May 2015 New User Contest - Action [WIP Thread]
Cris Palomino
Posts: 11,372
New User's Contest - May 2015
Sponsored by DAZ 3D and 3djoji
Are you new to the 3D World? Are you at the beginning stages of learning 3D rendering? Have you been around for a little bit but feel you could benefit from some feedback or instruction? Have you been around awhile and would like to help other members start their creative journey? Well then come and join the fun as we host our newest contest...
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"Action"
This month's focus will be Action with an emphasis on advanced posing techniques and interaction with people or objects.
Here are some useful links:
Inspiration:
Motion:
Rube Goldberg
Throwing Motion in Stages like in Baseball
Kicking Motion such as in Karate or Football or Soccer
Birds Catching Prey
Cats Pouncing
Dominoes Falling
Digital Art Action Scenes
Examples of Poses showing action:
Fighting Poses
Action Poses
Dynamic Poses
Posing in DS:
Master Advanced Posing in DAZ Studio 4.7
Posing a Figure in DAZ Studio
Posing Objects in Poser:
Dealing with Props in Poser Part One
Poser Smart Prop Basics
For a list of the current contest rules, please see this thread : Contest Rules.
To enter the contest, please post your completed image to the Entries Thread.
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For those veterans of the forums that would like to help, because this contest is designed for the beginner to learn from, we will be randomly selecting posts offering helpful tips and/or critiques to receive a special voucher as well so whether you are a seasoned artist or an aspiring one, there is fun for everyone!
3djoji has graciously agreed to award:
Choice of 2 packs to the first place winner and 1 pack to the 2nd and 3rd place winners each.
Closing Date: May 31, 2015
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Comments
The images of cats pouncing inspired this render. I seem to be on a cat kick lately. ;-)
Very nice work.
My suggestions... a piece of string or some sort of human intervention for the item that the cats are pouncing on. OR, remove the item, and use a light... maybe a very strong & focused spotlight (to simulate a laser pointer or flashlight).
I like the cat on the floor very much. The cat jumping off the sofa is also good, but the two cats in two different-but-similar poses & expressions - it's a little off. Their expressions are a bit flat. Can you make one cat's mouth open? I think I want more of a sense of reckless abandon from the jumping cat, and more seriousness from the crouching cat.
Usually, when I see two cats in an internet video, it's when one cat is minding his own business, and the other cat is about to ambush him. You don't have to change your theme, but when I'm thinking of LOL cat videos, it's when one cat is making the other cat look stupid... so I guess I want more of that smart cat/dumb cat contrast.
Very good points The Blurst of Times. Here is a revised version.
Very nice! Second image is definitely more dramatic. I would like to see the kitties have fur tho. Something like what was done with Mr 'Squatch from last month, maybe playing with the love my hair plugin? Hair isn't too bad to do with a displacement map in Daz if that's the program you use. Can't be too fuzzy though, don't want to disguise any of the action! Also try a deformer on the couch to show the weight of the kitty? (You might have to pop the subdivision up a few notches under the parameters tab). Deformers are surprisingly easy to use with a little patience.
And light your playful friends from a little more to the side to see more shadow around their feet might make the action seem more intense... looks like you have the light coming from the lamp but there is alot of ambient light which is making things feel a bit blah. You have the opportunity to make it a warm, evening scene, to go along with the yellow kitty's big yawn! I like the "from below" angle for the drama... maybe making that more extreme, or even putting the whole frame off vertical? You have a lot of options to make us feel the height and motion, even maybe a bit of motion blur as if your camera wasn't quite as quick as them, or some depth of field to make the whole thing seem more realistic. A "mouse eye" view, with maybe the mouse's eyesight.
Overall a great start.. you have laid things in with good attention to the hot spots of rule of thirds design, and it is decently lit, and good poses, no real issues. (Maybe break the wrist angle of the pouncing kitty's front paws a bit, it is a little stiff just in that one spot) Just things to take decent images over the top, which I am well expecting with you these days!
