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Thx for cleaning out the spam Mods. I hate spam and spammers the scurge of the interweb may a 1000 fleas infest their private parts.
Anyway I am waiting to see what all you new users can do this month and I am here waiting to help if I can.
We've been getting a lot of it lately.
what fleas. LOL
Not much in the way of WIPs yet, huh? :( I don't have one to share either...yet...but I have been working on a scene for the contest. Got my cast assembled; need to find a set, then things should fall into place.
Oh...Szark...the render of your ongoing project looks AWESOME. And thanks for that and all the other examples.
Fun idea, and looks good so far!
I've sort of been outright dead in the idea department for both this and the Freepository contest. Sorta annoying to be honest.
Thanks Scott.
ZamueNOW I hear you on that one. It should never be forced anyway so if an idea comes it comes, it it don't then hey there is always next year. :)
as always this is just the start i have been behind getting all the Christmas gifts for everyone, sorry just did not get yours yet, and there is my windows 8 that i am still getting to work right
but back to wip feed back would be helpful and wanted
first snow fall
thank you
My WIP and first attempt at trying for a rendering competition (be gentle). The lighting is currently work in progress, I just put it in there because certain elements would otherwise be nearly invisible when rendering. I'll also be adding some christmas goodies such as presents, decorations and a tree but I could use a few tips on how to add them without crowding the scene.
The idea is to have the parents (Sadies mother and father) in the background, watching over them fondly. They're currently off-panel, but I'll move them into shot later. Again though, tips on how to lay all this out without making the scene too busy would be appreciated. Did I mention be gentle...?
Edit: Updated it with a slightly better lighting model. The original was a still very unclear.
HeraldOfFire so far you have got your main subject bang on target.
So really without getting any of the other props/elements in one of the other 3 focus points and making it look balanced is now for you to start to place props and test.
I find it hard to advise as this stage without seeing all the intended content together as I do myself with my own images. Even if all my intended content for a scene is in different scene files it still gives me and idea of the height of said content. As long as I used the same BK and camera angles I can visualise where the main subject matter is. The once I am happy I merge the scenes and to final tweaking.
Actually, looking at that grid it could do with being a little more central. I'm a terrible fusspot when it comes to getting poses right, so I'm still very much tweaking and positioning. The chair was improvised. The young girl on the left is actually the original Sadie character while the one on the right is the Genesis remake. I don't have the same character morphs or the Santa outfit for new Sadie as I do for old Sadie and GenX was giving undesirable results.
At the time, I didn't realise that the original Sadie is actually considerably smaller than the Genesis version so I decided to keep her the same size and leave her as a younger girl. Not sure whether it adds or detracts from the scene yet, but I guess I'll find out once all the elements are in place.
Not sure what you mean by "more central" the red spot is your focus point in this case, so depending on which point you want the viewer to focus on depending how you move the figures or camera.
Quite a few changes already, and I've made a start putting in some of the christmas props to give an idea of the layout I'm aiming for. Still can't seem to get the lighting right at the moment. It's either too dark or not detailed enough. I'll keep playing around and see if I can find a good setup, but tips on indoor lighting would be appreciated. For some reason it's my biggest stumbling block.
Hi, looks good so far. :)
The light is for the most people a hard thing to do.
Maybe for the floor u can use a distant light and point it a little bit to the ground, so that the ground is more lighted up and then play around with the strength and color and / ore shadows. (just a suggestion)
Forget the central, wall and fire lights for a moment in this picture below.
I used a spot light in each top and bottom corner angled at 45 degrees, all set to max spread and all 100% soft ray traced shadows....or you could used UberEnvironment 2 set to Ambient light only, giving it what ever light colour you want. Don't use a HDRI map just choose a colour that you want and adjust light intensity as needed. 10% is a good starting point. The you need to figure out what time of day it will be. :) and add the lights. Key lights first and any internal light sources you may need or want.
