August 2024 - DAZ 3D New User Challenge - Open Render Challenge
Elliandra
Posts: 519
New User's Challenge - August 2024
Sponsored by Daz 3D
Are you new to the 3D World? Are you at the beginning stages of learning 3D rendering? Have you been around for a little bit but feel you could benefit from some feedback or instruction? Have you been around awhile and would like to help other members start their creative journey? Well then come and join the fun as we host our newest render challenge!
Back by popular demand (or well because we think it went well LOL), we are breaking down each month into 2 different challenges:
A Beginner Challenge and then also an Intermediate Challenge.
So which "Challenge" should you choose?
Follow the Beginner Challenge if you are:
- New to the New User Challenges
- New to Daz Studio
- Newer to 3D Rendering in General
- Or if you have not participated in the Previous Month's Composition Challenge
Follow the Intermediate Challenge if you have:
- Participated in the New User Challenge for awhile
- Know the basics of Daz Studio and would like to learn more in depth topics
- Been using 3D Rendering Applications for awhile and feel comfortable with learning Intermediate Topics
- Or if you have all ready been spotlighted in the January Composition Challenge
*Please be sure to list in your post which Challenge you are participating in!!*
Check out Daz3D's Free Masterclasses on Daz Studio from Jay Versluis! It's a great series for everyone from the Newest User to the OG's of Studio!!
Closing date for the Open Render Challenges are both Midnight Daz Time on August 31st 2024!
For a list of the current challenge rules, please see this thread: Challenge Rules
They apply for both versions of the challenge!
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
224 S 200 W, Suite #250
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
"Open Render Challenge"
The Open Render Challenge is also referred to as a "free" month, where you can concentrate on using and combining the skills you learned in the past few challenges.
If you would like to review the previous topics and information you can find the topics/threads here:
Let the Party Begin!!!
A graceful beauty
made with Daz Studio
intermediate
Intermediate Entry. Portrait of a King. Minor post work to resize only.
Hello,
So, while I was asking for advice about a scene I made, I was redirected to that contest, where beginners can ask for, well, critics and advices. I don't know if it's still a thing, but let's try.
So here I am for the beginner entry:
The Lady of the Wood
@Aki3d
Lovely render! It's deceptively simple and I really like the use of the Depth of Field and the lighting is great!
@shack5876
Very fierce looking king! I really like the fact that the crown is silver and brings out the silver in his chestplate!
If I might suggest a couple of things?
1. Bump up the lighting coming in from the left side of the image to give more depth between him and the background. Think of it like a rim light ;)
2. Maybe darken the backdrop a little to help him stand out more with all the blue in the scene
3. It looks like he's looking straight ahead but not really looking at something. If you adjust the eye posing slightly to be staring at something off camera or at the camera it will give a little more life to the great facial expression you have going on!
@IlliciteS
Welcome to the New User Challenge!! If you haven't checked out Jay's Masterclass Series for Studio you may want to take a look! It's highly comprehensive series and the best thing is it's free! I highly recommend it!
Your render has a nice mystic/spooky feel to it!
Lighting-
Looking at your image you have two main light sources, the setting sun and the bright orb on the left but the lighting is not matching up with them fully for the setting sun. I would suggest adding a rim light to the Lady to connect her more with the setting sun.
Fog & Volumetrics-
Both of these will dramatically affect the lighting in your scene and is why the color looks so uniform across the scene instead of being varied in strengths. Instead of an all over fog you may want to try the Ground Fog that's built into Studio's Environment Options! It's easy to use and Jay has a video for it that's easy to follow as well!
am i allowed to have the images in my gallery? i understand not haveing them entered into other contests. i just wanted to clearify on, if the art being in your personal gallery is ok? or can i only post it there after the contest? i made one i wanted to enter. but posted it in my gallery before reading the rules. also, i feel i might be pretty good, and maybe should skip the beginner one? i been doing daz for well over a decade on and off. but, at the same time. i've only entered 1 contest a couple years ago. pretty sure, i never entered anything in properly. but yeah, them 2 questions is all. can i have it in my gallery, and what should i enter it for, beginner or intermediate? thank you. also, sorry i didn't send this in a PM. i honestly just don't know how to PM someone on here. i don't normally go to forums for anything, but my wife and i want someplace to show our work. last few times i went to post in the gallery, i had to move some tumbleweeds a,d cobwebs out of my way to get to it. place it like a ghost town lol
Question 1
yes of course you can post the images you create in the gallery, and it's esp useful if you then use the image address to place it inyout posts here in the challenge. The point is that you should make a new one with the challenge in mind and not recicle something already made before. You also can redo an image you made in the past but think it can be improved with the ideas from the challenge.
