More Non-photorealisitic Renders (NPR II)

mmitchell_houston

plasma_ring said:

mmitchell_houston said:

I could throw in a lot more examples, but I don't think I need to. And, although it is possible to use blurs and other camera-like effects in 3D, the 3D artist can't really take things out of the scene to simplify it for one panel because 3D is so close to real that we viewers would notice the absence of the missing elements and probably think of them as continuity errors. Now go back to the RR comic and look at the background in panel 4. Based on the other panels, there should be a painting behind Mr. Rich. But we don't see it here because the artist (wislely) removed it to eliminate clutter. If this were a 3D scene filled with realistic figures and high-def shaders, we readers would expect to see that painting behind them. In that scenario, the director/artist would probably shift the camera angle so it shifted the painting out of our view. So, even though both styles of art can achieve the same thing (simplifying backgrounds to remove unnecessary/unwanted clutter), the two styles of art can approach the matter in different ways.

This is a super interesting breakdown and is actually one of the main reasons I started working toward a painterly style when doing 3D art--it lets me selectively keep realistic details from a render for emphasis and spend less time perfecting stuff that isn't meant to be a focus of the piece. Does the one prop that works for my background look obviously like a 3D model? Shazam, now it looks like just enough paintstrokes to let you know it exists without being distractingly weird.  

I found that the further I take an image away from photorealistic, the more I have to make the choices a 2D artist would to really sell the effect. At that point leaving in details solely for the sake of realism/continuity starts to look like a creative error, and what looks fantastic as a photorealistic shot kind of reads like I'm haphazardly copying reference without understanding what should have emphasis.

Shadow and bouncing light effects are a great example; in a photorealistic image you naturally don't want shadows falling where they obscure detail or props placed where they would be distracting, and that goes into how you set up the scene. But also the viewer is going to absorb most tiny stuff you can't control as part of a realistic environment. There is obviously stuff off camera because the picture is a snapshot of a larger environment that actually exists.

In a sketch or painting, there are no items casting shadows out of view unless the artist makes a proactive decision to put them there. They don't physically exist beyond the frame. So while you'd expect someone to paint in the suggestion of offscreen items casting shadow, it would probably be limited to the major sources--an important prop, a tree outside the window, the biggest furniture. They wouldn't spend tons of time calculating the exact light bounce of every item established in a previous shot unless they were going for photorealism, and in stylized images everything you include is likely to be parsed as a source of information. Extra information is either confusing or distracting. 

I think I've learned more about doing art by hand through reverse-engineering it for postwork than I did in years of study, but I'm coming to terms with having a backwards learning style in general. 

Making art is really the only way to learn about making art. No matter where the learning curve starts, we flow along it at our own pace and (in your case) in your own direction.

will2power

 

I liked how this one turned out so I thought I would share. It's an Iray Render that I took into Topaz Studio. I wanted to give it a comic book-like feel without losing any of the detail. I found that the right HDR filter with a little love makes for the best result.  I've been modeling my favorite DC Superhero costumes over the last few months and it's been quite an experience. I still have Aquaman and Martian Manhunter to do, but so far I'm quite pleased with how everything is turning out. ​

Martirilla

Retro 1960s-printed comic 'Jack Kirby style' from DAZ Studio, showing it is possible, with the right starting character and the right chain of custom filters.

tkdrobert

This is one of those images I was trying to make realistic.  Couldn't do it to my satisfaction, so I made it NPR.

tkdrobert

Spidey vs Doc Ock

vrba79

I think after some more tweaking I'll have a new Photoshop NPR recipe to post, but it's gonna be reliant on PWtoon using specific settings, so it won't be for everyone. I might try and see if DzDefault Toon works with it as well first.

philebus

I've not been about for ages and ages. I haven't been doing much though, save reading.

Anywho, I've finally found myself getting back into role-playing games. I haven't gotten around to playing any yet but the lock-downs are a bit of a problem there. Still, I've purchased a license for the FoundryVTT and so I can now look at playing on-line.

It wasn't something I expected to start with but I've discovered Free League's Alien RPG, which really is surprisingly good - so, I'm probably going to make a go of that. This means mapping (more software to learn, but what the hell, I'm not going out these days!), and some illustrations.

