November 2015 New User Contest "Materials" (WIP-THREAD)

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Comments

  •  

    Is it allowed to chance your mind ? I messed up the second one beyond repair :). I had a bad feeling about the first one, I was kind of stuck, so I tried something copmletely different. Just the composition so far. Now for the light and textures in detail or at least better than now. 

     

    You do not have to use any images posted in the WIP thread.  This thread is for learning.  Only images posted in the Entries Thread are considered for judging.

    Ok thx :)

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,947
    Sonja11 said:

    Changed out the background, added a building instead of having the plane for a background.  Changed her hair and changed the angle just a bit.  I am going to have to do the grunge and dirt in post work but other than that I think I am getting there.  Any comments or suggestions before I pull it into photoshop?

    I like the changes very much, everything looks much more natural and the sky and the building fit to the situation. Two things are maybe to be considerated. I would move the rige a bit closer to the two of them, so that there is no shadow on the ground between them and the fire, that would fit better to the lights on the dragon and the lady. The other thing would be to apply the rule of thirds, play around with camera anlge and format with the third grid on (use a new camera in case you dont wnat to loose your settings here. Don't be afraid to cut of part of the dragons wings, it will only add to the size of the dragon.

    For the grunge and dirt there are some optiond to do it in your scene like geometry shells or if you have the orestes leaves you can put them o the ground. If you have grass tufts from some other prop in your runtime you could add those as well. just some ideas

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,947

    Here's my latest version, total render time: 6 hours 15 minutes 50.28 seconds

    Shinji, I think this is a bit too much light from the front. I can see how you wanted to give is face more light, but I would reduce it for one only on his face and then at a much lower intensity. Probably go for the blue grey tint you had in the previeous render for that guy to keep his cool ;-)

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    Linwelly said:
    Sonja11 said:

    Changed out the background, added a building instead of having the plane for a background.  Changed her hair and changed the angle just a bit.  I am going to have to do the grunge and dirt in post work but other than that I think I am getting there.  Any comments or suggestions before I pull it into photoshop?

    I like the changes very much, everything looks much more natural and the sky and the building fit to the situation. Two things are maybe to be considerated. I would move the rige a bit closer to the two of them, so that there is no shadow on the ground between them and the fire, that would fit better to the lights on the dragon and the lady. The other thing would be to apply the rule of thirds, play around with camera anlge and format with the third grid on (use a new camera in case you dont wnat to loose your settings here. Don't be afraid to cut of part of the dragons wings, it will only add to the size of the dragon.

    For the grunge and dirt there are some optiond to do it in your scene like geometry shells or if you have the orestes leaves you can put them o the ground. If you have grass tufts from some other prop in your runtime you could add those as well. just some ideas

    Something I noticed is the bedroll behind your figure.  It looks like it has sunk into the ground.

     

     

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    Linwelly said:
    Sonja11 said:

    Changed out the background, added a building instead of having the plane for a background.  Changed her hair and changed the angle just a bit.  I am going to have to do the grunge and dirt in post work but other than that I think I am getting there.  Any comments or suggestions before I pull it into photoshop?

    I like the changes very much, everything looks much more natural and the sky and the building fit to the situation. Two things are maybe to be considerated. I would move the rige a bit closer to the two of them, so that there is no shadow on the ground between them and the fire, that would fit better to the lights on the dragon and the lady. The other thing would be to apply the rule of thirds, play around with camera anlge and format with the third grid on (use a new camera in case you dont wnat to loose your settings here. Don't be afraid to cut of part of the dragons wings, it will only add to the size of the dragon.

    For the grunge and dirt there are some optiond to do it in your scene like geometry shells or if you have the orestes leaves you can put them o the ground. If you have grass tufts from some other prop in your runtime you could add those as well. just some ideas

    Something I noticed is the bedroll behind your figure.  It looks like it has sunk into the ground.

     

     

    Lol yes, it has apparently lol.  Must have happened during the background change. 

     

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    Linwelly said:
    Sonja11 said:

    Changed out the background, added a building instead of having the plane for a background.  Changed her hair and changed the angle just a bit.  I am going to have to do the grunge and dirt in post work but other than that I think I am getting there.  Any comments or suggestions before I pull it into photoshop?

