The Making Of: Going Home
L'Adair
Posts: 9,479
I've had a few questions about how I created this render, and after poking around inside the Art Studio, I thought this would be the perfect place to answer those questions, and provide additional information, as well. Rendered with Iray, the original image was 3000 x 2308 pixels. The image uploaded to the gallery is 2000 x 1539 pixels. To view the full-size image, go here: http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/88341
Please feel free to ask questions. I'll be happy to answer as best I can.
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One of the first questions asked was, "What did you use to make the old lady?"
The short answer I gave is: She's the base Genesis 2 female figure, with lightened skin mats. I used Zevo's Aging Morphs and Vascularity, and dialed in Emaciated. I did the age spots in photoshop and overlaid them using L.I.E. Same with the darkened skin around the eyes.
The long answer:
I started with the base G2F figure. I clothed her in Leisure Pants for Genesis 2 Male(s) and the top from Prison Clothes and Scrubs for Genesis 2 Female(s). As this was for the PC Inspiration Contest — September 23, 2015, I used the Simple Fabric Iray Shaders to make both articles of clothing look more like something an elderly lady might wear in a nursing home.
I used Asteria Hair, (a product I found over at Renderosity when I needed curly hair.) I chose a preset style that is short, and leaves the top of the hair smooth. While you don't see the top of her head, this style has less volume. Then I applied the Snow White hair shader from Mec4d's Unshaven 2.
The pale skin was created by swapping out the default skin mats for some I'd created a while back by increasing the gamma in Photoshop. These turned out to be too pale and a bit too gray, so I added a very light flesh tone to the Base Color. In photoshop, I created a blank layer over the skin mats and created a series of spots, varying the size, opacity and shape. When I was satisfied with the results, I hid the skin mat layer and saved just the spots to a transparent png image for all three skin mats. I used the same technique to create the dark shadows of the eyes, using a color taken from the skin tone which I darkened. These transparent images were layered over the mats using the L.I.E.
The pose is my own, created from the default pose. I rotated the figure until she was on her back, then situated her roughly into position in the Angel's arms. From there its was just a lot of tweaking first one thing and then another until I got something I thought looked natural. I also adjusted the Angel's arms and hands as I went along. It took about two days of tweaking both the figure and the clothing to arrive at the pose you see.
With the woman in the Angel's arms, she still looked too young. (This was before I added the age spots.) I started by dialing in wrinkles and such using Zevo's Aging Morphs 2 for Genesis 2 Female(s)/V6 HD. I wasn't too impressed with the results, even after dialing in the Emaciated body morph, and decided to add veins, too. As I was working with Zevo's Vascularity HD for Genesis 2 Female(s) and Genesis 2 Male(s), I remembered reading that with Iray, one must increase the Render SubD. After I applied the Vascularity morphs, I increased the SubD and when I looked at the figure, I saw the wrinkles were also improved by increasing the SubD. (That was an "ah ha" moment!)
As for the skin shaders, I applied the Iray Uber Base and gave her a bump in translucency, trying to get that fragile look of very old skin. Not sure if that worked or not, but I do like the final result of the pale, almost waxy skin.
What about the wings?
I used Divine Wings, and applied the Iray Uber Base. The feathers looked okay, but the "arms" didn't look so good with Iray. The texture image was a nice seamless tile of feathers, but the same tile was used for the Base Color, Glossy Layered Weight, and Base Bump. And both the Horizontal Tiles and Vertical Tiles were set to 5, making the feathers very small. So while the lower feathers looked like feathers, the "arms" looked flat and painted on.
I opened the image in photoshop and changed the "levels" so there were distinct dark areas and good contrast. Then I used an online site to generate a normal map from the revised image. In the Surfaces > Editor, I removed the image map from the Base Bump and added the new normal image to the Normal Map with a setting of 1.00. I then added my darker, revised image to Displacement Strength with a setting of 2.00 and gave the Displacement Minimum and Displacement Maximum higher values than the defaults, with a SubD Displacement Level of 3. After several test renders, I settled on the default Displacement Minimum of -0.10 and a Maximum Displacement of 0.25. Finally, I turned Thin Walled Off, set Transmitted Measurement Distance to 2.00, set Transmitted Color to a very pale gray (0.80, 0.80, 0.80,) set Scattering Measurement Distance to 0.50, set SSS Amount to 0.30 and set SSS Direction to -0.50.
