More Non-photorealisitic Renders (NPR II)
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I see what you mean. The uniform isn't quite "classic" in look; but you nailed it when it comes to the skin reflections. I like the choices you made for the background, btw.
Looks really nice - thanks for posting.
The picture has a nice subtle painterly feel to it. I like the canvas texture. To be honest it is amazing what some of the phone apps can achieve. I used some old phone apps to create sketch styles from my phone camera images, and I was always surprised by the end result. It would be good to see a few more images in this style. The colours set the scene nicely.
The cloth draping looks amazing. It has a classic comic book look to it. I like the overall setup for the image and although I agree with you about the expression, it doesn't really detract from the piece. It's more of a test at this stage anyway, and I would say this fits in nicely with your style and the other images you have created. The only thing I could mention is perhaps make the right hand flat to match the left hand.
The shading on this is just amazing, The blues are a great choice but I would add a little of that blue beneath her and just under her hands. I've had a go with the new figure and it will take a little getting used but there's some serious potential there - especially with Black Hearted's morph pack - I would have purchased that with the figure just for the legs. If I need to render something with a focus on legs, this is a go to option.
I've been getting more seriously intersted in typesetting. I've done some in my past but haven't studied it in the detail I'd like, particularly when it comes to books. Partly with a view to practicing setting books, and partly because I would like physical copies of some of these classics, I'm going to make a start on some public domain titles. I'm going to be using Lulu's pocketbook size, as I kind of feel that what these books should be and have prepared a cover template for them. I'll be using the top and spine colour to indicate genre: purple for science-fiction and fantasy, blue for mystery and detective, yellow for horror, red for thrillers, and green for anything literary.
Anywho, here's the faux painting built from two renders run through the usual filters and ArtRage...
And here's the cover (with a little adjustment to the colours).
This is STUNNING work. Easily as good as any of the covers I've seen for this book (and I've got one or two classic copies of it on my bookshelf right now). I think this is a really cool idea, and very similar to an idea I had for my graphics class when I was teaching at a local college about 10 years ago. And that idea was to have them typeset public domain books and then create covers for them, as well. I'm anxious to see a photo of what the final book looks like (are you going to keep the aged effect?). And I really like your color coding idea.
On this particular cover: I love the composition and the color choices. Her arm in the cutout looks a little dark – perhaps you could lighten it just a little? Also, this author always published under the name "A. Merritt." I don't recall him using his first name for his books. Is this a conscious decision to change it, or do you just want the extra space that is taken up by using his full name. Also: go conduct a google search for classic paperback covers and you will see that they do not use the word "by" on the cover.
and usually "A novel by" will be in smaller type
BTW: How about a few details on the creation of the image? Figure, software, etc.? And where did you get that cool creature?
You are absolutely right. I should have taken the extra time to finish the image before posting. To that end, I decided to go back and try adjusting the expression and then I added some blue beneath her to give it the depth and sense of completion that it needs. I was just tired and since I was really focusing on the folds of the fabric I just wanted to walk away from it. Here's my updated image. Any thoughts?
I have not looked at that morph pack you mentioned, but I will now.
I am going to start a new project soon and I'm toying with the idea of using La Femme as the figure for the lead female character. But, before I can do that I have to be certain that she can use V4 poses and expressions. So far when I've tried to use poses strange things happen to the hands. Likewise, expressions have not been really successful. But I haven't done enough testing yet to make a determination. (BTW: The project is the one that the M4 "Arton" character appears in.) We'll see how it goes after I make a few more La Femme images and have time to determine her compatability with the poses/expressions/props in my content library and if she is as easy to work with as V4.
That's the ticket I think.
I have to say, she's a very different animal from V4 - and as for expressions, I would recommend doing those yourself. It's been designed with a view to making expressions easy... but easy with practice. The best way to get an expression on her is not to spin the dials but to work directly on the face.
To be honest, I'm likely to re-do this cover. I like the image but the arm is a problem. Looks fine in the painting but against the white it is too dark. I'll have a think as to what the easiest answer is. You are right about the name and 'by' is left over from the 1960s cover I was copying - it can go. I also noticed that I need to move 'Pool' up a tad.
