September 2021

katywhite · September 2021

Entry #2

Title: A Time Machine You Say?

Caption: It works! We've just made contact with one of our ancestors.

Software: Daz 3D

Challenge: Intermediate

Feedback appreciated. Canvases used to make the time portal part transparent with special effects on it, seperate from the lands background and from the dogs.

aprilshowers2065 · September 2021

Second version; tweaked the lighting and the angle of the barrier a bit.

Daedalus-7 · September 2021

Sorry for the late entry, but last minute I saw that this had something that I had never done before, so I decided to partecipate to the Intermediate challange.

I added the Depth render to the image in Photoshop and used it as a mask for some randomly generated clouds creating a Depth Fog (the effect is quite evident on the legs).

I also did some tone mapping in Photoshop too to give the image a more "cinematic" look. Overall, I think that the depth layer does add to the realism, so it was good that I learned about it :)

NOTE: I attached both images with Depth fog and without.

RED SONJA

Shimrian · September 2021

Ok, I have a second submission after playing around for last week and watching tons of youtube videos!

Challenge: Beginner (Depth of field/Focus)

Title: Butterfly Dance

Programs used: Daz3D, PS

So last week I learned how to add dforce weight modififer and wind modifier to change the hair. OMG,so awesome! I also got a couple new items from the store (too many sales)! Overall I like this one submission much better, but I feel like the skin looks kind of plastic. I am using genesis 8.1 with some morphs. Any advice is welcome. Thanks!

Edit: How do you embed an image into your post? Also, how do you delete a post? I think my first post was supposed to have the image. Not my question.

Shimrian · September 2021

(edit: please delete this post). I can't figure out how to do it and it is not needed. Also, the leave a comment section does not get rid of your previous text.

Daedalus-7 · September 2021

@Shimrian In order to show an image in a post:

1. Right click on your attached image and choose "Copy Link Adress".

2. While editing your post, click on the image icon (it's next to a flag), and paste the URL in the pop-up window.

3. Click on the largest size of the image (where you see height and width), and you must ensure that the highest number there is 800 pixels (or the site won't take it properly).

Done!

Shimrian · September 2021

Daedalus-7 said:

@Shimrian In order to show an image in a post:

1. Right click on your attached image and choose "Copy Link Adress".

2. While editing your post, click on the image icon (it's next to a flag), and paste the URL in the pop-up window.

3. Click on the largest size of the image (where you see height and width), and you must ensure that the heighest number there is 800 pixels (or the site won't take it properly).

Done!

Done! Thanks for the tip.

3141592654 · September 2021

I doubt that I count as a new user, so this is not an entry. However, I am working on an image using canvases and thought I would throw it in as an example of what can be done (basically a before and after).

The attached thumbnail shows what this looked like with the products in place, but only hit with sunlight. The image below shows what happens with about 20 photoshop layers - mostly Iray canvases, but a couple 3Delight and Reality 4.3 also.

Petipet Galaxy

Daedalus-7 · September 2021

3141592654 said:

I doubt that I count as a new user, so this is not an entry. However, I am working on an image using canvases and thought I would throw it in as an example of what can be done (basically a before and after).

The attached thumbnail shows what this looked like with the products in place, but only hit with sunlight. The image below shows what happens with about 20 photoshop layers - mostly Iray canvases, but a couple 3Delight and Reality 4.3 also.

Although I appreciate the effort you did with this image, I would say that it looks "too busy" for my tastes. Too many spaceships with no visible propulsion.

Also, since it's space, no lens flare? You need to have some blinding lens flare or it's not space! :)

Daedalus-7 · September 2021

Well, since I was playing around with the Depth pass, I tried something new and (hopefully) interesting.

This is my initial render:

Now, as you understand from the picture, the depth fog should not affect the sky, therefore it needs to be masked out.

Nevertheless, I was not getting the effect that I wanted. So, I thought, why not invert the depth layer? So that I could go from deep darkness (close to the camera), to more and more light? (away from the camera).

I then duplicated the effect until I got the level of darkness that I wanted, and masked out the light coming from the windows (so that they wouldn't be darkened at all) for better contrast.

Finally, I added "a little" Photoshop.

Here is the result, and my second entry to the Intermediate challange.

Dark Night

Shimrian · September 2021

Daedalus-7 said:

"CLIPPED TEXT"

Here is the result, and my second entry to the Intermediate challange.

Dark Night

I really like your second image! I'm not an art expert, but I think you could cut out the bottom 1/3 of the image and it would look a bit more dramatic and still have a that strong negative space that tells a story (of a stormy, scary dark night). If you want to keep the same ratio, maybe zoom in a bit? I attached an example with red lines to show how it could be framed. I suppose it follows the rule of thirds a bit more which is used a lot in photography. :-)

Shinji Ikari 9th · September 2021

My laptop is going to be taken in to the shop later today. It's been acting slugesh and crashed a couple of times the last few weeks so I'm going to have it looked at and see if it can at least be backed up and fixed up as well.

Hard to beleave that I've had the same system for going on 7 years next month. Here's hoping that I will have a chance to join in on things next month.

Daedalus-7 · September 2021

@Shimrian I'm glad you liked my image, and thanks for the suggestion. However, in this particular case, the point was to create an inverse depth darkness effect, which means that there needs to be a distance between the viewer and the Mansion in order to see that effect. Also, making the cut you suggested gave me the impression that the image lost a lot of its "drama" since it became significantly brighter.

katywhite · September 2021

katywhite said:

Title: Have you Seen Yourself in Mirror Lately?

Caption: Because I know I haven't.

Software: Daz 3D

Challenge: Intermediate

Feedback is much appreciated. Especially since I new with canvases and a few earlier attempts backfired in my face since I misunderstood how they worked hahaha.

I used the canvases to punch out the mirror and replace it with a patch render that didn't include him in it.

I have another version in the works too as an alternate but thought I'd post this one since it was ready.

Here's my alternate version. I like them both so it's not an 'improvement' just a different take on it. I used canvases to give him a different lighting then the rest of the scene.

=)

Daedalus-7 · September 2021

@katywhite I like the idea of your image, but I prefer the first one. The only problem I see in it, though, is the positioning of the Torches, since bright objects tend to attract our gaze to it. As you can see, having one torch on the far right is a no go, we shouldn't have our eyes attracted to that far edge of the image (and that's why, I suppose, you tried to fix that issue in the second image, although you made the image too dark for my tastes).

My reccomandation? do not show the torches in the image directly, or "hide" them behind a character, so that he/she becomes the focus.

Also, try to get better highlights and shadows on your characters, not to mention more visible shadows in the environment (they are almost invisible). I think that would enhance your image immensely.