More Non-photorealisitic Renders (NPR II)

tkdrobert

Griffin Avid said:

Great then. Man, you crank out those renders.

When I was SUPER into Robotech. Comico released a HORRIBLE comic version of the series. I bought and read it - although I hated every issue.

I would have been so happy if you were around then and could have made the Robotech comic.
 

I've been reading the new Robotech series.  It starts out the same, then takes some unepected twists and turns.  The only comic series I remember from the past was the Sentinels that they did because the cartoon got cancelled.  It was black and white so I never read it.

Edit: Oh wait I do remember those comics.  One of my friends had it.  I remember winning a bet with him about Robotech.  He checked the comic book issue that covered whatever we were arguling about and I was right.  He had more $ than me so he could afford more comics.

tkdrobert

OK, one more CyberPunk before I move to other projects (but I will come back to it)

philebus

Just a heads up as I'm passing through - I noticed that for Studio users, Manga Style Shaders and Visual Style Shaders are in the Fast Grab right now.

mmitchell_houston

philebus said:

Just a heads up as I'm passing through - I noticed that for Studio users, Manga Style Shaders and Visual Style Shaders are in the Fast Grab right now.

Thanks! I'll take a quick look.

EDIT: Just looked and bought the Manga Style Shaders (already had the other one)! Thanks.

mmitchell_houston

Here is a WIP of a two-page spread for my long-languishing comic project. 
The usual production pipeline applies: Poser Pro 11 for render creation. Clean-up in Photoshop and Manga Studio EX 5 (aka Clip Studio Paint).

Next up: I need to add some background details, a shadow under the dragon, some wounds on him and the dragon, more detail to the ceiling, and punch up the mounds of treasure in the background, as well as outline the treasure chest. I may or may not fix the curve in the dragon's tail. It comes down to a time issue, really; I've spent too much time on this spread already, and I need to move on to the next pages.

tkdrobert

mmitchell_houston said:

Here is a WIP of a two-page spread for my long-languishing comic project. 
The usual production pipeline applies: Poser Pro 11 for render creation. Clean-up in Photoshop and Manga Studio EX 5 (aka Clip Studio Paint).

Next up: I need to add some background details, a shadow under the dragon, some wounds on him and the dragon, more detail to the ceiling, and punch up the mounds of treasure in the background, as well as outline the treasure chest. I may or may not fix the curve in the dragon's tail. It comes down to a time issue, really; I've spent too much time on this spread already, and I need to move on to the next pages.

Nice.

uberRogh

I just bought the Visual Style Shaders and had a quick play with a couple pose I was working on. The original was setup in iray so I had to convert it and learnt a lot about using the visual style shaders but I think I've only just scratched the surface so far. Still happy with my results from the test.

tkdrobert

kirbyb said:

I just bought the Visual Style Shaders and had a quick play with a couple pose I was working on. The original was setup in iray so I had to convert it and learnt a lot about using the visual style shaders but I think I've only just scratched the surface so far. Still happy with my results from the test.

I've had a lot of fun with VSS.

mmitchell_houston

Okay, I think the shadow under the dragon is okay (any thoughts on this?), but I don't think the blood coming from the head wound is working at all. I may either have to add gray to the head, or switch the blood to gray.

Any thoughts or suggestions on making the blood show up better? And how about the other wounds on the dragon or the hero? I have decided that I'm going to make a bigger rip in the dragon's wing and maybe take a chunk out of an arm or leg. I need more evidence of a battle, but don't want to get too gross (which is why I decided against decapitating the dragon).

 

EDIT: The texture effect for the shadow looks GREAT when printed. But wow, it is not showing up here at all. Since this book is also going to be offered as a PDF, I may need to go back to using simple fills and avoide the overly stylized textures. I'll tak another stab at this in a few days and post another version of this.

will2power

I've been trying for a while to get very close to a Manga style that is unique, combining the elements that I like from 3D and the Manga style that I really have come to favor. I have always known that I wanted to do mine in black and white and so for me I've taken the steps to try and find a happy medium by experimenting with a few different ideas. The biggest drawback has always been the hair. I've been stuck looking for a style that worked for me that looked like it actually belonged in a Manga while being flexible enough to pose the way I wanted the image to look.  This gave me the idea to simplify instead of trying to make a 3D hairstyle from DAZ look like it was hand drawn. 

