July 2017 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Portrait Rendering

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  • sueyasueya Posts: 832
    tkz said:

    @sueya - Can you give a bit of a description of what you're trying to do for stage 1? Would love to offer some thoughts, just don't have much to go on from the associated text. in your post.. :) Is he supposed to be holding a baby?

     

    No @tkz, that wasn't my intention! I was trying to make him look like his arms were folded. I was really looking for some feedback on the lighting.

  • Shinji - Great improvements on the hand posing - that's an ambitious goal! What do you have happening for lights? From the screenshots of the origin of what you're going for, it seems him leaning his head forwards really brings the hands to life... His upper body is feeling a bit stiff (I"m one to talk right? :D ).  Also, getting those pinky fingers hanging lower seems to really bring out the crazy in the pose... them being tucked in is giving much more of a professional calculating assassin instead of the evil mastermind i think you're going for....

    Thanks tkz. I aggree that I've set my bar high this month.  As for my lighting it's pure IRay emmissive surfaces in the form of the maps inbedded in the table and behind him.

    Well, off to bed, I've got work later and it's already after 4 in the morning where I'm at.luckly my shift's not until 230 this afternoon, but still..

    Night all. 

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,947

    Okay, now I'm starting to obsess a bit. Some very fine tweaking to the white balance and color. Her skin was looking a bit green and I wanted to highlight her hot summer night sweaty sheen a bit more... trying to get her skin glowing a bit.

    Also... for any Daz admins in the house... the attachment upload does some horrible things to my JPG quality. Take a look at the hair in front of her right eye: terrible JPG artifacting that isn't there in my original. The file is also bigger than when I uploaded it (2MB vs. 1.5MB), so bigger file and poorer quality. Anything I can do to avoid that? 

    Hi Nasty, I like the new cropping and focus on her and the different light soucres work nicely. I've got the feeling the sheen is a bit much right now, als the skin looks a bit like plastic now, ( by the way did you turn the camera headlamp off? If you use emissive surfaces for illumiation the headlamp will still be on and migth mess up you light settings.

    As for the upload, yes doing it in jpg is a pain in... I tend to use pngs and rather have them reduced in size if necessary

  • tkztkz Posts: 149

    Starting on the pose / expression...

    Some thoughts:
    I think may have taken a little too much light away, the lipstick is looking really thick / plastic like. Switched the eyes over to ones from Phoenix, toned down the cleavage / breast size a bit. Put a little twist in her stance and tweaked both arms... I think a little bend in the mid section to go with the twist might help, but it's getting too late / early. I'm aiming for a light smirk with her mouth, but it's not looking dialed in yet. 

    Night! 

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  •  

    tkz said:


    You're shot on the bike is looking fantastic! Digging pretty deep, I think the only ideas I can offer are reducing the slightly plastic / swollen? feeling where her forearm meets her wrist by her head...

    @tkz.... So, it's not just me then... her hands have been driving me crazy! The model is Jiao for Genesis 8 and I'm not sure why her hands took on that bloated look, I haven't touched any of the body shaping parameters. The Genesis 8 marketing blurb mentions HD morphs for the hands, but I can't seem to find sliders for it...does anyone know where they might be?

    @Twisty , thanks for the kind words. I've owned Daz Studio for a long time and I've accumulated a lot of resources for it, but I just don't use if very often. I think this is maybe my 3rd or 4th full render with it, but having a background in photography really helps. A couple of weeks ago, I took the time to sit down with a blank canvas and focus on getting a good 3-point lighting setup using emmisive planes. You can get much quicker renders with a simple scene and it allowed me to really get a handle on the lighting, shader, and environment controls. Now, I just load that lighting setup and build my scene from there. 

  • tkz said:

    Starting on the pose / expression...

    Some thoughts:
    I think may have taken a little too much light away, the lipstick is looking really thick / plastic like. Switched the eyes over to ones from Phoenix, toned down the cleavage / breast size a bit. Put a little twist in her stance and tweaked both arms... I think a little bend in the mid section to go with the twist might help, but it's getting too late / early. I'm aiming for a light smirk with her mouth, but it's not looking dialed in yet. 