    I like the changes very much, everything looks much more natural and the sky and the building fit to the situation. Two things are maybe to be considerated. I would move the rige a bit closer to the two of them, so that there is no shadow on the ground between them and the fire, that would fit better to the lights on the dragon and the lady. The other thing would be to apply the rule of thirds, play around with camera anlge and format with the third grid on (use a new camera in case you dont wnat to loose your settings here. Don't be afraid to cut of part of the dragons wings, it will only add to the size of the dragon.

    For the grunge and dirt there are some optiond to do it in your scene like geometry shells or if you have the orestes leaves you can put them o the ground. If you have grass tufts from some other prop in your runtime you could add those as well. just some ideas

    The girl is directly on the lower part of the rule of thirds so I am not sure how else to go about making it line up more. But I will play around and see.  and I may move the spear slightly behind them.  somehow during the background change it actually ended up going through her left shoulder lol, so I had to move it.  But  I will work on changing the position of that as well. 

  • Here's my latest version, total render time: 6 hours 15 minutes 50.28 seconds

    Holy cow! What a change! I agree with what's been said, maybe just a bit too bright. The primary light is still coming from your fireball in back, so putting a blue-green tone on his face and bringing down the intensity is a good option, I think that will work well and make the face pop even though it's not as bright because the blue green will counter the red and orange behind him. If you do go this route, which I like, you'll want to close his left eye. Even though it's behind a HUD lense, he would still close it when targeting through a scope even before he gets there - it's generally an automatic reaction I think.

    I see you changed the image in the scope but unfortunately I can't make out what it is - that could just be me though. ;)

    But wow - a six hour render? Whew! One thing I do for WIP is let the render go until it's looking decent and the grain is calmed down, then stop the render. When I get everything the way I want it, and am ready to render a final entry quality image, that's when I let the sucker go overnight. That will save time while you get feedback on WIP and are changing things, but then get it nice and spiffy for the entry.

    Cheers,

    Kath

  • The new idea. 

    nov11.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 2M
  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252

    The new idea. 

    Two things hit me immediately. 

     

    The first is the shot of red on her chest.  You have a beautiful, calm, uniform colour scheme going then this shot of red is in your face.  It draws my eyes away from her face.  This can be a great trick to draw someone's eye where you want it to go but I do not think it works in this instance.

     

    Second is her left leg.  I would try rotating the thigh downward so it is even ( or as close as you can get it ) to her other leg.  She looks unbalanced at the moment and this pose, to me, is all about balance.

     

    I am also guessing that having her floating slightly above the ground is deliberate?  I hope so because I like it.

     

    I love the calm, serene feel you have going in this image.

  • isidornisidorn Posts: 1,601

    The new idea. 

    What caught my attention was how the arms seems to be placed behind each other, which would mean they'd be attached to some kind of hump back outgrowth on her back rather than her torso. After a google search I found that it seems to be typical to have the extra sets of arms behind the two regular arms (so that wasn't as off as I thought), but usually lower. So perhaps lowering the point where the extra sets of arms attach to the body would give it a more natural look?

    Anyway, it was just a thought. Stepping away from "normal" is always a challange, but it can give amazing results when done right.

  • isidornisidorn Posts: 1,601
    edited November 2015

    Here's my latest version, total render time: 6 hours 15 minutes 50.28 seconds

     

    I'd be happy if my current projects was finished that fast... wink (currently at 28% after 11 hours on a render for the "It's raining men" in the commons and I'm not sure it'll be worth it... Finished a render after 22+ hours yesterday and my project for this contest is in that time range too)

    Anyway, I actually prefer the whole figure version you had before. But I seem to be in the minority on that so I guess it only goes to show that you can't please everyone. wink 

    Post edited by isidorn on
  • AtiAti Posts: 9,130

    A little off-topic, but I'll give it a try... :) I change the surface of an item with a shader. I like it. I want to let someone else use it, who has the same item, but does not have the same shader. Is there a way to save the result of the shader as a texture for the given item? Let's assume it is properly UV-mapped. (I was playing around with Shader Baker, but I'm starting to get the feeling that this is not what it's for... :)))

  • Some really great work being done in here this month.  I'm going to try and go over these this weekend and leave comments.  I have to say, Sonja, you've really come a long way...love where yours is heading.  One thing I'd like to say to everyone doing square images.  I would like to recommend that you try not to do square images unless there is a compelling reason or the composition really works with it.  In general, portrait (longer on vertical) or landscape (longer on horizontal) are aesthetically more pleasing and expected.  For some reason, on computers, people started working with square images.  Try working with sizes that would work if you printed out because sometime you may wish to do this.  A nicely matted and framed print of your work can look very nice indeed.  I print with archival inks on good paper or canvas.  It's not that you can't or shouldn't do square, but more often than not, the more traditional sizes will look much nicer.  Just something to think about.

