appear to be any emotion in any of their faces - are they happy? Laughing? Sad? Having fun? Expressions on each of their faces could really breath some life into the picture - thats just an observation from another newbie though :)

    You know I never even thought of them having an expression, Thanks for the advice Kismet!! I am off to see if I can find some expressions to use (For Free of course) evil Grin.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    icecrmn said:
    icecrmn said:

    emotional expression isn't all that easy to do :(  , I've been using the expression preset poses (found under Parameters pane when you select your characters head). All the small changes to the face that get made when we smile or laugh are hard to make. So my characters tend to look a bit "cold" and "unfeeling" as well :P I'm just not very good at posing yet :)

    Getting a good emotional expression is not easy but a very slight change in an eye setting, or perhaps the eyebrows or mouth can make a difference.

     

    When you use the presets, do you mix them?  Use a percentage of one plus a percentage of another?

    I've been experiementing with that apporach.

    0.23 Happy

    0.12 Suprised

    it's much better than what I can do on my own so far.

    When I dial Happy all the way up to 1.0 it's more of a cartoonish style happy with nearly the whole head warping into a cresent moon shape :)

    That is what I tend to do...I start by mixing 2 or more presets then adjust as needed with the individual pose controls.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    KA1 said:

     

    I had to make a few adjustments to my picture for it to be able to attach the right way but I finally got it to work right!!

    Now I just need to know what you all think of this render cause I think I might enter this one unless I need to tweek it more?

    There doesn't appear to be any emotion in any of their faces - are they happy? Laughing? Sad? Having fun? Expressions on each of their faces could really breath some life into the picture - thats just an observation from another newbie though :)

    You know I never even thought of them having an expression, Thanks for the advice Kismet!! I am off to see if I can find some expressions to use (For Free of course) evil Grin.

    There are lots of great freebies out there.  If you haven't checked it out yet try the Freepository.  Happy hunting.

  • icecrmn said:
    icecrmn said:

    emotional expression isn't all that easy to do :(  , I've been using the expression preset poses (found under Parameters pane when you select your characters head). All the small changes to the face that get made when we smile or laugh are hard to make. So my characters tend to look a bit "cold" and "unfeeling" as well :P I'm just not very good at posing yet :)

    Getting a good emotional expression is not easy but a very slight change in an eye setting, or perhaps the eyebrows or mouth can make a difference.

     

    When you use the presets, do you mix them?  Use a percentage of one plus a percentage of another?

    I've been experiementing with that apporach.

    0.23 Happy

    0.12 Suprised

    it's much better than what I can do on my own so far.

    When I dial Happy all the way up to 1.0 it's more of a cartoonish style happy with nearly the whole head warping into a cresent moon shape :)

    I do this all the time and then I go back to pose controls and raise an eyebrow here or squint an eye, maybe add a little more dimple if the character is smiling.  Play around with it and have fun until you get something you like.  While some of the expression packs are great, I don't think I have ever used a pose or expression right out of the box.  They are great for a start, but they all need tweaking a little so that your own flare comes thru.

  • I went back in Gimp and adjusted the highlights on the hood.  I think I like it.  I'm ready to call it quits and post this one.  What do you think?  Is it ready?

    VampireInLondon20-CurvesAdjustment2withblur2.jpg
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  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    KA1 said:

    I was working on a second render for this months competition, not sure I'm that happy with my current effort though. Still, feedback is always useful regardless so heres what I was working on.

    I agree about the crouching girl. The first thing I thought was she should be leaning in to bite his wrist while he is trying to fend off the other one. And for some reason he seems just a tad bit too calm if he is facing off against two vampires.  Not sure how to fix that though.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Okay, finally done rendering.  I think I finally got all of the lighting worked out.  She has been fun to play around with.  I think she is done unless anyone finds anything really glaringly odd or out of place.  I'm very happy with how I got Noodles to look in Iray, too.  He was the hardest thing about this whole render because of what Iray did to his settings.  I had to go in and figure how out to fix things.  This is also my first render where I did all of the posing for everything without starting with an existing pose and modifying which is my usual method.  But, I've been trying to work on my posing skills.  So, I posed Willow, the broomstick, her hat and Noodles!!  Another first for me was changing the backdrop with a something outside of Daz instead of just using the materials that came with a prop.  In this render, atmosphere has more to do with mood than anything else although I think I've hinted at some of other kind a little.  Let me know what you think, but I think she's ready to post in the contest thread.  Now that I've had time away from him, I'll be revisiting my Vampire In London and see what tweaking I think I'll need to do there. 

    I like it!

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    KA1 said:

     

    I had to make a few adjustments to my picture for it to be able to attach the right way but I finally got it to work right!!

    Now I just need to know what you all think of this render cause I think I might enter this one unless I need to tweek it more?