    Night! 

    Really looking good! The new pose really gave her some life. Her lips feel bloated to me, but I'm not a big fan of the injected look in real life, so I may not be the best judge. In any case, now we're even on the bloated/swollen comments. cheeky

  • Made some adjustments to his hands to try and get them closer to where they should be, as well as giving him his gloves (that I only remember him taking off only one time in the entire show.)

    Shinji, hand pose is looking good and I agree with tkz's general comments. You might try getting a reflection into those glasses either through tilting the head a bit or getting something in front of him... I generally try to treat sunglasses like eyes when it comes to catch lights... windows to the soul. Also, you might try turning up the transparency on the glasses just a bit so his eyes are just barely visible. 

  • harrykimharrykim Posts: 225
    edited July 2017

    The Genesis 8 marketing blurb mentions HD morphs for the hands, but I can't seem to find sliders for it...does anyone know where they might be?

    Could be that it comes as a material. Take a look in your Content library/ your character/ Material

    I only have 1 HD add on and it does almost nothing, but this does not mean that I dont have any options to increase details. Attached are my tries with G2 and G3 character

    Image 1 = G2

    It loads with AoA surface, so I applied the Iray Uber Base shader just to be sure to follow the rule "Iray Render - Iray shader". The benefit is beside the render time, that you now have a slider in your parameter tab / Mesh Resolution / SubDivision Level ( default setting is 1 and goes up to 2. If you want to go higher, click the gear Icon on the right top of the slider, choos Parameter Setting and ahigh the number of max: to what you like )

    I made 3 render: 1. = Default, 2. = SubDivision set to 3 and 3. = additionaly increased Bump from 0.45 ( default for this character) to 2

    Image 2 = G3

    It loads with Iray surface

    Made again 3 render: 1. = Default, 2. = SubDivision set to 3 and 3. = additionaly increased Bump from 3 ( default for this character) to 5

    You can easily see that to increase the bump is not always a good choice ( look at the nose tip )

    But even all this is not the end of your options. Image 3 shows what you get if you go to render setting / Filtering and change Pixel Filter from Gausian to Mitchel and set the Pixel Filter Radius to about 1

     

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    Screenshot (02).png
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    Post edited by harrykim on
  • tkztkz Posts: 149
    tkz said:
    Really looking good! The new pose really gave her some life. Her lips feel bloated to me, but I'm not a big fan of the injected look in real life, so I may not be the best judge. In any case, now we're even on the bloated/swollen comments. cheeky

    The lips aren't like that on purpose - and likewise on not liking the botox look! I think they came from the base pose I was using crossed with my first attempt at the smirk... The base pose seeemed very neutral, but I later figured out it had tweaked a lot of params in her face. I should probably zero the face to have a clean slate. I didn't even notice how bad the lips got in iray until I was doing the final render, and i didn't have enough left in me to fix it... Even indeed :D.

    I wish i could help with the G8 side... but after dumping a bunch of money on G7 models in my first month, I thought I should try to get some of my money's worth before spending more.... so haven't even bothered to load a g8 into a scene yet.  

  • carmenaracarmenara Posts: 28
    edited July 2017

    "Daughter of the Wind" 

    An Arabian Fantasy / Battletech crossover
    My first Daz3D 'serious' project!

    This is my Battletech roleplay character. Not exactly Arabian fantasy - BT is a very diverse game universe set in the 31st Century and I play House Marik which has a lot of roots in Indian and Arabian subcultures of 'ancient' Earth. I add a lot of ethnic flair to the group as a result. 

    Sgt. Carmen Toreadors has an interesting taste of fashion during undercover operations on a certain Periphery world. She wears what her team members call a "gaudy monstrosity" that was apparently snapped up on the cheap from this years Ramadan Bazaar. And oh, before you ask, yes she is quite fine shooting left-handed, and yes that is an antique slug-thrower patterned after the Colt Peacemaker of Terran antiquity once again. Because last time the game-master put her near advanced weaponry, a whole neighborhood on Galatea caught fire.

