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May 2016 New User 3D Art Contest "Action & Props" - WIP

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Comments

  • KaliadderKaliadder Posts: 70

    Good luck everyone!  Really awesome renders this month smiley

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Yes good luck everyone!  Sorry I was so absent lately!

  • HollokoHolloko Posts: 75
    Defenistrat said:
    Holloko said:

    I tried some different ideas with my render. I simplified the sequence by eliminating two of the characters, as suggested ewcarman. I modified the middle pose to a more powerful movement. I added some props, turning the character into a hoplite.

    I also decided to play around with Visual Style shaders to give it a cartoon look. I have some more work to do with that to get the look I want. If anyone has some experience with VS, I would appreciate some input. I'm trying to figure out how to do the lighting properly in VS. I have to think about it completely differently. Instead of using colored lights to get the effect I want, I have to change the color of the shaders, etc. I was also having a difficult time getting the shadow to cast (visibly anyway) on the ground when I added shaders to the ground. I feel like the occlusion is not showing up well. I plan to do some practice renders with crazy colors for each variable so I can clearly see what is doing what.

    I did another camera angle with only the middle figure visible to play around with some possibilities.

    Finding clothes that look right is kicking my backside. The position is extreme and it ends up distorting the clothes. I tried the dynamic skirt for Hercules, which is the look I want. I can load it fine on one of the characters and it looks good. When I try to add it and drape it to the other two figures, it gets all sorts of weird. The textures get distorted and they skirt starts stretching all over the entire scene (sometimes covering the whole thing). I double checked my settings and they appear to be fine - colliding with the correct figure.

    I watched some tutorials on dformer, Knittingmommy. I've never tried it before. I hope to try this week to solve the clothes problem and add some hills, etc. to the terrain using dformer. 

    I may be trying too many new (to me) things at a time...but I'm having fun with it anyway!

    So it wasn't until I saw your final submission above that I realized that you were a participant in the contest, I thought you were a mentor! Then I went back to grab this image because I wanted to tell you what I liked about it, and now I am reading the text and feel bad cause I might have been able to help with some of this if I had read it earlier, and you had helped me a lot.

    So, first, you probably won't like this, but I actually liked this look better than the final render. The crisp lines make it look like an illustration. I think one of the reasons I was nervous to post my toon render for a long time was because for the longest time it did not look as good as this one :)

    Anyway, the only thoughts I wanted to share that might be helpful for future toon renders:
    1. I think by default VS does not accept shadows, so if you want shadows you have to set "Accept Shadows" to on. 

    2. As you already observed, using VS is a little like "Color by Numbers" for your scene. It's really easy if all the light are white, but doesn't work well if the light is a different color and you want that reflected on your surface. I create a pallet in GIMP with all the colors, and then I take the light color choose some opacity and paint over all the other colors with the color of the light. Sometimes I use "Normal" mode to paint over, but I think "Addition" is the more correct affect that a colored light has on the color of an object.

    Another thing I learned about light and color (but not mastered yet) is that your shadows are still going to be affected by the color of your light. A shadow is not the absence of light, otherwise shadows would be completely black (which is why pure black is rarely a good color to ever use). A shadow is just where there is less light, but there is still light in a shadow that has bounced around all the other objects in the room. So when "mixing" your diffuse dark and occlusion dark colors, still mix in some of the light color, but decrease the opacity even more so than you do for the colors that are in the light.

    Anyway, that's what I do... I use 50% opacity for the light colors, and 25% opacity for the dark colors... and then I load all the colors back in manually to Daz... and still don't like them after taking such a technical approach, but it at least gives me a better starting point.

    Anyway, I'm always eager to share things I am learning, so maybe you already know all this, but maybe it will help a future Googler. I think what I am really trying to say is I hope we both have time to participate in next month's challenge, and I hope you do another toon render so I have someone to keep learning with!

    Brilliant! That is a great way to change the colors to more accurately reflect light changes. I haven't tried to import color pallets to daz before. I'll have to figure that out.

    I don't know if Imwill be around next month. It is going to be crazy busy. I will be in the future, however, so hopefully we can keep bouncing ideas off one another.

  • TotteTotte Posts: 13,967
    Knittingmommy said:

    Latest version of my hockey wip.  I still have some work to do on the jerseys, but it's getting there.  I've changed the posing slightly, but still plan to do some more work on posing in the morning.  

    I say only one thing: "Mosa Mumintrollen!"

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    Totte said:
    Knittingmommy said:

    Latest version of my hockey wip.  I still have some work to do on the jerseys, but it's getting there.  I've changed the posing slightly, but still plan to do some more work on posing in the morning.  

    I say only one thing: "Mosa Mumintrollen!"

    I'm assuming that is in regards to the name I gave my entry, but I can't figure out any kind of translation!  :)  Part of it looks Spanish and part of it looks German.  My problem is I don't know much Spanish and my German is so rusty you can see through the holes!  Google was no help either.  

