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Yes, this is for 4.8's Iray light settings :)
Iray lights :coolsmile:
The lights aren't necessarily the same as other renderers. It's forcing me to change a lot of things I haven't learned before, but it's been very interesting.
When I get the spare funds, I will get the Digital Lighting & Rendering textbook from Jeremy Birn...
Here are a couple of renders I'm working on for this months contest. Both are Daz Studio and Bryce combos. TS4 was used to create the sky bikes, droids, stage set parts, antennas, gun belts. Both are WIP. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
image1 title: The intruders
Image 2 title: Sky Riders
For the intruders, I was expecting the female to be holding some sort of weapon and the line in the wall lines up exactly with her hand reinforcing that perception.
The skyriders look a little uncomfortable on their little joyride. I think their backs need a bit of an S-curve, rotating the pelvis instead of starting at the lower abdomen will help that.
Good to see you back on bord so soon, and hope that lasering will help you further.
I like your lady boss scene but I agree with Blurst of times for the changes to a different outfit for her.
Why he want's an owl, I don't know, I guess its a cat on the ladys lap that missing :-P
Then you could put a big metal glove on her hand and she could be saying
"I'll get you next time, Gadget! NEXT time!" :D
Iray lights :coolsmile:
The lights aren't necessarily the same as other renderers. It's forcing me to change a lot of things I haven't learned before, but it's been very interesting.
When I get the spare funds, I will get the Digital Lighting & Rendering textbook from Jeremy Birn...
Thanks to both of you, i'm kind of reliefed, that I didn't miss something major in the program I use :coolsmile:
Because owls are very expensive!
https://youtu.be/o_AXOjlPF0Y
A couple changes using suggestions I received. Still haven't figured out a good way to darken the Squatch. Added a little cool factor to him with the sunglasses. Also not happy with the jerky bag. May work on it some more or attempt to make one. Haven't tried my hand at modeling anything yet but there is always a first time.
I think that is working a lot better! I somewhat like it dark, but I tend to like moody skies... the only thing now is the color is a bit intense... I would say instead of going lighter try going greyer, first, and if that doesn't do it, then maybe a smidgen lighter. These things are so touchy. Does Iray have spotrender?
Are you saying you modelled out all that stuff? Impressive! I need to sit with the scene for a bit before I can comment on other things, but really cool so far!
This is really coming along! The newspaper is just legible enough to get the reference. And the rest of it is starting to really be hammed up. :-) Def coming along!
Okay. SO. Look at the image BEFORE you read this. Try to decifer what is going on... and make a note of it. I want to know what people think it means, before they read what I intended it to mean. There might be some pretty amusing differences. ;-)
SPOILER ALERT! :-P Sooo- here we go. My splurge into the genre of surreal humor.. if a piece like this fits a genre at all. The working title is "Siren's Lament" and the idea is the bird woman is a Siren, from Greek Mythology. In Greek Mythology such has Homers Illiad, the Sirens had beautiful voices and lured sailors to crash their ships into the cliffs. They were depicted as song birds because of their beautiful voices, with the head of a woman. My "siren" is supposed to be melodramatically lamenting that the particular sailor she lured to the cliffs was her long lost lover that she didn't recognize because he had grown old while she had never aged, and so she immortalizes his body by creating... a larger than life sea hazard... a stone island. Perfect for destroying more ships. Which sprouts a head of chia grass and dandelion hair that is being tended by his skeleton. And so they are immortal lovers, this trio... an island of lovers in the sea of passing ships waiting for some fool to crash their party.
And if that sounds a little strange.. it is because it is. And if the image makes you scratch your head and say.., um... I don't quite get it but its sort of odd and mildly amusing, then that's kinda the idea too. Because the whole thing is supposed to be a spoof on "very serious things" (tm). Because for how serious can chia hair on a goofy stone guy being hugged by some weird girl with bird legs really be?
Truth is, I really wanted to make a rock man with a head of chia hair, and as if he heard my thoughts, LordVicore over on ShareCG made freebie Chia grass hair. SO weird... Totally made my week. And if freebie 3D chia hair makes my week, it says something about the week I've had... leave it to the pixels to cheer me up.
And, to be honest, I had Simon and Garfunkels "I am a Rock" stuck in my head, and far too many thoughts of really heavy things. I was kinda of having some art therapy with my image... it was originally intended to be for the Silliness theme over in the freebie contest, but in aiming for silly, I kinda missed the mark and probably just hit "weird" because I wasn't feeling the silly so much. Trying to be funny is generally the best way to NOT be funny. Maybe it works for others as silly. I dunno WHAT people will think when they see it. I think its okay sometimes for art to just be weird, and all attempts at art don't have to be good art, or make much sense. Hence labeling it surreal. And I am really okay with that.