  • Ati said:

    A little off-topic, but I'll give it a try... :) I change the surface of an item with a shader. I like it. I want to let someone else use it, who has the same item, but does not have the same shader. Is there a way to save the result of the shader as a texture for the given item? Let's assume it is properly UV-mapped. (I was playing around with Shader Baker, but I'm starting to get the feeling that this is not what it's for... :)))

    Give this a shot -

    In scene select the item.

    In the surfaces tab select the shader.

    File/Save As - go down the list to Shader. Follow any prompts from there and that should work. Note where it saves - to a Preset folder - so you can find it and give it to your friend.

    Hope that helps!

     

    Cheers,

    Kath

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Some really great work being done in here this month.  I'm going to try and go over these this weekend and leave comments.  I have to say, Sonja, you've really come a long way...love where yours is heading.  One thing I'd like to say to everyone doing square images.  I would like to recommend that you try not to do square images unless there is a compelling reason or the composition really works with it.  In general, portrait (longer on vertical) or landscape (longer on horizontal) are aesthetically more pleasing and expected.  For some reason, on computers, people started working with square images.  Try working with sizes that would work if you printed out because sometime you may wish to do this.  A nicely matted and framed print of your work can look very nice indeed.  I print with archival inks on good paper or canvas.  It's not that you can't or shouldn't do square, but more often than not, the more traditional sizes will look much nicer.  Just something to think about.

    Thanks Chris!  I went with square because I couldn't make up my mind on portrait or landscape so said the heck with it lol.  I will switch over to one or the other next time around. 

  • Aunt Mara's Devotion at the Altar of Suta

    Apparently the acolyte has never seen anyone get a response before....

    I did a lot of mat replacement on both figures, and tried out the UberVolume light for the first time. I really don't like that long reflection down the girls gown, though. I'm guessing that where texturing and under-shading come into play?

    Aunt Mara.png
    1008 x 998 - 1M
  • I am learning a ton of new things this month, but I wish it was spread over two months!  :-)

    I have a question.  As an example, if I wanted to make a lampshade glow gently with the light of the bulb from inside, what would be required?  I wouldn't want the detail of the bulb showing through the shade.  Another example would be a shade on a window that only let the light through a bit, and all the detail of the scenery in the background behind the window and shade would be mostly masked.

      

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    I am learning a ton of new things this month, but I wish it was spread over two months!  :-)

    I have a question.  As an example, if I wanted to make a lampshade glow gently with the light of the bulb from inside, what would be required?  I wouldn't want the detail of the bulb showing through the shade.  Another example would be a shade on a window that only let the light through a bit, and all the detail of the scenery in the background behind the window and shade would be mostly masked.

      

    3Delight or Iray?

     

  • kathrynlochkathrynloch Posts: 378
    edited November 2015

    Okay this was really weird. I worked on my entry a little last night then saved and went to bed. This morning I open the file and his sash is missing. It's still listed in the scene but it's not on his body. Well I finally locate it clear on the otherside of the virtual world and get it back where it belongs. So I continue working on the skin textures just touching up a little here and there. I also decide to add a bit more red to his hair. His blonde was going too much of an ash color. Easy peasy go to render. As the image takes shape I notice the lights are totally blown out. I mean he is going nuclear white.

    What in the world? I haven't touched any of the lights in forever. I've got two props that are the magic on his hand and both of those are emitters. Then I have a plane off screen as another emitter that helps the magic effect and get rid of a yellow tint in his skin. Well, I don't know what happened, but these emitters were over 50,000 and I use the K setting, not the C so you don't need ridiculously high numbers. They had all been set at or below 5k. I don't know what happened but something turned them way up. Anyway, it took a bit to get them dialed back down where they belonged. The cool part is because I did so much work on the textures I didn't have to do anything in post except for add the gradient background and signature. Then I got to thinking just about how much changed with the textures.

