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Okay, this will be my last tutorial, the icing on the cake.
You need to render:
-Normal render, with shadow and occlusion. (fog optional)
-Ambient render with UberEnvironment2
-Line render with ToonyCam Pro
Extra:
You need FotoSketcher. Create from your normal render a watercolor / aquarelle.
You need also PaintShop Photo Pro or other program with the same smoothing tricks.
Beginning:
-The first step is turning your normal render into a painting with PaintShop. (See first attachment)
Go to Adjust - Add/Remove Noise - Edge Preserving Smooth
Most of the times I use 15 but for a strong effect 30. This smooths your render and gives it a nice paint effect.
This becomes the Base Layer.
-The second step is turning your normal render into an aquarelle with FotoSketcher that you can get here:
http://www.fotosketcher.com
(The result can you see in the second attachment.)
-Third step. Put the 'aquarelle' on the base layer as the second layer with Normal 50% opacity. (Third Attachment.)
Check the attachment, you can see the difference left and right of the image.
-Fourth step. Add the Ambient render as the third layer and use around 20%-30% Normal opacity. (Fourth Attachment.)
-Last step. Add the render with the lines with around 50% multiply and merge the whole thing.
Use color correction to create a more lively color. Don't forget to use sharpening to make the details stronger.
And that's all folks :-)
Thanks for your tutorial.
Thanks for sharing your tricks and results!
For those who don't have ToonyCam Pro, an alternative to get the Line Render (or a different kind of) is to use the Outline option inside Daz.
You can see below that the line is pretty clean. I tried to explain how to get that in this thread.
Share parts of your comic when it's done, it's cool to see so many people trying to build stories.
Cheers and good luck!
Thanks, and great looking Sci-Fi image there! Great colors... have still a long way to go.
So no one wants to see a "3D rendered comic" at all? I'm super excited to see a comic done this way (provided lighting, composition, etc are done well). I guess it's a taste thing? Considering the multitude of styles in actual print comics out there, this just seems like the logical progression of the medium.
My artist's thread has a few renders aiming for the 3D look. First issue is almost complete (figuring out speech balloons). Here's an example (WIP) of what I'm doing:
Lighting is definitiely an important factor in using 3D art in comics. I always thought IamUman's Black Heaven did a nice job with its 3D comicbook style. http://www.deviantart.com/art/Black-Heaven-page-2-188995397
I am working on a comic and it will be rendered in 3D as well.
-MJ
I respect the taste and style of each,but ....
I sometimes, have preference to see 3d renders, in animations,
but in comes to comic, I prefer the look that says this for yourself just by looking...
YES! This is awesome, thank you for this.
It is possible that, with an old and small software: Virtual Painter 5 (dated 2006) and Gimp, you are able to artwork renders made on the poser or daz, and create a comics look on the renders
:)
Thought I'd share my humble efforts - been working on my technique. This is a female Goa'uld from Stargate that may one day be featured in a story... perhaps.
Very nice; for me, you've hit the "sweet spot". It looks a little more hand-rendered than 3d-rendered, a more "illustrated" look.
The other work here has all been excellent, it looks like some pretty nice stuff coming up, comics I'd buy if digital.
-- Walt Sterdan
So, for those who want more of an "illustrated" rather than "3D" look, and want to minimize postwork, would you rather use surface shaders to adjust the effects per-item, or a camera that had it all uniformly built in?
I'm doing some experiments, using gimp and old Virtual Painter 5 on normal renders without much complex lighting in Poser Pro 2014 but can be done the same result in renders of studio daz
a problem I've seen is that virtual painter 5 is not suited for high resolutions
but this behaving very well 1920x1080.
I do not care about the amount of necessary postwork, since it gives me the look you seek.
actually, I'm just using filters and maybe some merge layers, but almost without need
There is no camera yet that is really providing satisfying results. Tooncam was used above to get the line only.
As for surface shaders such as pwToon, you'll have two issues:
- the work needed to get the best result out of each element
- providing you're working with many products, a massive difference in texture quality
I don't think you can escape postwork, if only to give more homogeneity to your comic. Personnally I've dropped pwToon (the example was just to show outline potential). I would focus on getting as good a render as you can and find a short postwork process that suits your style.
And mostly, I would recommend working on the basics of Comics, writing the story and dialogues, framing panels, etc (and I am) as this is in the end what will make the comic a comic, more so than the renders.
There is no camera yet that is really providing satisfying results. Tooncam was used above to get the line only.
