SereneNight's Sci-fi Fun
This discussion has been closed.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
@DarwinsMishap glad you like it! I liked the light effect caused by the planets, although had to enhance some of the bloom in Photoshop.
I really like the planed background with that one as well. Its a beautiful render!
Thanks for the nice comments! Glad you like it.
I really love the interstellar patrol outfit for Genesis 3 by sloshwerks. I think it is a good value and one of the best items of clothing to date from the pc club. It looks convincingly real, and has a great flow and usability.
I have that outfit too, but have not tried it yet. Looks awesome in your render. Great scene as always. At this particular angle, Boyd sort of reminds me of the new McGuyver (Lucas Till).
This render has an awesome amount of "mood" to it. Is this an Iray render? Or did you do those glows in postwork? They look really good.
I'm sure he'd love that comparison. The set is highly detailed and well made. No clipping, and includes the firearm and a handgun position for both left and right side. The helmet is good too. It is really one of the best suits of sci-fi armor in the store. Particularly to me, because it actually looks like armor, and isn't overtly sexualized. I wish there were more texture expansions. I'd pay good money for a set with camo and combat stripes.
Initial render is iray. I always do glows and a fair amount of postwork, as I don't have much luck wtih the bloom looking exactly right and doing light and dark skin in the same render requires more skill with iray than I presently have. To get the bloom right, use Topaz Star Effects. There is a free trial. It is a fairly heavy handed filter, so make a new layer first. Apply the filter, and erase out the bloom in areas where you don't want it. In this case I only wanted Boyd's firearm and his temple sensor. If left alone, it would've applied bloom to every white area and looked a bit much. I love the way it does lights and glowing. I use it all the time, and don't bother using iray for those effects- the only downside is you can't really control what it wants to illuminate.... Well you can a bit. If I put white in those places it would want to make those blooming areas. I could also blacken or darken the unwanted areas. Since I erase everything on the second layer but the areas where I want bloom the fact that I alter it doesn't really show.
Looks good! The dogtags are a cute touch.
Aww thanks. Believe it or not getting decent dogtags is a source of frustration for me. They always cling to the chest and look really strange.
Sci-Fi Body Suit SF-001 is one of my favorite sets for Genesis 2. It is very well made and there is a new Iray texture expansion on Rendo. Looks pretty good, and comes in a numbter of different colors. The groin camp is the only issue I have with it on the guys. But whatever. Recolor it dark and you're good to go.
Owen frees this wounded Medic from Rubble.
I actually did this image once before in 3delight. I wanted to do it it again in iray, but didn't have the saved file. So I just remade it. I'll probably do it again in the future once my skills improve.
It's great!
looks very comic book-y
Lots of wonderful details in this one.
Thanks everyone for the nice words! =-)
Good disaster/rescue scene, believable. You're excellent at scene setting. There's a litttle lack of clarity on what is going on in the left corner (starting where there is a white line across the end of the board he is lifting). Is there water in the scene? It could be my monitor.
Yes there is a water plane there and he is lifting the board from the water.
I'm fond of flooding scenes. The board is dripping wet. I tried various methods to get it to look like there was water on the edge of the board but even brushes made it look kind of odd there and splashes were distracting. That's the best I could come up with I'm afraid. Maybe once I get better at doing splashes I'll touch that area up.
Thanks for the nice compliment about the scene. I try to create images with stuff happening in them as that is what I enjoy. I always try to observe the rules of composition and add props to my images.
I wasn't 100% certain it was water, but yeah, great idea to add disaster on top of disaster. Making things appear under water is hard enough when drawing/painting, but I'm certain even harder in 3d. You certainly got very close! I think, as you say, post work adding splashes etc would get you there all the way.
One trick you could try is getting a flooding image, with at least some rippling/waves. Insert it as a layer in photoshop (adjusting it so the water goes the right way, etc). Then put a second copy of the same water over it. Top layer could be set to "overlay." Then adjust the lower levl water opacity until it gives a liquid shine/effect. I do think splashes might still help, unless the image has splashes that translate well when layered over your render.
Do you set up your scene first, then add characters or vice versa? I'm not yet at the point of creating big scenes so I don't have a work flow for that yet and am interested.
I've done several versions of the board lifting scene: It is interesting to see the evolution of the characters over time and challenge myself to redo it.
First, 2014 Genesis Version. Owen's wearing his classic yellow uniform and red beret. Rendered in 3delight. Soldier is white, and Boyd is a different robot. The soldiers have muzzle flashes.
2016 Version features a much heavier thing for Owen and the men to lift. And Boyd is an actual person. For a long time he had blond ponytail. Soldier is Mei Lin. Both images are compositionally interesting, but I disliked Owen/Sarge's face a lot in this version. Genesis 2 male was my least favorite male model do to the weird pecs. I may redo that one at some time. It was an interesting challenge.