    1. On the skin I used V3Digitimes Iray converter for Generation 4, but I didn't use it in it's entirety, mostly setting the base color.
    2. JM's Human Shaders
    3. Pulled the skin mats into Photoshop for more customization, mostly correcting imperfections and lightening the color.
    4. Totally repainted the eyes from scratch using custom brushes 
    5. Skin still has something of a sallow tint when rendering so used an off screen emitter and the magic effect as emitters to counteract that.
    6. For the Kuros Hair prop, I used the original mats to get as close to my desired color as I could.
    7. Used OOT's Iray Hair Shaders but the color still wasn't right even with the hair color expansion pack.
    8. Pulled the Iray hair mats into photoshop and made them the color I needed.
    9. Created a leather dragon scale seamless texture from scratch in photoshop then applied it to the pants, adjusting the horizontal and vertical tiling to get it to fit properly.
    10. Put laces on the boots, changed the leather color, but ended up changing the camera angle so now we can't see them. lol!
    11. Changed the texture on the sash to red velvet created in Photoshop.
    12. He's holding the Valiant Sword with the Dauntless texture pack. To make it suitable for Iray, I used PC's Metal Shaders then restored the original mats so it still has all the markings which are quite pretty, with a higher quality metallic shine.
    13. The props for the magic are the new Iray FX for Gen 3 (don't let it fool you, they work for others too lol!). This probably the least customization I did on anything. There are two props I combined then adjusted the emitter settings to get the light where I wanted it.
    14. On every texture that I customized in Photoshop I created the corresponding bump, normal, spec, and/or displacement where needed. 

    Holy cow, no wonder why it took me so long. It doesn't seem like I did that much to it but it turned into quite a bit.

    So what do y'all think? Ready to rock n roll?

    Lathan18.JPG
    1037 x 583 - 432K
    Post edited by kathrynloch on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    The new idea.

     

    Cool idea

  • Aunt Mara's Devotion at the Altar of Suta

    Apparently the acolyte has never seen anyone get a response before....

    I did a lot of mat replacement on both figures, and tried out the UberVolume light for the first time. I really don't like that long reflection down the girls gown, though. I'm guessing that where texturing and under-shading come into play?

    Hey Ebon - are you rendering in Iray or 3Delight? Could you take a screen shot of your surfaces tab of the dress and maybe one of your skin tones too?

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Okay this was really weird. I worked on my entry a little last night then saved and went to bed. This morning I open the file and his sash is missing. It's still listed in the scene but it's not on his body. Well I finally locate it clear on the otherside of the virtual world and get it back where it belongs. So I continue working on the skin textures just touching up a little here and there. I also decide to add a bit more red to his hair. His blonde was going too much of an ash color. Easy peasy go to render. As the image takes shape I notice the lights are totally blown out. I mean he is going nuclear white.

    What in the world? I haven't touched any of the lights in forever. I've got two props that are the magic on his hand and both of those are emitters. Then I have a plane off screen as another emitter that helps the magic effect and get rid of a yellow tint in his skin. Well, I don't know what happened, but these emitters were over 50,000 and I use the K setting, not the C so you don't need ridiculously high numbers. They had all been set at or below 5k. I don't know what happened but something turned them way up. Anyway, it took a bit to get them dialed back down where they belonged. The cool part is because I did so much work on the textures I didn't have to do anything in post except for add the gradient background and signature. Then I got to thinking just about how much changed with the textures.

    1. On the skin I used V3Digitimes Iray converter for Generation 4, but I didn't use it in it's entirety, mostly setting the base color.
    2. JM's Human Shaders
    3. Pulled the skin mats into Photoshop for more customization, mostly correcting imperfections and lightening the color.
    4. Totally repainted the eyes from scratch using custom brushes 
    5. Skin still has something of a sallow tint when rendering so used an off screen emitter and the magic effect as emitters to counteract that.
    6. For the Kuros Hair prop, I used the original mats to get as close to my desired color as I could.
    7. Used OOT's Iray Hair Shaders but the color still wasn't right even with the hair color expansion pack.
    8. Pulled the Iray hair mats into photoshop and made them the color I needed.
    9. Created a leather dragon scale seamless texture from scratch in photoshop then applied it to the pants, adjusting the horizontal and vertical tiling to get it to fit properly.
    10. Put laces on the boots, changed the leather color, but ended up changing the camera angle so now we can't see them. lol!
    11. Changed the texture on the sash to red velvet created in Photoshop.
    12. He's holding the Valiant Sword with the Dauntless texture pack. To make it suitable for Iray, I used PC's Metal Shaders then restored the original mats so it still has all the markings which are quite pretty, with a higher quality metallic shine.
    13. The props for the magic are the new Iray FX for Gen 3 (don't let it fool you, they work for others too lol!). This probably the least customization I did on anything. There are two props I combined then adjusted the emitter settings to get the light where I wanted it.
    14. On every texture that I customized in Photoshop I created the corresponding bump, normal, spec, and/or displacement where needed. 

