Knittingmommy's Laboratory

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  • @deathbycanon and @Liana  Thanks.  I'm getting better at post work.  I still have a lot to learn.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Here are two characters I created on the Teen Josie 8 base.  I used Simtenero Randomizer to get me started then did a little bit of fine tuning until I got the looks I wanted.   Morphs include the Genesis 8 Head Morphs, Rarestone's Face Morphs Collection for Genesis 8 Female, Genesis 8 Female Head Morph Resource Kit and Kit 2.  While I love them both, my favorite is how the one on the right turned out.

    Besties

    Both look good but postworked is warmer... wonder if you can't change the light color to be warmer??  Might make postwork easier.

    Oh... I like the look of the one on right as well... expression indicates she is the dominant Bestie while the other just tags along.

    BTW:  Did you do the postwork in Gimp?  I pointed a Carrara user to here for your Gimp tutorials... hope ya don't mind. :)

  • @wgdjohn  Thanks.  Yes, I did the post work in Gimp.  I do agree that it's warmer.  I can never seem to get that exact look in the DS renders.  Luckily, I can add to it in post work.  I don't mind having anyone pointed here for the Gimp tutorials.  I really need to get some more posted here.  I  have one kind of half finished and another one mostly finished.  I just haven't been able to get them finished.  Once I get this current writing project all done, I'll have to finish those up and get them up.  I do promise that there will be more tutorials though.  :)

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    @Aloreea and @IceDragonArt  Thanks so much!  I do really like how the postwork turned out, too.  Now, if Zev0 would just release a version of Skin Builder for G8, I would be so happy!  In the meantime, I'll have to see about doing something in SB3 and switching it over to my two girls.

    Super easy to do.  I build the skin in SB3 and really all that you have to do is apply it directly to G8 like you would any other skin.  Works perfectly, and so far, everything has lined up exactly like it should.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    @wgdjohn  Thanks.  Yes, I did the post work in Gimp.  I do agree that it's warmer.  I can never seem to get that exact look in the DS renders.  Luckily, I can add to it in post work.  [cut]

    I was messing with light color in Carrara and stumbled on a good setting for a warmer hue... I likely set the light to shine only on G2 so as not to affect the rest of the scene.  I didn't save it... instead I loaded different shaders from one of the Carrara PAs.  When I have enough time I'd rather change the shader settings myself... hahaha... I learn a lot of what *not* to do. :)

  • @Aloreea and @IceDragonArt  Thanks so much!  I do really like how the postwork turned out, too.  Now, if Zev0 would just release a version of Skin Builder for G8, I would be so happy!  In the meantime, I'll have to see about doing something in SB3 and switching it over to my two girls.

    Super easy to do.  I build the skin in SB3 and really all that you have to do is apply it directly to G8 like you would any other skin.  Works perfectly, and so far, everything has lined up exactly like it should.

    @IceDragonArt  Good to know because I haven't done that yet.  I'll probably give it a try this weekend if I have time.  This weekend is the big seminar weekend for the boys' dojo.  Sensei Demura is coming in from California for the events.  The boys are both testing for their blackbelts in weapons, too.  So, lots going on this weekend.

     

    wgdjohn said:

    @wgdjohn  Thanks.  Yes, I did the post work in Gimp.  I do agree that it's warmer.  I can never seem to get that exact look in the DS renders.  Luckily, I can add to it in post work.  [cut]

    I was messing with light color in Carrara and stumbled on a good setting for a warmer hue... I likely set the light to shine only on G2 so as not to affect the rest of the scene.  I didn't save it... instead I loaded different shaders from one of the Carrara PAs.  When I have enough time I'd rather change the shader settings myself... hahaha... I learn a lot of what *not* to do. :)

    @wgdjohn  Yep, I do that, too.  I can't tell you how many times I've done something I wish I had saved only to lose it all and not be able to get it back.  I think we all have to go through that process.  :)

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited October 2017

    As some know, I've been concentrating on my writing for this month.  I'm still using DS, though, because it really helps me to visualize characters.  A while back I created a character named Maggie.  This character has been in my head for a while but I wasn't quite sure what her story was.  I knew some parts but not all.  Now, I know more of her story and her character has evolved so that she is more real to me.  