    There doesn't appear to be any emotion in any of their faces - are they happy? Laughing? Sad? Having fun? Expressions on each of their faces could really breath some life into the picture - thats just an observation from another newbie though :)

    I couldn't figure out what was bothering me on this one.  But that's it.  Look forward to seeing what comes of it!

  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,668
    edited October 2015
    KA1 said:

     

    I had to make a few adjustments to my picture for it to be able to attach the right way but I finally got it to work right!!

    Now I just need to know what you all think of this render cause I think I might enter this one unless I need to tweek it more?

    There doesn't appear to be any emotion in any of their faces - are they happy? Laughing? Sad? Having fun? Expressions on each of their faces could really breath some life into the picture - thats just an observation from another newbie though :)

    okies I went back and pretty much changed everything about this render and also added expressions on 2 of them could not find any freebie expressions for The Kid.

    Beautiful Day With Aunty and Mommy.jpg
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    Post edited by Saphirewild on
  • KA1KA1 Posts: 1,012
    Sonja11 said:
    KA1 said:

    I was working on a second render for this months competition, not sure I'm that happy with my current effort though. Still, feedback is always useful regardless so heres what I was working on.

    I agree about the crouching girl. The first thing I thought was she should be leaning in to bite his wrist while he is trying to fend off the other one. And for some reason he seems just a tad bit too calm if he is facing off against two vampires.  Not sure how to fix that though.

    Ah, see now this is where the story falls apart, he's actually shielding the crouching girl from the Vampire, she's basically cowering behind him - I'm going to go back to this one at a later date I think, I want to get the angle so you can see the reflections of the two non vampires with no reflection for the vamp to try to enhance the story - seriously need to consider the poses as well I think, the guys shielding hand is probably a little to casual and subtle to portray the story from my head to the canvas - its all a learning curve!

  • KA1KA1 Posts: 1,012
    Sonja11 said:
    KA1 said:
    I went back in Gimp and adjusted the highlights on the hood.  I think I like it.  I'm ready to call it quits and post this one.  What do you think?  Is it ready?

    I really like this one, it's been nice to follow the journey with you as you've been working on it too! Great render :)

  • KA1KA1 Posts: 1,012

    @shadowcry39 I don't own the Kids 4 so I'm not sure what sort of pose options are in the parameters tab, I "think" most figures have pose dials for eyes, brows, mouth etc in the "Head" parameters tab under "Pose" this way you could play around with facial expressions without the need for expression packs - I very often tweak poses/expressions using the pose parameters so mainly use stock expressions as a starting point. It is fun sometimes to just manually dial in expressions exactly the way you like though.

    I can't tell you the number of times I've run a render and then after an hour or two realised I'd forgot to add expressions!!!

  • White RabbitWhite Rabbit Posts: 231
    edited October 2015
    Joe Webb said:

    Title:  Trouble in Paradise

    Software:  DAZ Studio 4.8

    Postwork: none

    I had a dream the other night, and this is the result.  I think the scene is pretty much self explanatory, but basically, the male and female rabbits lost their warren (some  kind of bunny home foreclosure).  So, they had to set off looking for a new place for their not so little family.  They stumbled upon an old tree that had fallen over and landed next to the pond.  It had been sitting there for many, many years and had started to sink a little into the soft, lush ground.  They hopped into the open end of the tree and made their way down to the other end of the trunk, Mr. bunny taking the lead.   They couldn't believe their eyes as they gazed out into the beautiful scene in front of them.  Lots of vegetation everywhere that would provide great shelter.  The duck pond looked so inviting to them, but rabbits have great hearing and pretty good sight too, and up in the sky there soared a hawk, one of the bunnies worst enemies!  They must wait till the sun goes down before they make a move. 

    I started working of this scene about a week ago after I discovered the other scene I was going to do needed the dynamic clothing plugin which I can't afford right now.  So, I have been focused on this.  I rendered in iray as I very much like the results.  I can get a good idea how the render will look after a few minutes then there will be a rough grainy display.  I have the atmosphere cube tutorial from Sickleyield in my scene.  At the moment, I am getting a nice haze going into the distance through the valley.  I knew in my mind how I wanted it to look but I didn't have a tree that would work.  As luck would have it, there was a new release called The Fallen Tree.  This seemed perfect for my needs.  I did have to modify it a little as there were some problems with scaling but I fixed it using the Joint Editor in DAZ.  

    The lighting took a LOT of searching online for different ways of doing it.  I tried using the Sun and Sky only to start with.  This worked, but was a pain to get the sun coming in to get the shadows that I wanted in the correct place in the scene, inside the tree stump.  I used 12:00PM, 1:00PM... 2:00PM all the way through but it still didn't give the control that I wanted.  I found the best method for me was to create my own "sun" using iray emission on a mesh.  This worked great!  I put a very light blue tint to simulate sunlight.  I also experimented using planes to get additional effects.  This is what I am currently working on.  I have really enjoyed working on this. 

    I have attached my latest render... I stopped it part way through so I could get something posted here.

