My First Render - A Tween Girl Named Kyle - Thoughts?

martinscrypto

So this is my first stab at giving Daz 3D a try. Most of the work I do is in After Effects, Element3D, Lightwave, and a bit of Maya. 

The program seems to be a great tool in terms of working with posing, and specifically, the importance of paying attention to micro expressions. 

Hair seems to be something I dont understand well. I couldnt get the hair to look "non-painted". Any advice on getting a realistic render of a hair mesh?

This character started off as Rayn Genesis 3D.  But I basically stripped it down and morphed so many aspects of it, combining different models, using the facial expression and body expression morphs - it's really a whole new character all of it's own. The only thing I didnt toy with was the clothing- only used stock stuff from the Daz 3D store. 

The render was done at 10000x5000px and took about 3 hours on a 48 Core Dual XEON with Dual Titan X Cards.

Any thoughts and advice are appreciated! 

isidorn

I'd say you're off to a good start though I'd personally would call that a skinny kid and not a teen...

I've no experience at all with the other programs you mentioned so I can't give any advice there and being a DAZ newbie I can't really give much advice at all actually. But I'll share my thoughts anyway.

Hair can be tricky and it can also depend on which hair product you use. Some are just more natural looking than others. You might want to look into something like "Look at my Hair" for better hair if you're not happy with that you get.

Also - Lighting. Your lights can greatly effect how things look. After six months of DAZ dabbling I'm still struggling with setting up good lights. Your character's entire face and almost half her body seems to be in shadow so you should probably look more into how you have your lights set up.

For further advice from those with better knowledge and experience, it's probably a good idea to mention if you are rendering in 3Delight or Iray, or something else.

martinscrypto

Thanks for the feedback. Yea I guess skinny kid is more right. It started off as a teen model, so, hence. 

I'm happy with the lighting, I wasnt going for a lit look. Rather backlit high key from the back shoulder. Similar to outside daylight 3pm, sun behind the model. She's perhaps a stop under face wise. But I didnt want to do another render. I was more focused on the modeling/morphing, realism of the face, body, etc. The lighting, at least for me is far simpler with my background in motion graphics. The tough part is making the person appear as real, natural, in terms of body proportions, stance, balance, etc. I've noticed most of the renders on this forum have tons and tons of lighting, but the characters simply look fake. It's tough. So that's where I spent my time on this one. 

I used the uber lighting, didnt play with it for more than maybe 5 minutes to just get a decent high key hairlight and rely only on raytracing fill off the ground for the face and torso. For me often times less is more. 

It was rendered in iRay. 

Thanks for the input! 

Knittingmommy

Looks like a very good start.  I agree she looks a little younger than a teen, maybe in the 10 to 11 range so preteen, perhaps?  Good luck on the hair.  Like Isidorn, I'm sort of newish as well and I haven't managed to get hair to look that great yet.  I think a lot of that depends on the shaders used as well as the lighting.  I have no advice for you, though.  But, what you have looks very nice.  I'm really impressed with your closeup shot. 

Pendraia

I'd place her as somewhere between Grade 4-6 which would make her about 9-11. Looks good...

Spit

Nice work on her. Man, she's a cutie.

Saphirewild

Amazing close up of this great preteen as I agree with ev1 else she looks between 9-11 yrs of age

I can't wait to see what you come up with next!!!

Cris Palomino

Good start.  Be careful on the lips.  It seems like the mesh for the lower lip was not fully pulled up or the texture bled, hard to say.

martinscrypto

I do a lot of video/graphics/animation work for schools (mostly charter schools) in an urban city area. I like the program's ability to create great looking models from the base purchases. For instance this model started off as Rayn; who I wanted to look a bit older.  This being my first try with Daz, I really just fiddled with it until I came up with what looked to me like a 6th grader. (As most of my work is for schools that are K-6 or K-7. 

I'd like to create a base set of characters of both boys and girls what I could easilly pose in school set environments; such as in the classroom, out on the playground, entering school in the AM, wearing a backpack; but with a hip; urban feel. The schools that hire me are very "trendy" in terms of being "great schools" - and they are. So I'll need to work on learning the program to be able to diversify a model line up that includes both male and female, along with different ethnicities. Then adding in hip looking clothing that appears realistic and not too "3D". 

Any advice on how I would use DAZ to take say a shirt that I buy on here; and strip off the graphics and add my own texture along with an "embroidered" look for a school logo?  I think if I did use this the ability to add either the school's actual dress code - where the kids wear collared logo'd shirts, or shirts with slogans on it?  I'm simply unfamiliar with the model mesh workflow. Any simple advice would be great. Just to point me in the right direction. 

Regarding age... there's been many comments on this. Yes I agree-- she's likely 11ish; 6th grade, maybe 7. This is just model 1 of many - if I go down the DAZ route. My next attempt will be a male character; and I'll give perhaps asian or african american a shot; just to challenge myself. 

Regarding Cris Palomino's comment on the lips... not sure there. The mesh I think is ok. I did run a quick pass through Photoshop on this image. I did a small amount of skin touch up as the model I started with and then combined had an older skin which appeared too aged for a person this age. So I spot brushed some of that off. I then added Cosmo just to turn back the years on age altogether. Cosmo is my go to filter for a lot of work... as it is for many people in motion graphics and video. 

Lastly; I may go out and shoot some mattes with my RED Epic; I can shoot some school setting mattes at 5k and then see how well I can drop in models. I'll shoot the mattes as master; removing forground objects; and then lastly; greenscreen areas to layer in CG later. 

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback!

Knittingmommy

Most of the newer products you buy have templates for customization.  Once you buy a product, right click on the little guy with the checkmark at the top right corner of the page, go to "My Account", then click on "Product Library" (cloud with a download arrow) and click on the product you want to customize from the list.  If there is a template available, it will be listed here for download.  Then take the template into any 2D graphics program like Gimp or Photoshop and change what you want.  Save it as a new file so you don't overwrite the template.  Put it in the same directory as the other templates for that item or create your own directory just for your own modified clothing (my preferred method).  If you add categories to your customized materials, it should theoretically show up in the smart content under materials when you want have the outfit selected.

Older products or products that don't have a downloadable template are little more work, but you just have to track down the folder where the uv maps for the outfit are, copy the template the vendor used, rename it to something else so you don't mess it up and then customize in 2D program.

There might be other ways of getting a template for a product, but those are the methods I'm familiar with.  If someone knows of other ways, I'm sure they will speak up.  Good luck.

mmoir

I like this render quite a bit.  She is a very natural looking character, great job.