Non-photorealistic Renders (NPR)

Oso3D

Work I did for upcoming game supplement from D20Fantasy:

 

Love these guys. They gave me the assignment 2 days ago, I completed it yesterday, they paid me that night, and this morning are showing it off to fans. ;)

I used to be a freelancer writer ~15 years ago, and it was considerably... less fun. One time a payment was 3 months late, and they shorted me $100. When I asked about it, 'oh, we paid you based on what we decided to use.'

Uh, dudes, no? That's not our contract at all.

'It's standard in the industry!'

 

Don't miss that nonsense.

 

 

Headwax

timmins.william said:

Work I did for upcoming game supplement from D20Fantasy:

 

Love these guys. They gave me the assignment 2 days ago, I completed it yesterday, they paid me that night, and this morning are showing it off to fans. ;)

I used to be a freelancer writer ~15 years ago, and it was considerably... less fun. One time a payment was 3 months late, and they shorted me $100. When I asked about it, 'oh, we paid you based on what we decided to use.'

Uh, dudes, no? That's not our contract at all.

'It's standard in the industry!'

 

Don't miss that nonsense.

 

 

nice image

 

mmitchell_houston

timmins.william said:

Work I did for upcoming game supplement from D20Fantasy:

 

Love these guys. They gave me the assignment 2 days ago, I completed it yesterday, they paid me that night, and this morning are showing it off to fans. ;)

I used to be a freelancer writer ~15 years ago, and it was considerably... less fun. One time a payment was 3 months late, and they shorted me $100. When I asked about it, 'oh, we paid you based on what we decided to use.'

Uh, dudes, no? That's not our contract at all.  'It's standard in the industry!' Don't miss that nonsense. 

That is a cool image, and those guys sound even cooler.

And I know what you mean about getting stiffed on writing jobs. Around 1990, I did a "death march" project for a private phone book company. Routinely did 16+ hours a day for three months, and their first check was two-weeks late... and short. So, we're at 8-weeks and they owe me somewhere around $3,000 (that was a helluva lot of money in 1990), and I had it out with the guy. The book was 95% finished and he was telling me that, in direct violation of our signed contract, that he would not pay me until a month after the book was published. I was livid, but while we were arguing my then-wife snuck into the workroom and deleted their copies of the book. I found this out after I stormed out on him, with him threatening to hire some temp to finish the job. Later that night, we got the call. Heh. I still remember how furious he was. We were two weeks out from a hard deadline (the book HAD to ship), and I had the only copies of the files! I told him he would get them when he wrote me a check... and then only AFTER I cashed it and held the money in my hand. He threatened to call the cops, but back then, he didn't have a leg to stand on – this was absolutely a civil matter at that time, and the contract actually said that – although the data belonged to him, all source files belonged to me until they were paid for. Short version is, the guy's silent partners came in, fired him, paid me what I was owed and I finished the book on time. I even agreed to give them an extra month for the last check ($500). That one came in a few days early. I was surprised to get it at all, to be honest.

Heh. Hadn't thought of that in a while. Things like that are why I enjoy working with my current agency who handles that nonsense for my day-job of technical writing.

Lorraine Purviance

Thank you for the comments.  I think there is a lot of untapped potential in the use of renders and photoshop.  I have observed how different artists have used renders to paint in some programs.  I also hord brushes and have not had a lot of time to actually use them.  The bubble effect used a brush and layer effect "bevel" to make some of the bubbles appear closer and give it a 3d-ish appearance.  I am still working on realistic renders but have also seen how much photoshop-ing can give you an alternative to a render that might not hit you until you fiddle with it.

Mighty Mysterio

mmitchell_houston said:

I don't normally link to my blog, or mention it for that matter, and I hope it's not against the Forum Policies to do so, but I'm writing a detailed tutorial on my Noir Comics Style, and later today I'll be posting the latest chapter. In the meantime, if you're interested, you can find it here: http://mikemitchellonline.blogspot.com/search/label/Tutorials

Sorry, but it will load in reverse order (newest one first), so if you want to go back to the beginning, you'll have to scroll down.

Again, if this doesn't quite meet forum guidelines, let me know and I'll voluntarily pull this myself.

Don't know if this matters, but my blog is 100% work safe.

Thank you for the link to your blog. It's very educational to see the workflow of someone who's put a lot of time into establishing his artistic vision.