I really liked the added dimension of the "arms" and I decided to see what high contrast displacement maps and normal maps would do for the feathers. I used the same settings for the feathers as I did for the arms, but it was too much. While it was an interesting effect, they didn't look like feathers anymore. I ended up removing displacement from the "FeathersMid" and dialing the Normal Map setting down to 0.20. For the "FeathersBig" I left the Normal Map setting at 1.00 and set Displacement to the default of 1.00, with the minimum at -0.20 and the maximum at the default of 0.10. Then I took it one step further and modified the trans maps of "FeathersBig" by using the L.I.E. and using the displacement maps as an overlay, inverted, and opacity dialed down to 25%.
The last thing I needed to change were the quills for the large feathers. They looked fine with just the Iray Uber Base applied, until I started adding the lighting. Then they looked really dark on the very white feathers. I tried a variety of Iray shaders, from white pearl to 24 K gold. I added a fill light on the wing, too. Nothing seemed to work. I applied a white plastic 3Delight shader and then reapplied the Iray Uber Base to get back to square one. At this point, I tried adding refraction. I left the Refraction Index at 1.5 and set Refraction weight to 0.50. And that solved my problem! With the quills semi-transparent, they now render white, even without the fill light, which I kept because the wing looked better lit.
And here is the finished wing:
(These images were rendered specifically for this post and are for illustrative purposes only. Images were rendered for no longer than 30 minutes, CPU Only, and the quality varies.)
The site I used to generate the normal maps has been shared here on the forums, where I found out about it. I'm sorry I don't remember who posted the link, but here it is if you are interested: http://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/
Okay, this is off topic, but I'm so excited! Going Home made it to the Galleries "Top Recent Images" banner today. This is a first for me, so I just had to share. And more importantly, for each of you who took the time to visit the gallery page and gave this image a Thumbs Up, I thank you. Hugs.
L'Adair, I can't see any of the images except for the initial post. I verified with one of the other mods. Are you using the thread where you post your attachments to do your images or how?
FIXED. Thanks for the heads up, Cris.
What clothing item is the angel wearing?
My original plan was to use the Morphing Fantasy Dress for G2F and use Auto-fit, or the Genesis 2 Cross-Figure Resource Kit if I didn't like the Auto-Fit. It actually worked fine, but as this image was for a contest, and my qualifying item was the Simple Fabric Iray Shaders, as mentioned up thread, I wasn't able to use it. The fabric shader I used tiles at 5 both horizontally and vertically, but the MFD uses trans maps to hide specific areas to make the various styles and needs both settings to be 1.00 to work properly.
After perusing G2F dresses in Wardrobe, I decided on the dress from Victorian Maid. That fit reasonably well, and hiding the collar and cuffs changed the appearance sufficiently. But there was a problem with the skirt and his legs. Here's what it looked like:
I tried a couple other dresses, but I liked the way the Victorian Maid top fit, so decided to use a different skirt. The last one I'd tried was MeriMay Dress, so I went with that. I hid all but the skirt, and instead of trying to fit to the figure, I simply placed it where I needed it and tweaked morphs and parameters, as well as reduced the amount of bend in his legs, until he was covered and the skirt had the flowing look I wanted. (When I think about it now, I probably could have done the same thing using the Victorian Maid dress. Although MeriMay Dress has some really nice morphs for the skirt.)
The old woman hid where the two dresses came together, so it didn't matter what that looked like. Fortunately, this scene doesn't need to be seen from other angles... his left butt-cheek isn't covered. And from other angles, his waist shows as well. This "robe" is held together with the digital equivalent of duct tape and safety pins!
I loved this scene. My mom died 12 years ago and this just brought tears to my eyes. In a good way! You really captured the moment so to speak. I didn't really understand most of what you said on the technical side of things although I have a feeling that if i come back and read it in 6 months I will probably know what you are talking about it. I just wanted to tell you how beautiful it was and wasn't sure where the best place to do so would be.
Thank you.
What started out as a contest entry quickly became a labor of love. My mom passed four years ago this past August, and the old woman in this image reminds me a lot of her mother before she died. I was 16, but I still recall how translucent and loose Grandma's skin was, the veins that stuck out on thin arms and legs, and just how skeletal she appeared. So this image became a tribute to both my mother and my grandmother. Perhaps that is why it has struck a chord with so many.