     

    Nice, you have a lot going on in the scene, a lot of detail to explore. I've not been able to figure out Sun and Sky yet, but I do use emissive mesh when I can. I haven't even tried using planes beyond a billboard, or tried to simulate water - I guess thats next for me wink  If I were to change anything in the scene I would up the haze a litte, or at least get it to where the hawk/eagle is slightly dimmer.

     

    Thanks, I have been working on those updates.  I think you are correct... there needed to be more haze to kind of consolidate all the areas and colors, making it look more as one.

    I did add some more details to it smiley  The young kits have made their way to the mom and dad.  

    trouble_in_paradise_grainy.jpg
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    Post edited by White Rabbit on
  • Sonja11 said:

     

    I like it!

    Thanks, Sonja.

     

    KA1 said:
    Sonja11 said:
    KA1 said:
    I went back in Gimp and adjusted the highlights on the hood.  I think I like it.  I'm ready to call it quits and post this one.  What do you think?  Is it ready?

    I really like this one, it's been nice to follow the journey with you as you've been working on it too! Great render :)

    Thanks, KA, he has been a bit of a challenge, but I think he turned out pretty good.

  • KA1 said:
    Sonja11 said:
    KA1 said:

    I was working on a second render for this months competition, not sure I'm that happy with my current effort though. Still, feedback is always useful regardless so heres what I was working on.

    I agree about the crouching girl. The first thing I thought was she should be leaning in to bite his wrist while he is trying to fend off the other one. And for some reason he seems just a tad bit too calm if he is facing off against two vampires.  Not sure how to fix that though.

    Ah, see now this is where the story falls apart, he's actually shielding the crouching girl from the Vampire, she's basically cowering behind him - I'm going to go back to this one at a later date I think, I want to get the angle so you can see the reflections of the two non vampires with no reflection for the vamp to try to enhance the story - seriously need to consider the poses as well I think, the guys shielding hand is probably a little to casual and subtle to portray the story from my head to the canvas - its all a learning curve!

    Perhaps if the crouching girl was holding on to her rescuer, and peering around him to see what the vampire was up to?

  • KA1KA1 Posts: 1,012
    KA1 said:
    Sonja11 said:
    KA1 said:

    I was working on a second render for this months competition, not sure I'm that happy with my current effort though. Still, feedback is always useful regardless so heres what I was working on.

    I agree about the crouching girl. The first thing I thought was she should be leaning in to bite his wrist while he is trying to fend off the other one. And for some reason he seems just a tad bit too calm if he is facing off against two vampires.  Not sure how to fix that though.

    Ah, see now this is where the story falls apart, he's actually shielding the crouching girl from the Vampire, she's basically cowering behind him - I'm going to go back to this one at a later date I think, I want to get the angle so you can see the reflections of the two non vampires with no reflection for the vamp to try to enhance the story - seriously need to consider the poses as well I think, the guys shielding hand is probably a little to casual and subtle to portray the story from my head to the canvas - its all a learning curve!

    Perhaps if the crouching girl was holding on to her rescuer, and peering around him to see what the vampire was up to?

    I think that might be the way to go thank you Richard. Thanks to all for your input, I love these threads so much to learn and we glean so much frm each other as well :) 

  • KA1 said:

     

    I had to make a few adjustments to my picture for it to be able to attach the right way but I finally got it to work right!!

    Now I just need to know what you all think of this render cause I think I might enter this one unless I need to tweek it more?

    There doesn't appear to be any emotion in any of their faces - are they happy? Laughing? Sad? Having fun? Expressions on each of their faces could really breath some life into the picture - thats just an observation from another newbie though :)

    okies I went back and pretty much changed everything about this render and also added expressions on 2 of them could not find any freebie expressions for The Kid.

     

    I think the expressions are a defiite improvement.  I also like the new outfits and hair.  I'm not so sure I like how cloudy the render is now.  What did you do to make it foggy like that?  As someone who has actually been someplace where it snowed in the summer before, I think you could get rid of the foggy layer and stick with just the snow as it was in the original render.  Just my two cents.  As for K4 expressions, you might find something helpful in these freebies which have expressions as well as poses for the kids:

    https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/k4-sledding-poses-and-faces/7291

    https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/k4-school-poses/74267

    When it is on sale, try grabbing this set here on Daz as it has a lot of good expressions in it... http://www.daz3d.com/temperament-k4

     

  • Okay, my two entries are posted.  Getting cracking guys, only 5 days left to the end of the month!!  There are some nice renders still in the works. I want see them in that contest thread!!!!  I'm think I'm turning into a cheerleader. laugh

  • KA1KA1 Posts: 1,012
    edited October 2015

    Okay, here's an idea I had, it's a little bit stereo typical Akira style idea (thanks to SF and the Anime builder!!) other than not looking particularly "toony" I am quite likeing how it's come along.

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    Post edited by KA1 on
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