One thing that I really like which is subtle and convincing is the bit of shine to the floor in the second image that is offering a bit of reflection. Consider playing with that as a design element, as well as the textures. You have some good opportunities to make the nubby-ness of the rug, the brocade of the couch, and some of the other textures really amazing.
Dragon always a hard challenging monster. :-)
This probably won't be an entry but I picked up Duckie for Genesis yesterday and had a bit of fun today ending with this action movie parody. What you think? I had to share.
This is what i have for my entry so far. I have far more appreciation of people who have great poses. This is hard!
Daniel
Dragons are nice. The brownish dragon is very nice. He has the classic "rampant" pose. The green dragon is adequate, but I wonder why he's there. He's kind of a blob.
The background is what I have the most issues with because of the color. It takes away from your lovely brown dragon. I also notice some fire in the background that don't look particularly fiery.
If you're not in love with the background, do something else. Ditto to the green dragon.
More like Bard the Bowman, perhaps?
Great concept with the movie coming out.
Duck looks good. I might quibble with the props, but the Duck has a good feeling of "Let's GTFO!"
I guess I'd rather have more cars or no cars because the one HMMWV in the background is kind of not doing it for me. Especially with no explosions or people hanging off the roof or anything.
A nice wabbit antagonist would be a good thing, or someone with a stuffed wabbit on a stick on a backpack (like Ironbar's kabuki mask in Beyond Thunderdome). The HMMWV just ain't doing it IMO. Not as is.
The font could be more Epic or more Comic Sans or something. It's a very bland font choice.
Lighting is good. Nice sheen on the skin of the woman on the left.
Nit picking time...
I think the figure on the right is delivering a nice round kick. The rear foot maybe too turned, and maybe if you had muscularity morphs, I'd add muscle groups firing off in the legs, but the legs are generally good.
The right arm, I'd drop. Watch what Muay Thai peeps do on a round kick. That arm will drop as you deliver force through the target.
I'm generally not sold on the upper body either. It looks like a lot of leg, and not putting everything else behind the leg.
The woman on the left I think is trying to do a snap kick. I don't know what she's kicking with, though. It looks like the right foot is kind of resting on the woman on the right when it should be driving through something with the ball of the foot.
In any case, there's a TON of nice videos for martial arts moves on YouTube & elsewhere. Check those out, pick out some ideas for your posing. You're 75% there or so, but it's not 100% to my eye.
...
I'm not liking the pattern on the pants for the woman on the right. It's stretched out a lot.
Some fighting wraps for the wrists & hands would be nice if you have them.
The background is also not doing much for me. It's not very dramatic, and it may as well not be there since it's very plain. I guess that's okay, but it doesn't convey "Action" to me.
I think you could frame your actors more, or add more to the scene. The left and the right of the image do nothing... and I would get rid of them or enliven them.
Great concept with the movie coming out.
Duck looks good. I might quibble with the props, but the Duck has a good feeling of "Let's GTFO!"
I guess I'd rather have more cars or no cars because the one HMMWV in the background is kind of not doing it for me. Especially with no explosions or people hanging off the roof or anything.
A nice wabbit antagonist would be a good thing, or someone with a stuffed wabbit on a stick on a backpack (like Ironbar's kabuki mask in Beyond Thunderdome). The HMMWV just ain't doing it IMO. Not as is.
The font could be more Epic or more Comic Sans or something. It's a very bland font choice.I agreed with most of what you said. I just quickly did the first for fun and didn't even think about the font. I wanted to add someone hanging out the Humvee but couldn't get it to look right so I changed it completely. Also added a little fire to background.
This is what I am working on, need to do more with the lights and work out how to add a bullet fly past the running guys head.
Dragons are nice. The brownish dragon is very nice. He has the classic "rampant" pose. The green dragon is adequate, but I wonder why he's there. He's kind of a blob.