Here's some Simon and Garfunkel for ya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKlSVNxLB-A
I am interested in any and all feedback, I love feedback, and I love honesty. The worst thing for an artist who creates something is for it to be ignored, so if you hate me, ignore it. But if you love me, and hate the art... tell me. :-)
It definitely made me go "hmmmmm". I have been playing with the idea of doing something surreal, off the wall, totally outside the box, however you want to put it, myself. Not for this contest, just in general.
What I really love about this image is that you did not clutter it up with stuff. You focused on the 3 figures and only added what was needed to tell your story.
Although there is something in the lower right corner behind the bird lady I cannot quite make out. Is it a ship being lured to the island? It is not a major distraction.
You have some nice lighting and shadowing going on in the image and I really like the colour scheme.
yup, its a ship. I have a fog plane that I am wiggling, trying to get into the right place. Last render was too much ship, this time not enough. The story of my life.. too much ship. or not enough :-P
TY for the feedback! I am still struggling with always doing vertical and never having any open space, but this one is def less cluttery. And I didn't realize the chia hair had come out on Apr fools day and has its own thread.
I have to admit that the render "spoke to me" in some strange way.
BTW I too have a fondness for using the portrait rather than landscape format on occasions, even for landscapes. It works well if you are careful with placements
Fiona, this made me laugh, are you british by any chance? This seem to me some very british kind of humor.
I like the concept and the idea, so definitly keep going with it. And yes, as kismet said, its not cluttered, so you managed to avoid that hazard.
Here are some ideas that came to my mind looking at it. The shouder / collarbone part of your ladybird seem somewhat of or overmuscled, that could use so work on it.
And I would give a different colou to the watering can. maybe a light blue, or yellow, keep it within your colouring scheme, but I would like to see it a distinct thing from the skeleton.
For some nitpicking, the ffet of the bird need to be adapted to the surface of the statue (if thats possible).
Orther than that, great start, and I hope your test ran smoothly
HI every one, and thank you Linwelly for your note suggestions, I've updated the post because it was duplicated, if you review the posting, you'll see my first render at the top of the updated one, anyway it was not in intention and it didn't come to my mind to put the second render in a new one, sorry for that, I'm new to forums world so if I've made any error or mistake, please pardon me and accept my apologies in advance... :)
When I created the scene "first and second", it took around 3 to 4 hours to complete the render, and sometimes it takes more time and I had to cancel the render and do some adjust/delete/hide some elements and adjust the render setting to minimize the time of the render, I'm not sure if it's my computer hanging or the options I'm using.
Your suggestions is valuable to me and build my knowledge, I'll do my best to put your suggestions in place, wait for the 3rd render.
Don't worry h-habash, we are all here to learn, so no problem.
As for your render times you migh want to post the steeings with wich you are rendering, those 3-4 hours seem rather long for me, but then I don't know the system you are running on.
Very nice, I like the details you added. There is definitly a story told now.
The different light angle has advantages but there are some drawbacks as well. It looks like a bright summer afternoon now, but the bright light makes the fallen tree a bit flat in its surface. maybe you can try to adjust the bump on it?
I too tend to lean towards darker, moodier lighting/skies and I think in a chase scene such as this, it's definitely warranted.
I think that is working a lot better! I somewhat like it dark, but I tend to like moody skies... the only thing now is the color is a bit intense... I would say instead of going lighter try going greyer, first, and if that doesn't do it, then maybe a smidgen lighter. These things are so touchy. Does Iray have spotrender?
@ fiona: Yes. Iray spot renders
I agree with everyone else about the sky. I like the darkness. Definitely gives a brooding feel. Although I love purple I had the same thought as Fiona and would try to take it into the grey a bit more.
I've been doing nearly all of my work on this from a remote computer using Teamviewer so spot render doesn't help so much. (colors and image size and such) So I render them to my dropbox and open them locally to check the colors.
So the saying goes, a picture tells a thousand words.
For anyone who writes, a thousand words goes by fast, and you have to make the most of it.
I'll try to process my thoughts without considering what you wrote... because the thought process is interesting as part of the story, but shouldn't be considered as part of the image.
The piece seems to be about a giant green guy. I am not sure why the skeleton is there, other than to water the plants on the stone guy's head. Yes, death, but death is strangely giving life (water) this time, so I don't get that.
Without the backstory, the lament is hard to pick out for the woman because I get confused by the huge head and the skeleton set up. I'd rather see the aged lover than a skeleton-as-death, but that would be literal and not so surreal.