I've been looking around for models based on the franchise, or which are a good fit for it and there's more out there than I expected (with quite a few here). As a rule, I have, in the past, avoided anything I recognised as being drawn from popular media, but now I have an excuse to play a little. Even so, this stuff will go into it's own Runtime, so as to not be used for anything else. I've decided to start with a model I found of The Betty, which I always liked the look of. I'll need to look at doing deck plans next but here's the quick Poser renders finished in Affinity Photo.

 

wsterdan

mmitchell_houston said:

I added some speed lines to it. Any thoughts? Better, worse, doesn't matter?

 

I like it!  The expressions are well done and the lines are super crisp!  I especially like the angle, though... it lends to a sense of motion.  I have no preferences on the lines, I like it both with and without... It's taken a long time but I'm learning that stuff like that is usually dealers choice, and that it's always best when the dealer just goes with his gut :)

Yup. The editor prefers it with the speed lines, so that's what's going to print. And I got a repreive – the editor is waiting for a cover to come in, so I have more time to create a second scene based on the climax of the story.

A little late but while I like the speed lines, I think their angle is "off" -- I think they should be parallel to the lines of the car, say, rotated a few degrees counter-clockwise. 

-- Walt Sterdan

Artini

It is me, again.

Just wonder if any of the images can be counted as NPR and if so, which one looks best.

Thanks in advance...

vrba79

A little tutorial on how to use Photoshop to complement PWToon.

It could probably use some improvement, but its here for whoever wants to use, modify or improve it! That's half the fun of sharing these kinds of tutorials, right?

 

juvesatriani

I`ve spent whole day to find balance between speed and easy to manage my personal Fan Art project . And after so many  failed atttempt using Blender (for NPR ), I decide to back and find ways to maximizing DAZ render and photoshop to suit my style.

This image off course not perfect but I think I`m getting there , right ?

PW Toon version have advantage because I can render as big as possible and fast ! So multiple pass really easy . The real challenge is to make  realistic material  blend with another elements .

And For IRAY, Render size and my GPU is the culprit . But postwork process  for this image seem faster .

Credit : Tracer model for g8F is freebie from Shinteo @ Devian Art

vrba79

Very nice!

Yeah, you can't beat PWtoon for that mix of render speed and versatility. I bought it several years ago and have gotten my money out of it a thousand times over.

juvesatriani

vrba79 said:

Very nice!

Yeah, you can't beat PWtoon for that mix of render speed and versatility. I bought it several years ago and have gotten my money out of it a thousand times over.

 I agree PW Toon really versatile . Its quick and easy way to get  several render pass/type  ( Flat - Hard Shadow & Ambient ) although I know Blender NPR is something I wanna tackle someday

 I`ve already bought several good rating  Blender NPR/Toon shaders , but  sadly  I couldnt make it work just like I wanted when using DAZ Figures .

 

 

 

Artini

Have you tried to use Daz Studio to Blender bridge?

What is missing in Blender when you transfer Daz figures there?

 

juvesatriani

Artini said:

Have you tried to use Daz Studio to Blender bridge?

What is missing in Blender when you transfer Daz figures there?

 

Transfer not the problem but my skill to learning new thing ( in this case Blender ) for NPR  workflow is the real culprit.   . 

Those shaders really great when used with low poly or some models which carefully created for toon/anime shading purposes .

Its possible  to use with DAZ figures , but it seems I need to learn a lot first before I can get result just like  I wanted 

vrba79

Yeah, I like a nice smooth workflow, with the fewest moving parts as possible. Hence why faster renders are so desirable to me. I can render a pic, color correct it and apply my postwork magic in the fraction of the time it would take just to do that same character as an Iray render.

Artini

Ok, thanks for the answer. I like you NPR images published in this thread.

 

juvesatriani

Here`s another one, I`ll be posting mini tutorial how to get those styles (if someone interest)  after figuring out how to make easy to understand/follow since English not my first language

I`l also including some PW Toon Presets for creating Flat - Multiple Shadow and 3d delight DAZ shader to get  Quick AO pass.