In an ideal world I'd find a way to make the christmas lights illuminate the room a bit. In one of my other christmas works I had to do it in post, and it wasn't particularly effective even then. Truth be told though, I think it's near impossible to get right without it looking messy. I doubt even a hundred tiny point lights would work.. though it would still kill the renderer :D
So here's what was made after thinking through a bit. I've still got one image in mind but could you tell me where can you get a bag the kind of Santa wears and his suite? Also, have the need of a beard.
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/xmas-light-gels-for-ds
Ilena52 I only have a TOON Santa but I just saw this and thought of you http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/13425/
Also I won't comment on your first WIP as it looks like you intend to add more so I will wait for the next one. :)
HeraldOfFire you could try point lights with no shadows on low intensity but to be honest I would be using the ambient colour channel way as described on page one. How bright are xmas tree lights anyway, not very. :)
Still here... Insanely busy these days, but I've found some time here and there to play with ideas for the contest. I completely gave up on any elaborate lights, because, well, my ideas were well beyond what I have time or patience for. But stained glass in an old church is properly seasonal, and will glow beautifully, so here's my current idea. Based on the memory of life on Pearl Street Mall this time of year ages ago, before Pearl Street got all trendy. Haven't even started making the stained glass glow yet, that'll come soon.
Dumb question, now. When I create a new item in the scene, it always defaults to world center. Is there a way to change that? Can't find a setting for "create objects in view" or anything like that. And is there a multi-replicate, or anything similar? Trying to make the lights had me grumbling a bit. So did positioning the little buggers precisely. Grr.
Funny, I'm different in that I hate it when a prop is placed somewhere non centered or a pose set has built in translations that stick characters in some random place.
Guess that's why they build a million ways to do the same thing into programs. :-)
Well, I finally have all the elements in place that I want in the final piece... I think. I moved the mistletoe from its previous location, since it was a bit unclear and I'll give it a bit more definition when I add in a little DoF later, but not too much as I don't want to lose much definition from the parents in the background or the scooter. I also changed the poses of the girls to 'interact' a bit more with the grinning Sam.
All that's left now is to play around with lighting the scene until I'm happy with the results. Let me know if you think the scene is too busy, or if any elements need tweaking. Feedback is always useful.
Very nice render, I don’t think it’s too busy
A lot of good information on composition. Thanks for posting all that.
But how did you start out with the red, green, and blue dots in Daz Studio. Where did they come from?
Here's it is anyway, with some minor bloom and glare effects to really bring out the twinkle in the lights.
But how did you start out with the red, green, and blue dots in Daz Studio. Where did they come from?Do you know Daz Studio has primatives? As in primative geometeric shapes...I used Spheres.
HeraldOfFire
Sweet result. Lights seem to be over bright which draws the eyes away from the subject. Mum is cropped awkwardly but overall love the feel to the image..nice and soft. That will be Lux
If you can run Lux then you can do all this in Daz Studio with Ambient Surfaces, increased Max Ray Trace Depth and Uber Enviroment 2 using the Global Ilumination setting or you could have used Area Lighting on the xmas tree lights themselves.
I didn't understand that you wanted to do everything CG wise. As I was thinking Postwork.
Well, I did a post-worked one a while back for a christmas card, but the effect looked odd. I can't really describe it well, but it's noticeably 2D as the glow doesn't interact with the scene so much as overlays it. The good thing about working with Lux is you can play with the lighting mid-render, so if something doesn't quite work you can make adjustments on the fly. You're right about needing to move 'mom' over a little. I'll see what I can do to shift her into scene without obscuring the scooter too much.
I'll admit I don't have the first clue about how to use self-illuminating surfaces in Daz using the built-in renderer. I can do 'full-bright' surfaces by turning up the ambient, but it never really stands out much more. I'll be satisfied as long as the lights don't end up looking flat. It's not very christmasy if the tree lights blend into their surroundings.
Appreciate the feedback.
Edit: Just noticed that the skirt handles on the santa outfit are still visible in that render as well! Ooops. Better make those invisible while I'm making alterations.