More Non-photorealisitic Renders (NPR II)

Artini

Thanks a lot for the comments, mmitchell_houston.

I have to agree on Dragan effect, again. It is not useful for all renders.

Congrats on the release of the book.

 

 

tkdrobert

mmitchell_houston said:

tkdrobert said:

Amazing Spiderman

You're doing a pretty good job of getting a consistent comic look to your illustrations. The webbing is pretty good. Is it a brush of some kind?

The web is a Clip Paint Studio brush.

Starlaw

mmitchell_houston said:

Just got my comp copies of the Epic Anthology of Galaxy Prime published by my buddy, James Shade. I did the cover art, logo and typography.

I'm pleased with the overall look, but I do think it's a little dark. I'm going to ask him if he could easily swap out the cover with a JPEG with slightly brighter colors to bring out the yellows and blues more (and I would move up the company logo on the back cover just a little to be more in line with the barcode). If not, I can definitely live with this and will just be mindful of it for the next time. The book is available from Amazon.

Congratulations on the cover! I think it looks great as well regardless. Using my average consumer eye, I would say it looks "perfect". There is always small tweeks to any final work that can has been made. We all strive for absolute perfection and will always fall short. Thanks as always for sharing, i enjoy these.

mmitchell_houston

tkdrobert said:

mmitchell_houston said:

tkdrobert said:

Amazing Spiderman

You're doing a pretty good job of getting a consistent comic look to your illustrations. The webbing is pretty good. Is it a brush of some kind?

The web is a Clip Paint Studio brush.

Where did you get it? It's pretty cool!

mmitchell_houston

Starlaw said:

mmitchell_houston said:

Just got my comp copies of the Epic Anthology of Galaxy Prime published by my buddy, James Shade. I did the cover art, logo and typography.

I'm pleased with the overall look, but I do think it's a little dark. I'm going to ask him if he could easily swap out the cover with a JPEG with slightly brighter colors to bring out the yellows and blues more (and I would move up the company logo on the back cover just a little to be more in line with the barcode). If not, I can definitely live with this and will just be mindful of it for the next time. The book is available from Amazon.

Congratulations on the cover! I think it looks great as well regardless. Using my average consumer eye, I would say it looks "perfect". There is always small tweeks to any final work that can has been made. We all strive for absolute perfection and will always fall short. Thanks as always for sharing, i enjoy these.

Thanks. I am definitely a captive of the "perfection" mindset. If I can make it better I will always try to do so. Of course, that definitely has an impact on how much work I get finished. Still, this was fun to see all the way through, and I enjoyed documenting the process from inception to completion.

tkdrobert

mmitchell_houston said:

tkdrobert said:

mmitchell_houston said:

tkdrobert said:

Amazing Spiderman

You're doing a pretty good job of getting a consistent comic look to your illustrations. The webbing is pretty good. Is it a brush of some kind?

The web is a Clip Paint Studio brush.

Where did you get it? It's pretty cool!

It's a free brush.  I searched the assets in Japanese (Goggle translate) for web and web slinger I think, using the brushes filter.  I will tell you that it has some weird properties.  If you want to delete parts of it, to give the illution of wraping around the hand or something else, do that in Photoshop or another program.  If you break the line, it does some weird stuff.  Practice with it and you'll see what I mean.

mmitchell_houston

tkdrobert said:

mmitchell_houston said:

tkdrobert said:

mmitchell_houston said:

tkdrobert said:

Amazing Spiderman

You're doing a pretty good job of getting a consistent comic look to your illustrations. The webbing is pretty good. Is it a brush of some kind?

The web is a Clip Paint Studio brush.

Where did you get it? It's pretty cool!

It's a free brush.  I searched the assets in Japanese (Goggle translate) for web and web slinger I think, using the brushes filter.  I will tell you that it has some weird properties.  If you want to delete parts of it, to give the illution of wraping around the hand or something else, do that in Photoshop or another program.  If you break the line, it does some weird stuff.  Practice with it and you'll see what I mean.

You have piqued my curiosity! I'm going to hunt it down and try it to see what you mean.