As for surface shaders such as pwToon, you'll have two issues:
- the work needed to get the best result out of each element
- providing you're working with many products, a massive difference in texture quality
I don't think you can escape postwork, if only to give more homogeneity to your comic. Personnally I've dropped pwToon (the example was just to show outline potential). I would focus on getting as good a render as you can and find a short postwork process that suits your style.
And mostly, I would recommend working on the basics of Comics, writing the story and dialogues, framing panels, etc (and I am) as this is in the end what will make the comic a comic, more so than the renders.
I agree, impossible to escape the postwork
I returned PwToon and ordered the money back a few days ago.
Also the comic book style of PP2014, does not satisfy me.
And I see that Gimp is my best shot
I've tried this a few times, myself, and I always have worse results than you unless I completely remove textures altogether for sold color shaders.
Well folks,
Posting some results of my experiments
the image below was rendered in Daz Studio
And here the result of postwork using Vitual Painter 5 and Gimp
Oops,
forgot to say: this is Genesis 2 Male
I've been following this thread for a bit because I really like the art style that DWM72 has developed.
I just wanted to throw in my $0.02 on pwToon.
I like pwToon. A lot. I've been playing with it for years and I think I've finally developed a style I really like with it. You can see a sample here (http://sphinxmagoo.deviantart.com/art/Super-Hero-484447592). If you go through some of my deviantArt pages, you can see I've been working with pwToon for years. I had a mini-epiphany when I came across Crescent's pwToon presets (http://www.sharecg.com/v/69733/view/21/DAZ-Studio/Crescents-pwToon-Cel-Shaders?interstitial_displayed=Yes) because she basically took the settings as set by poseworks and created a whole palette of different colors and styles to use.
Now, pwToon requires a bit more work and planning, especially if you plan on using backgrounds and scenery, but I think it's worth it. There are a lot of my own experiments which I haven't posted which I find satisfying. It's 3D, but done in a way closer to traditional 2D animation styles.
That's hella cool! Jorge!
Oh, if anyone is interested in seeing some of the images I've done with pwToon, here's a quick sampling of links:
One of my favorites: http://sphinxmagoo.deviantart.com/art/Doctor-Spectre-141598057
http://sphinxmagoo.deviantart.com/art/Saturnyne-Drachen-141794522
http://sphinxmagoo.deviantart.com/art/Next-Man-141794665
In this one I tried out some comic-style motion effects, which I don't think worked too well: http://sphinxmagoo.deviantart.com/art/Uh-oh-121708016
Another favorite, even though it's a little dark. Using pwToon to create a more comic book tone with black shading: http://sphinxmagoo.deviantart.com/art/Attack-of-the-Super-Gorilla-94870155
Another one, trying to add some special effects: http://sphinxmagoo.deviantart.com/art/The-Star-Tyrant-202146053
http://sphinxmagoo.deviantart.com/art/Ghost-Falcon-170617301
I would post more recent renders, but I've found a bug with pwToon on a 64-bit Mac where multiple lights tint the renders blue. DAZ is aware of it since I submitted a bug report, but it's still slowed my momentum down for recent renders. I'll post something with backgrounds soon to show some of my experiments...
Nice renders there SmallFry!
I agree that you can't escape postwork, when working with things like these. I like pwToon because of the cel shade effect, but you can't expect miracles with it. It takes a lot of work, and I'm afraid that I can only dream of my three pages a week.... still need to clean up a few few details...
Just show you some recent work of mine.
Thank you
But I'm still in the process of experiments
Here another render, now poser pro 2014 game dev
And then the end result of Postwork in sequence:
Virtual Painter 5 and GIMP
Great style. As was mentioned, 3D usually falls in the uncanny valley and I think you've created a pretty good process that has that cell-shaded feel.
I'm always trying to take my images away from the uncanny valley with post-work in Photoshop and have settled on a few processes from Adam Wright's ToonActions from Rendo.
Wish styles like that were made for Photoshop or even a render style for DAZ Studio. That's some awesome post work on the original render. WOW!
For me, it's more the "Uncanny Valley Motor-Inn," a shabby, dingy look that affects to approach the "Uncanny Valley" point and approaches just near enough to fail miserably, like a cheap Grand Canyon Lookout from which you can see the edge of the near cliff, this side of the horizon, and nothing but sky beyond: certainly not the canyon.
If a shader or camera was available to render simply in good four-color halftones (think "All-Star Superman" or any of the classic Golden or Silver Age comic books), would folks buy it? What would be the benefits or the drawbacks of such a product? I'm thinking "trim steps from the postwork" here.
The results you have are excellent. It's a very good, distinctive, look.