This is what I came up with:

 

I came up with the idea that going to a more simplified piece of hair geometry might yield a result that was closer to what I invisioned. I'm quite pleased with it. This won't be the final hairpieces that I work with but the theory is sound. Lady Littlefox and Traveler have developed a number of different simplified hair pieces that fit my needs for testing. Because of their age, I had to parent the model instead of fit it, and there were some adjustments in Zbrush that I had to make, but the idea is sound. I'm going back into Maya in the coming weeks to develop some designs of my own but this really encouraged me that what I wanted isn't impossible. 

AlmightyQUEST

mmitchell_houston said:

Okay, I think the shadow under the dragon is okay (any thoughts on this?), but I don't think the blood coming from the head wound is working at all. I may either have to add gray to the head, or switch the blood to gray.

Any thoughts or suggestions on making the blood show up better? And how about the other wounds on the dragon or the hero? I have decided that I'm going to make a bigger rip in the dragon's wing and maybe take a chunk out of an arm or leg. I need more evidence of a battle, but don't want to get too gross (which is why I decided against decapitating the dragon).

 

EDIT: The texture effect for the shadow looks GREAT when printed. But wow, it is not showing up here at all. Since this book is also going to be offered as a PDF, I may need to go back to using simple fills and avoide the overly stylized textures. I'll tak another stab at this in a few days and post another version of this.

I think what you said about having the blood be gray would probably work even better than having more gray on the dragon head (unless you went lighter overall on the dragon and then had the blood as the darkest value in that area). As far as more evidence of a battle, I've gotten behind on posts so I am not sure if you've already shown it, but is there an example of the "unscathed" hero before the battle? Cuts into clothing can be difficult, but dirty/rough area on the clothing might help make it look like it was more difficult for him in addition to the scratches that are already there (assuming that is what you are going for).

For the dragon, how difficult with your process and the props in the scene would it be to have more coins on the dragon, or covering up edges? I am thinking if you can make it look like he is "pressed" in more (think like a snow angel, just in coins) it might make it look like more of a struggle. No clue how difficult that would be though. More contrast on the blood and cuts you already have may be enough to get the idea across.

For the shadow, on your more recent example it looks like it was much more compressed (more artifacts throughout). Was it just a matter of saving in a different format, and is the latest example what you would need for the pdf? Or is your latest upload the same as what was printed, and that is the one that printed with better shadow textures?

Artini

Something new ...

3Diva

An experiment. Iray render, no post work.

akmerlow

and here we go, with our old friend pwtoon

mmitchell_houston

Okay, I think the shadow under the dragon is okay (any thoughts on this?), but I don't think the blood coming from the head wound is working at all. I may either have to add gray to the head, or switch the blood to gray.

 

AlmightyQUEST said:

mmitchell_houston said:

Okay, I think the shadow under the dragon is okay (any thoughts on this?), but I don't think the blood coming from the head wound is working at all. I may either have to add gray to the head, or switch the blood to gray.

Any thoughts or suggestions on making the blood show up better? And how about the other wounds on the dragon or the hero? I have decided that I'm going to make a bigger rip in the dragon's wing and maybe take a chunk out of an arm or leg. I need more evidence of a battle, but don't want to get too gross (which is why I decided against decapitating the dragon).

 

EDIT: The texture effect for the shadow looks GREAT when printed. But wow, it is not showing up here at all. Since this book is also going to be offered as a PDF, I may need to go back to using simple fills and avoide the overly stylized textures. I'll tak another stab at this in a few days and post another version of this.

I think what you said about having the blood be gray would probably work even better than having more gray on the dragon head (unless you went lighter overall on the dragon and then had the blood as the darkest value in that area). As far as more evidence of a battle, I've gotten behind on posts so I am not sure if you've already shown it, but is there an example of the "unscathed" hero before the battle? Cuts into clothing can be difficult, but dirty/rough area on the clothing might help make it look like it was more difficult for him in addition to the scratches that are already there (assuming that is what you are going for).

For the dragon, how difficult with your process and the props in the scene would it be to have more coins on the dragon, or covering up edges? I am thinking if you can make it look like he is "pressed" in more (think like a snow angel, just in coins) it might make it look like more of a struggle. No clue how difficult that would be though. More contrast on the blood and cuts you already have may be enough to get the idea across.