The background is what I have the most issues with because of the color. It takes away from your lovely brown dragon. I also notice some fire in the background that don't look particularly fiery.
If you're not in love with the background, do something else. Ditto to the green dragon.
More like Bard the Bowman, perhaps?
Thanks "Blurst" for your suggestions, I made this scene just to start and base my action pose on it, I agree with you that it needs some changes to the green dragon and backgound, I'm working on that...
Thanks again... :)
This is my next iteration based on the suggestions. Also, i have no handwraps so dont know what to do about that. The fighter on the right whom i am calling Julie has such an extreme pose that none of my clothing options look optimal. Same thing with Danika on the left most tops can stretch quite a bit but the bottoms not so much. So i redressed them and fiddled with the clothes as much as it allowed me.
Thanks for the suggestions so far.
Daniel
Thats a really great start! What i would suggest for the bullet would be a sphere primative stretch out and add a metallic like texture. The reason i suggest the sphere instead of a cylinder is that most bullets get deformed a bit as they fire will be easier to stretch a sphere out.
Daniel
I'm still alive as well, but I needed to play around with my new toys from Zev0. So there will be new characters for my next render, it will take some more time though.
In the meantime, some comments on the renders so far, good start on all of them.
@ Kismet, I like that you took your choice to cats, the one lying on the floor looks really relaxed, but I would like to see her a little more from the top. and zoom in closer, I agree on that. I guess that will help as well for the impression of the leaping cat really getting of the sofa. The fromt view doesn't show it as explicit as it could, right now. Fiona already mentioned all the good and interesting point, not much to add there.
@h_habash, nice start so far. I agree with Times about the background, but I would not necessarily exchange the green dragon. He could be somewhat more active though. Right now its hanging just there in the air. Just now
I got the idea of having them a mating fight, the big drab one being the lady the colourful small the male, well he's got to show who's the boss then ;-) .
@ thenotoriousjed; that a really funny start. While I like the guy in the motorbike and the fire in the secont, the lighting is more interesting in the first one even though its a bit too dark.
@ aaron that render already has a good feel of action in it, and some interesting light effects on the fleeing guy. In the moment the light and colour scheme is a bit monochome an thus not catching enough, but I would like you to keep that light effect on him. I do have a bit pity on him becaus he will be shot the next moment, he is not difficult to be shot, I think it would add to the image if you either show somthing he can hide the next step or maybe let him make a jump roll to avoid being hit (very cliché I know).
@ dubby30 you have already made some good changes to your render. Storywise, lets think a bit about the why and who is fighting there. From the environment, I could imagine its a fighting school and they are doing a training fight. The guy in the abck might be their teacher, In the moment he is covered out by the girls in front. you could place him more on the side, maybe with a thinking pose, while he is judging what the girls do. For the fighting positions you should try to find some reference images on hte internet and look at your ladies from different angles to make shure they hafe a good footing and balance. As for the problem of the clothes moving with the person, you give the second girl some simple training gear as well (would meks sense in the afore mentioned setting ) or ou try to dial up the smoothing iterations.
I agree with you. wholeheartedly. As far as the ladies are concerned i really need to rethink the pose from Danika (left) My whole orginal idea was sparring between two totally different styles. And although both forms are correct Danika's pose doesnt work well in this context. Julie's pose (right) is almost perfect form from all angles. Being a martial artist myself i know what i want its just a matter of getting them into the pose with the limitations of the models unfortunately thats the problem with at least these 3d models they cannot fold and stretch the way a fully trained martial artist could move. I will keep working on it though thanks for the advice
I agree with you. wholeheartedly. As far as the ladies are concerned i really need to rethink the pose from Danika (left) My whole orginal idea was sparring between two totally different styles. And although both forms are correct Danika's pose doesnt work well in this context. Julie's pose (right) is almost perfect form from all angles. Being a martial artist myself i know what i want its just a matter of getting them into the pose with the limitations of the models unfortunately thats the problem with at least these 3d models they cannot fold and stretch the way a fully trained martial artist could move. I will keep working on it though thanks for the advice
You know that you can take the limits to a higher level? within the parameters settings you can dial the limits up as far as you need, sure there is the level where it stops looking natural but yes some limitations are rather low compared to a mildly trained person.