    And that was even before they set off on their first contract. Not only are Marik girls weird and dangerous, this one is suspected to be an agent of S.A.F.E., which is the term for Marik special intelligence... not that anyone realized it yet.

    You see Ivan, when need of undercover, dress in ridiculous! Enemy will never take second glance. 

     

    Author's Note: I have revised this image on 23 July and added a second image showing a different pose here:

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/2659836/#Comment_2659836

    Post edited by carmenara on
  • daybirddaybird Posts: 654
    edited July 2017

    First try this month, but I'm not really good in portraits.

    juli 2.png
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    Post edited by daybird on
  • NastyHeadwoundNastyHeadwound Posts: 31
    edited July 2017
    harrykim said:

    The Genesis 8 marketing blurb mentions HD morphs for the hands, but I can't seem to find sliders for it...does anyone know where they might be?

    Could be that it comes as a material. Take a look in your Content library/ your character/ Material

    I only have 1 HD add on and it does almost nothing, but this does not mean that I dont have any options to increase details. Attached are my tries with G2 and G3 character

    Image 1 = G2

    It loads with AoA surface, so I applied the Iray Uber Base shader just to be sure to follow the rule "Iray Render - Iray shader". The benefit is beside the render time, that you now have a slider in your parameter tab / Mesh Resolution / SubDivision Level ( default setting is 1 and goes up to 2. If you want to go higher, click the gear Icon on the right top of the slider, choos Parameter Setting and ahigh the number of max: to what you like )

    I made 3 render: 1. = Default, 2. = SubDivision set to 3 and 3. = additionaly increased Bump from 0.45 ( default for this character) to 2

    Image 2 = G3

    It loads with Iray surface

    Made again 3 render: 1. = Default, 2. = SubDivision set to 3 and 3. = additionaly increased Bump from 3 ( default for this character) to 5

    You can easily see that to increase the bump is not always a good choice ( look at the nose tip )

    But even all this is not the end of your options. Image 3 shows what you get if you go to render setting / Filtering and change Pixel Filter from Gausian to Mitchel and set the Pixel Filter Radius to about 1

     

    Thanks, @harrykim, great tips! I'd looked at the subdivision slider, but hadn't played with it yet. This is exactly why I jumped in the contest... this thread has probably doubled my knowledge of Studio in less than a week.

    The particular area of detail I was expecting in Genesis 8 was more definition of the extensor tendons in the backs of the hands. It's one of those little details I've seen in other people's renders, but I can't figure out how to get there.

    Post edited by NastyHeadwound on
  • AloreeaAloreea Posts: 285
    edited July 2017

    Hello Everyone! So here is what I have to start out this month. 

     

     

     

     

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    Post edited by Aloreea on
  • NastyHeadwoundNastyHeadwound Posts: 31
    edited July 2017

    "Daughter of the Wind" 

    An Arabian Fantasy / Battletech crossover
    My first Daz3D 'serious' project!

    This is my Battletech roleplay character. Not exactly Arabian fantasy - BT is a very diverse game universe set in the 31st Century and I play House Marik which has a lot of roots in Indian and Arabian subcultures of 'ancient' Earth. I add a lot of ethnic flair to the group as a result. 

    Sgt. Carmen Toreadors has an interesting taste of fashion during undercover operations on a certain Periphery world. She wears what her team members call a "gaudy monstrosity" that was apparently snapped up on the cheap from this years Ramadan Bazaar. And oh, before you ask, yes she is quite fine shooting left-handed, and yes that is an antique slug-thrower patterned after the Colt Peacemaker of Terran antiquity once again. Because last time the game-master put her near advanced weaponry, a whole neighborhood on Galatea caught fire.

    And that was even before they set off on their first contract. Not only are Marik girls weird and dangerous, this one is suspected to be an agent of S.A.F.E., which is the term for Marik special intelligence... not that anyone realized it yet.

    You see Ivan, when need of undercover, dress in ridiculous! Enemy will never take second glance. 

    Great first post! I really like the color and lighting... definitely giving it that sand storm kind of feel. My only suggestion up front would be to work on the gun hand pose... that revolver is going to fly right out of her hand with the first shot.