Do come back when you've gotten a bit more familiar with DAZ Studio. I'm sure a lot of this will make sense soon enough. And by all mean, do ask questions. A year ago I was totally clueless about how anything worked and I learned a great deal by combining the information I found on the forums with trial and error. (Emphasis on "error!")
And I was wondering... Your DAZ account name sounds like a company name... Do you have a name we can call you, or do you prefer "Silver"?
-Anita
My name is actually Sonja lol. I am in process of changing my company name and planning on using my real name for most of my forum activities here and elsewhere.
Well, it's very nice to meet you, Sonja. Welcome to the wonderful world of DAZ.
And yes, she has that look that my mother had (she died of cancer) the very ethereal kind of end of life look. Which is exactly why so many people find it resonates with them. I will most definitely be back to read through it again.
What figure/character did you use for the angel?
I used FW Alfred HD for Michael 6, a recent purchase and a beautiful model. One of the reasons I chose Alfred is because Fred Winkler Art makes beautiful skins and includes Iray material presets. Another reason was the optional fiber mesh eyebrows. At this point, Alfred and his "cousin," FW Derek, are the only G2Ms I have with Iray material presets, and both have rather dark skin. Either could pass as having a dark tan, or as being of Hispanic descent. And while I can truly appreciate "tall, dark and handsome," it wasn't the look I was going for with the angel. When I added the blonde hair and eyebrows, he looked like someone had overdone the tanning spray!
To fix that, I used Photoshop and lightened the skin, applying the same filter to all three image maps. In the Surfaces > Editor, I applied my modified maps to the Base Color. That really helped, but his hands were still too dark. With the strongest light being the "sun" behind him, his hands were in shadow and looked like they didn't belong to him. They were made to appear darker, too, by the contrast with the pale skin of the old woman. Back in Photoshop, I lightened his hands even more. I was pleased with the skin tone in the next render, but his hands looked dirty around the nail beds, especially the thumbs. One more modification in Photoshop making the fingernails lighter and I finally had hands that looked like they belonged to a golden haired angel. The image below compares the hands from the original dark maps to the final lighter maps.
Besides changing his skin, I used body morphs to decrease the depth of his chest and the size of his upper arms. It may be a subtle difference in the image below, but dressed in his "robe" with the old woman in his arms, his size was too dominant. His skin was showing though in places on the "robe", also, so I used Poke-Away2! for Genesis 2 Male(s) on his chest and left pectoral to decrease his chest to fit. And I dialed his nipples to 0.00 as they poked through, too. The image below is a comparison of Alfred without any changes and Alfred with all the changes I made to him. (When I lightened his hands in Photoshop, I used a gradient mask, so his arms get lighter gradually down to his hands. It looks a little weird here.)
(As an aside, I find it interesting how different the two faces look with the eyebrows missing from the right figure, above.)
Nice to meet you too! I have found everyone here to be most helpful! the difference in his shape is subtle. I see your point on being too dark! You really did a great job modifying him for this and I am a learning a lot by following along with your description!
What clothing item(s) is the old woman wearing?
The pants are from Trendy College Outfit for Genesis 2 Male(s) and the top is from Prison Clothes and Scrubs for Genesis 2 Female(s). I wanted to give her the look of wearing comfortable clothes, maybe pajamas, maybe not. But the sort of thing you might expect one to wear in a nursing home environment.
The pants might seem an odd choice, but I liked the way they wrinkled, especially around her ankles. And all you see in the finished image is the legs. I used Simple Fabric Iray Shaders to make the pants blue and give them a woven look. The dark blue cotton shader is actually a gradient going from a dark to medium blue, quite obvious if tiled higher than a 1. This worked really well to give the illusion of the sun shining on her legs. (A happy accident.)
The top was trickier. It loads with both the shirt and t-shirt underneath, as one item. Fortunately, I was able to remove the t-shirt in the Surfaces > Editor by setting Cutout Opacity for "PrisonTshirt" to 0. The light blue with white polka dots is another shader from the Simple Fabric Iray Shaders, though I increased the tiling to 10 to get smaller dots.
That was the easy part. Getting the fabric to drape correctly on the pose was where the real work started.