    Holy cow, no wonder why it took me so long. It doesn't seem like I did that much to it but it turned into quite a bit.

    So what do y'all think? Ready to rock n roll?

    Interesting.  I opened my dragon and warrior scene today and the spear that was on the ground in front of them was sticking through her shoulder.  Weird.  this looks fantastic.  The only things thats really drawing my attention is the area around his nipple closest to the special effect.  The bluish shadow is very circular and kind of catches the eye (its probably the right shadow it just looks a bit werid to me.  Other than that I think he looks fantastc. I really like the bit of red in his hair and he looks very intense.

     

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Whats the limit on the entries this month?  Like how many can we do?

     

  • Aunt Mara's Devotion at the Altar of Suta

    Apparently the acolyte has never seen anyone get a response before....

    I did a lot of mat replacement on both figures, and tried out the UberVolume light for the first time. I really don't like that long reflection down the girls gown, though. I'm guessing that where texturing and under-shading come into play?

    Hey Ebon - are you rendering in Iray or 3Delight? Could you take a screen shot of your surfaces tab of the dress and maybe one of your skin tones too?

    3Delight . The skin tone is whatever the default Gen2 Female comes with.

    Maybe this is one of those times you change from the default 'plastic' to 'matte'?

    Shot.png
    768 x 1020 - 431K
  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252

    Okay this was really weird. I worked on my entry a little last night then saved and went to bed. This morning I open the file and his sash is missing. It's still listed in the scene but it's not on his body. Well I finally locate it clear on the otherside of the virtual world and get it back where it belongs. So I continue working on the skin textures just touching up a little here and there. I also decide to add a bit more red to his hair. His blonde was going too much of an ash color. Easy peasy go to render. As the image takes shape I notice the lights are totally blown out. I mean he is going nuclear white.

    What in the world? I haven't touched any of the lights in forever. I've got two props that are the magic on his hand and both of those are emitters. Then I have a plane off screen as another emitter that helps the magic effect and get rid of a yellow tint in his skin. Well, I don't know what happened, but these emitters were over 50,000 and I use the K setting, not the C so you don't need ridiculously high numbers. They had all been set at or below 5k. I don't know what happened but something turned them way up. Anyway, it took a bit to get them dialed back down where they belonged. The cool part is because I did so much work on the textures I didn't have to do anything in post except for add the gradient background and signature. Then I got to thinking just about how much changed with the textures.

    1. On the skin I used V3Digitimes Iray converter for Generation 4, but I didn't use it in it's entirety, mostly setting the base color.
    2. JM's Human Shaders
    3. Pulled the skin mats into Photoshop for more customization, mostly correcting imperfections and lightening the color.
    4. Totally repainted the eyes from scratch using custom brushes 
    5. Skin still has something of a sallow tint when rendering so used an off screen emitter and the magic effect as emitters to counteract that.
    6. For the Kuros Hair prop, I used the original mats to get as close to my desired color as I could.
    7. Used OOT's Iray Hair Shaders but the color still wasn't right even with the hair color expansion pack.
    8. Pulled the Iray hair mats into photoshop and made them the color I needed.
    9. Created a leather dragon scale seamless texture from scratch in photoshop then applied it to the pants, adjusting the horizontal and vertical tiling to get it to fit properly.
    10. Put laces on the boots, changed the leather color, but ended up changing the camera angle so now we can't see them. lol!
    11. Changed the texture on the sash to red velvet created in Photoshop.
    12. He's holding the Valiant Sword with the Dauntless texture pack. To make it suitable for Iray, I used PC's Metal Shaders then restored the original mats so it still has all the markings which are quite pretty, with a higher quality metallic shine.
    13. The props for the magic are the new Iray FX for Gen 3 (don't let it fool you, they work for others too lol!). This probably the least customization I did on anything. There are two props I combined then adjusted the emitter settings to get the light where I wanted it.
    14. On every texture that I customized in Photoshop I created the corresponding bump, normal, spec, and/or displacement where needed. 

