Jen Air - Poser & Daz Studio Stuff for my Novels
Coutelier
Posts: 30
Hello,
I've been using Poser for quite a few years, but after taking a little break and going back to it... I don't know, Poser just wasn't working for me, for whatever reason. I just wasn't getting the look I wanted for the final render. I also only had Poser 9 and 10, 32-bit, so I was constantly running out of memory for the more ambitious scenes I wanted to render. But recently I turned to DazStudio (after ignoring it for quite a while I have to say), and so far I'm very pleased.
Initially, I only started rendering for my own fun and entertainment, but now I'm a writer I'm using Daz not just to illustrate and provide visual references for characters, but also for book covers and most recently I made a trailer for my first book. It's mostly makes use of the forest set here on Daz, which provided pretty much everything I wanted in one package.
Other stuff I've the years in Poser and DazSrudio is mostly here.
As I'll be using DS for more characters, promotion stuff, as well as just for fun, and I'll want to attempt some more ambitious stuff, I may be back for some technocal advice etc.
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Comments
The trailer I made. Uses the forest set, Skies of Radiance - Night Sky, and a few other little bits.
Nice trailer. Good work!
Thank you!
Here are the very first few renders I did using DazStudio, which are just portrait shots of a few of my story characters:
Left to right, or top to bottom: Jennifer Airhart, Kaya Cade and Tenley Tych.
Young Tenley just wants a cuddle, really:
Thats quite a creepy trailer! Really enjoyed it, some good work Coutelier :)
Thank you. I did consider actuallly animating the scenes in the forest, but it's something I've no experience of doing. I mean, I did render the first few seconds, but then DS crashed before I could save it. In any case, the slideshow/transition effect combination probably works a little better anyway, as if I had rendered a movie as it was the grass and the leaves would have still been still and not looked right.
Yes, of course. There's a blurb on the amazon page as well, and there'll be others I'll write on other websites, but essentially what happens is this:
Jennifer and Kaya were childhood, but drifted apart in their teens. Kaya joined a gang and eventually a band called The Killer Aqua Bunnies, while Jen, after her parents disappearance, became increasingly withdrawn and now lives in a lighthouse on top of a hill. Now in their twenties, Kaya's life is starting fall apart when by chance she witnesses a man by a creature which then tries to kill her. She believes the creature to have been a faerie, having been told creepy stories about them when she was younger. With few other options, she ends up turning to her childhood friend for help and they set out to find the source of the creatures and put a stop to them. In the meantime, young Tenley Tych has witnessed her mother murdered by thugs working for a corporation headed by Alvin Stag, when she is approached by a mysterious woman who promises to help her get revenge by making her stronger and faster than any human.
It's not that long a story... I had a length of 70,000 words in mind when I wrote it, which is a standard novel length (although sci-fi and fantasy are often much longer), and manage to keep to about that exactly. It did mean I cut things out and some scenes were meant to be a lot longer and have more happen in them, but it's meant to be the introduction to a series so I'll reuse that stuff at some point I expect. The next one, sometime next year, will likely be a bit longer.
I made a website for the book/series.
Not much on it right now, but over time I'll more character profiles, like for Sayuri Oshiro, Jana Sarkis, HULL (Jen's computer that's kind of embedded into her lighthouse), and some full page profiles, at least for main characters. Some info about villains, organisations/corporations, and other extras like short stories and vignettes, and of course any Daz/Poser things I do related to it.
Very cool! I stumbled upon DAZ after hiring a friend to do my book cover. We could not find the right stock photos for my very specific characters and decided to go with 3D (which she's done for years). She asked me to look at some models and I got hooked! I still don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm having a lot of fun- mostly for character inspiration at the moment. I'm letting her handle the cover art, and am hoping to learn DAZ well enough to do some pictures for my website and future covers. Glad to see other writers using this amazing tool.
Great job on the promo video!
Kim :)
Sounds really good!! And there is a 2nd book too?? I think you may well have convinced me to download the Kindle app (Although, properly tempted by the paperback to be honest!)
Yes. I've been messing about with it for years, so I know how to do some things, but I've never been very serious about it. It's only now (well, within the last year) I've realised it could be a quite useful tool for promoting my other work.
I quite like Kindle, as I've simply no storage space now for any more paper books. Also, Kindle versions are usuallly much cheaper, but as an author I get just as much royalty from them as from the paperback. Digital versions can also be updated when it's necessary too.