The wear and tear on the cover is something I'll probably keep for the ebook edition - another part of the project - but I won't use it on the paperback, as I feel that can earn it's own with reading. (I quite like the wear and tear on this one - it's lifted a scan of an old Cool & lam novel in my collection)
I'm still not entirely happy with it, so I may yet go back for a re-do. I made a selection of the main figure and brightened her up a bit, taking areas back down with a soft, low opacity eraser. Handy tip: I know that programs like this have great selection tools these days but sometimes it still isn't easy, particularly with 'painted' figures. Given that stuff overlapping with panels is a bit of thing on book covers, I took to rendering silhouettes of the figures for quick selections.
I know what you mean about the problems that happen when you try to cutout painted figures. I had a similar issue when I was doing the adjustments on my sci-fi cover a while back.
I like the changes, but I also agree that you made her too bright. I think you need to tone her down a bit more. And maybe the shade of yellow behind the author's name is too bright? You have a pastel purple at the top, so maybe toning down the yellow a bit might help the overall balance of the cover? And the yellow zone looks a little big for just the name. What about putting in a tagline like: "The timeless novel by" over the name? That might look cool.
I think this is a very cool project and I like the idea of keeping the aged look for the ebook.
I agree – this figure has some definite differences from the old V4. And that may be the issue in and of itself. I'm about to start a comic that will have the character appear in 150-200 panels of the story. Do I want to start doing something this new in a project of this scope? Are there enough resources to support the figure? Particularly poses and expressions to use as a starting point? So far I'm not even sure if there is a "zero expression" pose that will not change the shape of the character's face. Ditto for a solid "zero pose" that doesn't change morphs or character settings. The image you see above is the only thing I've done with her, and it was all a learning experience. I definitely didn't get into the details.
I think one of the next things is to see if I can find a suitable outfit, hair and weapon for the character (as well as the elf ears – she's elven) and then dial in the body and face so I can try a few test shots to see if I think she would be easy enough to work with.
But I probably won't be ready to try that experiment for at least a month or two.
This is FANTASTIC! I don't want to be nitpicky, or be negative, because there is so much to LOVE about this, but my eye is instantly getting pulled to the "P" in POOL because the bottom of it overlaps with har arm, but not entirely. In the first post above it completely goes into her arm, and that wasn't as distracting because it seemed intentional, but this version pulls my attention a little. NOW, that's just my 2 cents and I'm no expert, and please please please don't think I'm criticizing it harshly, this is minor and I love every thing about this cover. The color, the filters, it's so great.
One thing that I found when I was trying to figure out when trying to select painted figures is that it is helpful to go back to the origional render and render out JUST the character, then paste it in place over the origional piece. Copy the origional over the cutout and layer mask it. You'll have a perfect selection and the edges will "blend" a bit more, making it look more natural. That might not work for you here, but I've found it to be a very handy trick.
I honestly think some of these apps might work better for me, and that developers are putting more effort into them because they are making money that way. I think the filter is introducing all of that blue, because even when I tired to just color correct everything to warmer values things got really green/brownish... I have one rendering right now with VERY neutral colors that will hopefully correct the issue, or at least pinpoint it. Individually, each layer looks pretty normal, but "multiply" and "darken" isnt blending in with expected results...
Thank you both for your comments on this one:. I've moved the title down a tad, added a little caption text to the box, pulled back the brightness, and added the wear and tear. Hopefully, it's getting there.
I LOVE the wear and tear. Especially how the bigger splotch at the botom right in the middle straddles the blue and white sides. It really brings the whole piece together for me. Adding a consistant layer across the top brings both sides together, and also gives the yellow side an element of depth that the blue side already had. I also like the "P" a lot more, but you shouldn't change anything on just my account. If you liked it better that way it is your cover, and I'm absolutely no expert. To me, though, this looks fantastic!
It's amazing how such little changes can really improve a design. The tagline adds the right amount of drama and it helps that yellow zone make sense. And the softer yellow is much more pleasing to the eye. And that extra white space above the title really works better and makes the obscurred "P" look more intentional. Also, there is a bright highlight on her arm where it hits the P. It's current placement gives a natural contrast between that small color zone and the P, whereas when that part of her arm was againstt he white background it looked weird. This way is much better.
LOVE IT.
EDIT: If we're going to get into micro edits, maybe move the number 1 over to the right about 2-3 pixels? But don't move the circle, just the number. It looks just a tiny bit off center.