    Holy cow, no wonder why it took me so long. It doesn't seem like I did that much to it but it turned into quite a bit.

    So what do y'all think? Ready to rock n roll?

    Love his eyes...they caught my attention immediately.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252

    Aunt Mara's Devotion at the Altar of Suta

    Apparently the acolyte has never seen anyone get a response before....

    I did a lot of mat replacement on both figures, and tried out the UberVolume light for the first time. I really don't like that long reflection down the girls gown, though. I'm guessing that where texturing and under-shading come into play?

    Hey Ebon - are you rendering in Iray or 3Delight? Could you take a screen shot of your surfaces tab of the dress and maybe one of your skin tones too?

    3Delight . The skin tone is whatever the default Gen2 Female comes with.

    Maybe this is one of those times you change from the default 'plastic' to 'matte'?

    Trying the matte setting could reduce the shine you are getting.

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    Sonja11 said:

    Whats the limit on the entries this month?  Like how many can we do?

     

    *runs off to check the rules*

     

    4. Submit no more then 2 images to any one contest.

  • Aunt Mara's Devotion at the Altar of Suta

    Apparently the acolyte has never seen anyone get a response before....

    I did a lot of mat replacement on both figures, and tried out the UberVolume light for the first time. I really don't like that long reflection down the girls gown, though. I'm guessing that where texturing and under-shading come into play?

    Hey Ebon - are you rendering in Iray or 3Delight? Could you take a screen shot of your surfaces tab of the dress and maybe one of your skin tones too?

    3Delight . The skin tone is whatever the default Gen2 Female comes with.

    Maybe this is one of those times you change from the default 'plastic' to 'matte'?

    Yup - your Glossiness is almost maxed that's why you're getting the shine. Bring that one down to zero or almost zero and see how the render looks. If you still have too much shine, you'll have to start looking at the Specular. But I think bringing that Glossiness slider down will solve the problem. Check to see if it's like that for the skin too - skin isn't shiny unless it's wet. ;)

  • Sonja11 said:

    Okay this was really weird. I worked on my entry a little last night then saved and went to bed. This morning I open the file and his sash is missing. It's still listed in the scene but it's not on his body. Well I finally locate it clear on the otherside of the virtual world and get it back where it belongs. So I continue working on the skin textures just touching up a little here and there. I also decide to add a bit more red to his hair. His blonde was going too much of an ash color. Easy peasy go to render. As the image takes shape I notice the lights are totally blown out. I mean he is going nuclear white.

    What in the world? I haven't touched any of the lights in forever. I've got two props that are the magic on his hand and both of those are emitters. Then I have a plane off screen as another emitter that helps the magic effect and get rid of a yellow tint in his skin. Well, I don't know what happened, but these emitters were over 50,000 and I use the K setting, not the C so you don't need ridiculously high numbers. They had all been set at or below 5k. I don't know what happened but something turned them way up. Anyway, it took a bit to get them dialed back down where they belonged. The cool part is because I did so much work on the textures I didn't have to do anything in post except for add the gradient background and signature. Then I got to thinking just about how much changed with the textures.

    1. On the skin I used V3Digitimes Iray converter for Generation 4, but I didn't use it in it's entirety, mostly setting the base color.
    2. JM's Human Shaders
    3. Pulled the skin mats into Photoshop for more customization, mostly correcting imperfections and lightening the color.
    4. Totally repainted the eyes from scratch using custom brushes 
    5. Skin still has something of a sallow tint when rendering so used an off screen emitter and the magic effect as emitters to counteract that.
    6. For the Kuros Hair prop, I used the original mats to get as close to my desired color as I could.
    7. Used OOT's Iray Hair Shaders but the color still wasn't right even with the hair color expansion pack.
    8. Pulled the Iray hair mats into photoshop and made them the color I needed.
    9. Created a leather dragon scale seamless texture from scratch in photoshop then applied it to the pants, adjusting the horizontal and vertical tiling to get it to fit properly.
    10. Put laces on the boots, changed the leather color, but ended up changing the camera angle so now we can't see them. lol!
    11. Changed the texture on the sash to red velvet created in Photoshop.
    12. He's holding the Valiant Sword with the Dauntless texture pack. To make it suitable for Iray, I used PC's Metal Shaders then restored the original mats so it still has all the markings which are quite pretty, with a higher quality metallic shine.
    13. The props for the magic are the new Iray FX for Gen 3 (don't let it fool you, they work for others too lol!). This probably the least customization I did on anything. There are two props I combined then adjusted the emitter settings to get the light where I wanted it.
    14. On every texture that I customized in Photoshop I created the corresponding bump, normal, spec, and/or displacement where needed. 