 

FYI: I started working on my comic again today! No results, yet (I'm messing with some problematic pose files first), but here's hoping that I'll have a few more panels done by the end of the week.

Oso3D

Enjoying Budai and experimenting with a new workflow.

(Basically, 3DL scripted outline renderer and using the outline IDs as selection to paint in color)

 

mmitchell_houston

Oso3D said:

Enjoying Budai and experimenting with a new workflow.

(Basically, 3DL scripted outline renderer and using the outline IDs as selection to paint in color)

 

Pretty cool effect. 

Oso3D

Thinking about it some more, what I probably should do is put colors on Ambient channel and then just shut off the light for a 'just color' look. That will keep the colors consistent and cut down considerably on the time needed. Mmm.

Sure, it means I need 3 renders (shading, color, outline pass), but ... it shouldn't take SUPER long, considering the lighting is incredibly basic.

Oso3D

Does anyone know of a script or app or something that does very precise outlining based on colors?

For Oso Toon I've been relying on Photoshop's 'find edges,' but there are some elements to that approach I haven't been happy with. Namely, the filter bases line strength on how different the colors are, which isn't really my goal.

The scripted outline script is nice, but I'd much rather use Iray for the shading step; particularly if transparencies are involved, 3DL can slow down immensely (like in a forest filled with transmapped leaves). Unfortunately it's not reliable to, say, use 3dl scripted outline pass + Iray shading pass, because displacement doesn't look the same between the two engines.

But the scripted outline script DOES outline far better than just about anything else I've tried, because it does a credible color border -> line

 

jepsonpeteCMT

Oso3D said:

Does anyone know of a script or app or something that does very precise outlining based on colors?

For Oso Toon I've been relying on Photoshop's 'find edges,' but there are some elements to that approach I haven't been happy with. Namely, the filter bases line strength on how different the colors are, which isn't really my goal.

The scripted outline script is nice, but I'd much rather use Iray for the shading step; particularly if transparencies are involved, 3DL can slow down immensely (like in a forest filled with transmapped leaves). Unfortunately it's not reliable to, say, use 3dl scripted outline pass + Iray shading pass, because displacement doesn't look the same between the two engines.

But the scripted outline script DOES outline far better than just about anything else I've tried, because it does a credible color border -> line

 

Don't know if this might help:

https://www.daz3d.com/sketchy-toon-edge-and-art-style-shaders-for-iray

It's called Sketchy, a shader for Iray that has some pretty good sketch style effects. I think you can do something with outlines based on colour.

Your image looks interesting, a nice etching style. Is there any Photoshop manipulation or is this straight from Daz?

Oso3D

I used scripted 3dl Outline to create a zoned map and outlines, then did a grayscale shading render. I used the zone map in Photoshop to select areas and then added flat paint to a layer in Photoshop. I sent the shading pass to Filterforge to make it illustration looking, then I stacked the layers.

Worked pretty nicely, but then I tried to do a forest and found that a shading pass in 3dl was going to take a geological epoch (lots of transmapped leaves).

 

mmitchell_houston

Oso3D said:

I used scripted 3dl Outline to create a zoned map and outlines, then did a grayscale shading render. I used the zone map in Photoshop to select areas and then added flat paint to a layer in Photoshop. I sent the shading pass to Filterforge to make it illustration looking, then I stacked the layers.

Worked pretty nicely, but then I tried to do a forest and found that a shading pass in 3dl was going to take a geological epoch (lots of transmapped leaves).

I'm going to suggest something that is not exactly what you're looking for, but please check it out and test it before you dismiss it. I'm pretty sure this could assist you in getting the results you want (especially if you take the time to duplicate your layer and play around with the contrast first, and possibly the find edges filter).

https://peltmade.com/psplugins-flatting.html

3Diva

mmitchell_houston said:

Oso3D said:

I used scripted 3dl Outline to create a zoned map and outlines, then did a grayscale shading render. I used the zone map in Photoshop to select areas and then added flat paint to a layer in Photoshop. I sent the shading pass to Filterforge to make it illustration looking, then I stacked the layers.

Worked pretty nicely, but then I tried to do a forest and found that a shading pass in 3dl was going to take a geological epoch (lots of transmapped leaves).