The second book is really just a novelette... a 10,000 word mini-adventure that follows on from the main story. I'll do a few of those, but I am working on another full length novel as well. And there's a few other ideas I'm working on that aren't a part of this series... I'm hoping to get two or three novels out next year.
Here's another picture of the characters:
Left to right:
Sayuri Oshiro - Killer Aqua Bunnies drummer and entrepreneur.
Jennifer Airhart - SCIENCE fairy and tech wizard.
Kaya Cade - Guitarist and part time thief and tough chick.
Tenley Tych - Pound for pound, one of the most powerful warriors ever to live.
I might use this as a cover for another novella, although in the mean time I am writing a full length sequel as well so hopefully I'll have time to do renders of characters in action, maybe illustrate some actual scenes from the story.
For the cover of the first book, it's fairly straightforward really:
Just a Daz fairy (I think Genesis 2 female, although it might have been Genesis... I actually don't remember now), with a background done in Photoshop with some lens flare (I was actually quite chuffed I got the lens flare to go where I wanted). I see now her leg pokes through her skirt a bit, but I'm hoping that so long as I don't draw attention to it people will just assume it's torn, so I'm not drawing attention to it. You just imagined that sentence.
For this novella cover, 'Springheel', I was attempting to mimic the look of some old Penny Dreadful covers:
Springheel himself didn't tell out quite right - his suit in the story was supposed to have wires and printed circuits on it, and I think if I do him again I'd like an old leather aviator helmet under round goggles - but overall I was pleased.
"You're greedy, a thief, and a disgrace to your ancestors. But, I guess we can get along.":
A magpie appears a few times in the stories. It may become a sort of familiar to Ten.
Here are the three main characters in the first book again, Kaya Cade, Jennifer Airhart and Tenley Tych, in one of my first ever Daz Studio + IRay renders:
Nice work! Great trailer very creepy!
Thank you. I'm writing a sequel to that story, so eventually I'll have to do another trailer, although I can't say when. After I've written the first few drafts I'll want to give it out to people for proofreading and editing, which really wasn't done properly with the first one when it was first released. I've corrected a lot, but there are still bits that I would like to change or fix. Like, the introduction isn't really necessary. I can't even remember why I had an introduction... I think I was afraid people would see the cover and the first few pages of the prologue and think it was a story about actual, mystical faeries. But it's not... it's more like Jurassic Park. So I wanted to make it clear it was science fiction and not fantasy. But at this point I'll only change or remove if I decide I have to make lots of other changes as well.
Here's another older one. This one was rendered in Poser 10, I believe, but it was about the time I realised Poser wasn't working for me anymore. It could have been because of it being 32-bit and not having enough memory to handle the scenes I wanted. But as I couldn't afford Poser Pro at the time I switched over to Daz Studio instead:
Incidentally, my book is on sale on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk at the moment (it doesn't let me give discounts in any other countries unfortunately), for 99 cents/pence.
Welcome to the Art Studio btw! Fun characters and good flow to the trailer.
One suggestion- whenever you do visuals with print, you simply MUST give people a chance to read it. Your opening was waaaaaay too fast. You have fancy print on top of that, and I didn't even get to the end of it before it faded away. The rule of thumb from training professionals is to read it to yourself like a robot with pauses between each word- TWICE- then that's the shortest amount of time for the print onscreen.
Yes I see what you mean. It's odd I didn't notice that before. I guess it's because back then when I first saw it, I obviously knew what it said so wasn't reading it properly (same reason people often don't notice their own spelling and grammar mistakes). I don't know if would be worth trying to fix it now as I'm into writing the second novel, but when I prepare the trailer for that I'll certainly remember.
Another portrait of the titular character in my story, Jennifer Airhart:
And here's a little bit of a bio:
Name:- Jennifer Willow Airhart
Height:- 5 feet 4 inches
Favourite Author:- Carl Sagan
Favourite Pet:- NAO
Biography:- Jen has always been a bit shy and a daydreamer, but as a child she was always driven to investigate and explore, always carrying a camera, torch, and notebook around in her backpack just in case she came across any fairies, ghosts, UFO’s, or Bigfoot, and needed to document the experience. She was happy and very close to both her parents; her father, a scientist working for Stag Corp, and her mother, a historian and lecturer. She also a friend she was very close to, Kaya Cade, who she met at school when the other girl protected her from bullies.