    In my defense, if I need one, is that I made the image for Isidorn ( the friend I originally mentioned making it for) and he's Swedish!  So, my title seemed really appropriate! :)   Me?  I'm just a girl rooting for the Pens to take the Cup!

  • isidornisidorn Posts: 1,601
    Totte said:
    Knittingmommy said:

    Latest version of my hockey wip.  I still have some work to do on the jerseys, but it's getting there.  I've changed the posing slightly, but still plan to do some more work on posing in the morning.  

    I say only one thing: "Mosa Mumintrollen!"

    Lol!

    And that is definitely all swedish! laugh

    And while I'm here, good luck everyone who made entries this month! I didn't even get started on mine.

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    isidorn said:
    Totte said:
    Knittingmommy said:

    Latest version of my hockey wip.  I still have some work to do on the jerseys, but it's getting there.  I've changed the posing slightly, but still plan to do some more work on posing in the morning.  

    I say only one thing: "Mosa Mumintrollen!"

    Lol!

    And that is definitely all swedish! laugh

    And while I'm here, good luck everyone who made entries this month! I didn't even get started on mine.

    What can I say?  Ignorant girl from across the pond still trying to learn Swedish and I haven't had those words yet!  I tried the Swedish translate first and thought what it spit back was wrong.  It said "Mash Moomins"! That made no sense to me!  So, I tried based on what language the words looked like they might have come from which didn't help either!

    @Totte  Isidorn explained it to me!

  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    Knittingmommy said:
    isidorn said:
    Totte said:
    Knittingmommy said:

    Latest version of my hockey wip.  I still have some work to do on the jerseys, but it's getting there.  I've changed the posing slightly, but still plan to do some more work on posing in the morning.  

    I say only one thing: "Mosa Mumintrollen!"

    Lol!

    And that is definitely all swedish! laugh

    And while I'm here, good luck everyone who made entries this month! I didn't even get started on mine.

    What can I say?  Ignorant girl from across the pond still trying to learn Swedish and I haven't had those words yet!  I tried the Swedish translate first and thought what it spit back was wrong.  It said "Mash Moomins"! That made no sense to me!  So, I tried based on what language the words looked like they might have come from which didn't help either!

    @Totte  Isidorn explained it to me!

    On the bright side you know now who to ask for a translation.

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    Kismet2012 said:
    Knittingmommy said:
    isidorn said:
    Totte said:
    Knittingmommy said:

    Latest version of my hockey wip.  I still have some work to do on the jerseys, but it's getting there.  I've changed the posing slightly, but still plan to do some more work on posing in the morning.  

    I say only one thing: "Mosa Mumintrollen!"

    Lol!

    And that is definitely all swedish! laugh

    And while I'm here, good luck everyone who made entries this month! I didn't even get started on mine.

    What can I say?  Ignorant girl from across the pond still trying to learn Swedish and I haven't had those words yet!  I tried the Swedish translate first and thought what it spit back was wrong.  It said "Mash Moomins"! That made no sense to me!  So, I tried based on what language the words looked like they might have come from which didn't help either!

    @Totte  Isidorn explained it to me!

    On the bright side you know now who to ask for a translation.

    That is SO true!

  • TotteTotte Posts: 13,967
    Knittingmommy said:
    Totte said:
    Knittingmommy said:

    Latest version of my hockey wip.  I still have some work to do on the jerseys, but it's getting there.  I've changed the posing slightly, but still plan to do some more work on posing in the morning.  

    I say only one thing: "Mosa Mumintrollen!"

    I'm assuming that is in regards to the name I gave my entry, but I can't figure out any kind of translation!  :)  Part of it looks Spanish and part of it looks German.  My problem is I don't know much Spanish and my German is so rusty you can see through the holes!  Google was no help either.  

    In my defense, if I need one, is that I made the image for Isidorn ( the friend I originally mentioned making it for) and he's Swedish!  So, my title seemed really appropriate! :)   Me?  I'm just a girl rooting for the Pens to take the Cup!

    Lol - it means "crush the moomin trolls" (And mumin / moomin are a Finnish kid story, and the Finns are sometimes called that in Sweden)

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    Totte said:
    Knittingmommy said:
    Totte said:
    Knittingmommy said:

    Latest version of my hockey wip.  I still have some work to do on the jerseys, but it's getting there.  I've changed the posing slightly, but still plan to do some more work on posing in the morning.  

    I say only one thing: "Mosa Mumintrollen!"

    I'm assuming that is in regards to the name I gave my entry, but I can't figure out any kind of translation!  :)  Part of it looks Spanish and part of it looks German.  My problem is I don't know much Spanish and my German is so rusty you can see through the holes!  Google was no help either.  

    In my defense, if I need one, is that I made the image for Isidorn ( the friend I originally mentioned making it for) and he's Swedish!  So, my title seemed really appropriate! :)   Me?  I'm just a girl rooting for the Pens to take the Cup!

    Lol - it means "crush the moomin trolls" (And mumin / moomin are a Finnish kid story, and the Finns are sometimes called that in Sweden)

    Yep! That's what Isidorn said!  :)

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