I'm going to suggest something that is not exactly what you're looking for, but please check it out and test it before you dismiss it. I'm pretty sure this could assist you in getting the results you want (especially if you take the time to duplicate your layer and play around with the contrast first, and possibly the find edges filter).

https://peltmade.com/psplugins-flatting.html

I used Multifull and Flatten for many years when I worked in comics as a colorist - they're a huge time saver and really great plug-ins! :) They can be a bit finicky with lines that have gaps/don't close or with areas that are too "noisy" but if you have pretty clean lines they work wonders.

mmitchell_houston

Divamakeup said:

mmitchell_houston said:

Oso3D said:

I used scripted 3dl Outline to create a zoned map and outlines, then did a grayscale shading render. I used the zone map in Photoshop to select areas and then added flat paint to a layer in Photoshop. I sent the shading pass to Filterforge to make it illustration looking, then I stacked the layers.

Worked pretty nicely, but then I tried to do a forest and found that a shading pass in 3dl was going to take a geological epoch (lots of transmapped leaves).

I'm going to suggest something that is not exactly what you're looking for, but please check it out and test it before you dismiss it. I'm pretty sure this could assist you in getting the results you want (especially if you take the time to duplicate your layer and play around with the contrast first, and possibly the find edges filter).

https://peltmade.com/psplugins-flatting.html

I used Multifull and Flatten for many years when I worked in comics as a colorist - they're a huge time saver and really great plug-ins! :) They can be a bit finicky with lines that have gaps/don't close or with areas that are too "noisy" but if you have pretty clean lines they work wonders.

What name did you use when you colored comics? Perhaps I saw your work.

As for these plug-ins, I'm suggesting that he try these on his colored artwork to better generate the color zones he wants so that he can then apply strokes to those regions. This probably won't work, but I thought it was worth doing an experiment or two. 

(BTW, have you looked at the flatting capabilities in Clip Studio Paint? That program seems to do a very solid job dealing with gaps in the linework.)

jepsonpeteCMT

mmitchell_houston said:

Oso3D said:

I used scripted 3dl Outline to create a zoned map and outlines, then did a grayscale shading render. I used the zone map in Photoshop to select areas and then added flat paint to a layer in Photoshop. I sent the shading pass to Filterforge to make it illustration looking, then I stacked the layers.

Worked pretty nicely, but then I tried to do a forest and found that a shading pass in 3dl was going to take a geological epoch (lots of transmapped leaves).

I'm going to suggest something that is not exactly what you're looking for, but please check it out and test it before you dismiss it. I'm pretty sure this could assist you in getting the results you want (especially if you take the time to duplicate your layer and play around with the contrast first, and possibly the find edges filter).

https://peltmade.com/psplugins-flatting.html

The plugin looks interesting, thanks for sharing this. I usually create selection flats in Unity by applying a simple solid colour shader to each part of the model and adding a small amount of HDR Emission to each material so that it glows. I then take out all the lights in the scene and reduce all the ambient light to 0, the end result is a complete flat colour base for each part of the model. Works great in Unity (see attached image - might be a bit large). I am trying this at the moment in Daz, but the illumination is bleeding outside of the edges, so it's not giving a good enough result. I am still experimenting with this for Daz to get easy to render selection flats that can be used in Photoshop.

jepsonpeteCMT

Oso3D said:

I used scripted 3dl Outline to create a zoned map and outlines, then did a grayscale shading render. I used the zone map in Photoshop to select areas and then added flat paint to a layer in Photoshop. I sent the shading pass to Filterforge to make it illustration looking, then I stacked the layers.

Worked pretty nicely, but then I tried to do a forest and found that a shading pass in 3dl was going to take a geological epoch (lots of transmapped leaves).

 

Is the zone map the Zone System Express plugin for Photoshop?

I usually find that a technique may work great for some things and then becomes too troublesome for others, or doesn't produce the right results you are looking for. I experiment with different techniques in the hope that at some point I might be able to combine a range of them into an effective workflow. I would be interested in seeing more work in this style, it has a really nice pencil drawing effect.

mmitchell_houston

jepsonpete_63996f7ec6 said:

mmitchell_houston said:

Oso3D said:

I used scripted 3dl Outline to create a zoned map and outlines, then did a grayscale shading render. I used the zone map in Photoshop to select areas and then added flat paint to a layer in Photoshop. I sent the shading pass to Filterforge to make it illustration looking, then I stacked the layers.