Question 2
The decision if you post it as beginner or intermediate is entirely up to you. If you look at your images and feel that the beginnerst topics are still a challenge then you are fine there (this of course is easier to see when it's not free topic month)
And for a pm, if you click on the username under their icon you are brought to a page with the public user information to that user and on the right side there is a blue button with "message" which will take you there. But also this is a good question to place in this thread because others might have similar questions.
I hope that answers your questions
@Brian&Alicia -
Hi and Welcome to the New User Challenge!! I can't wait to see your render!!
"Watching over us"
made with Daz studio
Beginner
Here's my start for this month.
@Brian&Alicia -
Lovely render!! I really like her expression!
If I may make a suggestion. As bright as the light is in the background I would add a rim light to the figure. It will give her a sharp edge of light to match the direction of the main bright light in the back. Here's a promo image from the Boss Pro Light Set that shows what a rim light can do!
@Shinji Ikari 9th -
Great start Shinji! I've got a few notes for this one!
Expressions on the ladies! They don't look like they are hunting (or being hunted).
Maybe make the wall lights red as they aren't turned on atm it would give an "emergency" vibe to the scene especially with the guy on the right standing right under one.
Where is the bright light on the bottom center coming from? If it's from another door or corridor maybe brighten it to have the light extend up onto the wall a little more so the main hallway looks darker and more dramatic?
I see what your saying, and I agree. Would give it the ideal look. I'll fiddle around, and see if I can figure out how to make it happen with out the light source isn't in the image, but the effect is. Doing that, is also going to make me want to add a little bloom too. I have a few ideas how to make it happen. I'll play around with it. Ty, that is a very helpful tip. And a really good suggestion.
had to make a few adjustments to the image/wing poses so the rim light caught her face too. as well as a couple other things i decided to change well i had it loaded. i'll dable with rim lighting in newer work. just showing you, i was using your suggestion. i like the way it looks, just not how i applied it.
@Elliandra
Thanks for your comment! About Jay's Masterclass, I've already watched it all, and I learnt a lot from it. :)
Listening your feedback, I fixed the light issue. It was a bit weird; it was not a second source of light despite the presence of that vertical godray. In the end, since there was no cloud at that location, the sky was brighter, which gave that look. I added a new cloud to fill that gap. There was still this vertical godray, tho. It was due to "Matte fog Brigthness relative to environment" being enable. I disabled it, and this weird godray was gone.
So, about the fog, I was already using it (and I used another pack in top of it.). I lowered the intensity, used a "Montain" backdrop instead of a texured plane for the background (probably not perfect, but looks better!), and deleted that "fog curtain" behing the lady to open the scene a bit more.
EDIT : I actually increased the intensity on the ground (but lower it in the air), so that you cannot see the feet of the lady. It felt odd to me, before. And also because the ground is not that great. I used a plan I deformed using the mesh grabber in order to have a more natural and bumpy ground, I used a lot of decals to mimik puddles, but I still feel there are not a lot of good assets in Daz to create a realistic ground, so I decided to partially hide it (I am not talking about UltraScenery, which gives a superb scene, right, but it's so masive it becomes really tedious to work in Iray with it).
Finally, I added a rim light (a vertical pointlight I turned into a rectangle with a very warm light) behind the lady as you mentioned. Well, at least, I hope this is what you meant, in order to add a bit of a halo around her. :D
Thank you for your feedback! I really like that scene better now with all the modifications you had me make!
Just a last thing: I've been trying to learn about post process for more than a week, now. I even learnt how to use the Daz canvases, so you can have a different layer as an .EXR in Affinity Photo for pretty much everything in your scene. I understand I can use an S curve, or the level, to increase the contrast. I can change the color of the light, of the emissive (the sphere I used as a sun), or even of the knigt and / or the lady. And yet, I am still completely loss because I have tried so many different things but it always looks worst than my raw image. :/ I actually don't know what I should do with the post work.
@Elliandra
I took a look, and I beleave that bright light at the center is from an overhead light in the center of the cross-cordor that the camera is located in. Also good point on using the lights on the walls for emergancy lighting, I'll see what I can do with that.
@Brian&Alicia -
I would adjust the angle and position of the rim light a little more so it's not blowing out top half of your lovely angel and more just highlighting the outline of her and her wings
@IlliciteS -
Ooo very nice!! The Moodiness is really good and the trees look even creepier!
You mentioned you were having trouble with Canvases and Postworking did you check out Anne's series on that? Linwelly has it linked in the September New User Challenge thread's 3rd post for the Intermediate section!
@Shinji Ikari 9th -
Ahh ok cool on the corridor light and I can't wait to see what you do with the emergency lights!!
i tried. the wings were a huge problem with the rim lighting. infact, when i hide the wings, the light i was using as the main source. already gave her that a little bit. the problem was the wings blocking the light. what i used to light the scene is epic godrays dispersive. but yeah, the only way i was able to add the lighting to this picture was to remove the wings, that i already moved back more then i wanted. and the morning star wings i have don't work right with gen 9. they get all out of wack and streched once you pose gen 9. and i just bought the outfit with the wings, and built my seen around the wings. since the wings are what inspired the image i really don't want to remove them. which is why i said i'll apply it to other work i make.
but, the chanllenge i believe said i can enter up to 2 entries right? i'll make a new image and try to shove as much of these themes challenge critarias into it as i can. without mudding up the image too much.