    The hand should tilt downward just a bit so that the grip sits snuggly in the crook of the thumb to the hand... it should sit right against the pad of the thumb (see image). Maybe even drop that forearm just a bit so it's not at a perfect 90 degree angle. I don't want to get into a big "perfect stance" debate with any firearm experts in the room... just trying to help with a cool looking pose. smiley

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • daybirddaybird Posts: 654

     

    Aloreea said:

    Hello Everyone! So here is what I have to start out this month. 

     

     

     

     

    Wow, just wow. For me it's perfect. 

  • carmenaracarmenara Posts: 28

    Hi @NastyHeadwound thanks for the tip! 
    I'm fine with the gun about to fly out of her hand because that's probably going to be acted out in-character in due course. As the character is based on my real world self, I have a penchant for holding things in a very dainty manner. This includes forks, spoons, knives, stationery...

    Her clumsiness had actually caused a lot of collateral damage in a scenario a few months back... It's comical. 

  • AloreeaAloreea Posts: 285
    edited July 2017

     

     

     

     

     

    daybird said:

     

    Aloreea said:

    Hello Everyone! So here is what I have to start out this month. 

     

     

     

     

    Wow, just wow. For me it's perfect. 

    Thanks so much! I'm kind of disappointed in the outcome though. I was trying to go for something more cyberpunk-ish, but I really really suck at lighting. I started over atleast 20 times since the beggining of July. 

    Thank you for the kind words, that makes me feel a lot better smiley. I just noticed that her cybernetic side of her face is off a bit, I will fix that and then maybe add her glowing tattoos on her right arm? hmm, Trying to figure out what to add to this drives me crazy! XD

    Post edited by Aloreea on
  • carmenaracarmenara Posts: 28
    Aloreea said:

     

    Thanks so much! I'm kind of disappointed in the outcome though. I was trying to go for something more cyberpunk-ish, but I really really suck at lighting. I started over atleast 20 times since the beggining of July. 

    Thank you for the kind words, that makes me feel a lot better smiley. I just noticed that her cybernetic side of her face is off a bit, I will fix that and then maybe add her glowing tattoos on her right arm? hmm, Trying to figure out what to add to this drives me crazy! XD

    Could make it work with a dark urban setting and neon lighting in the background like @NastyHeadwound. Use old Shadowrun artwork for inspiration.

  • harrykimharrykim Posts: 225
    harrykim said:

    The particular area of detail I was expecting in Genesis 8 was more definition of the extensor tendons in the backs of the hands. It's one of those little details I've seen in other people's renders, but I can't figure out how to get there.

    Ah I see. Unfortunately I have no clue how this can be made. No, that is not the truth. Count always with, that people have invested in extra Hand Morphs from the store.

    But dont undervalue what you have. The shaping tool can allot ! And mayby there comes the day when the DFormer tool crosses your path

  • AloreeaAloreea Posts: 285
    Aloreea said:

     

    Thanks so much! I'm kind of disappointed in the outcome though. I was trying to go for something more cyberpunk-ish, but I really really suck at lighting. I started over atleast 20 times since the beggining of July. 

    Thank you for the kind words, that makes me feel a lot better smiley. I just noticed that her cybernetic side of her face is off a bit, I will fix that and then maybe add her glowing tattoos on her right arm? hmm, Trying to figure out what to add to this drives me crazy! XD

    Could make it work with a dark urban setting and neon lighting in the background like @NastyHeadwound. Use old Shadowrun artwork for inspiration.

    Hmm, thanks for the idea. I'll see what I can find to make the background. But I'm also going to keep my original just in case I have an idea to make it better.

  • harrykimharrykim Posts: 225
    daybird said:

    First try this month, but I'm not really good in portraits.

    First of all I must say that I dont remember seeing this aura effect befor. For my taste too harsh but as a statement on the way you want to go with your render, it works.

    Would you like to reduce the space arround the girl ? And I would like to know what the posing means smiley

     

     

  • harrykimharrykim Posts: 225

    "Daughter of the Wind" 

    An Arabian Fantasy / Battletech crossover
    My first Daz3D 'serious' project!

