October, 2020 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Atmosphere, Ghosts and Special Effects

13

Comments

  • Forest Fight

    First entry for the beginner contest. Made with Daz Studio with a teeny bit of postwork in photoshop.

     

    Forest Fight.jpg
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  • bookaholic121bookaholic121 Posts: 23
    edited October 2020

    Forest Fight

    First entry for the beginner contest. Made with Daz Studio with a teeny bit of postwork in photoshop.

    Advice is always appreciated although I'm not positive I'll have time to make adjustments this month :)

    Post edited by bookaholic121 on
  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252

    2nd entry for the beginner contest

    Title: All Hail the Queen

    As always, feedback and suggestions would be appreciated!smiley

     

    I really like this image.  You are telling a complete story with only a few elements.  The godray coming in at an angle creates some interesting shadows and mystery.  I like that her eyes are in shadow.  It hides what she's actually thinking.  Is she excited?  Afraid?  Aprehensive?

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252

    Forest Fight

    First entry for the beginner contest. Made with Daz Studio with a teeny bit of postwork in photoshop.

     

    Nice action scene.  Having characters interacting with each other can be tricky. 

    You seem to have achieved a bright, well lit image that still feels close and intimate.  I like the mostly monochromatic colours with that red glove giving your eye somewhere to land.

     

  • StargazeyStargazey Posts: 250
    edited October 2020

    This is another version of my "Haunted Graveyard" entry, with much more dramatic lighting. I'd be interested to know which version people prefer. Thank you for any comments.

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    Post edited by Stargazey on
  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    @Stargazey, I like the second one, very much. Both are good, but in the second one the characters really "pop". Well done.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    Stargazey said:

    Here is my second entry in the Intermediate Challange, called "Haunted Gaveyard". Again it's rendered in 3Delight, with post work in Affinity Photo. I rendered the main scene and the ghost sepertely, then composited them in Affiity Photo, as I can't get the hang of making a figure semi-transparent without the eyes and mouth showing inside the head!

     

    I like the way the lighting is really emphasizing the main characters in your 2nd image.

  • katywhitekatywhite Posts: 438
    edited November 2020

    Title: Chase the Glow

    Caption: Magic exists - you just have to look for it. If you notice a faint glow at night you could always dismiss it as a distant car light, or the moonlight reflection on a pond. Or you could chase the glow and discover a fairy - and gain a magical new friend.

    1st Entry: Beginner's Contest

    Software: Just Daz 3d :)

    Any feedback is much appreciated - I will post to my gallery when finalized. :D

    Glow.png
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    Post edited by katywhite on
  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    katywhite said:

    Title: Chase the Glow

    Caption: Magic exists - you just have to look for it. If you notice a faint glow at night you could always dismiss it as a distant car light, or the moonlight reflection on a pond. Or you could chase the glow and discover a fairy - and gain a magical new friend.

    1st Entry: Beginner's Contest

    Software: Just Daz 3d :)

    Any feedback is much appreciated - I will post to my gallery when finalized. :D

    What an absolutely adorable image.  I love the caption.  Lovely sentiment.

     

    It may just be my monitor, it tends to be a little dark, but I would love to see just a little more detail. 

    You could either try adding a fill light, if you do not have one.  Or you could try adjusting the Tone Mapping setings.  They are designed to operate like a camera.  Adjusting the ISO to 400 may make a difference.  Or playing with the FStop settings.

     

     

  • katywhitekatywhite Posts: 438
    katywhite said:

    Title: Chase the Glow

    Caption: Magic exists - you just have to look for it. If you notice a faint glow at night you could always dismiss it as a distant car light, or the moonlight reflection on a pond. Or you could chase the glow and discover a fairy - and gain a magical new friend.

    1st Entry: Beginner's Contest

    Software: Just Daz 3d :)

    Any feedback is much appreciated - I will post to my gallery when finalized. :D

    What an absolutely adorable image.  I love the caption.  Lovely sentiment.

     

    It may just be my monitor, it tends to be a little dark, but I would love to see just a little more detail. 