Worlds_Edge

Thank you for the tutorial(s) @mmitchel_houston.  I'll be checking them out this weekend.  Suggest you add the link to your tag line so it doesn't get buried here.  Also, hang in there during the hurricane.  I have friends in the area who were rushing around prepping for it.  

Artini

Looks also nice, Lorraine Purviance. Thanks for sharing your creations.

 

Artini

Congratulations for being paid promptly for your graphics work, timmins.william.

I can only imagine, how tough is doing well in such business.

 

Oso3D

Poking around with 3dl some more, put it here since there's a bunch of filters on it. ;)

(Amusing, since I started with a fairly realistic look using Reflective Radiance and then, well... drawingerized it)

 

tkdrobert

More concept art for my graphic novel.

tkdrobert

Fixed the lettering.  Fixed a typo, changed the font style and color.  I think it looks much better.

wsterdan

tkdrobert said:

Fixed the lettering.  Fixed a typo, changed the font style and color.  I think it looks much better.

Agreed, much better, much easier to read. Good call.

-- Walt Sterdan

 

 

tkdrobert

I have a question about 3Delight.  How do I cast a shadow on a transparent ground.  I like to render my characters and backgrounds seperate but I'm losing the ground shadows.  Not a problem in IRAY. 

Sven Dullah

tkdrobert said:

I have a question about 3Delight.  How do I cast a shadow on a transparent ground.  I like to render my characters and backgrounds seperate but I'm losing the ground shadows.  Not a problem in IRAY. 

You would have to create a shadowcaster shader in shader mixer, there are some tutorials around, do a google search!

http://www.versluis.com/2015/06/how-to-render-shadows-on-transparent-surfaces-in-daz-studio/

tkdrobert

Thanks.  I think I got a handle on it.

mmitchell_houston

Worlds_Edge said:

Thank you for the tutorial(s) @mmitchel_houston.  I'll be checking them out this weekend.  Suggest you add the link to your tag line so it doesn't get buried here.  Also, hang in there during the hurricane.  I have friends in the area who were rushing around prepping for it.  

Thanks. So far, I'm still high and dry in NW Houston (although that doesn't mean damage free -- there are a few leaks upstairs in the bathroom and master bath that will have to be looked at). This storm is devastating, but we've been lucky so far. No rain here, but we have friends who only live 4.25 miles from us (less than 15 minutes by car with normal traffic), and we can't get to them. All the roads that way are blocked by overflowing bayous. There are lots of areas around us like that. This huge city (the metro area and surrounding county affected has 6 million people in it) is now, essentially, a series of isolated islands accessible by boats.

And good idea, I'll add a link to the tutorial itself to my tagline. I'm thinking of making a separate page that lists the material in order, and has a short overview for people who want the quick-n-dirty version.

mmitchell_houston

tkdrobert said:

Fixed the lettering.  Fixed a typo, changed the font style and color.  I think it looks much better.

Infinitely better, but to be honest, your baloons still look too crowded. And this is a minor point, but since these are mechanical-looking figures, I would suggest using straight pointers, not curved. Curves convey organic beings, whereas straight lines would be more fitting to this scene. Just a thought.

mmitchell_houston

timmins.william said:

Poking around with 3dl some more, put it here since there's a bunch of filters on it. ;)

(Amusing, since I started with a fairly realistic look using Reflective Radiance and then, well... drawingerized it)

HAH! I know that feeling! This has a nice look to it (just the sort of illustration that would look great in an RPG book). There are some issues with the contrast of the weapons to the walls, of course, but overall, this is very nice. It has a real, classic D&D look to it.

mmitchell_houston

Lorraine Purviance said:

Thank you for the comments.  I think there is a lot of untapped potential in the use of renders and photoshop.  I have observed how different artists have used renders to paint in some programs.  I also hord brushes and have not had a lot of time to actually use them.  The bubble effect used a brush and layer effect "bevel" to make some of the bubbles appear closer and give it a 3d-ish appearance.  I am still working on realistic renders but have also seen how much photoshop-ing can give you an alternative to a render that might not hit you until you fiddle with it.

I know what you mean about "fiddle with it." I know some pro artists who call those discoveries "Happy Accidents." 