    She is the heroine in my current shifter novel that I'm trying to finish for publication.  I wasn't really happy with how she turned out. Her eyes were too big and I wasn't completely happy with her morph.  I tried redoing her on G8F and I'm happy to say she looks more like I had in mind for my character.  She's a plain Jane type who could be beautiful in her own way if she only knew how to do it.  Anyway, here are her updated morphs and the renders that I'll put inside Scrivener to help me with descriptions of what she looks like.  I think she looks a little more realistic and I like how she turned out.

    Maggie's Bio:

    Maggie was taken away from her mother due to neglect and her mother's addiction to drugs.  She was raised in foster care from the age of six until she aged out.  She was never able to be adopted because her mother managed to do everything needed to keep her parental rights but not able to get custody of Maggie back.  After a series of mostly bad foster homes, Maggie aged out of foster care at the age of eighteen when she was in her last year of high school.  While she tried to finish high school, she couldn't quite manage while working to support herself.  Living in West Virginia, she barely made it through the first winter while living in an abandoned house that had no utilities.  During the spring of her eighteenth year, she hitchhiked her way to Florida where she managed to get a job as a waitress.  She floated from place to place like most of the homeless until she found an abandoned house where she began living until she could save enough money to actually rent an apartment.  In my story, Maggie is now twenty-one.

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  • LianaLiana Posts: 1,035

    Sounds like a sad story and a great character. I hope it turns out for her. :)

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    I'm really looking forward to reading that one!  She looks great, love her eyes!

  • Thanks!  Yes, she gets her happily ever after in the story.  :)  @Isidorn thinks her lips don't look quite right.  I've actually thought that but I'm not quite sure what I want to do about it yet.  For now, they stay as they are.  She isn't going on the cover so it's not a huge deal breaker at the moment.  I'll figure it out.  I probably need to adjust her upper lip a little bit and maybe make it a touch smaller.

    I need to work on my shifter hero a little more.  I'm still tweaking him and he'll be posted soon when I'm done.

  • Worlds_EdgeWorlds_Edge Posts: 2,152

    Your character has great eyes.  In line with her bio, if she "learns" to play the eyes up with make up, she could be a knock out.  Her mouth may be a little large/thick, but I don't find it bad.  Maybe try lightening the lipstick and see if that gets you what you want?  Regarding her bio, I have found that adding a line that boils down the character's dilemma or internal conflict acts as good story hook and often helps keep me focused on the storyline.  Different tricks work for different people, so I'm just tossing it out there :) 

  • Yeah, I'm still playing with her bio and that was only a small portion of it.  I've been working on the blurb for the Amazon description and that's tough!  I'll post when I get it all finalized.  Good suggestion on her having her learn to play up her eyes.  I have to admit, I like her eyes, too.  I think it's her best feature and I'm playing that up in the book.  I'll try out different lip shades and see how that goes.  I might have to buckle down and maybe create my own makeup layers for her.  She's using Corina's skin because I love the freckles.  It's a great skin and iSourceTextures did a great job with it.  I'm not crazy with her makeup options though.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    @Isidorn is correct about the lips... look like botox gone wrong.  Can't agree with Sonja about the eyes... the iris is too bright/solid/glowing... don't look naturual for a person unless they have strange or super powers. :)

    I most enjoy the first pic... first thing that came to mind is "too bad, so sad"... sorta sums up her story so far.

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,948

    I like that charcter and somhow the first thing that came to my mind is that she has some of the facial features from Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder ( though not the thin upper lip), which would fit the mothers drug history and as well fit in with her later problems in life. So well done! wonder how her life will eveolve then.

  • Thanks, @Linwelly.  

  • deathbycanondeathbycanon Posts: 1,227

    love the sad expression in that 1st render, fits her story very well. 

  • @wgdjohn  I don't know.  I really like her eyes.  I think they are her best feature.  I'll see what I can do about her lips soon.