    Holy cow, no wonder why it took me so long. It doesn't seem like I did that much to it but it turned into quite a bit.

    So what do y'all think? Ready to rock n roll?

    Interesting.  I opened my dragon and warrior scene today and the spear that was on the ground in front of them was sticking through her shoulder.  Weird.  this looks fantastic.  The only things thats really drawing my attention is the area around his nipple closest to the special effect.  The bluish shadow is very circular and kind of catches the eye (its probably the right shadow it just looks a bit werid to me.  Other than that I think he looks fantastc. I really like the bit of red in his hair and he looks very intense.

     

    Hmmm okay let me see if I can fix that shadow - with the lights going squirrely, I'm not sure.

    Okay this was really weird. I worked on my entry a little last night then saved and went to bed. This morning I open the file and his sash is missing. It's still listed in the scene but it's not on his body. Well I finally locate it clear on the otherside of the virtual world and get it back where it belongs. So I continue working on the skin textures just touching up a little here and there. I also decide to add a bit more red to his hair. His blonde was going too much of an ash color. Easy peasy go to render. As the image takes shape I notice the lights are totally blown out. I mean he is going nuclear white.

    What in the world? I haven't touched any of the lights in forever. I've got two props that are the magic on his hand and both of those are emitters. Then I have a plane off screen as another emitter that helps the magic effect and get rid of a yellow tint in his skin. Well, I don't know what happened, but these emitters were over 50,000 and I use the K setting, not the C so you don't need ridiculously high numbers. They had all been set at or below 5k. I don't know what happened but something turned them way up. Anyway, it took a bit to get them dialed back down where they belonged. The cool part is because I did so much work on the textures I didn't have to do anything in post except for add the gradient background and signature. Then I got to thinking just about how much changed with the textures.

    1. On the skin I used V3Digitimes Iray converter for Generation 4, but I didn't use it in it's entirety, mostly setting the base color.
    2. JM's Human Shaders
    3. Pulled the skin mats into Photoshop for more customization, mostly correcting imperfections and lightening the color.
    4. Totally repainted the eyes from scratch using custom brushes 
    5. Skin still has something of a sallow tint when rendering so used an off screen emitter and the magic effect as emitters to counteract that.
    6. For the Kuros Hair prop, I used the original mats to get as close to my desired color as I could.
    7. Used OOT's Iray Hair Shaders but the color still wasn't right even with the hair color expansion pack.
    8. Pulled the Iray hair mats into photoshop and made them the color I needed.
    9. Created a leather dragon scale seamless texture from scratch in photoshop then applied it to the pants, adjusting the horizontal and vertical tiling to get it to fit properly.
    10. Put laces on the boots, changed the leather color, but ended up changing the camera angle so now we can't see them. lol!
    11. Changed the texture on the sash to red velvet created in Photoshop.
    12. He's holding the Valiant Sword with the Dauntless texture pack. To make it suitable for Iray, I used PC's Metal Shaders then restored the original mats so it still has all the markings which are quite pretty, with a higher quality metallic shine.
    13. The props for the magic are the new Iray FX for Gen 3 (don't let it fool you, they work for others too lol!). This probably the least customization I did on anything. There are two props I combined then adjusted the emitter settings to get the light where I wanted it.
    14. On every texture that I customized in Photoshop I created the corresponding bump, normal, spec, and/or displacement where needed. 

    Holy cow, no wonder why it took me so long. It doesn't seem like I did that much to it but it turned into quite a bit.

    So what do y'all think? Ready to rock n roll?

    Love his eyes...they caught my attention immediately.

    Thank you, Kismet!

    Okay let me see if I can fix that one part then I'm calling him done! lol!

  • SaphirewildSaphirewild Posts: 6,668

    I have a really big question for you all, How do I get a background into my daz? I not know the first thing about it and tryed looking up a vid tutorial about it but to no avil. I mean there are tutorial about a lot of things but they just say bring in your background like I should know how to do it already. I have fiddled arounf with trying to import one but it does not read png or such and I have a ton of great sky bg I want to use in my projects. If someone could help me with this I will give big hugs.

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