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Well the sag is sort of expecting with the aging process. If you dialed in the Girl 7's body, it would look wierd.
I've done that PeeWee Herman stunt a few times on 10 speeds myself but never on purpose...lol, even landing on my feet for a few of those bucking bikes.
I find the moped in the background a bit distracting, even though you are using DOF. I also agree with nonesuch00 regarding too much red. I understand you want to show a moment where she has stopped her moped and strikes the pose, but both the background and the prop really don't work for this.
Now to what I like about this render. Great pose, expression, outfit, accessories, hair. Excellent. Ordinarily I would suggest that you have her look at us, but the eyes shying away contribute to the bashful pose and expression.
Since there is a predominance of red in the woman's skin and hair, may I suggest a soft green background? The complimentary color, especially if it is neutral or pastel, will bring her forward and can really make the portrait stand out.
It does look like more of a "scene" than a "portrait" at this stage, but you have started with an interesting concept. I'm not sure which is the center of attention - the guy or the girl. Try looking for a way to still tell your story, while creating a strong center of attention on one of the people and his/her expression. Perhaps zooming into the girls face and expression and using Depth of Field and a different camera angle to push the guy more into the background to give a hint of what she is shocked by. Maybe even turn him around, so we see only his back, so his face does not distract our attention (since it is his bare arms that shock her). These are just suggestions, since you asked about scene vs. portrait.
No image will be excluded from the contest judging, based on scene vs. portrait categorization. But I would expect that the entries that adhere more closely to the stated theme of the month would be regarded more favorably by the judges.
The monthly new user contest is designed as a learning opportunity for people to hone their skills on a different type of image or technique each month. That is why we encourage entrants move out of their comfort zone and try to focus on the topic of the month (portraits this time). If we see someone losing foucs on the monthly topic, we try to point that out and gently steer them back on course.
Slosh has a UV swapper product that will allow you to use the Snowflake for G3F texture on G3M. You might consider it if you want to use that texture on your guy. It will eliminate that problem at the shoulders. I have it, and it works great.
I like your choice of characters!
I suggest recropping so she is not cut off in the middle of her hands. I'd even like to see it cropped above the elbow (I've been told to never crop at a joint), to make the image more about her face and expression. That is also a good trick to avoid that under breast fit issue.
The texture of this dress (the purple lace, etc.) seems a little two "evening wear" for a 2nd grade teacher. There are many many textures for the MFD, some even free. Perhaps a different one would say "teacher" a little more.
Thanks very much. I am running a render right now that has more of the Girl 7's expression and a pose change and it is improved. As their reaction to each other is sort of crucial to the picture I'm not sure focusing on one to the exclusion of the other will make this picture work. It's really more suited to animation than as a still (maybe next your with new version of Carerra and new PC I can dare to attempt that). I will give it a try but in the end I probably will put the guy elsewhere in a portrait style scene and make a portrait of him with that expression. I think I've just come up with a concept that will make it work.
Off to add Slosh's product to my cart and see what I lack for my other concept. Since we are allowed more than one entry I will enter both.
I do need foggy glass for both though. Any suggestions?
Thanks for the feedback and compliments. I have toned down the background elements and lighting. If the motorcycle is still too distracting, I can hide it for the portrait.
Very nice!
I personally don't find the motorcycle too distracting. It provides the clue as to who she is. It strengthens the use of the nose ring and leather wristlet. This is an "environmental portrait", I guess. I'm really impressed with your use of unusual poses for your women. It really adds interest. I too often have mine standing in a static boring portrait pose.
OK, now that's looking good. Looks like she might be from Zurich standing in front of a wall filled with graffiti or rather, sitting on a moped.
Thanks. Posing and expressions are my favorite part; I usually start with a static pose (I try several until I find one that feels right) and then tweak it to make it unique, subtle, fit the character, etc. Ironman13 has a lot of good pose packages -- both of my portraits have started with a pose of his, I think. Background and lighting tend to be afterthoughts for me, so that's really what I'm trying to work on.
OK, 2nd attempt. All I really have left that I want to try to improve is silk for the dress, metalicise the green on the building, make the wood in the windows look better, amd maybe improve the glass in the windows to look better.
Another portrait I came into while testing.
it's good. I think it would be cute it she was pinning her hair into a bun on top of her head but how to you make her hair pose such that it looks like she has gathered it up & and starting to pin it?
Really loving this. I totally agree about the doom and gloom in horror films and photos. Its fine and all up to a point but evil people exist in sunshine too darn it! And half the time you can't SEE anything. I know, I know, its supposed to make it more spooky. but honestly, I think I wicked person or a monster might be even scarier in the light sometimes....
Agree with Kismet, many of us have favorite light set ups or lighting packages that we prefer to use. While I would love to have the time to learn to set up the lights all by hand from scratch (and I am working on it but slowly lol) In my world its not practicle if I want to make art in my limited spare time.