But despite her very happy childhood, things went very badly for Jen throughout her teens. This started when her parents, on the orders of The Meridiem Group, left on an expedition to Antarctica and never returned. Jen has never been able to find out what happened, or why they even had to go in the first place. But they did, and she was left alone. She didn’t even her friend to turn to, as Kaya had fallen in with a bad crowd while Jen became increasingly withdrawn. Although she had an uncle who provided for her, the most meaningful contact she had for a long time was with Doctor Jana Sarkis, who had once been her father’s assistant and continued to visit and check on Jen for years. She grew to think of Jana as like an aunt (despite this, Jen didn’t know that Jana still worked for Stag Corp, believing the doctor had pursued a career in medicine, likely because of how she kept inquiring about Jen’s health).
With her uncle and inheritance providing for her, Jen doesn’t really have to work (occasionally she’ll sell an invention or code she’s written, which provides her with all the extra money she needs). So, she spends nearly all her time at home, reading, studying, tinkering with machines and experiments. She has many hobbies, including computing, astronomy and destroying walls and other things using science. But she’s particularly fond of building robots.
To most people, Jen seems very shy and awkward, but she can speak confidently in front of people she does know quite well, as well as about topics that interest her like technology and science. When she does become friends with someone, she is extremely loyal and fiercely protective.
Trivia:- She once owned a teddy bear who she called Teddy Woolsfelt.
Quote:- ‘It’s not enough just to believe. People can believe very strongly in all kinds of things that are wrong, like ghosts or miracle cures or white supremacy… I used to believe that you were my friend, but I was very wrong about that, now, wasn’t I?’
A new portrait of my character Kaya Cade:
Name:- Kaya Cade
Height:- 5 feet 6 inches
Favourite Author:- Dunno... who wrote the thing about some boys getting lost on an island and they start a tribe and devolve into savages? I think it was called Peter Pan.
Favourite Pet:- Jennifer
Biography:- Young Kaya never had a happy life at home. Although her mother doted on her, her father was abusive and she grew to hate them both; her father's abuse, and her mother's not standing up to him. At school she received solace because of her friendship with Jennifer, spending as much time with her friend as she could. But as the girl's entered their teens and Jen had problems of her own, becoming increasingly introverted and withdrawn, they started drifting apart and Kaya fell in with a 'gang' led by Candace Mullins. She started to become a bully, even picking on her older friend. In truth, Kaya was always a little jealous of how close Jen was to her family.
After school Kaya wanted to leave home as quickly as possible. A string of unsuccessful jobs followed, mostly working as a shop assistant in various establishmens but always getting fired in little time due to literally fighting with customers. One time, she assaulted a man who it seemed had only entered the shop to bother another assistant. Another, she threw out a father and son as the youngling wanted to learn guitar but didn't know who Hendrix was. When she wasn't working, which was most of the time, Kay resorted to petty crime to get by.
Her first love however was music. She has played guitar since an early age and formed a band with Sayuri and a couple of her old gang members, The Killer Aqua Bunnies. Of course, Candace assumed control of that as well and consequently they were never very successful. As an adult, Kay started to feel guilt over some of the things she did as a teenager, her treatment of Jennifer chief among them.
Kay usually hides how she feels behind a lot of bad jokes and silliness. But she is very tough and resourceful, and extremely loyal to her friends.
Trivia:- Although she dresses in punk fashion and plays in a rock band, Kaya's tastes in music are very eclectic and one of her favourite songs of all time is 'We All Stand Together' by Paul McCartney.
Quote:- 'Only yarn that ever mystified me was when my mum gave me a sweater with Donny Osmond's face on it. I've always hated Donny Osmond.'
Portrait of eleven/twelve year old changeling character Tenley Tych:
Name:- Tenley Tych
Height:- 4 feet 10 inches (at age 12)
Favourite Author:- Sun Zu
Favourite Pet:- Animals are stupid. Like you.
Personality:- Despite growing up alone with her mother, the two of them never really showed much outward affection for each other. Indeed Tenley herself knows remarkably little about her mother's life before raising her. Only that she was some kind of soldier and that it was Tenley's fault she had to stop. Of her father, she knows even less. Only that her mother never spoke fondly of him and again seemed to think it was Tenley's fault he left too.
Tenley's mother trained her daughter in martial arts and subjected her to harsh physical exercises designed to increase her toughness and endurance. The young girl sought escape when she could, turning to books and music and toys (despite her mother complaining such things were a frivolous waste of time, Tenley was allowed to keep time). She even tried using her mother's computer to talk to other people on the internet, but this her mother became angry about when she found out and put a stop to. Despite being afraid of her, Tenley did her best to earn her mother's approval. although never seemed to be quite good enough to do so.