Yah i tried to do that but i started getting some nasty looking stuff going on. Especially on the high kick from the Julie. As an example, a true good round kick the hip gets turned over as the lower leg snaps to give maximum power. The problem is that the limits on the rig joints you cant turn the hip very far with the legs extended out to the side. It creates a fold between the outer thigh and the hip....i still have some ideas but i am working on Danikas new pose atm. Thanks
Daniel
An option for the clothes would be to get rid of the image in the Diffuse channel, use a cloth shader that's appropriate for your rendering software, and then use a pure color for that specific article of clothing in lieu of the image in the Diffuse channel.
That way, there will be no specific pattern to stretch & deform.
Look in the Surface tab when you select the article of clothing. There's a LOT of stuff to play with in there.
Hi, Kismet.
A few suggestions on the image.
• Pull in close to the action. Try even more extreme than I have.
• Stretching out the body can pronounce the pounce.
• Play with tilting the body to accentuate the action.
• Breaking the horizontals focuses on what's breaking it: the pouncing kitten.
• Consider that cats often pounce with toes splayed, nails out.
Some suggestions:
• Bring more focus to the dragons by brightening, having more light on them than background
• DOF will blur the background, puts the dragons in sharper focus
• You can try a little desaturation on the background to make a color plane separation
• Perhaps separating the littler dragon's wings can help reinforce the silhouette.
• You could use the little green dragon as an arrow, really tilt him going at the larger dragon.
• Play with tilting the camera to direct the action.
Fun image! Some suggestions:
Pull into the action and identify its flow.
Making characters off balance (turning the camera can do this too) adds to the action.
Bigger hero, bigger villian.
Breaking away from the road with the bad guy gives him more speed.
Hi, Daniel.
A few things you may want to consider.
I think you framed your scene better the first time around. Less going on, the focus was on the two women. The colors worked better. I would recommend more athletic clothing and hair like your girl in yellow. A good action/reaction would work to strengthen the action strong opposing lines. Right now, the not so athletic girl is looking like she's posing more than fighting. You can even have her off the ground as she's being hit...gives more force to the blow.
Love this image. If I might make a few suggestions to consider:
Pull into the action. Focus on your action. Play with tilting the camera to emphasize the action. I tried lightening the hero and keeping the area with the villain darker....that can help bring out the flare from the muzzle and his menacing goggles. Love the palette and lighting you used.
You guys are all doing great work!
In general, a few things I'm noticing that I keep repeating in the suggestions:
Really focus on the action. Pull in close to it.
Don't be afraid to let your characters bleed out of the frame. The more everything stays within the confines of the frame, the more staged it can feel. This includes tilting the camera. Use your camera angle to emphasize a downward pounce, running from danger, a terror almost on top of us.
When you get in closer, you pull your viewer in with you. When you tilt your camera, you throw your viewer off-kilter and feel the movement you are trying to convey. Try to stay away from straight up or horizontal. Running, jumping, pouncing, stabbing, shooting at someone getting away, in the heat of the moment is fast, is angled...forward action, falling back reaction. Think of all the action movies you've seen and how bodies looked in motion, how they reacted to being hit, or hurled.
Just keep playing with your image and try it different ways till it feels like you're really feeling what's happening. Rarely do i do any image that didn't require trying it differently many, many times till I found what worked.
And remember, have fun with it!
Thanks for all the good suggestions Cris.
My next iteration..i stepped back and punted so to speak. My other 2 i was so focused on what was about to happen rather than what was actually happening. One is anticipation the other actual action. So i focused more on what was actually happening this time. I think it turned out quite a bit better than the other two from a purely action standpoint.
Daniel