I have had that happen several times to me in recent months. I just keep messing around with the image, applying effects, changing colors, and then BAM, something unexpected and wonderful happens.

tkdrobert

OK, so I created a shadow catcher plane following the instructions, but it's not 100% transparent.  This is no big deal if I merge the figures with a background image with no post work before.  But when I try to do post work on the figures, it becomes apparent that the shadow catcher plane is not 100% tranprent.  I can fix it in Manga Studio, but that adds time to the process.  If anyone knows a fix, let me know.  Otherwise, I'll just fixi it in Manga.

tkdrobert

mmitchell_houston said:

Worlds_Edge said:

Thank you for the tutorial(s) @mmitchel_houston.  I'll be checking them out this weekend.  Suggest you add the link to your tag line so it doesn't get buried here.  Also, hang in there during the hurricane.  I have friends in the area who were rushing around prepping for it.  

Thanks. So far, I'm still high and dry in NW Houston (although that doesn't mean damage free -- there are a few leaks upstairs in the bathroom and master bath that will have to be looked at). This storm is devastating, but we've been lucky so far. No rain here, but we have friends who only live 4.25 miles from us (less than 15 minutes by car with normal traffic), and we can't get to them. All the roads that way are blocked by overflowing bayous. There are lots of areas around us like that. This huge city (the metro area and surrounding county affected has 6 million people in it) is now, essentially, a series of isolated islands accessible by boats.

And good idea, I'll add a link to the tutorial itself to my tagline. I'm thinking of making a separate page that lists the material in order, and has a short overview for people who want the quick-n-dirty version.

Glad you are safe.

Oso3D

It started out as an Iray render, but lots of other stuff. Ok, let's see:

Lava world, ruins path, Soomian Genesis morph/skin, Biosquad armor, Daz Horse 2, Spinebender Armor, a bunch of Ron's brushes, and then FotoSketcher Oil painting.

 

mmitchell_houston

timmins.william said:

It started out as an Iray render, but lots of other stuff. Ok, let's see:

Lava world, ruins path, Soomian Genesis morph/skin, Biosquad armor, Daz Horse 2, Spinebender Armor, a bunch of Ron's brushes, and then FotoSketcher Oil painting.

This looks nice as an experimental piece. I like those little lines of yellow separating the laba from rocks, and the effect on sky and stone is nice. I'm not in love with the effect on the figures, though. They are interesting, but there's something muddled about their appearance. 

Sven Dullah

Rendered in 3DL using The Digivault stardome, Genesis1 and pw ghost shader. Some filtering in Gimp.

Headwax

tkdrobert said:

Fixed the lettering.  Fixed a typo, changed the font style and color.  I think it looks much better.

that style is very convincing

 

Headwax

here's an example of NPR rendering in an animation with Carrara.

The figure etc was rendered out as a sequenced jpeg, then reimported in the shader room

then combined with a multiply operator in the texture channel

over the top of a similarly sequenced set of book page images

then rendered out again

 

trying for - that hand made look

 

tkdrobert

The Women of X-Force.  I had some troube with this one.  Almost gave up on it a few times, but here it is anyway.

eugene_lab

Trying my hand at this, the original and the sample was done in photoshop. 

mmitchell_houston

I hope no one minds me fudging the guidelines of this forum to post this: I did not render this image, but I did use Akvis Sketch to turn a news photo into a drawing. I created this to update my blog on how I'm faring in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey (although, technically it was a tropical storm here), and thought you guys might be interested in the sketch effects I used. This is comprised of three layers:

• Blue sky (I just airbrushed some random blue shapes then had Akvis sketch it -- I also enlarged it to give the sky a rougher look; blending = Multiply)
• Blue sketch (colorized version of the base: I then used a layer mask to apply the blue only to the water areas; blending = Normal)
• Base sketch (maintained original colors)

BTW: My wife and I are okay. We have some damage to our roof, but nothing major. We've got power, supplies and my wife has returned to work (although she has to take back roads to get there). We live in NW Houston, and this part of town is about 100 miles inland from the Gulf, so we were very, very lucky to have missed the flooding which has devastated this city. The word "devastated" almost doesn't do justice to what it's like here for so many people. I have flooded in the past (lost my home to floodwaters in 2001), so this really hits home (and triggers a lot of anxiety in me, to be honest; it's still very hard to sleep). 

Anyway, I don't want to get maudlin. I just thought some of you might like another look at Akvis Sketch in action, even if it's not on a 3D Render.

mmitchell_houston

head wax said:

here's an example of NPR rendering in an animation with Carrara. The figure etc was rendered out as a sequenced jpeg, then reimported in the shader room then combined with a multiply operator in the texture channel over the top of a similarly sequenced set of book page images then rendered out again.  Trying for - that hand made look

I'm SUPER impressed! This nails the hand-drawn look perfectly. Thanks so much for sharing the process with us.