For the shadow, on your more recent example it looks like it was much more compressed (more artifacts throughout). Was it just a matter of saving in a different format, and is the latest example what you would need for the pdf? Or is your latest upload the same as what was printed, and that is the one that printed with better shadow textures?

Thanks for the detailed feedback. It's always good to get different perspectives, as it let's me know what details become apparent to others.

• The Hero: This is the first time we see him in this story. I thought about tearing his pants... might still do it. We do get to see him in a flashback of the battle. To show more battle damage, I might also ding up or take a chunk out of his armoured bracers and might tweak his hair to make him look more sweaty.
• Dragon and Coins: I'll think about adding some more coins, possibly some on top. I'm worried that if there are coins on top of him, it might counter the impression that he fell on top of them as he died. I'll look into this.
• Gray Dragon Blood: My first attempt with the gray blood did not look good. It just came off as weird. I may give it another shot, but I think I'm going to go back and render his head again with a little more light on it so I can keep the black blood.
• Shadows / Artifacts: I did use different export settings for the two images posted here. I think the artifacting came when I downsampled the second one within Clip Studio Paint (the first time I downsampled in Photoshop). I'm pretty sure that's where the problem came from. I may experiment again to keep the grainy shadow, as I think it's more in line with the look I'm shooting for.

Thanks again! My work schedule is going to open up next week, which means I will finally be able to devote more time to this project.

Mike

Mollytabby

I've been following along for a while and love what everyone is doing. I picked up pwToon a little while ago and picked up Visual Style Shaders and Manga Style Shaders when they were in fast grab. I picked up pwCatch yesterday in the sale. Today I've been playing with  the Visual Style Shaders and pwCatch. The only post work is to drop the green tint behind the png ((which to be honest I now realise I could have done with pwCatch) and add my signature. 

Martirilla

Poser 11 comic book preview mode, exported as colour flats and an ink lines layer, then combined in Photoshop.  Fully automatic with Photoshop Actions, no additional linework or inking (other than the speech bubble, and erasing half the layer with the glowing branches).

 

Artini

Looking great, Mollytabby.

I have purchased pwToon, pwCatch, Visual Style Shaders and Manga Style Shaders a long time ago,

but never achieved with them something nice. Probably, it is just my fault.

 

Artini

Nice design, Martirilla.

Wish that Poser could handle Genesis 8 well - right now, I have not so much use of it.

 

tkdrobert

Mollytabby said:

I've been following along for a while and love what everyone is doing. I picked up pwToon a little while ago and picked up Visual Style Shaders and Manga Style Shaders when they were in fast grab. I picked up pwCatch yesterday in the sale. Today I've been playing with  the Visual Style Shaders and pwCatch. The only post work is to drop the green tint behind the png ((which to be honest I now realise I could have done with pwCatch) and add my signature. 

That looks great.  I have VSS but I haven;t got pwToon yet.

Edit: I just picked them both up on sale.  Is there an instruction manual?  Also, did you use the default setting with Visual Style Shaders?

tkdrobert

Martirilla said:

Poser 11 comic book preview mode, exported as colour flats and an ink lines layer, then combined in Photoshop.  Fully automatic with Photoshop Actions, no additional linework or inking (other than the speech bubble, and erasing half the layer with the glowing branches).

 

Very nice.  Looks like a book illustration.

tkdrobert

FYI: I just picked up pwToon and pwCatch on sale

Mollytabby

@tkdrobert,  I learnt how to use pwToon by following these tutorials

https://www.deviantart.com/cyonixgfx/art/Cel-Shading-in-DAZ-Studio-156161543

https://www.deviantart.com/cyonixgfx/art/pwToon-Tutorial-1-The-Basics-257226861

https://www.deviantart.com/cyonixgfx/art/pwToon-Tutorial-2-DAZ-Gen-3-257227270

They are old, but to be honest they worked perfectly well to get me started. I then used trial and error to find out the best shaders to use. I also added @Crescent's free pwToon shader presets which you can find in this thread here:

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/195231/new-pwtoon-cel-shader-presets#latest

Basically, select your object in Scene and select it in Surfaces. Apply pwToon Shader and you'll see that the surfaces panel updates with new sections so that it works with the new shaders. You can then, with everything still selected, click on one of the styles under the pwToon resources. Or you can indivually select surface areas and apply Crescents shaders to them.