    You could either try adding a fill light, if you do not have one.  Or you could try adjusting the Tone Mapping setings.  They are designed to operate like a camera.  Adjusting the ISO to 400 may make a difference.  Or playing with the FStop settings.

     

     

    I'll see what I can do to bring up the details a tad and repost. I'll try out those suggestions! :)

  • TirickTirick Posts: 230
    edited October 2020
    katywhite said:

    I'll see what I can do to bring up the details a tad and repost. I'll try out those suggestions! :)

     

    Default EV is 13. You can play with the two correlated settings (FStop and ISO) to tweak that, or just reduce the EV (which will correspondingly change those sliders). I find a little goes a long way. Try 12 or 11 (decimal values work as well, so 11.5, etc if a full stop is too much).

    Post edited by Tirick on
  • katywhitekatywhite Posts: 438
    Tirick said:
    katywhite said:

    I'll see what I can do to bring up the details a tad and repost. I'll try out those suggestions! :)

     

    Default EV is 13. You can play with the two correlated settings (FStop and ISO) to tweak that, or just reduce the EV (which will correspondingly change those sliders). I find a little goes a long way. Try 12 or 11 (decimal values work as well, so 11.5, etc if a full stop is too much).

    Thanks for the tip! I'll keep that in mind.

  • katywhitekatywhite Posts: 438
    edited October 2020

    Title: Exploring

    Caption: It was rather dark, so he had been exploring the house for a good several hours before he realized the abandoned house wasn't quite abandoned...

    2nd Entry: Beginner's Contest

    Software: Just Daz 3d :)

    Again, any feedback is much appreciated - I will post to my gallery when finalized. :D

     

    Exploring 2.png
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    Post edited by katywhite on
  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    katywhite said:

    Title: Exploring

    Caption: It was rather dark, so he had been exploring the house for a good several hours before he realized the abandoned house wasn't quite abandoned...

    2nd Entry: Beginner's Contest

    Software: Just Daz 3d :)

    Again, any feedback is much appreciated - I will post to my gallery when finalized. :D

     

    It is not easy to apply an expression to a non-human character.  You have done a great job. 

    I also like the perspective.  It is very effective.  The DOF is heavy enough to keep the mystery and the godlights in the upper corner draw the eye to your character's face.

     

  • katywhitekatywhite Posts: 438
    katywhite said:

    Title: Exploring

    Caption: It was rather dark, so he had been exploring the house for a good several hours before he realized the abandoned house wasn't quite abandoned...

    2nd Entry: Beginner's Contest

    Software: Just Daz 3d :)

    Again, any feedback is much appreciated - I will post to my gallery when finalized. :D

     

    It is not easy to apply an expression to a non-human character.  You have done a great job. 

    I also like the perspective.  It is very effective.  The DOF is heavy enough to keep the mystery and the godlights in the upper corner draw the eye to your character's face.

     

    Thank you =)

  • katywhitekatywhite Posts: 438
    edited October 2020
    katywhite said:

    Title: Chase the Glow

    Caption: Magic exists - you just have to look for it. If you notice a faint glow at night you could always dismiss it as a distant car light, or the moonlight reflection on a pond. Or you could chase the glow and discover a fairy - and gain a magical new friend.

    1st Entry: Beginner's Contest

    Software: Just Daz 3d :)

    Any feedback is much appreciated - I will post to my gallery when finalized. :D

    What an absolutely adorable image.  I love the caption.  Lovely sentiment.

     

    It may just be my monitor, it tends to be a little dark, but I would love to see just a little more detail. 

    You could either try adding a fill light, if you do not have one.  Or you could try adjusting the Tone Mapping setings.  They are designed to operate like a camera.  Adjusting the ISO to 400 may make a difference.  Or playing with the FStop settings.

     

     

    Here's a slightly brighter version, I changed the exposure value from 13 to 11. Not sure if its too bright now.

