Experimenting with black/white Graphic novel, need suggestions.
Sammagi
Posts: 137
Hello Everyone. I've been working with Daz3d, Blender, Bryce 7, Photoshop, and Manga Studios (panels and post work) as the means to produce a black + white graphic novels.
I had a story idea two years ago and had been doing script drafting for three books. I sketch the characters first before looking into the assets with Daz3d/renderosity. After figuring the outlook, I got the assets and play around with color, shapes, and sometimes draw into the renders.
I have tested and work on screentones and black and white images that are simple. There are some that are... alright, but my goal is to achieve the outlook like the Berserk Manga and the animated movie Jin-roh. Please note, The graphic novel is not intended to be a Manga but the shading and effects is somewhat similar.
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Comments
Samples:
What you're attempting isn't possible. You can make something serviceable, but to get something that really resembles the look you're going for you'd need to bring in a drawing app like PS or Manga Studio, or an animation program like Flash or Toon Boom. If you're in a spot and have an ipad, you could also grab an app like Procreate and see what you can manage in there. But as far as DAZ filters and render styles? It's just not going to be able to produce what you're trying to produce on its own.
You may also want to check out this thread --
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/54697/non-photorealistic-renders-npr/p1
Are the samples you posted in your second post the kind you want to achieve, or the kind you're getting now and want to improve? If the former, these are easily done. If the latter, you can do better.
Start by checking out Toony Cam Pro, Visual Style Shaders, PWToon, and the many other alternative shading tools available for the 3Delight renderer in D|S. Also see if there are filters you can use in Photoshop and/or Filter Forge. You will *very likely* not be able to use just a single filter (or Photoshop action) that will entirely give the look you're after. You may need to process your images through multiple filters.
You say you already draw into the renders. If so, that's how to achieve the look you want. I prefer a graphics tablet for this. Even the best of filters may not yield what you want. Not knowing your experience level, just know that with a couple of Saturdays you can get a good start on learning how to trace over your renders and give them a true drawn look. As you likely already know, often you will mix several filtered and/or drawn layers together, or add in as a layer a hint of the original render as a base. Use layer masks to control the parts of each layer you want to show. Given time and experience you might well be able to achieve a look similar to Berserk Manga, but it will require you to become proficient in repainting/redrawing. It's doable, but does take practice.
I'll check this out, Thank you BC Rice and tobor. Yeah, I have more but I figure I show just two for now to display. It was all done with just Daz3d. I got toony cam pro and visual style shaders that which I need to play to understand it.
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Here's one I just complete. I started from scratch and did every individual surfaces and scribble down shades, sizes and screentones. Next I render (without lights) and did 3 filters in photoshop.
THe first file is the style that I did, but so far I'm looking at the Manga style based on Berserk
Someone drew (or drew over) the second example you're showing. If that's the look you want, you have to draw it in. There are no automated filters/actions/whatever that can consistently give this look.
Sammy- good luck, I like what you've done so far! I would head over to Envato, Graphics River section, and get some of the plugins for Photoshop if you have that. I did a bunch of samples for people in my Thread 6 (if you go to my current thread here in Art Studio, the first post has a link to the other threads.) I don't know the page offhand so you would have to go through the thread, but I showed quite a few of the PS plugins.
Wow, Thanks! I'm going to spend some time looking at these and try them. Thanks guys :D
free -
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/75363/ot-google-makes-nik-collection-free-for-everyone#latest
Hi Everyone. Here's an update of what I've been doing with Manga Studios and Photoshop. I read some tutorials and experimented with some of the links that were presented. You guys have been very helpful to me.
So far I experimented with manga style shaders on my OC character as well as others. Someone also suggested that I should do the art in color as well. I'm open for constructive criticism, for any faults seen I will tackle it as much as I could.