All outline produced used DAZ outline script which included in every DAZ studio version

 

juvesatriani

And these another experiments to creating Toon/Anime BG from 3D and Photoshop

juvesatriani

Artini said:

Ok, thanks for the answer. I like you NPR images published in this thread.

 

Thanks !! 

vrba79

Yeah, those are some of the best PW Toon backgrounds I've ever seen.

juvesatriani

vrba79 said:

Yeah, those are some of the best PW Toon backgrounds I've ever seen.

Thanks my friend ! 

Artini

juvesatriani said:

Here`s another one, I`ll be posting mini tutorial how to get those styles (if someone interest)  after figuring out how to make easy to understand/follow since English not my first language

I`l also including some PW Toon Presets for creating Flat - Multiple Shadow and 3d delight DAZ shader to get  Quick AO pass.

All outline produced used DAZ outline script which included in every DAZ studio version

 

Looks great. Please post the tutorial. I am still a newbie in that area.

 

juvesatriani

Artini said:

juvesatriani said:

Here`s another one, I`ll be posting mini tutorial how to get those styles (if someone interest)  after figuring out how to make easy to understand/follow since English not my first language

I`l also including some PW Toon Presets for creating Flat - Multiple Shadow and 3d delight DAZ shader to get  Quick AO pass.

All outline produced used DAZ outline script which included in every DAZ studio version

 

Looks great. Please post the tutorial. I am still a newbie in that area.

Thanks , I`ll be posting as quick as possible . Meanwhile check my PSD in link below and feel free to experiment with it .

Outpost`s PSD  layer maybe little compicated than Van`s PSD  because in my taste the textures too realistic 

I`ve already named every layer as simple as possible . "+" sign means layer name + the filter`s name

Have fun ;)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sGk3IkOP35jKcSwOqdL-P8DV6nsaaWMe/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1coUh4Tw3STbuoXbniVd4ANGE8-8ENoHe/view?usp=sharing

EDIT : adding Youtube tutorial and excellent explanation about NPR style . I`d learned a lot from that video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iHuw8mB0M4

Pitmatic

That is very impressive and generous of you 

vrba79

Definitely gonna try to soak all that in on a night where I don't have to go get my soul and creative energy sucked out of me for an eight hour stretch. So possibly the weekend.

Artini

Thanks a lot, juvesatriani. Hope to find a time during this weekend, to experiment with NPR.

All the best for you.

 

mmitchell_houston

juvesatriani said:

And these another experiments to creating Toon/Anime BG from 3D and Photoshop

This is a very impressive style. I love how soft your colors are: this style reminds me of something you would find in a child's storybook. It is very clean and easy to understand what's in each image. I really like your color choices because they help make the objects easy to see. Overall, I think you have a wonderful style.

mmitchell_houston

Spent a bit more time on this than I intended. That would be because I actually made a false start to it, got almost completely finished, and then hated the results. So I started over and re-did it. All in all, I'm mostly pleased with this version (and I made it under the deadline for a change).

This is a 2-page spread for a fanzine (the Collectors' Club Newsletter -- look for us on Facebook if you're interested in learning more or joining). "Anthems" is a feature that pairs superheroes and music. It's a silly thing, really, but fun. This issue I decided to tap into the power of SHAZAM and list one song for each letter of the magic word. As you can see, I chose a mostly classic rock theme. BTW, you should listen to the songs in order that they're listed; they make for a decent little playlist.

Figure is Victoria 4 with various morphs applied. Costume is a classic by the great Terry McG (can't recall if this was free at ShareCG or if I paid for it). All work was done in Poser Pro 11 and Clip Studio Paint. I did this the old-fashioned way: I rendered her in b&w and then manually colored the image. That's really the only way to duplicate the way comics are colored, especially when shooting for this look. Hair is Marisandra hair. Pose from MightyMite.

Mary Marvel © 2021 DC Comics

 

mmitchell_houston

If anyone's interested, this is the image that I had almost completed (figure only: I just added the blue ground for posting it here). The face is wrong, the guitare is wrong that much intensity, and I just don't think the hair and face are right.