2017 Version you saw, but I flooded the scene this time. I also copied the style of the first render. Soldier is male, and Boyd is back to his drone body. Since lost the scene file for image 1 I had to do it all over again. I think the variance made it interesting.
I'm going to give it some thought and may update it at some point. Most of the splashes I own are for curved objects and the board is flat. I'd really like to do it all in 3d...
In general 3d water looks pretty bad rendered up close because it just looks like gel. Brushes and layer styles can make sprays of water, but the nuance of lighting on the foam and the variation of color is somewhat beyond me. Those things are tough to caputre in photoshp, since how the light affects the water is usually well visualized in the render, but less easy to determine outside the render engine.
Characters are the focal points of most of my images, but I'd say I actually do both. But environments are usually secondary. I have lots of environments and if one doesn't work, I load another. I also keep folders of parts of environmetns such as rubble and debris so I can build scenes with the type of props I need quickly.
I do spend a tremendous amount of time checking feet fingers and hands and weapon grips.
I recently learned a lesson on why you need to check hands! LOL
I had been creating a character first, then bringing in the scene. That ended up often either hiding my character (scene loaded in front), or I had trouble getting the character situated. I've had a bit more success setting up a scene (not detailed like you, have not kitbashed/added things yet) and then bringing the character in. However, I had an impossible time putting my character in the right place in a big city scene. Now I have the place helper by SY, which I need to read up on and then try.
Good idea keeping folders of things you would add to a scene! I learn a lot from you and others on the forum, so thanks for that :)
What I usually do is always keep my character at ground zero and move the environment. I find it easier to light that way.
With hands, you can always correct a boo boo by using the spot render, and rendering to a new window in the tool menu. That way you don't have to do the whole scene again.
I collect objects and create product folders in certain themes. When I buy something I file it in that folder. There are often small props included in big sets which fit certain themes. So I have a theme like "Military" or "Egyptian" and throw the content in there. then if I look for stuff with that theme I find it easy to populate.
Have you been using your thirds guide? Keeping that enabled will make it easy to compose your scenes.
When you say you save related things to a file, do you mean you categorize that way or do you literally create a new file for the assets? If it is the latter, you leave the assets in the original file but copy them to the new file? In other words, the original environment or scene will still come with the props like crates, but you put a copy of crates into another file called "warehouse stuff" or whatever? If there is a link to this process, I'm happy to look it up. I'm just not sure what I would call it so I can do the search.
I know the rule of thirds. As yet, I have not been using the guides because, for the most part, my renders have been tests while I work out lighting, why I have grainy skin (Novica and Fishtales really helped me with that issue), learning to move things around, etc. When I get serious about rendering full scenes with more items in them, I will use the guides.
Thank you for explaining your methods. I didn't mean to hijack your art thread with all of my questions.
Its okay.
What I do is make products of my items. I use the content library exclusively
So for example I break down models by gender and generation. When I buy a new gen 7 male, I put it in my gen 7 male folder Same goes for the clothing and hair. It makes it all easier to find.
Then for obscurer stuff I have a "Themes" folder.
In there I put content that fits certain themes.
So for example in there I have:
Arabian Nights
Warfare
Junk/Rubble
Roman
When I buy something that fits a theme, I file it in the main category and then in the theme for ease of use. If a set has multiple small items, I throw those items in the subcategory if I think it may be useful.
For eample I have a lot in my Medical Doctor category. If an environement contains a prop that fits that category I put it in there so I can remember to use it later.
Great, thank you very much for explaining.
Its really interesting to see the evolution of that scene. I like them all but I will say I like the last version the best.
One of the best things about categorizing is you can put items in multiple categories. I do the same thing as you do, and even have some things in 5 or 6 different categories.
Well, as much as I liked the idea of the first one, Sarge looks like a bit like Mr. Clean. Generation 2, he looks worse. Generation 2 guys make me shudder in many way. Generation 3 Owen is by far my favorite, so I agree with you.
And yes, cannot live without my custom categories.Which reminds me I need to backup my user datas and back them and my runtime up.
Are Sarge and Owen suposse to be the same character or are they diffrent indvisuals?
Yes, Sarge had no first name bak then. But.... Sergeant Owen Kelly aka Sarge. =-) They look different but that's because original Sarge didn't have much backstory. After I began to develop the character he changed a bit, as character's do. Original Boyd also has changed in looks and appearence over time.
I like the different areas of light in the scene, and with the sunlight hitting tha particular part of the board, I can see the water being lighter. It might be the line going straight across, instead of having a slight ripple up effect, that's making it stand out a bit more, but I think it's really effective as a water scene. Very nicely done!