With pwCatch I created a primative to place under the chair and then clicked on the presets to create a shadow. I then played around with the opacity and changed the primative colour to white. I haven't got very far with pwCatch I'm afraid. I was delighted to even get the shadow, lol. 

This is an image I created with pwToon.

 

tkdrobert

Mollytabby said:

@tkdrobert,  I learnt how to use pwToon by following these tutorials

https://www.deviantart.com/cyonixgfx/art/Cel-Shading-in-DAZ-Studio-156161543

https://www.deviantart.com/cyonixgfx/art/pwToon-Tutorial-1-The-Basics-257226861

https://www.deviantart.com/cyonixgfx/art/pwToon-Tutorial-2-DAZ-Gen-3-257227270

They are old, but to be honest they worked perfectly well to get me started. I then used trial and error to find out the best shaders to use. I also added @Crescent's free pwToon shader presets which you can find in this thread here:

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/195231/new-pwtoon-cel-shader-presets#latest

Basically, select your object in Scene and select it in Surfaces. Apply pwToon Shader and you'll see that the surfaces panel updates with new sections so that it works with the new shaders. You can then, with everything still selected, click on one of the styles under the pwToon resources. Or you can indivually select surface areas and apply Crescents shaders to them.

With pwCatch I created a primative to place under the chair and then clicked on the presets to create a shadow. I then played around with the opacity and changed the primative colour to white. I haven't got very far with pwCatch I'm afraid. I was delighted to even get the shadow, lol. 

This is an image I created with pwToon.

 

I like that image too.  Did pwtoon create the outline on her?  Did you use VSS on this one?  I'm currently working on a realistic IRAY image for my Alien Invasion series, but as soon as I'm done with that, I'll play around with pwToon.  Maybe I'll try to do a groupshot of my graphic novel characters.  pwCatch will be very useful for my comic book renders if I can figure it out.  Thanks for the links.

Mollytabby

@tdkrobert Dolly is all done with pwToon except for the little cloud in the sky at the top right. If you look at the shader section after you have applied the base shader, there's an Internal line and Outline option which you can play with 

tkdrobert

Mollytabby said:

@tdkrobert Dolly is all done with pwToon except for the little cloud in the sky at the top right. If you look at the shader section after you have applied the base shader, there's an Internal line and Outline option which you can play with 

Awesome.  I'm excited to play with this.

philebus

Martirilla said:

Poser 11 comic book preview mode, exported as colour flats and an ink lines layer, then combined in Photoshop.  Fully automatic with Photoshop Actions, no additional linework or inking (other than the speech bubble, and erasing half the layer with the glowing branches).

 

This is fabulous! Imaginative and fun with a really effective technique.

Artini said:

Something new ...

A really stunning image! Was this TopazSimplify?

 

mmitchell_houston said:

Okay, I think the shadow under the dragon is okay (any thoughts on this?), but I don't think the blood coming from the head wound is working at all. I may either have to add gray to the head, or switch the blood to gray.

Any thoughts or suggestions on making the blood show up better? And how about the other wounds on the dragon or the hero? I have decided that I'm going to make a bigger rip in the dragon's wing and maybe take a chunk out of an arm or leg. I need more evidence of a battle, but don't want to get too gross (which is why I decided against decapitating the dragon).

 

EDIT: The texture effect for the shadow looks GREAT when printed. But wow, it is not showing up here at all. Since this book is also going to be offered as a PDF, I may need to go back to using simple fills and avoide the overly stylized textures. I'll tak another stab at this in a few days and post another version of this.

I really love this, it's a great composition and think that you were right not to go with the decaptiation, which would hog all the attention. I think that grey for the dragon's blood would not be likely to work as it is low on contrast, while I think that if you're going to have blood there, it needs to draw some attention to itself as evidence of the violence. Without going over the top, I think you might just need a little more of it, in black, running out and down to the right.

Artini

Thanks a lot, philebus.

Yes, it was Topaz Studio, but with the preset "Graphical", I think. I will check the name later on.

 

Artini

Another great image, Mollytabby. Thanks for posting the links to tutorials and the tips.

 

Mollytabby

Artini said:

Another great image, Mollytabby. Thanks for posting the links to tutorials and the tips.

 

Thank you Artini. These tutorials really helped me and hopefully they'll be useful.