There's too much story to work with the hyper focused demand on your image dimensions, i guess. Even with surrealism, the theme needs to be crystal, and this one kind of sprawls. You only have a thousand words. The image might not be overcrowded, but the ideas seem constrained because of the tight focus on the stone head, and the amount of digging it takes to get to the siren.
Both very nice work, but we are here to be critical, so I'll take the gloves off :-)
Since posing is part of the dimensions in which we are judged for this event, I'll say that both could be more dramatic in terms of pose. The characters are well lit, and the images are composed well, I don't get a sense of story from the poses.
Give me more drama, and not just a pretty render. There's my US$0.02, and I hope the limited critique helps.
I like what you've added. Nice job getting Starbux into it.
The criticism about what you added is that the two characters have not been reconsidered with the new additions/changes, which are mostly off to the sides.
The jerky bag is great. You need to keep it. You also should incorporate it into the scene a lot better than shunting it of to the side. For example, what of the bag were in the center, between the two figures? And what if the guy were to lay hands on it?
It's funny, but scene could use a kicker. It doesn't need to be the expected, but I guess I wasn't more between the two figures on the log.
Love the sunglasses. Very bro.
@ fionathegood-
Hiya! Thanks for the link back over at the Freepozitory!
I just wanted to say that when I saw the image you made, I had to look at it for moment to be sure that was really the prop I made.
Not that I doubted your link, but that it looked so much better than I thought it possibly could...
Granted I had just poked myself in the eye with a pudding spoon (did you know there is such a thing as a pudding spoon? Neither did I, but when I found out I went out and bought six of them... They are actually for eating pudding, not summoning pudding as I had hoped, but still, I figured it was worth a shot)... And there was pudding all over the iPad... I'd go and explain what happened, but I'm not actually sure myself and as I was not actually even eating pudding at the time, I think it might have more to do with the small puddingie footprint on the coffee table.
But I digress, that render of yours is very super cool and not at all strange... Since I was coming directly to the image from the link, I had no idea what to expect or where I was (forum-wise... But in real life too, or I probably wouldn't have gotten a pudding spoon in my eye... This never really used to happen in the pre-tablet era, since the odds of one lugging a six hundred pound computer/monitor set up around hooked to a fifty foot extension cord were pretty slim)...
But anyway, after wiping pudding out of my eye (I feel I may be dwelling on this pudding incident), I looked closely at your image and the first thing I thought was "Greek Mythology"...
Although that may have slightly been influenced by my thinking "Greek style yogurt?" As I was licking the semi rancid pudding off of my sleeve... It was very early and it was still dark in the living room... But the image really said "Greek mythology"... For a few moments I inspected the image (while lamenting the humor of the pudding gods... Did you know the Greeks had a pudding god?... I believe his name was Oikos... Maybe that was the Greek yogurt god... Snakpakos... Snakipakios... Snackpack... Those could all be brand names of puddings and yogurt... But really, the Greeks had a god for everything)...
I digressed again... Sorry...
As I was inspecting the image, I noticed the ship in the background and I definitely picked up the "siren" vibe... The girl/bird and the skeleton definitely drew it together... I could totally see myself watching that scene up on a rocky cliff and running a boat into the jagged rocks below the surface.
I'll try and not mention pudding for a few moments, but my father was from Sorrento, a coastal town in Italy (geologically not that different than Greece), when I was a kid, sometimes I used to go visit him there (that's a long story)... I had many boating and sea related adventures, so the image you made clicked right in... Furthermore, you may be happy to know that in real life there was an actual statue that wasn't all that different...
One of my dad's friends owned a hotel there that used to be a huge villa, in the garden facing the Bay of Naples (not Nipples, people always think I'm saying Nipples... NAPLES), there were several very old mossy, mildewy statues on the overgrown periphery of said garden... There was one that was off to one side in an area slightly less tended to. It looked as though at some time long ago, it had fallen over in one of the many earthquakes that (I had nothing to do with) are quite common in the region... It looked as though it had been rather inexpertly repaired, for the head was slightly askew and missing a large section of the top... Upon that flat area some moss had found a home and upon the moss some short grass and tiny white flowers had found a home... And there on the shoulder of the statue resided a fairly bold lizard...
Though not uncommon for the area, this lizard was slightly larger than most, but what was uncommon, was that where most lizards would scurry off the moment you approached, this one only would dodge your attempt to capture him... Steadfastly returning to his perch on the statue's shoulder...
I tried to catch him many times, until one day I just decided he had something important he was doing there and I was little more than a passing annoyance.
One of the last times I saw him, it was evening, the sun was going down and sure enough he was where he always was to be found.