Would have had this up sooner, but had to head in to work after saving it this morning.
Lit up the emergency lighting, gave the ladies some expresions, checked and tweeked positioning of some of the characters so they weren't hovering a little, and moved the guy back from the corner a little so that if we were seeing things from the lady on our left's pov that his gun wouldn't be showing.
I'm glad hyou like it!
And yes, exactly the tutorials I watched (the Anne's serie). I watched the 3 hours videos (how to prepare it within Daz, and how to use them all in both Gimp and PS). I learnt a lot, but when I wanted to try it out myself, it was a bit different. First, the expose is an issue, as Anne stated. I managed to lower it back to what I thought was the original brightness of the pic, and I did that for the specular, diffuse, emissive, spotlight and so on. I created a layer for each one of them and blend them as "add", but at the end of the day, the pic I got was way different from my original picture.
But even with that, the point is I don't know what I should change next to get an even better image ahah. I am actually fine with that one.
ok i believe we are allowed 2 entries. so, working on the rim lighting i'll add this one to the challange.
Pirate thief | Daz 3D
Steam Gladiator
Daz Sudio
Intermediate
@Brian&Alicia -
great moody image! quick suggestion on teh background though it looks like there is a white overlay on top of it and it's standing out instead of blending in. If the land in the backdrop is on a plane try turning off the Gloss settings ;)
@Aki3d -
Hey Aki! Very cool image lots of motion in it. The only thing I noticed was that the main human-esque cyborg has no shoes on but full clothing everywhere else. It seemed kind of off to me is that intentional?
@Elliandra
Yes, it was intentional. I wanted to make it clear, that he is a human with some steampunk accessoires and the other one an artificial machine.
Perhaps I will add something to make it more understandable.
Steam Gladiator
DS
Intermediate
Now with sandals and some blood.
Render Emitter, if this is Iray, hides the source from diect view but it will still show in relfections or if viewed through another surface. Creating a "Ghost Light" - Daz Studio 4.21.1.26+ - Daz 3D Forums offers a different solution that can avoid visibility entirely on those occasions when it becomes an issue (e.g the light source appearing behind hair or semi-transparent clothing).
all fixed up. just don't mind my bad photo editing skills i added for the bloom and trying to fix the right wing tips lol.
PS:
on the pirate ship. i'd have to move everything around. the reason it looks like that is because i have it all set so far back in the scene.
Desafío intermedio
Hola, es la primera vez que participo, tengo este render, no sé que podría mejorar de momento, he pensado en poner algunas superfices de dispersión en zonas de luz algo similar a los haces de luz que entran por ventanas, pero de otra manera, estáva pensado en algo como el bloom filter pero usando esferas, cubos o cilindros.
En la segunda imagen he puesto una esfera con thin wallet off y dispersión para mostrar el ejemplo, pero me gustaría poder controlar el borde de las superfices para hacerlo gradualmente transparente, algo similar a lo que hace el borde del toon shader pero aplicado a la opacidad.
¿ Alguna idea ?
@iaunpom
¡Bienvenidos al desafío de nuevos usuarios!
¡Tu primer render con la mujer en la silla es bastante hermoso! La iluminación es suave, pero aún así le da la sensación de una habitación real. Honestamente, el único cambio que haría en el primer render es que el lado izquierdo de su cabello caiga un poco más hacia la izquierda.
En cuanto al segundo render con la chimenea, veo hacia dónde quieres llegar con esto. Tiendo a hacer trampa tanto como sea posible con la iluminación de efectos. Un ejemplo sería usar una bola de fuego, como SY Fireball 03 del conjunto Fast Flames Iray, y usarla en lugar de una esfera y luego puedes ajustar la opacidad/emisión/floración para obtener el aspecto que deseas más fácilmente.
Welcome to the New User Challenge!
Your first render with the lady on the chair is quite lovely! The lighting is soft but still gives a real room feel to it! Honestly the only change I would make to the 1st render is to have the left side of her hair drape a little more to the left.
The second render with the fireplace I see where you are wanting to go with this. I tend to cheat as much as possible with effects lighting. An example would be to use a Fireball, like SY Fireball 03 from the Fast Flames Iray set, and use that instead of a sphere and then you can adjust the opacity/emission/bloom to get the look you want more easily.
¡Traducido con Google Translate! ¡Mis disculpas de antemano por cualquier cosa que suene a un niño pequeño!
Translated with Google Translate! My apologies ahead of time for anything that sounds like a toddler!!