    Glow2.png
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    Post edited by katywhite on
  • Alias52Alias52 Posts: 296

    It's a Kind of Magic

    Intermediate entry I guess. Used lots of different new things that I over indulged in with sale. Enjoying creating the characters for fantasy setting and enjoying using canvases. 

    As they burst into the Rotunda, they realised they had arrived just in time. Battered from her fight with the Guardians, Clara raised her sword wearily. "I have got this one." Ithriel stopped her friend. "Stay near me." With that she cast her Protection Sphere spell as the enemy spellcasters began to react. Using her powerful Power Beam spell to collapse the enemy Wards, she prepared a Fireball to follow up. "A couple of these spells earlier wouldn't have hurt..." muttered the warrior.

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  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    Alias52 said:

    It's a Kind of Magic

    Intermediate entry I guess. Used lots of different new things that I over indulged in with sale. Enjoying creating the characters for fantasy setting and enjoying using canvases. 

    As they burst into the Rotunda, they realised they had arrived just in time. Battered from her fight with the Guardians, Clara raised her sword wearily. "I have got this one." Ithriel stopped her friend. "Stay near me." With that she cast her Protection Sphere spell as the enemy spellcasters began to react. Using her powerful Power Beam spell to collapse the enemy Wards, she prepared a Fireball to follow up. "A couple of these spells earlier wouldn't have hurt..." muttered the warrior.

    Most of us have a tendency to "overindulge" during a sale.  Contents and Challenges are a great way to make use of these new additions.

    I like the way you have mixed all these different elements but the Characters are still clearly visible.  I would have been easy to obscure them completely with all that "magic".

    Your ladies are well lit and my eye is drawn to both of them.

    I really enjoyed the story.

  • PhatmartinoPhatmartino Posts: 287
    edited October 2020
    L'Adair said:

    Wow.

    The way the water reflects the green lighting the tentacles makes it looke like the body not yet showing is emissive. There are just enough details showing of the room to recognize the basement set. (I've always liked the unfinished wood stringer of this set.) I agree this version turned out better than the first one. I love it.

     

    Sometimes lighting a scene to get the specific effect you want is real battle...I've had a few of those myself.  It seems like no matter what I do I just cannot get the lighting the way I want it.  And when they take a long time to render it becomes even more frustrating.

    I completely missed the guy hiding in the shadows the first itme I saw this.  The posing is really well done.  The falling light, the tentacles all work.  The lighting may have been a battle for you but you have persevered and have an effective image for all your hard work.

     

    Time got away from me, but meant to thank you guys for the help, encouragement and kind words! Greatly appreciated. :D

    Post edited by Phatmartino on
  • katiedelongwriterkatiedelongwriter Posts: 65
    edited October 2020

    An entry for Intermediate, I guess. I think I'm probably somewhere between the two, ability-wise, but I had some new magic effects to play with, as well as some new lights to amp up the mood, so I wanted to give the scene a try. Lighting is a gel light with an overlay to mimic stained glass, plus multiple tinted spotlights to give more dimension, HDRI outside the window, too. Magic effects are multiple layers of products posed together, with additional recoloring done in post to color-correct the gradient. Figure, posing, outfit, are all mix-and-match from bits and pieces of things I've acquired here and there, to try to give her a really vivid, imposing presence. 

    13Redo.jpg
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    Post edited by katiedelongwriter on
  • An entry for Intermediate, I guess. I think I'm probably somewhere between the two, ability-wise, but I had some new magic effects to play with, as well as some new lights to amp up the mood, so I wanted to give the scene a try. Lighting is a gel light with an overlay to mimic stained glass, plus multiple tinted spotlights to give more dimension, HDRI outside the window, too. Magic effects are multiple layers of products posed together, with additional recoloring done in post to color-correct the gradient. Figure, posing, outfit, are all mix-and-match from bits and pieces of things I've acquired here and there, to try to give her a really vivid, imposing presence. 