This is a nice compostion, and whatever filte you used on it did a decent job. That bit of green and the white really stand out against the rustic tones in the rest of the image. BTW: Love that the dog is silhouetted and is just watching it happen. Makes me wonder if the aliens are from Sirius and he's one of their agents.
I'm a little slow on the art lately, as I've got other stuff that needs done. But I will have some tweaked Mysterious Missouri designs to show off soon. I'm migrating towards using G2, since G2M has a Hiro 5 option, and G2F can use Hitomi via GenX2.
Ha! Thanks! I don't have a bigger story or anything to go along with it, I really just wanted to test out my new "God Rays" ;). I've attached one with MUCH better color, I think. There was a posterize filter step I was doing that seemed to introduce blue/green to everything... I've been using "Prisma" (ipad/iphone app) for all of these, by the way. Very lightweight, and simple to use. I'm just exporting a number of layers and blending them in.
ALSO, I have another question.. for those of you using Photodonut, have you ever had an issue where you cannot access any of the content in the Style Store? It simply always says "Loading" and then when I try to click on download it just says "Download Failed" without trying. Micro Smith support seems to be very bad... even their ticketing system is confusing and frustrating. Has anybody seen this? I attached a screenshot of this, as well... Since I know some of you are using it I thought it was worth a shot...
Oh! That is rather gorgeous! In light and colour. Really gorgeous.
As for Photodonut, I haven't used it for a while but what you're describing happened when I first tried to use it. I went away and got a cup of tea and things were then working, so I think they have server issues - I would have liked to have thought they had them ironed out by now but perhaps they are new server issues (I don't want to count how many server issues we suffer with over a year where I work).
I do use Photodonut and recently I had the same problem! Glad I am not the only one because then maybe SM will look into it.
I had the same issue a couple of days ago with PhotoDonut -- I went to the SM site looking for a PD forum, or anywhere easy to report it. I stopped short at their long, convoluted contact service, which I have had previous bad experiences, so I didn't bother.
I searched via DuckDuckGo for anyone else having, or mentioning the issue to no avail - this is the first I have seen others talking about having the same experience.
I tried for several hours, and rebooted several times hoping the issue would fix itself, but it definitely seems to be on their end.
I wish they had a forum for it like they have for all their other graphics software, so we could discuss such issues that might be seen by someone who might be working on/with the system. Also, like the Clip Studio forum, somewhere we can discuss techniques, recipes, and etc. -- I was working on trying to get my custom vector inking brushes inside PD to be used for custom inking after my recipe inking passes - still need more/better info, or directions.
Side Note : Great images, everyone...
Thank you very much! I'm glad it turned out so well... I rarely tilt the camera, I don't know why. It really adds to the effect sometimes, I think.
Thank you, and xmasrose and DaremoK3, for also calming my fear about PhotoDonut. I guess it must be on their end. If there are enough people using it here, maybe we should open a thread? I haven't found many other programs that will batch execute a bunch of different filters like this, and I think it could be a cornerstone step in my workflow. I've enjoyed using Prisma, but its a LOT of effort to render out, get to iPad, export like 6 different filters, and then mix back together. My Dropbox looks like a dirty laundry hamper...
PhotoDonut Style Shop is back online and working as of right now (Wed - 07/17/19 - 11:00 AM [my local time]) -- Download what you need before it goes down again (unless a permanent fix has been applied - hopefully).
Thank you DaremoK3.
OH Happy day! It certainly is, thanks! I'm excited to give this program a go! By the way, here's another one using Prisma for the filters...
When I get my PhotoDonut filters I like set up correctly I'll post some from that.
I'd love a thread on PhotoDonut with tips/examples as there is little litterature/video about it.
Great image and post by the way.
If I can get it to stop crashing I would be happy to start one. This program might fall into the (too many options/don't know how to move forward) category of my brain, as there seems to be an unlimited amount of possibilities. I tend to thrive best under restriction, for better or for worse. At the moment, I'm wondering if my resolution is too high to keep PD stable. Since I can't render out at 300 DPI, however, it isn't worth trading off a printable resolution for just this one program.
For anybody interested, it seems like Prisma fliter app has a restriction of something around 3800 px on the long side when exporting, which isn't enough for printing a full-size comic page. I liked the results I got, particularily in the last two posts, but due to the limited resolution output I'll have to file it away in the "fun for web, no good for print" category...