Non-photorealistic Renders (NPR)
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@artini - your XinXin renders are awesome. I like the first one better than the second because her features are more defined and perhaps the second one is slightly blurry, but that could be my monitor.
@Ice Dragon - Thank you!
@Head Wax - I thought the floating pebbles were coins! I love the render and style. The only suggestion I have is to try to separate the characters from the background/darkness a wee bit.
thanks :) yes maybe my monitor needs recalibrating - I have a fancy huge dell one that came with some kind of printout especially for the individual monitor. In comparsion, on my work laptop I noticed that one of the images shows up a lot more canvas texture than I intended or saw on my home one monitor.
My 1st try experimenting with the trial version of Topaz. Mixed and matched some of my old processes with topaz. Not sure I want to buy it yet,
It looks good to me @tkdrobert. Love the colors of the water and plantlife.
If you feel the effect should be more or less in certain places, you can use a mask to change the strength of the effect in certain places.
Thanks for the comments, head wax.
Thanks for the comments and advices, mmitchell_houston.
Thanks for the comments, Ice Dragon Art.
Thanks for the comments, Worlds_Edge.
I watched the demo video before I downloaded the trial. The version I downloaded was different than the one in the video. That threw me off a little. Wonder Woman was rendered by herself and the background is a photograph. For WW, I used the adjust section more than anything else. I thought I'd use the edges more, but I didn't need to after running poster edges on it from Photoshop proper. The background was a different story. I used every section with that one. Then I put the two together. I will play with Topaz as much as I can during the trial peried and see if it is worth buying.
PS:I used V4 with A4 skin for WW.
Blythe - a character for Aiko 3 with Hailey armor, postworked in Nik Tools.
Heh. I took a little art in high school and college, but I was certainly not an art major or minor. I did study graphic design, though, which is similar (but it focuses much more on typography and the interaction of separate elements than it does on the composition of a single element). Honestly, I was fortuante to read HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE MARVEL WAY back when I was a young teen, and at a young age it really opened my eyes about how images are put together and how they can tell a story. Near that same time, I also read a lot by comic artists and Norman Rockwell on how illustrators (as opposed to "artists") tell a story. That really shaped how I looked at art from that point on.
As for the C and C, you're welcome (I did actually teach college design and English, which is where I refined my C and C skills). I really enjoy looking at your work, and am very inspired by it. I think you are heading down a path that is going to lead to wonderful things. Please, keep at it!
Never be worried about overstepping or being off-base here! This is a very open, very constructive group. I appreciate the tip, as I hadn't seen this particular filter before.I took your sample and played with it for 10 minutes, and my thoughts are: Out of the box, I don't think it can provide production-quality work. However... when combined with Threshold and some creative layering, it might actually be able to do something I could use. Is there a free trial for this particular plug-in?
I did this in about 10 minutes, from the photo you created.
@mmitchell_houston I rarely use filters out of the box too. It's always a matter of adjusting, maybe layering, maybe getting rid of the strength of the filter in some places, etc.
"Adjust" is a filter set by topaz labs. The filter that I used on the cowboy was "blueprint." I am attaching a Daz render of a winged character, and two images of him showing how he looks with the "blueprint" filter (the one used on cowboy) as well as one where I used the "charcoal sketch" filter (which might look better).
I am attaching a fourth image that is a snapshot of the Topaz plug in options for "Adjust." When in photoshop, I select the Topas "Adjust" plug in, and it takes me to the window in the image.
On the left side, you will see the header "collections." There are 7 collections of filters. You will see that I have highlighted/selected "stylized collection." Because I selected the stylized collection, all of the available stylized filters, including bluprint and charcoal are listed as options. I have selected "grunge me" and you see the effect on the preview image in the center. If I were to click on the image, it would show me the original so it is easy to go back and forth to compare. If I had selected another collection, such as film or toned, then the long list of filters on the left would be for filters that would change tone etc.
On the right side, I've pasted a snapshot of "global adjustments" which would appear for each selected filter. So, you can make a lot of adjustments right there in topaz. You can also layer effects.
When you hit apply, it takes you back to photoshop.
I see on topaz Labs' site that they have a free trial. I would likely wait for a sale, but I feel it is very much worth the price as it does have a lot of options. I believe there are youtube tutorials, but there may not be on the "stylized" collection. Regardless, you could see how everything works. It is very intuitive so tutorials aren't really necessary, btw, but sometimes it is good to get an overview of a product.
I was more long-winded than I intended. Possibly just the picture would have been enough!
mmitchell_houston that explains it! :) thank you for the kind words.
@Worlds_Edge thanks for sharing those settings. I like the charccoal one the best I think.\
Artini nice work, the soft glow adds good contrast to the character
Here's that last image worked up in regards to the c and c I received here. Thanks again.
C arrara render passes worked up in Topaz Simplify and Impression. Used a little bit of Photon render as well.
Thanks, head wax. Great illustration you have created.
Thanks! I'll keep that in mind. My attempt is to do a 50/50 blend of Traditional sketch and Digital work at the same time.