As the last rays of the setting sun cast an orange light upon the pair, I wondered for a moment if the statue had once been a wealthy lord who had broken the heart of some nymph or goddess and had been turned to stone... And his most loyal guard or servant turned to a lizard, left standing watch over his master for all eternity... The statue with his head slightly bowed, wearing a crown of moss and wildflowers, sadly facing the sea, with his lizard companion sitting watch, head raised watching out for those who would disturb his masters never ending mourning... I remember wishing them well before running off to grab some more of the huge grilled shrimp my dad's friend had made...
Sorry, a lot of my memories link with food... Like for example, the reason I never sit next to a badger den has something to do with a ham sandwich... I don't know what, but whenever I eat a ham sandwich, I always check around for badgers.
Well, anyway... Thank you for the link to the render, it brought back very fond memories of large (like freakishly large) grilled shrimp and that made the pudding in my eye sting all the less.
I really liked it and I hope none of the extra words I added detracted from that sentiment...
I suppose I could have said "nice render" like a normal person and not written a whole novel to go with it... But I really only do that if I discovered some major wound with serious bleeding issues while I'm posting... Otherwise we are talking serious eyestrain being involved in reading my posts...
So sorry about that too...
Well, I'm running out of room...
Cheers!
Fun fact... Until I edited out a few words, that previous post exceeded the character limit!
Woohoo!
Sorry.
Fun fact, I cannot quote your last post without choking on my words.. or wait... its not the words its the character count that is throttling me?
:-) Thank you for your creative and wonderfully written account. A lizard sitting on the shoulder of an old worn down statue overlooking the sea.. such a romantic thought! Beware the power of the pixel. You might just inspire someone!
Speaking of inspired, I still can't believe that each blade of that prop is individually modeled. Even if you made one blade of grass with a mirror modifier, and duplicated that to make 4,8,16, etc there must be a hundred blades to that thing... that is a painful lot of WORK not to mention polys! By the way, you and this chick should seriously hook up: http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/671326 . Her 8 million poly man and your grass wig could snuggle by the sea.... I must admit, when a model comes with a warning "do not try to open this unless you are in a modeling program" I get a little scared. I get the black screen of death at 2 million polys.... been there done that when I hit subD one too many times....choking on pixels is no joke. Without smoothing, they are not quite as easy so swallow as rancid pudding, but a benefit is that is a quick death compared to food poisoning... *Licks some pudding off your sleeve*
You should stay a while. They even give free stuff to people who try to kill people with excess advice. *Waves the GC from Feb* I am sure you would fit write in. Right in, too. :-P
TY so very much!
Oh, cool. I am glad it is doing something for you. It makes me ever so slightly happy, in some strange way, too. I mean, I made it, it ought to, but for all the processing that went through my head, I could have come up with something I didn't like, like last months second attempt at an entry. Yet this is just the opposite. I think its the skeleton picking a dandelion off the guys head, and the look on its face that is one of delight and something like wonder... and the stoic look on the faces of the man and bird girl are something along the lines of "we are putting up with our fate as pixels in a render we cannot control... almost like the painting "American Gothic" http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/09/17/1410975632751_wps_5_American_Gothic_tableau_d.jpg I would say 90% of the image is almost on purpose, and the rest of it is happy accident.
Thank you so much for the feedback!
I am not British, I am your typical american mutt. However, we lost my Irish grandmother when my mom was eight, and I always thought we "lost" that part of our heritage, so I spent most of my adult years looking for it in the form of re-enacting the middle ages. No proper Irish person would acknowledge anything British as being worth a damn, but Irish humor and British humor have mixed bloodlines, for better or for worse! I think British humor might have rubbed off on me from bumping elbows with it all the time. British humor is one of those things that can be both nostalgic and at the same time poking fun at its own nostalgia. And often times British humor is like an insider joke, not exactly something that everyone "gets". And Brits have this sort of snobbery that they don't care if people get it, they are superior...and folks who don't get it resent the implication that they are somehow inferior for thinking things that aren't funny aren't funny.
I appreciate that you enjoyed it... but also glad you kept me humble with some well thought out advice! The shoulder on the ladybird is indeed.. something. Overmuscled might be it... that part of her just looks weird. Something to work on, for sure! Its so funny you said to make the watering can a different color... it came with a more blue shade of grey and I photoshopped the diffuse map to a greener grey! I will give it a try with the maps it came with and see if you like it better.
Also, I was thinking of making the skeleton somewhat transparent.. like he is from another realm, or a dream. I was afraid of losing him though to the land of murky greyness that renders can have... I also have the freebie ghost shader that I have never used, and would like to fiddle with. I suppose I can yet again go the "alternate versions" route. And here I was lamenting that I couldn't come up with any ideas or have any time this month. Still need ideas for the freebie contest, though. I need to leave my muse more plates of cookies and milk at night.. :-)