  • Wicked WhompWicked Whomp Posts: 219
    edited October 2020

    Here is my entry for intermediate. Truthfully, I started working on it with the atmosphere challenge in mind, but then I forgot that it was the beginner challenge and I'm not exactly new! But with the lighting effects, spooky skeleton and a few postwork touch ups here and there, I think it should still qualify for the intermediate challenge. In particular, special effects part of "ghosts and special effects" cheeky

    Title: Undead Romance

    undeadromance.png
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    Post edited by Wicked Whomp on
  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252

    An entry for Intermediate, I guess. I think I'm probably somewhere between the two, ability-wise, but I had some new magic effects to play with, as well as some new lights to amp up the mood, so I wanted to give the scene a try. Lighting is a gel light with an overlay to mimic stained glass, plus multiple tinted spotlights to give more dimension, HDRI outside the window, too. Magic effects are multiple layers of products posed together, with additional recoloring done in post to color-correct the gradient. Figure, posing, outfit, are all mix-and-match from bits and pieces of things I've acquired here and there, to try to give her a really vivid, imposing presence. 

    It's good to push ourselves past where we think we are.

    I like the juxtaposition of the soft, pink dress with her fierce expression.  Despite your description my immediate impression was of a lovely lady style portrait.  Then I see the "don't mess with me" expression on her face and the magic she is displaying takes on a different meaning.

     

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252

    Here is my entry for intermediate. Truthfully, I started working on it with the atmosphere challenge in mind, but then I forgot that it was the beginner challenge and I'm not exactly new! But with the lighting effects, spooky skeleton and a few postwork touch ups here and there, I think it should still qualify for the intermediate challenge. In particular, special effects part of "ghosts and special effects" cheeky

    Title: Undead Romance

    I really like the concept behind this image. 

    It took me a minute to find the skeleton you mentioned in your description.  I was looking everywhere in the image and it wasn't until I noticed the bare forearm and hand resting on the back of the bench. 

    It is a very effective image.  Well done.

     

  • SmoerebroetSmoerebroet Posts: 31
    edited October 2020

    This time i'd like to challenge in the Intermediate.
    I call it: Collector
    I don't have a Ghost, but i think the Death is close to them. ;)
    Well, Souls surrounding him. His "Collection" hid in his Cloak without a chance to escape.
    Himself is wearing a nice nightly brocadish Robe. Its light and gives the Keeper enough mobility for his work.
    His unbeatable flight quality in the Clouds backed with black Wings.

    Some postwork in Krita (Added more Clouds. well not very happy with them, but hey ... they're Clouds. :)) 
     

    Collector.jpg
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    Post edited by Smoerebroet on
  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252

    This time i'd like to challenge in the Intermediate.
    I call it: Collector
    I don't have a Ghost, but i think the Death is close to them. ;)
    Well, Souls surrounding him. His "Collection" hid in his Cloak without a chance to escape.
    Himself is wearing a nice nightly brocadish Robe. Its light and gives the Keeper enough mobility for his work.
    His unbeatable flight quality in the Clouds backed with black Wings.

    Some postwork in Krita (Added more Clouds. well not very happy with them, but hey ... they're Clouds. :)) 
     

    Definitely qualifies for Intermediate.

    Great story and portrayed quite well.

  • Definitely qualifies for Intermediate.

    Great story and portrayed quite well.

    Oh, thanks. :)
    Btw. I forgot something very important: A very special Thanks to Sshodan, for (sometimes) his hard to simulate dforce Cloth. :D

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252

    Definitely qualifies for Intermediate.

    Great story and portrayed quite well.

    Oh, thanks. :)
    Btw. I forgot something very important: A very special Thanks to Sshodan, for (sometimes) his hard to simulate dforce Cloth. :D

    I find I often have to run mutliple simulations to get dForce clothes to do what I want them to do.  But when you get a great result the effort is worth it.

  • MerakiMeraki Posts: 38

    Just Looking

    First time trying a contest. So i'm gonna enter the contest for Beginner. I'm new to daz, had been using blender for a year.

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  • Thought I'd give this a go, first time entering a contest. I found DAZ a couple of weeks ago and haven't been able to leave it alone since. What do you think? 

     

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