A character of mine for a comic book. While there are a few things to touch up, I'm liking the direction of blending the cartoonish feel with a mix of manga and western style.
That is fantastic @sammi_jr_mart It has a really good manga/cartoon look and hides the 3d elements very well. Awesome looking character to boot!
@head wax The additional work on your image really paid off. It's looking good and the background is now visible/separate from the foreground characters.
Great work on this, and smart choices on the colors. One thing I do when working on comic art (or any) is to shrink it down to see how it looks at a distance (so to speak). I like where this is going, but if this were in a comic book, I would have some issues with the inconsistency of the linework. There are some bold black lines on the head wrap and goggles, but then the lines are very faint on the shoulder, and they are gone where the wrap meets the jacket. Also, although I would expect lighter lines on the lips, ehre they are all but gone when viewed at this size (which is closer to what will happen when you do a comic book scene). I think my takeway is this: You need to plan on more post/hand work to punch up some of the ink lines. BTW: The eyebrows are SPECTACULAR. I also love the sublte shading on the face and lips. And, any clues about what kind of story you're working on?
I really like this! I kinda miss the humor of the expression of the fallen guy of the previous image, but dang it -- you nailed it this time. Lighting is all around solid, and the overall composition is very good. I have a slight "clutter" issue with some of the background, but it's minor because the characters do stand out from it nicely. Everything is good and distinct. I'm very impressed with the use of poses and body language to tell the story. You are constantly improving in that regard. And I think you've just about solidified your workflow into something that is consistent. Very well done!
By all means, you were NOT long-winded. I really appreciate you taking the time to write it up and explain those things to me. I've been on the fence about these particular plug-ins because I already have a lot of tools at my disposal that I don't use to their full potential. And thank you so much for posting each of those images: it really helped me more than you can imagine. I looked at their site and it isn't given me as much info as I would like. As you suggested, I think I will wait for a sale and pick up some of these filters to see what they can do for my work. Thank you very much!
This is looking really good! You've definitely crossed over from 3D render into hand-drawn territory there. The lines on that headscarf really make it look like a traditional inker went to work in there.
Toon Duckie https://www.daz3d.com/classic-toon-duckie-for-genesis-3-male
in front of Salty Dawg Saloon (from Sketchup warehouse imported to Daz Studio).
I think the assets from Sketchup warehouse are quite good for NPR, because they are mostly low poly.
Postwork with Topaz Clean.
Thank you mmitchell_houston ! This very encouraging and I like that you point at the things to improve, such as line art and lighting. The more you see from the future art I post, the more I will delve in on these limitations ^_^.
The graphic novel I'm working on was in the making for 3 years, with the first 2 delving on writing and research on Egyptian culture, ancient and modern. The is story will be called "Journey to Aaru," which is a story about strife and destiny in a post-apocalyptic Egypt. To save a dying world, a young engineer and her father guides a mysterious android on his quest for the afterlife. The story focus on two characters. Yusra Harith (the girl in the illustration), a timid but determined engineer who is obsessed with technology and wants to see a world-building project come to life, and A.N.I. an android who presumes he is the Egyptian scribe in the book of the dead, Ani, who embarks on a pre-ordained destiny to seek the afterlife.
That is an intriguing write-up! Definitely sounds like something I might consider buying. Keep up the good work. You are definitely heading down a path that, I believe, will yield good results. Once you get your characters done, may i suggest you try to create a page of your graphic novel? Moving the characers may let you see things about them that won't be apparent until you start actually trying to use them to tell your story. Nothing like a good "prologue" sequence to get things started (as just a suggestion). I'm looking forward to reading more as it develops.
I am SO LOOKING FORWARD to having the time to play around with this figure. I almost passed on buying it because I probably won't be able to use it for months, but I've been a HUGE fan of Howard the Duck since his original comic was being published back in the 1970s (and I'm totally ticked off that they just cancelled his latest series a few months ago). I like the low-poly building (I really need to go by there and see what's available). I do like the simplicity of the building and the duck's pose conveys a lot of personality (although I kinda think you're losing a little of his cool duck bill by having it aimed straight at us rather than seeing it at an oblique angle -- but maybe that's just me). The colors, shadows and overall feel of the illustraion is very nice... but it still looks very much like a 3D render that's been run through a few filters. I know we're not all striving for the same thing when we discuss our "NPR" styles, but this still has a mostly Photo-Realistic look to it. Even that cool, funky texture on the mountains (which is so cool) doesn't mitigate that much. Maybe popping the colors more with a brighter color palette would help? I really don't know. It's still a very cool image, but for me the detail is just too high to see it as an NPR. Of course, it could just be my own aesthetic bias coming into play. But still... fun image that can't help convey humor, from the duck to the saloon name to that sign. Lots going on in a little space. Thanks for posting.
thanks for the kind words and encouragement once more - yes cluttered backgrounds are my speciality :)
thanks for the headsup on the sketchup models - nice render too - very clean :)
nice work on this one, my only c and c would be the lines on the nose stand out - but that's only when full size !
thanks :) and @artini :)
Thanks for all of the comments, mmitchell_houston and head wax.
pleasure ;)