Non-photorealistic Renders (NPR)
algovincian
Posts: 2,613
If you've got any non-photorealistic renders (NPR) that you've done, please post 'em!
I'm interested in everything that's out there - all styles (from toon to line-art to painting, and everything in between), and any software/workflow. Please show us your work!
I've been having a blast buying & rendering DAZ content as I continue development on my own line art style. I'm not a 3D artist, so having easy access to tons of 3D content as I test has been great. The combination of Shader Mixer and DAZ Script has allowed for quick integration with my existing hybrid HDR and fractal drawing algorithms.
Anyway, attached are a few examples of DAZ content I've rendered as line art. I look forward to seeing what others have created!
- Greg
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Comments
That is really interesting. If you can package your drawing tool/shader or whatever it is, as a product that others could easily use, I think you could sell a lot in the DAZ store.
I have to agree, depending on its complexity, that could be a very sellable product. You have a great hand drawn style here.
I have to agree, depending on its complexity, that could be a very sellable product. You have a great hand drawn style here.
I also agree. Great style and very sellable product.
Hi Greg, very cool, fabulous art :-) Here's comic character I airbrusehed a few years ago using photoshop.
I'm impressed with this. Great look to that. Good job!
Awesome artwork.
I would totally buy this, it looks so cool.
Thanks for taking the time to reply & share your work, awesomefb - looks great! Since I lack the manual dexterity to create art in a more traditional fashion, I'm always extra impressed by the work of people (like yourself) who do. Maybe that's why I've been trying to teach a computer how to draw for two decades now!
If you don't mind me asking, did you use a 3D model as a reference? If so, I'd enjoy seeing the render, too!
- Greg
I also agree. Great style and very sellable product.
I'm considering making the custom shader that I created, as well as the script that dynamically applies it to every object in the scene, available to the general public for free. The script & shader would need some changes before being fit for public consumption, though.
The shader is essentially an analysis pass (think something along the lines of the alien's vision from Predator) designed to encode information that the drawing algorithms require in order to actually draw the lines. I believe that some people may find the red channel particularly useful, as it is essentially a surface based z-depth map that does handle transparency. The green channel contains diffuse light, shadows, ambient occlusion and fresnel info. The blue channel is simply a B/W version of the texture map information warped to the geometry.
Attached is an example of the raw output from DAZ after the shader has been applied by the script, as well as the contents of the separate RGB channels showing what info each channel contains, for those that may be interested.
As far as the drawing algorithms themselves go, I maintain a distributed network that is setup to do the heavy lifting. Some of the kernels utilized by the drawing algorithms cannot be re-distributed, but I could possibly run the drawing algorithms on some analysis passes that others create using the shader & script mentioned above.
Enough of my babbling . . . thanks for taking a peek and commenting @barbult, @FirstBastion and @MBusch. Have any of you tried your hand at any NPRs?
- Greg
Woooow! all looks awesome, it looks like totally by hand drawing. See the output of the proccess is also interesting.
I work in NPR too, but I'm very limited because I haven't time to learn scripting.
A few examples of my WIP SB shader
Same to you as well, very impressive art you share. Thanks for compliment, for years I drew art by hand, then transitioned to computer. No, I hand draw what my mind envisions. Growing up, I read lot's of comics, began using comic art as referance, till one day I was able to draw without comics. Was an awkward transition from hand to computer mouse. Lol ! so your still teaching your computer to draw for 2 decades to, well friend your not alone ;-)
Thanks for taking the time to reply & share your work, awesomefb - looks great! Since I lack the manual dexterity to create art in a more traditional fashion, I'm always extra impressed by the work of people (like yourself) who do. Maybe that's why I've been trying to teach a computer how to draw for two decades now!
If you don't mind me asking, did you use a 3D model as a reference? If so, I'd enjoy seeing the render, too!
- Greg
Awesome ! very cool effects. Would certainly luv to learn technique.