Worked pretty nicely, but then I tried to do a forest and found that a shading pass in 3dl was going to take a geological epoch (lots of transmapped leaves).

I'm going to suggest something that is not exactly what you're looking for, but please check it out and test it before you dismiss it. I'm pretty sure this could assist you in getting the results you want (especially if you take the time to duplicate your layer and play around with the contrast first, and possibly the find edges filter).

https://peltmade.com/psplugins-flatting.html

The plugin looks interesting, thanks for sharing this. I usually create selection flats in Unity by applying a simple solid colour shader to each part of the model and adding a small amount of HDR Emission to each material so that it glows. I then take out all the lights in the scene and reduce all the ambient light to 0, the end result is a complete flat colour base for each part of the model. Works great in Unity (see attached image - might be a bit large). I am trying this at the moment in Daz, but the illumination is bleeding outside of the edges, so it's not giving a good enough result. I am still experimenting with this for Daz to get easy to render selection flats that can be used in Photoshop.

I figured my suggestion was a long shot, although the plug-ins are definitely worth looking at for othe reasons.

jepsonpeteCMT

Went back to my barbarian scene in Daz and created these selection flats. Would also be easy to create comic flatting colours from within Daz.

For Iray materials just give the emmission section a unique colour and remove the diffuse maps.

For older materials on M4 and V4 just increase strength of ambience and give it a unique colour.

Remove all lights from scene and render using OpenGL

Having good selections is a life saver when doing post processing in Photoshop

vrba79

jepsonpeteCMT said:

Went back to my barbarian scene in Daz and created these selection flats. Would also be easy to create comic flatting colours from within Daz.

For Iray materials just give the emmission section a unique colour and remove the diffuse maps.

For older materials on M4 and V4 just increase strength of ambience and give it a unique colour.

Remove all lights from scene and render using OpenGL

Having good selections is a life saver when doing post processing in Photoshop

Very psychadelic. A person could make some great looking covers with that technique. You could do some rough resizing and get some great retro pixel art for games that way too.

3Diva

mmitchell_houston said:

Divamakeup said:

mmitchell_houston said:

Oso3D said:

I used scripted 3dl Outline to create a zoned map and outlines, then did a grayscale shading render. I used the zone map in Photoshop to select areas and then added flat paint to a layer in Photoshop. I sent the shading pass to Filterforge to make it illustration looking, then I stacked the layers.

Worked pretty nicely, but then I tried to do a forest and found that a shading pass in 3dl was going to take a geological epoch (lots of transmapped leaves).

I'm going to suggest something that is not exactly what you're looking for, but please check it out and test it before you dismiss it. I'm pretty sure this could assist you in getting the results you want (especially if you take the time to duplicate your layer and play around with the contrast first, and possibly the find edges filter).

https://peltmade.com/psplugins-flatting.html

I used Multifull and Flatten for many years when I worked in comics as a colorist - they're a huge time saver and really great plug-ins! :) They can be a bit finicky with lines that have gaps/don't close or with areas that are too "noisy" but if you have pretty clean lines they work wonders.

What name did you use when you colored comics? Perhaps I saw your work.

As for these plug-ins, I'm suggesting that he try these on his colored artwork to better generate the color zones he wants so that he can then apply strokes to those regions. This probably won't work, but I thought it was worth doing an experiment or two. 

(BTW, have you looked at the flatting capabilities in Clip Studio Paint? That program seems to do a very solid job dealing with gaps in the linework.)

hahah I seriously doubt you've ever seen any of my work - I was very indie. :)

I've not tried Clip Studio Paint. I used to do some inking in Manga Studio though - that's a great program for digital inking. I THINK they might be the same program, but I'm not sure.

mmitchell_houston

Divamakeup said:

mmitchell_houston said:

Divamakeup said:

mmitchell_houston said:

Oso3D said:

I used scripted 3dl Outline to create a zoned map and outlines, then did a grayscale shading render. I used the zone map in Photoshop to select areas and then added flat paint to a layer in Photoshop. I sent the shading pass to Filterforge to make it illustration looking, then I stacked the layers.