    @deathbycanon  Thanks.  I did the sad expression because I like to render characters in a small variety of expressions.  It really helps to be able to see that when I'm writing.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    KM, I was going by the unmagnified picture for the eyes...  which looks to *not* have a lot of inflections of colour variations.  When magnified there are a few... but who gets that close.  See Project EYEray for an example of what I mean for the variations of any single iris.

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited October 2017

    I started working on a project today that I thought of and it took me all darn day to get the look I wanted.  I had a lot of irritating setbacks in DS.  However, I am happy with my final result.  Here's a shocker for you.  I rendered it using 3Delight.  I know, a scary thought for me as I don't do well in 3Delight using LineRender9000.  I do like how it looks.  I wasn't too happy with the resulting lines in LineRender9000 so I took it into FilterForge 5 and played with a variety of filters that do lines and edges until I found something I liked.  I ended up using Crosshatch Drawing (FF #5531) and played around with the lines until I got something I liked.  Took that back into Gimp and composited my images and ended up with my little witch image.  She isn't finished yet.  I need to do some work and render a moon to put in the background.  I was just kind of excited about how well she turned out.  She really should not have taken up my whole day though.

     

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  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Oh she is super cute!  Its always the simple ones that I end up spending a huge amount of time on lol. 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    I really like your Dolly a few pages back, the dark side suits her! And although you didn't want to spend all day on your cutie above, it was definitely worth it!

  • Worlds_EdgeWorlds_Edge Posts: 2,152

    Wow, I really like your witch.  The boots, smirky smile and purple hat really reflect a distinct character rather than a generic witch.  Your lines came out really good too!

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    KM... kewl witch... there is a Moon and TextureMap in Carrara 8.5 Pro and earlier.

  • @wgdjohn  Cool.  I'll have to take a look at that.  Sadly, Carrara doesn't render in Linux but I do still have it installed on my little Windows 7 drive.  So far, I haven't been happy with the moons I have for DS.  If Carrara has a better moon then I'll just render it as I was going to have the moon on a separate layer anyway so rendering in a different program won't be a big deal.  Thanks for the tip.

  • @IceDragonArt  Yes, it is amazing how long those simple renders usually take.  I've had several where I thought it would just be a quick setup and render.  Nope, not the case.  Sometimes, those end up being my best work.

    @Novica  Thank you.  I love that Dolly image.  @Vyktohria is fast becoming one of my favorite vendors.  I love the unique and creative characters.  I do wish that vendor did men because I bet they would be awesome!  I'm glad you like my little witch.  I really do love how she turned out so I tend to agree with you.  She was definitely worth the time I spent on her.  I'm working on the other elements to complete her picture so I should be able to upload that in the near future.

     

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    KM,  I believe there are better and bigger moon maps to be had from NASA's website.  Someone used one in a past Carrara Challenge but I can't find it at the moment.

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited October 2017

    @wgdjohn  Funny you should mention that.  I happened to go looking for a moon image at Nasa today to see what I could and played around a little bit.  I kind of cartoonified (just made that up) it.  I think I might have to clean it up a little but it could be a good background for my witch.

    The first attachment is the original from the Nasa.gov site.

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  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited October 2017

    And, here is the color cartooned version:

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    In my opinion, it doesn't look like the moon after all the special effects, just being honest. I think of well defined craters with the white streaks marks from implosions. The craters get lost in all the scratchiness so it loses it's "trademark appearance."  I like the results, but it isn't identifiable as the moon if that's what you wanted? 

  • @Novica  I might work on it some more.  That was just a first effort playing around with a filter in Filter Forge using the Nasa photo.  I'm thinking of trying a couple of different filters to see if I can still get a cartoon effect and have it look more like the moon.  Even just erasing the hashes in the craters might make it look better.  It's still very much a work in progress and I haven't been able to spend very much time on it the last couple of days.  I was going to work on it today but my eldest son lost a bracket on his braces so we ended up spending the day at the orthodontist to get that fixed and then went grocery shopping.  Just kind of messed up my plans for the day.

    I do appreciate the input.  While I think it is still recognizable as a moon, I get what you are saying about the craters and stuff.  I'll work on it.  :)

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