Evildedd had some good advice, I guess my only advice would be to maybe crop closer to the top of her head so there isn't so much space on top and maybe crop her either right below or right above the waist instead of at the waist. I like the overall feel of it though and I thing the clothes hair etc fit very well together.
There are some free glass shaders over on sharecg that might help with the glass textures or you could go into gimp or photoshop and either brush or stamp a texture on at maybe 25% (you would have to play with the opacity to get what you want) or you could find a texture to overlay the glass tiles and again, turn down the opacity until it looks the way you want it to. I will try and track down the glass shaders and post a link.
http://www.sharecg.com/v/33956/browse/7/Material-and-Shader/Glass# - 3Delight
http://www.sharecg.com/v/33956/browse/7/Material-and-Shader/Glass# - 2d
http://www.sharecg.com/v/452/browse/6/Texture/Textured-Glass - 2d
http://www.daz3d.com/colored-and-broken-glass-iray-shaders - Daz Store ( I have these, if you are pc+ they are 3.99 I believe)
http://www.daz3d.com/refracted-iray-glass-presets - Daz Store (Dimension Theory's stuff is always awesome)
and of course there are a ton more
I don't find the motorcycle at all distrcting in this one and as was said, it does set the tone. I like it!
I wonder if putting a bit of furniture in the room with him would help move him more toward the background of the scene. The girl's space would be uncluttered and might draw the eye more toward her.
This one is a different style Portrait, atleast with the lighting. I'm going for a Destiny-esque figure, while attempting to duplicate my main Hunter character, hence the name "A Hunter''s Portrait"
Any suggestions?
Much easier to see her face and eyes!
This looks great!
Don't have much to add except to maybe crop her a bit closer so there isn't as much space at the top of her head (just a personal preference of mine, take it with a large grain of salt)
Take out the extra space on the left (my left). If you want to show the tattoo you can always leave one arm up and bring the other down in a relaxed pose across his stomach or something like that.
I don't know if you know this but you can actually choose to look through the spotlight and move it around like you do with the perspective view or the camera so if you are struggling with getting the lights to go where you want them you look through the spotlight and position it so its shines where you are looking then switch back to your camera or perspective view to render. and don't forget to turn off the headlamp after you get at least on light set up.
I really like the background you chose for this, it really compliments the reds in this picture.
I left the cat in the photo a bit on the large side partly because I wanted to put something in that wasn't quite...what one would expect. And I actually happen to be aquainted with a couple of cats that are a tiny bit larger than this one. They are a bit disconcerting when you first make their aquaintence and they aren't very friendly lol.
You're using your male subject for you avitar arnt you?
Looking good by the way.
Its a bit difficult to see where his ends and where his gun starts. Not sure how to fix it unless you change the texture of one or the other to something contrasting, or if there is a way to do it with lighting or not.
I can only think of changing to a different hairstyle. Maybe I can try something like that. Meanwhile I've tried with makeup and a closer camera.
That would then leave a mystery as to her shocked reaction but I agree as a still it is not working. To convey those old Victoria sensibilities to those that weren't raised strictly (lol, there are some) or as an historical curiosity needs a short animation which is out of the scope of this contest. I will finish the picture and save if so animation a scene later but not enter it into the contest. Instead I will try a couple of more portrait like rendering into a picture in a couple of other ways and see if those work.
Thanks. I am learning.
Yes, it's actually a FaceGen of an old picture. When I saw that it looked toony and comical I decided to tweek it and use it in the portait contest but I haven't come up with a suitable portrait yet. Maybe as a carnival barker. :-)
She's very pretty. A couple of things to try - the hand in the lower right doesn't seem quite right. Either too much visible or not enough. Strikes me as floating fingers.
Otherwise, I would encourage you to experiment with the background a little. Or perhaps you can squeeze in a rim light. Her hair sort of disappears into the background. If you can lighten up the background a bit or accent her hair with a rim light or two, you might be able to get a bit of separation that could make a world of difference.
Her expression seems to be the neutral one, but with her looking at you slightly askance I'm thinking there's more going on. Perhaps a slight smile, maybe of the mischievious variety? Very slight.
Just suggestions. You've done a great job so far.
Thanks, Barbult! Good comments and suggestions. I've been looking at different dresses, because I agree, my original choice (which was made hurredly because I was focusing on the expression and face morph) isn't the best for a 2nd grade teacher from the '40s. I will need to look up something for the MFD that might work better.
I will fess up here that the "Miss McGillicuddy - 2nd Grade teacher" concept wasn't my original intent when I started. (That was a last minute addition as I was posting it.) I was just vaguely thinking about some grumpy, aristocratic old lady.
Now that it's taking shape a little more clearly, I will need to rethink it in greater detail.
Here's an update. I used one of @knittingmommy 's backgrounds. Seemed to fit.