Worked pretty nicely, but then I tried to do a forest and found that a shading pass in 3dl was going to take a geological epoch (lots of transmapped leaves).

I'm going to suggest something that is not exactly what you're looking for, but please check it out and test it before you dismiss it. I'm pretty sure this could assist you in getting the results you want (especially if you take the time to duplicate your layer and play around with the contrast first, and possibly the find edges filter).

https://peltmade.com/psplugins-flatting.html

I used Multifull and Flatten for many years when I worked in comics as a colorist - they're a huge time saver and really great plug-ins! :) They can be a bit finicky with lines that have gaps/don't close or with areas that are too "noisy" but if you have pretty clean lines they work wonders.

What name did you use when you colored comics? Perhaps I saw your work.

As for these plug-ins, I'm suggesting that he try these on his colored artwork to better generate the color zones he wants so that he can then apply strokes to those regions. This probably won't work, but I thought it was worth doing an experiment or two. 

(BTW, have you looked at the flatting capabilities in Clip Studio Paint? That program seems to do a very solid job dealing with gaps in the linework.)

hahah I seriously doubt you've ever seen any of my work - I was very indie. :)

I've not tried Clip Studio Paint. I used to do some inking in Manga Studio though - that's a great program for digital inking. I THINK they might be the same program, but I'm not sure.

You never know... I read a lot of indies!

But yes, Clip Studio Paint and Manga Studio are the same program. They changed its name a few years ago (no idea why, as the original name was MUCH better). The only difference between the two programs is:

• If you buy it on a DVD or memory stick, it is called Manga Studio
• If you download it, then it is called Clip Studio Paint

Seriously, that is the only difference between the two.

jepsonpeteCMT

vrba79 said:

jepsonpeteCMT said:

 

Very psychadelic. A person could make some great looking covers with that technique. You could do some rough resizing and get some great retro pixel art for games that way too.

That's a great idea, I didn't consider that, but now you've said that, it does make sense. I tried it out, see what you think. It's rough of course.

With a bit of cell shading as well, it's a nice way to create static and animated sprites for 2D games.

Thanks for the suggestion

mmitchell_houston

jepsonpeteCMT said:

Went back to my barbarian scene in Daz and created these selection flats. Would also be easy to create comic flatting colours from within Daz. For Iray materials just give the emmission section a unique colour and remove the diffuse maps. For older materials on M4 and V4 just increase strength of ambience and give it a unique colour.

Remove all lights from scene and render using OpenGL. Having good selections is a life saver when doing post processing in Photoshop

That is a fantastic tip! And you got very solid results, too.

vrba79

Just playing around with some of my G2 stuff.

Edit: Though the suit is G1.

vrba79

 

jepsonpeteCMT said:

vrba79 said:

jepsonpeteCMT said:

 

Very psychadelic. A person could make some great looking covers with that technique. You could do some rough resizing and get some great retro pixel art for games that way too.

That's a great idea, I didn't consider that, but now you've said that, it does make sense. I tried it out, see what you think. It's rough of course.

With a bit of cell shading as well, it's a nice way to create static and animated sprites for 2D games.

Thanks for the suggestion

Glad to help.

jepsonpeteCMT

I tried out the Sketchy filters for Iray and I was quite impressed with basic out of the box settings in Daz. So I rendered my characters individually in Daz. The first few images are straight renders out of Daz, no Photoshop at all. Then I put it all together and did a bit of adjustment and gradient overalys in Photoshop.

They obviously still need quite a bit of work, but I quite like the linework Sketchy produces.

I'll upload my final image once I have edited it. Might take me a while, I'm busy with a few other things

Sketchy link: https://www.daz3d.com/sketchy-toon-edge-and-art-style-shaders-for-iray

 

vrba79

As much as I'm diggng VSS, it just can't beat PWToon in terms of outline quality.

Eurocoin

My latest render (with some postwork) - Soft Force