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Description
“Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

This is the first in a series of Tarot-inspired mystical angels I'm creating. I've always been moved by the imagery of the Tarot, so I thought it would be neat to create an entire set of Major Arcana renders done in an "angelic" theme. I believe that angels are unique and individual, and that they have as many character facets as humans do. Every angel has a purpose here in this world, and their images will reflect those purposes. I hope this project continues to hold Muse's interest, because it has so far been quite fun to think about.

There is an obvious depth-of-field blur here, which I added in postwork. I almost ALWAYS do DOF in postwork when using Poser, even though Poser has DOF rendering capabilities. The results I create in postwork are usually smoother, easier to tweak, and result in MUCH lower render times. To do this, I generate a z-depth layer from the PPro2012 render options for the DOF map. I then turn this into an alpha channel and use it in a photoshop lens blur.

A note about the z-depth option in Poser (and in DS, for that matter)... it does NOT include transparency -- something I REALLY wish that SM would have addressed in this release. Grr.

In case anyone was wondering... I get around the issue as follows: I render the foreground figure (where there will be little or no DOF blur) as a .png, and I open it in photoshop as a layer above the z-depth image. I select the entire figure png, then invert the selection so only the non-figure portion of the scene is selected. Then, on the z-depth layer (using a combination of the paint brush and clone stamp) I paint over the parts of the z-depth layer that SHOULD be transparent. Kind of a pain in the tushie, but still MUCH faster and easier to control than waiting for the DOF to render.

This render has only ONE specular-only point light to bring out glossiness. The rest of the light comes from off-screen props with ambient values and indirect lighting. This render took under 10 minutes to complete on my i7 desktop. (!!!WOOOT!!!) I'm so happy to have a version of poser that will complete my rendering in LESS time than it takes me to set the scene OR do my postwork!!

Rendered in Poser Pro 2012. Postwork in Photoshop CS3. Download for full 1600 x 2350 resolution.

All resources used in the production of this work are owned by, created by, or licensed to me for personal and commercial use. They include: Ashni for V4 (Sabby), Dark Wolf Hair (Propschick), Neitherhenge (Orestes Graphics), Elven Arcana (Ryverthorn) and Ron's Angel Dust (deviney).

Description
“Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

This is the first in a series of Tarot-inspired mystical angels I'm creating. I've always been moved by the imagery of the Tarot, so I thought it would be neat to create an entire set of Major Arcana renders done in an "angelic" theme. I believe that angels are unique and individual, and that they have as many character facets as humans do. Every angel has a purpose here in this world, and their images will reflect those purposes. I hope this project continues to hold Muse's interest, because it has so far been quite fun to think about.

There is an obvious depth-of-field blur here, which I added in postwork. I almost ALWAYS do DOF in postwork when using Poser, even though Poser has DOF rendering capabilities. The results I create in postwork are usually smoother, easier to tweak, and result in MUCH lower render times. To do this, I generate a z-depth layer from the PPro2012 render options for the DOF map. I then turn this into an alpha channel and use it in a photoshop lens blur.

A note about the z-depth option in Poser (and in DS, for that matter)... it does NOT include transparency -- something I REALLY wish that SM would have addressed in this release. Grr.

In case anyone was wondering... I get around the issue as follows: I render the foreground figure (where there will be little or no DOF blur) as a .png, and I open it in photoshop as a layer above the z-depth image. I select the entire figure png, then invert the selection so only the non-figure portion of the scene is selected. Then, on the z-depth layer (using a combination of the paint brush and clone stamp) I paint over the parts of the z-depth layer that SHOULD be transparent. Kind of a pain in the tushie, but still MUCH faster and easier to control than waiting for the DOF to render.

This render has only ONE specular-only point light to bring out glossiness. The rest of the light comes from off-screen props with ambient values and indirect lighting. This render took under 10 minutes to complete on my i7 desktop. (!!!WOOOT!!!) I'm so happy to have a version of poser that will complete my rendering in LESS time than it takes me to set the scene OR do my postwork!!

Rendered in Poser Pro 2012. Postwork in Photoshop CS3. Download for full 1600 x 2350 resolution.

All resources used in the production of this work are owned by, created by, or licensed to me for personal and commercial use. They include: Ashni for V4 (Sabby), Dark Wolf Hair (Propschick), Neitherhenge (Orestes Graphics), Elven Arcana (Ryverthorn) and Ron's Angel Dust (deviney).