     

    Hi carmenlestoreadores, this sounds like a real project. So possibly it would help if you tell us if this is the stile you like.

    This only to avoid to bother you with comments concerning shaddow or depth

  • carmenaracarmenara Posts: 28
    edited July 2017
    harrykim said:

    "Daughter of the Wind" 

    An Arabian Fantasy / Battletech crossover
    My first Daz3D 'serious' project!

     

    Hi carmenlestoreadores, this sounds like a real project. So possibly it would help if you tell us if this is the stile you like.

    This only to avoid to bother you with comments concerning shaddow or depth

    For now I'm happy with basic character renders with a blurry backdrop. So far the Battletech guys are floored :) Great program and rendering engine! Arabian scene is based on a free Hilltop scene and pre-set lighting that came with a similar sandstorm like mood.

    If I do proper enclosed environments I'm okay with setting up correct lighting.

    I have a question about this earlier test piece I made though - there's supposed to be a cutout in the shadow behind her right arm. I am not sure what is causing the extra shadow to form in Interactive Mode. 

    I like Interactive's lighting results better as I can get a "low light" effect going, whereas Photoreal gives over-lit scenes sometimes despite limited light scenes.

    I also made a parody render for a friend with multiple light sources and Interactive mode to test a 'glowy screen' effect by putting a spotlight in the PC monitor. Top coat effect is brought out well in Interactive mode but Photoreal doesn't capture the shiny sheen. There must be some trick to creating DIY sweat effects.

    Post edited by carmenara on
  • TwistyTwisty Posts: 39
    edited July 2017

    My second image entry, this one was a nightmare.

    Literally over 50 hours of render time if I include two CPU crashes. I strugged badly to remove the graininess from the image, asked for some advice in a couple threads, none was forthcoming so I turned to google instead which provided some great help, though it took days of trial and error and many renders. I'm 99% happy with the final result now.

    Title: Fireball 

    Daz Studio, Iray with some touchups done in Gimp

    Now to go back and re-render my first submission also with what I've learned to help reduce its graininess too!

    Fireball3.png
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    Post edited by Chohole on
  • harrykimharrykim Posts: 225
    edited July 2017

    @carmenlestoreadores I´m sorry, I never did anything in interactive mode. Since I use the shaddows as a help for lighting and tint, I´m more interested in not to avoid them.

    After I googled "Hilltop" I think to understand what you are working on. And if so, I would suggest to have an eye on, that this images lives from contrast between the levels. Your background colore, pyramide, beduine and sandstorm plane are the same tone.

    Looking forward to see where it goes

    Post edited by harrykim on
  • AloreeaAloreea Posts: 285
    edited July 2017

    Ok, so I decided to try the cyperpunk thing, but I like my orignal more. I will still experiment with both and see which one turns out best. 

    The top one is my cyberpunk attempt( With one part of her glowing tattoos) and in the bottom one I wanted to see how her glowing tattoo would look. I stopped them at about 50% so I could get the basic look.

     

     

     

    I think I'm leaning more towards the original.

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  • carmenaracarmenara Posts: 28
    edited July 2017

    @Aloreea oh wow I like the blue background. It reminds me of the Shadowrun games. It also brings out the glowing tattoo very well. 

    I guess we each have our own preferences on this one!

    @Twisty that's lovely!

    Post edited by carmenara on
  • NastyHeadwoundNastyHeadwound Posts: 31
    edited July 2017

    Trying a slightly different post treatment, some more lighting adjustments, and bringing back some of the sci-fi element since I lost her leg from the original post.

     

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    Post edited by Chohole on
  • sueyasueya Posts: 832
    edited July 2021

    Here is my second version. I have changed the pose slightly so that his arms are clearly folded. I have also added a subtle distant light to the right side of the figure (from the viewer's point of view).

     

    Post edited by sueya on
  • AloreeaAloreea Posts: 285

    @Aloreea oh wow I like the blue background. It reminds me of the Shadowrun games. It also brings out the glowing tattoo very well. 

    I guess we each have our own preferences on this one!

    Thanks a lot! Also thanks for the idea.

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