Thanks. There's a couple more related styles that I've been working on, too. I'll post examples when I get to the office.
- Greg
I appreciate you taking the time to post, gilikshe. It's great to see what others are working on. Headed over to check out the rest of your thread now . . .
- Greg
Here's 2 more renders showing additional styles . . .
Frankensteining the character in the old map / parchment / Da Vinci's manuscript render was tons of fun!
- Greg
Thanks to you for share your awesome renders and open a NPR thread. The last two are awesome too.
PD: The description of your nick in Da Vinci's doc is totally cool.
Here's another example render of the cemetery scene - this one a black & white style . . .
- Greg
algovincian very impressive stuff, just love your style.
awesomefb very professional looking.
I'm another one who would be interested in your shaders.
Here's a render I did with some post work trying to emulate a line drawing style using PWToon
Edited because I shouldn't post early in the morning
Looks great, Scorp! I haven't heard of pwToon before - thanks for the heads-up, and thanks for taking the time to post and share your work.
Keep 'em coming!
- Greg
Great NPR work, algovincian.
The best pencil-work algorithm I have seen for NPR, and I as well am interested in your techniques, workflows, algorithms used.
There are quite a few of us here who love NPR, and I hope more come forward to share in this thread.
Here are a couple of my own mediocre attempts using various methods from DS plugins, Freestyle, Celsview, Jot, and post-processing works:
and a few more...
Making a rendered image look like hand drawn art would be the grail for those thinking of doing a graphic novel and comicbook series. Its always a challenge to define a style that's appealing to others. It's basically overcoming the uncanny valley in another medium.
These are fantastic, Ken! The style on the blade is particularly good - perfect for technical illustration.
Thanks for sharing your work, and for your interest in mine. As soon as I can find some time to steal, I'll dig up a few more of the intermediate files created for the pencil algo.
- Greg
Thanks for contributing to the thread, FirstBastion. Your images are great - please show us more!
- Greg
Pretty bad!? Not sure what you are talking about, midnight_stories . . . these are fantastic! Thanks for chiming in and showing us your work. If you've got any more, by all means please post them.
Attached are just a few of the intermediate files created by the drawing algorithms (an outline, and 2 of the shading passes). They are created & dynamically combined in an intelligent way using the info encoded in the RGB channels from the analysis pass (DAZ render). The possibilities are almost endless.
I, too, would love to someday crank out a comic. The algos end up producing files that are 16 million pixels, which is more than enough to print comic book size in great detail. I wish you all could see the prints - they look sweet! Is producing a comic still something you'd consider working on?
- Greg
PS - Don't know if you noticed or not, but there's a Brute in the DAZ characters image. Awesome character (one of the first I purchased), so thanks for that!
Let there be color! Here is an example of the output from another algorithm in development - this one a painting algo. The close-up is a zoomed in crop of the male cat from the larger image so you can easily view the stroke detail.
Portions of the wire mesh were revealed to show what the underlying geometry looks like. Personally, I think the revealed geometry makes the image look even cooler, but you can view the image without the meshes being revealed here:
There are Noodles in the forest!
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/55151/
As always, if you're currently working on any non-photorealistic renders, or you've got some old NPRs, please post 'em!
- Greg
Wow you keep getting better and better really amazing stuff, you can't pick this was a 3D render to start with.
And that's what it's all about !
Thanks! Your comments about not being able to tell it's a 3D render are music to my ears . . .
I wish you could see what the output looks like printed. The final file created is 5328x3000 pixels, which works out to about ~500 dpi if printed comic book size. I've got an older Epson R1800 that uses 8-color UltraChrome pigment, and comic book sized prints on high quality luster photopaper look amazing!
- Greg
You're shaders look awsome. This would make a great store product and sell wicked like hot cakes
Those inked-sketch renders look pretty cool! So far all of my DS work is via ShaderMixer.
I'm actually releasing an NPR-shader this month: CMYK halftones and depth fade.