One night, a group of strange men came to their house and Tenley witnessed her mothers murder. Tenley was in shock until she heard a whisper which led her out into the woods where she met the queen, Titania, who promised to grant her speed and strength so that she may have revenge. The girl accepted, even though she suspected The Queen had other motives than just helping her.
Tenley today is fearless, or so it seems. Although her incredible strength and reflexes make some people wary of her, she only ever hurts people who have hurt her first or the few people she still cares about. Although she will regularly test people and seems on to surface to be perpetually mad about something. But Ten does feel sympathy and empathy toward creatures, as demonstrated by the fact that she's usually, in fact, quite nice to animals, even ones she was mad at before.
Trivia:- Tenley once held a fighting tournament with her toys, which she eventually won (but the last match was close).
Quote:- 'What's real is that if you're not out of my sensor range in the next ten seconds, I am going to hurt you. A lot.'
Sayuri Oshiro, drummer in the band 'The Killer Aqua Bunnies', as well as an aspiring entrepreneur:
Name:- Sayuri Oshiro
Height:- 5 feet 5 inches
Favourite Author:- J.K Rowling
Favourite Pet:- Drumkit.
Biography:- Sayuri’s parents left Japan when they were young to travel the entire world in search of excitement and adventure. It was only when her mother discovered she was pregnant that they decided to finally settle in Irongate, where Sayuri has lived her entire life (hence why she usually gives her name with her given name first, followed by her family name).
While never the most outgoing and popular person around, Sayuri has always been generally well liked by people due to her warm, friendly and laid back attitude toward life. She is unassuming and accepting of things that would shock and appal other people. The only times she usually shows outward signs of stress and annoyance are when her father, whose shop she helps run, makes what she believes are bad business decisions or purchases.
When she isn’t running the store, her main hobby is playing the drums. When Kaya, Candace and Ashley wanted to form a band and needed a drummer, it was a chance encounter that led to Sayuri joining them. Well, not really a chance encounter: Kaya tried to shoplift but was caught. But rather than call the police, Sayuri decided to take pity instead and the two became friends (although she had gone to same school as Kaya and Jennifer, they had never really gotten to know each other before then).
Sayuri also has an interest in the paranormal and in having her fortune told; she reads her horoscope. She doesn’t believe that there is any mystical force guiding her destiny – to her it’s mostly fun, but also she finds something calming and motivating about it.
Trivia:- Once, when her parents were considering moving back to Japan, Sayuri (who didn’t want to leave her life and her friends behind) got some friends together and built a rock garden at the back of their store to convince them to stay.
Quote:- 'It’s only really lying if you know the truth.'
I recently wrote a new introduction to the first book I wrote. I've talked about it before I think, but the original introduction was tacked on because I was afraid people were going to think the story was fantasy, but while there are a lot of references to various myths and folklore stories, it's actually a science fiction. So I've rewritten it. Whether or not it stays along with other changes though will depend me getting feedback from more people to determine whether to update/make a new edition. In the meantime though, here's a picture of the band, The Killer Aqua Bunnies:
From left to right: Jennifer Airhart, Kaya Cade, Tenley Tych and Sayuri Oshiro.
After the original band split, Kay and Sayuri are looking for a new bassist and singer, although I'm not sure what they're looking for is this. Still, if Tenley does decide she really wants the gig, there's likely not going to be much they can do about it. For now though they let the kid have her fun, while Jen, taking a rare break from tinkering with her mechanical babies, watches on amusedly.
I quite enjoyed reading the bios and its always nice to see the authors vision of their characters. Very well done!
Thank you. And I have made a new version of the trailer, adding two more seconds to the first slide:
I had to make a new version anyway, as it's not just going to be on Amazon/Kindle anymore. I'm using Smashwords to upload my books now, who will in turn distribute it to other e-book stores like iBooks and Barnes & Noble etcetera.
I've uploaded my short story/novelette 'Springheel' to Smashwords, which is completely free and can be downloaded in lots of different e-reader formats. I've also uploaded The Little Queen to Smashwords, the first actual novel. Normally it costs just $2.99, but I have a coupon that gets folk 100% off from there (until the end of this month), here:
ND72U
Okay...I think I'm going to like this...
In the first few paragraphs you've got something like this...
"Wonder if that's where cavemen got the idea of Glenn Miller from?"
I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything when reading that. (yes, the context is what makes it hilarious)